I have mixed feelings about Rodney Mullen. While I admire his skills, creativity, influence, and longevity immensely, I can’t reconcile that with his stance that you can’t make a high quality competitively priced skateboard in the USA, or hell, North America for that matter. What is TED? An organization that seems to exist only to get interesting people to talk about interesting ideas.
What do skateboarding and innovation have in common? More than you might think. A successful entrepreneur and innovator, Rodney Mullen is widely considered the most influential street skater in history, inventing most of the tricks used today. By the time he was 23, Mullen had already set new milestones for skateboarding winning 35 out of 36 freestyle competitions. He studied engineering at the University of Florida before co-founding World Industries, the largest skate company of the 90’s, which was acquired for more than $20m. He continues to skate, innovate, and design some 30 years after he won his first world championship at the age of 11. Mullen spends his spare time thinking about open source communities, hacking the urban terrain, and transforming the mundane into something new. He’ll be featured in the upcoming documentary, “The Bones Brigade: An Autobiography.”
I haven’t watched this yet, let me know how it goes.
– Thanks to Sarib for the tip.
36 comments
chris
Mullen definitely has mild aspergers. In his book he talks about his obsession as a kid with dreaming about and building semi-lethal booby traps in his bedroom. No shit.. classic aspergers symptom.
Bill Coleman
I’m 66 and am an old skateboarder and love him. Rodney’s talks offer a metaphor for life; falling down and getting up. I am deeply moved by each of his talks and have told all my friends, young and old to check them out.
Bc
Lisa Fletcher
Congrats Rodney on being inducted into the Hall of Fame!
Cas0356
In the Bones Brigade documentary it mentions that Rodney had some sort of mental condition as a child (and today as well probably). My guess is that he has a very very mild form of aspergers. Just enough to make him a little bit more socially awkward (more so as a child), but also an absolute genius and true artist. I have a photographer friend who has mild aspergers and I noticed some similarities between the way the speak and act. Mullen is the man, an absolute inspiration.
slappyfrontnoseslide
I watched this with great interest. Rodney Mullen is kinda goofy but in a good way. He is the skater-philospher-master of the game. Does anyone else even do darkslides? Half of that freestyle shit…my eyes are too slow to even follow.
Creativity through skateboarding or whatever is the best option we can choose for a reason for being here on this planet. I used to be sorta depressed about the state of the world all going to shit and whatnot but I credit skating as playing a large part in keeping my spirits up and stoked on life. Its certainly helped me survive life in mid michigan, even with a crappy modular steel park.
The DIY park movement seems to be gaining steam too, which will only fuel the stoke even more!
boneman
Holy crap, that was mind blowingly awesome! Much respect for Mullen.
Benjamin Blake Warren
Yep. The better we are. The dummer we sound.
walled eyed glue huffer
AM I THE ONLY PERSON DEEPLY UPSET THERE’S NO RODNNEY ON HALF PIPE OR MINI OR POOL FOOTAGE? SINCE ’77?!?? WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!
kilwag
In a different universe, Mullen would have battled Hawk in those NSA contests. Those two ultra focussed and head to head… boggles the mind.
BoBo
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v114/Sheaboy/RodneyMullenskatingvertagainsthisparentswill.jpg
Matt
Rodney was a street/freestyle skater. He didn’t do vert. Strange such an obvious “fan” doesn’t know that…
kilwag
…which he became after breaking a bone skating a ramp, so he promised his parents he’d only skate on flat ground, otherwise they were going to make him quit. That’s the legend anyway. A fan ought to know that too…
Brock75
I showed this to my HS art class today, the skaters liked it. An average dolt asked me if Rodney did a lot of drugs, which I responded, “No, it’s just that you are not used to hearing intelligent, passionate people speak.” He was a bit scattered in his presentation, but I don’t think that he is accustomed to addressing large groups as a speaker.
Concretin Nik
This is quite surprising considering how much of a shy introvert he has always claimed to be. To be on a stage like that is pretty big.
Really wish he’d get the tooth fixed though. Really hard to take anyone ssseriously whistling through a gap like that. (I know, I know, it was a skate slam, and I shouldn’t judge, blah blah blah. A recent leader of the free world, a Harvard grad no less, sounded like a complete hick, so I never could listen to anything he ever had to say. And I can only imagine how other leaders view that… just a pet peeve.) I’d love to chat with RM, but I know I’d be staring at the gap the whole time…
Anyway, I think it’s a great talk about creativity, where you find it, and how it’s different for each person, but so very important to everyone. There’s an interview somewhere with him where he explains basically the same thing on how he figures out a trick. He certainly seems like the same guy I’ve seen in several different interviews over the past 20 some odd years. I dig that. Rodney Mullen is legit.
