Rodney Mullen

Together with other members of the Almost team, Mullen appeared in a June 2015 photo retrospective of the Almost brand that was shot and curated by skateboard photographer Seu Trinh. Mullen was part of the Globe brand's "EUTrippin'" 2015 European tour, alongside other team members including Mark Appleyard and Haslam.

In 2015, Mullen wrote the foreword for the Dwindle and Globe history book Unemployable: 30 Years of Hardcore, Skate and Street reflecting upon his twenty-year involvement with those companies.

The origins of ollies—a guy named Alan Gelfand did it on vert… I had for a long time done a really simple movement, which was—it was just a transfer trick… and there are a ton of tricks where I needed to get to this side [demonstrates going from standing regular on his board to standing on the nose]. It’s a transfer trick—I’d been doing that since the late seventies, so that I could, in turn, do things like this [demonstrates going from standing on the nose to a nose-stand and then landing back on his skateboard]. When I saw him [Gelfand] do it on the wall, I immediately—I’m thinking, the mechanics of it: how do you get your board off the ground—how would you get your board off the ground like he did off the wall, ’cause I’m stuck on flat ground, not weightless… [T]he first ones I did took about, I don’t know, five, ten minutes… I realized, that’s just the same motion I’ve been doing for years—it’s a see-saw motion; that’s how ollies work… It’s just a punch and a little hop; and the real key to it was dragging your foot and leveling it out, which brings the board up… In a back-handed way, people credit me with—in the documentary, Stacy [Peralta]’s Bones Brigade documentary, credit me with the importance of the ollie that gave the foundation for street skating, which is just skateboarding today, all that; and to me it was like, “Yeah, but, it’s not a big deal.” Took me ten minutes, fifteen, half an hour, an hour; and the next thing you know, you’re getting ’em this high, and that’s what laid the foundation for everything else. So, in a sense, the biggest innovation for street skating, which is what they credit me for—it’s not a big deal!

The Almost company celebrated its 10th anniversary with an event at the Berrics indoor skate complex in early March 2014, and Mullen attended the venue for the first time. As part of the celebration, Mullen completed an interview with the Berrics that is titled "A Beautiful Mind," in which Mullen explained his current relationship with skateboarding:

Because we all have that fear of judgment ... yeah, that's true. I'm like that—I'm afraid of being judged. I don't necessarily want to be seen in public sucking, getting older; but, what I keep inside, that joy of feeling what I do, rolling around, playing around—that's something I'm going to do as long as I can. That's who I am ... who I am.

The first video footage of Mullen skateboarding in nine years was published on Tony Hawk's RIDE YouTube channel in July 2014. Mullen appears in the video skateboarding at musician Ben Harper's residence and Harper also performs a single trick at the video's conclusion. The part was filmed by Ben Fordham of the Gracias L.A. brand, which released the Gracias Skateboarding Volumen Uno video in 2014 that also features Mullen.

—Tony Hawk in his autobiography, Hawk – Occupation: Skateboarder

Rodney Mullen built the house skateboarding lives in. After inventing the flatground ollie—in itself perhaps the most influential trick ever—he went on to unveil kickflips, backside flips, heelflips, 360 flips, double flips, impossibles, darkslides, and onward. Without Rodney, skateboarding would still be in the dark ages.

In the first half of 2014, Mullen was invited by the O'Reilly Media technology company to present at its "Strata" and "Velocity" conferences, both of which were held in Santa Clara, California, US. Mullen's Strata presentation in February 2014 was titled "The Art of Good Practice" and consisted of an analysis of the nuanced way in which skateboarders practice their craft. Mullen then presented the "Build on a Bedrock of Failure" keynote in June 2014, in which he spoke of the way that "failure, pain, injury, recovery" are "embedded in the very notion of what it is to be a skateboarder."

I miss Mike. And the day Jacob called me and goes, "Mike's dead."—I replayed that so many times ... and how instrumental that was in driving me forward in a way that kind of honoring what he gave me: A second chance. And how real that is. And it goes back to Stacy [Peralta]'s film—it's not what you do; it's what makes you do what you do, is the thing that has to be protected and nurtured. As long as that's there, intact ... you can do anything.

