Rodney Mullen Biography
Name: John Rodney Mullen Gender: Male Hometown: Redondo Beach, CA or Hermosa Beach, CA Date of Birth: August 17th, 1966 in Gainesville, FL Family: married to Traci Mullen Occupation: Engineer / Skate Brand Owner / Skateboarder Started Skating: 1974 Started Competing: 1977 Turned Pro: 1980 Favored Discipline: Street #1 Sponsors: Almost, Enjoi, Darkstar, Tensor, Speed Demons, Matix, Globe Stance: Regular Nicknames: Mutt, King Career Highlights1977 - Mullen won the first freestyle contest he entered1980 - joined the Powell-Peralta Bones Brigade 1984, 85, 87, 88 - featured in The Bones Brigade Videos 1-4 1988 - appeared in feature film, Gleaming the Cube 1992 - began World Industries with Steve Rocco 1990+ - featured in videos by Plan B, A-Team, Globe and Almost 2002 - won Transworld Readers' Choice Award for Skater of the Year 2002 - created Almost skateboard company 2003 - wrote "The Mutt: How to Skateboard and not Kill Yourself" Rodney Mullen is widely considered the most influential skateboarder in the history of the skateboarding. The majority of ollie and flip tricks he invented throughout the 1980's, including the flatground ollie, the Kickflip, the Heelflip, and the 360 flip are regularly done in modern vertical and street skateboarding. Despite Alan Gelfand's justifiable fame for inventing the ollie air (Gelfand's maneuver being primarily a vert or pool oriented trick) Mullen is responsible for the invention and development of the street ollie. The ability to pop the board off of the ground and land back on the board while moving has quite likely been the most significant development in modern skateboarding. This invention alone would rank Mullen the most important skateboarder of all time. | Tricks Invented
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Mullen started skateboarding at age 10, when his father (who had opposed his son's wishes to practice the sport) finally agreed to give Rodney a skateboard on condition that he always wore pads, and with the understanding that if he were to ever get hurt, he would have to quit. On January 1, 1977 he bought his first skateboard. His first sponsor was Bill Murray at Inland Surf Shop where Rodney used to skate in their carpark. He rode a Walker Skateboard in his first contest at Kona in Jacksonville in 1977, placing third in Boys Freestyle. The 10-year old attracted the attention of skateboard manufacturer Bruce Walker and immediately became sponsored by Walker Skateboards. For the next 3 years, Rodney took first place in every contest he entered. He went on to win nearly 30 contests, mostly in Florida, and culminated with a win at the Oceanside Nationals in California. His coaching influence came mainly from Bruce Walker and Barry Zaritsky. In 1980 at 13 he turned professional by winning first place at the Oasis Pro in San Diego, and began skateboarding for the legendary Powell Peralta Bones Brigade team. Stacy Peralta became Rodney's new coach and sponsor. 10 years and 34 freestyle competitions later Rodney was only beaten once by Per Welinder, and in this competition he still got second. This is considered to be the best record in skateboard history. In 1988, Mullen appeared in the feature film Gleaming the Cube, alongside fellow Bones Brigade team members and movie star Christian Slater. Mullen's other videos include The Bones Brigade Video Show (1984), Bones Brigade Video II: Future-Primitive (1985), Bones Brigade Video III: The Search for Animal Chin (1986), and Bones Brigade Video IV: Public Domain (1988), World Industries: Rubbish Heap (1989), Plan B: Questionable (1992), Plan B: Virtual Reality (1993), Plan B: Second Hand Smoke (1995), the Rodney Mullen vs. Daewon Song series, Globe Opinion, and most recently Almost: Round Three. He also appeared as a guest on the tv show That's Incredible! (Nov. 1988). His autobiography The Mutt came out in 2003. For more information visit www.almostawebsite.com |