Betsy
The tooth thing is ironic since his father is a dentist. He sometimes wears a false tooth– I saw him at the Bones Brigade doc and he had it in.
kilwag
He’s so damned earnest and infectious in his attitude. I laughed out loud when he mentioned what an honor it was for him to be speaking on that campus considering how he had been escorted off it so many times.
Concretin Nik
Yea, that was funny.
Brock75
Interesting to watch,he is an eccentric one for sure. Very cool to hear his perspective on life through skateboarding.
BroDown
The guy is a true innovator. His love for what he has done with his life is branded on his sleeve. We all should be so fortunate.
talentlessquitter
Shjall I sacrifice my (*uhm, cough*) integrity for the obvious bad joke?
‘Almost affordable’
mc
Great Rodney footage up front. Mind-blowing as always. Not a bad TED talk for a skateboarder.
K.C.
That was a great lecture on skateboarding….. but man, can you say Acid Drop?
Eric
I’ve been a Mullen fan from day one, he’s a bit ‘out there’ a bit too religious for my tastes. But he’s the real deal… gotta respect him from that.
Ya know who I found to be surprising to hear talk for the first time? Tom Penn.Yeah, I knew he was English… but in my head I was always assuming he’d be an English sounding version of stoner Muska. Far far far far from that voice in my head. Very prim and proper.
NWForty
Rodney Mullen is the first philosopher of skateboarding.
ssk
Off his board he comes across a little quirky, but I liked what he said. His skating speaks for itself. I think he has supernatural powers.
About boards though, it is strange that lower labor costs in China could actually offset freight costs to the other side of the world – twice! (since the maple’s coming from Canada.) I wonder how much is really saved per board. Is it worth not giving back and employing skaters here? I thought the co’s and shops made all their real money on clothes and shoes anyway. Don’t they?
On one hand; when you have to buy a board, who doesn’t like that it’s still only $30-$50? With the way people go through them now, they almost have to be that cheap.
$50 in 1988 would be $90.95 in today’s dollars. Prices now would equal $16.10 – $26.83 back then (according to http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi)
Back then, was it less competition? Less efficiency? Or did they just make a lot more money per board?
lou sassel
ssk,
Even in the us, not many skaters work at the large board factories. If you go to the factory in San Diego or Costa Mesa, you will see many Hispanics building the boards.
I guess rodney could have hired a bunch of skilled Chinese board builders here in the US.
the made in usa logo still means something to some, but most don’t know or care when they buy their boards.
JKP
Hispanics don’t skate?
hass
It is cheaper to mine granite from Vermont, ship it to China, have it processed into a countertop and shipped back to Vermont then it is to have the countertop shaped in Vermont.
Granite is much heavier than sugar maple veneers.
kilwag
In the statement I was talking about, he wasn’t arguing for cost, he was saying that the quality could not be matched here at any price.
ssk
That is strange. What could they be doing differently? We brought it over there. It’s all our specs right? Could they be mixing the tears of child laborers into the glue?
kilwag
In one video he implied that the quality of the boards manufactured in China was superior to anything that could be done in the U.S.. That’s my main beef. I think it might be here somewhere on S&A, I wonder if that video is still live.
zeno01
My only guess is that China allows crazy-toxic glues in manufacturing. That’s the only way I can see that it would be “superior” to boards being made over here. IMO.
freezine
It makes sense, since the Chinese feel like outsiders in the skateboard World, so they want to be Champions!
Betsy
I recommend watching this, even if you are not a fan of Mullen or his freestyle/street skating. I think he eloquently captures the undeniable links between skating, freedom, and creativity in a way that most skaters will agree with and most non-skaters will appreciate. But I think Mullen is a genius on and off the skateboard so I have an inheritor bias– fair warning.
talentlessquitter
Thank you, and I did watch it. I love freestyle but I had never even heard him speak before. He comes across as a bit dorky but his stoke and the super positive attitude rubs off. And his story makes sense.
someguyatwork
How many other pro skaters have used the word “usurp” in a sentence?