In a June 2014 interview at O'Reilly Media's Velocity conference, Mullen stated that he does not believe that skateboarding can be categorized as a "sport". Mullen further explained that the self-expressive element of skateboarding shows that it is an art form, while the community element of skateboarding—whereby sharing of ideas occurs—distinguishes it as a "lifestyle" or "philosophy". Mullen also shared his perspective on goals and failure during the interview:

You focus so much on your failures and your weaknesses, it has a ... paralyzing effect, where you're dwelling on stuff. For example, having goals: sometimes I have lofty goals, my friends do—we all do, we all have goals. But, if you fix yourself to that goal, and you don't see anything else on the horizon—which is natural, 'cos that what it takes, we all have that in our personality ... but, sometimes, if you attach that to a goal that is out of your reach, and you continue to fail, it will just grind you into nothing. And if you dwell on that, it can end you.

Any eyes on me—a late-night street sweeper, some dude texting in his parked car, the homeless guy talking to himself—make me feel uncomfortable when I skate. Everyone expects me to do certain things. It puts a ceiling on your progress. You're blocked by your pride. To get good, you have to throw your board around and fall.

In May 2013, Mullen was an inductee of the Skateboarding Hall of Fame and was present at the award ceremony that was held in Anaheim, California. Fellow professional skateboarder Steve Caballero and musician Ben Harper shared their experiences of Mullen prior to the presentation of the award, and Caballero credited Mullen with changing the "face" of skateboarding.

Professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez identified Mullen as one of his "top ten" professional skateboarders in July 2013. Rodriguez explained his selection on his personal website:

As of 2013, Mullen resides in California with his girlfriend, Lori Guidroz and has described himself as "juvenile" in an online interview. Mullen says that he prefers to skate at nighttime and on his own.

In 2013 musicians Ben Harper and Lee Hartney revealed a close friendship with Mullen and described the skateboarder as a "brother". Mullen has also assisted Harper to learn skateboarding, as the musician has undertaken intensive practice in the fifth decade of his life.

Among his most significant contributions to the evolution of modern skateboarding, Rodney Mullen adapted the ollie, first pioneered by Alan Gelfand on vert (where Gelfand would scoop off the back trucks to obtain more air off the wall, but without popping the tail of the skateboard in the process), to flatground. This ability to pop the board off of the ground and drag it upward into the air, gaining significant altitude and air time, allowed ollieing onto rails and obstacles and opened the door to more complex flip tricks and other flatground tricks. The invention of this trick alone, even apart from the numerous other tricks that he has invented and his design work, has ranked Mullen as one of the most important skateboarders of all time. In response to the praise that he has received for the flatground ollie, Mullen stated in August 2012:

A subsequent advertisement was released, entitled "The Patented Tensor Design," and the company recruited team riders such as Daewon Song, Chris Cole, Chris Haslam, Salman Agah, Ryan Sheckler, Kanten Russell, and Gailea Momolu. As of December 2012, the Tensor team consists of Daewon Song, Rodney Mullen, Ronnie Creager, Enrique Lorenzo, Manny Santiago, Zered Bassett, Felipe Ortiz, and Joey Brezinski.

As of December 2012, Mullen remains the co-owner and a team rider for the Almost brand; his role at Almost also includes research and development on new designs and technologies, including Impact Support, Double Impact, and Uber Light. The Uber Light design was a collaborative effort between Mullen and the CL Composites company, utilizing a design that consists of "a deck inside a deck," whereby, "The internal carbon fiber foam deck is ultra light and nearly as stiff as metal. It acts like rebar, or a skeleton embodied by a standard 7-ply layup. It also vastly improved the lateral rigidity. The deck wears, slides, and looks like a normal 7-ply, but it's lighter and has a supernatural pop that lasts far longer than any normal deck."

Mullen was invited by the Sapling Foundation, as part of its TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) public speaking series, to present at the University of Southern California (USC) in June 2012. Mullen's talk was entitled, "How context shapes content", and featured his perspectives on the manner in which the street-based context of skateboarding influences his practice, in addition to his view of the skateboarding community, whereby he compared the community to the open source and hacking movements. Mullen also spoke about resilience and creativity in a talk entitled "Getting Back Up" at the Pop!Tech "Sparks of Brilliance" event in October 2013.

Mullen further explained in an interview at Germany's Bright tradeshow in 2011:

In December 2010, Mullen stated in an interview that he was preparing to film a part for the upcoming Almost video, although he did not appear in the 2012 video, 5-Incher. In the 2011 Bright tradeshow interview, Mullen stated, "At first, I just wanted to be able to be alright and walk okay and run. And then it was like, okay, skate again and now it's like 'Yeah, I can do something new!'. So, if I can do that, then I'll film. If I can't, then I'll keep my skating private." Both the skateboard media and in responses from Almost indicate that a full part from Mullen is scheduled for release following 5-Incher—Mullen was in attendance at the premiere of 5-Incher. The most recent official video footage from Mullen can be seen in the 2007 United By Fate series that was produced by the Globe shoe company.

In 2010 Mullen stated that "skating is one of the greatest blessings I could have," but also expressed concern about the popularity of skateboarding "big stuff" due to the physical toll that it takes on the bodies of professional skateboarders: "So I think it is unhealthy and uncool… I see great skaters and their ankles and knees are ruined." Mullen expanded upon his perspective of skateboarding during his Lemelson Foundation interview:

Mullen has spoken publicly about his spiritual beliefs, explaining in 2010: "The term religion bums me out. I can't go to church, I've got issues. I've got issues of non-conformity built into me...It’s a personal thing and I get so scared about talking about it in public. This guy at HBO once said to me, ‘Your skating is like a prayer.’ That was the coolest thing anyone’s ever said to me. That’s what it is for me."

As a result of injuries accrued over many years riding in a fixed regular stance, from 2007 onward Mullen made a conscious effort to “erase” his riding stance, re-learning tricks (and in many cases learning new tricks he was unable to do previously riding regular) goofy and endeavoring to re-learn riding a skateboard neutrally in the absence of any preferential “natural stance.” In an interview with Tony Hawk, Mullen explained that he had developed problems in his right hip joint, with scar tissue having built up in his joint over years as a result of habitually hyper-extending his leg (e. g., doing the splits, a danger inherent in practicing riskier tricks such as darkslides) while skating. Mullen stated that through extensive stretching and the use of blunt objects he was able to break up the scar tissue in order to restore range of motion.

In 2003, Mullen wrote and released his autobiography entitled The Mutt: How to Skateboard and Not Kill Yourself. In late 2003, he was voted as the all-time greatest action sports athlete on the Extreme Sports Channel's Legends of the Extreme countdown.

After years of success and controversy, Steve Rocco decided to sell World Industries. In 2002, World Industries, under the holding name "Kubic Marketing," was sold to Globe International for US$46 million. Rocco, as the owner, and Mullen, as a principal investor, became instant multimillionaires. Kubic's management remained intact, and Mullen began working for Globe under the Dwindle Distribution brand.

In 2002, Mullen won the Transworld Skateboarding Readers' Choice Award for Skater of the Year. Transworld also included Mullen in its "30 Most Influential Skaters of All Time" list, released in December 2011 and he was elected into the third position, behind Tony Hawk (second) and Mark Gonzales (first).

The A-Team folded in 2000, and Mullen made the transition from company founder to company rider, as former Maple rider, Marc Johnson, founded Enjoi Skateboards (other riders included Chris Cole and Bobby Puleo, with Jerry Hsu and Louie Barletta, the current mainstays of the team, recruited later).

Around the turn of the 21st century, Mullen had been engaged in the development of his own skateboard truck design, a concept that would later become the foundation for the company, Tensor. In 2000, Mullen filed for a United States patent in support of his innovative work in the area and submitted the following abstract to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:

Mullen's popularity also grew in this period when, in 2000, he made his first appearance in the Tony Hawk's video game series which helped to bring the sport further into the mainstream.

In 1997 Rodney Mullen started another company, the A-Team, along with Marc Johnson, Gershon Mosley, Dave Mayhew, and Chet Thomas, with the intention of forming a "super team" following the gradual dissolution of Plan B over the four years following Ternasky's death. It was at this time that Mullen also initiated discussions with friend and fellow professional skateboarder, Daewon Song, to plan the video Rodney vs. Daewon, released in 1997, which featured the two skaters "competing" with their respective video parts (the concept developed into a series and, as of December 2012, three "rounds" have been produced).

Mullen's Questionable performance might have marked the beginning of a new era in street skateboarding. His reluctant transition from freestyle to street skateboarding was a symbol that legitimized the technical direction street skating had taken over the previous few years. Mullen focused on the progression of this transition in subsequent Plan B videos, including 1993's Virtual Reality, in which Mullen showcases the newly mastered trick, the darkslide. Mullen's participation in Plan B dissolved after Ternasky was killed in a car crash on May 17, 1994. Mullen later explained, "He was such a great person. He would lift you so high and that is why Plan B was what it was. And it was clear once Mike was gone that it was never the same."

In 1991, Mullen joined the high-profile skateboarding team, Plan B Skateboards. Mike Ternasky, the owner of Plan B, influenced Mullen to transition from freestyle to street skating, and showcased his skills in the 1992 Plan B video, Questionable. His segment begins with traditional freestyle tricks executed on flat ground, but quickly transitions into Mullen skateboarding across public terrain to shift into street skating tricks and lines. Mullen's video part signified a major transformation in relation to both his career and his skateboarding. Ternasky filmed Mullen as he sequenced tricks and mixed flip tricks with grinds and boardslides, while he also negotiated obstacles. Mullen also introduced two newly invented tricks in Questionable, the kickflip underflip and the Casper slide.

In early 1989, Mullen left the Bones Brigade to join World Industries as a principal investor with longtime friend and former rival, Rocco, in the formation of the very first skateboarder-owned company—professional skateboarder, Mike Vallely, later joined the company for a brief period of time. Mullen and Rocco had embarked on a very risky venture, as Powell Peralta was an established company and Rocco's upstart company had been struggling at the time. World Industries would later develop into the distribution company, Dwindle Distribution, which is the world's largest skateboard manufacturer in the 21st century.

In 1980, the 14-year-old Mullen entered the Oasis Pro competition, defeating the world champion, Steve Rocco. At Oasis Skatepark Mullen also spotted a 12-year-old skater who “introduced himself as Tony Hawk.” Recalled Mullen, “Before Tony was sponsored, before anybody knew anything about him, he made an impression on me,” and the two would go on to become good friends. Shortly thereafter Mullen turned professional as a member of the renowned Bones Brigade team sponsored by Powell Peralta, based on the recommendation by Powell Peralta rider and fellow Floridian skateboarder Tim Scroggs of Mullen to company co-founder Stacy Peralta, whom Mullen highly admired. Mullen competed voraciously throughout the 1980s, often frustrating competitors and judges with his consistency and progressive ability. By 1990, Mullen had won thirty-four out of thirty-five freestyle competitions that he had entered, losing only once to fellow Bones Brigade member, Per Welinder.

Throughout the 1980s, he invented the majority of skating's ollie and flip tricks, including the flatground ollie, the kickflip, the heelflip, the 360-flip, and many others. These tricks are now considered an essential part of both modern vert skateboarding and street skateboarding.

In later years, Mullen was coached by Barry Zaritsky (also known as "SIO Barry"), who owned a company called SiO Safety Shorts. When his family moved to a farm in a remote part of Florida, Mullen began perfecting his flatground techniques in the family garage; he has said that the isolation and lack of terrain naturally guided him towards freestyle skateboarding. Mullen cites July 1979–August 1980 as his "most creative time," a time when he was predominantly a loner who counted the cows of the family farm as his best friends. Mullen then proceeded to win thirty successive amateur competitive victories in the late 1970s, mostly in his home state of Florida, culminating in a win at the Oceanside Nationals in June 1979.

In 1978, even though he had owned a skateboard for only just over a year, Mullen placed fifth in the Boy's Freestyle category at the US Open Championships at Kona Skatepark in Jacksonville, Florida. Skateboard manufacturer Bruce Walker saw his performance and sponsored Mullen through Walker Skateboards from 1978 to 1980. Mullen's biggest influence in skateboarding at the time was a Walker professional skateboarder, Jim McCall, who was coached in his early years by Walker (Walker also coached a young Kelly Slater). Mullen was also influenced in a positive manner by professional skateboarders from Florida including Ed Womble, George McClellan, Clyde Rodgers, Tim Scroggs, and Kelly Lynn.

Mullen was born in Gainesville, Florida, United States, and began skateboarding at the age of ten, on New Years Day of 1977, after a neighborhood friend introduced him to a skateboard. He promised his strict father, a dentist, that he would cease skateboarding the first time he became seriously injured:

John Rodney Mullen (born August 17, 1966) is an American former professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, inventor, and public speaker who practices freestyle skateboarding and street skateboarding. He is widely considered the most influential street skater in the history of the sport, being credited for inventing numerous tricks, including the flatground ollie, kickflip, heelflip, impossible, and 360-flip. As a result, he has been called the "Godfather of Street Skateboarding."