Packs of groms and teenagers across the world ripping through the suburbs and city streets on skateboards get to enjoy the freedom that comes with wheels years before they are allowed to drive. And as everybody knows, the most fundamental part of skating — the very thing that allows you to effortlessly transition from street to sidewalk or avoid getting hung up on a sewer cap — is the flat ground ollie, a trick a Florida teenager named Rodney Mullen is credited with inventing over 30 years ago.
No GRE required. Mullen was born with metatarsus varus, better known as pigeon toes, a condition causing both feet to point inward. In a sport where the ability to manipulate the board freely with both feet is everything, this was a significant drawback.
But Mullen wore boots designed to correct the condition and practiced obsessively to perfect his technique on the board.
That obsession with skating and creating made Mullen a legend, but it might also be one indication that he has a mild form of autism. You could flip it down and skate on it. You could slide on the edge of it. For autistic people, the capacity to deconstruct game rules and look at a convention from beyond normal capacity is standard. Mullen also reflected that he may exhibit other typical traits associated with ASD.
Mullen was extremely vulnerable and sometimes ran away from the team he was a part of, only to turn up hours later by himself. Mullen has a family background , as many other autistic individuals, which indicates ties to the syndrome: his mother was diagnosed with Autism. She is a scholar, graduating from high school at the age of 14 and later receiving a degree in physics while also becoming an excellent pianist.
Mullen was born with metatarsus varus, a disease that caused both feet to point inward, better known as pigeon toes. This was a major downside in a sport where the ability to manipulate the board with both feet freely is everything. Without the other side, you are nothing. All guys have jokes about the logic of women. A unity of diversity, bringing many into one. So do you approach your skating in a very non-linear way?
The totality of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In your autobiography, you thank Jesus. What role does religion play in your life? The term religion bums me out. I hate that crap. But yes, I am to fault. I have problems fitting in. I go to sleep when the sun comes up. It hurts me in my social interactions. That has always been my case with skateboarding.
But what do I expect? I skate like a goofball. What do you make of the current state of skateboarding today? Skating is one of the greatest blessings I could have. However, nowadays big stuff makes great photos. It leads people to believe that is normal. I mean, how can that not diminish your career lifespan by skating like that?
By doing those things, it ultimately takes away what is most precious to you. So I think it is unhealthy and uncool… I see great skaters and their ankles and knees are ruined. They become ashamed that skating got taken away from them before their time. So in that way, I can be critical of the hype because it takes away what is most precious. Skateboarding is such a gift. But I still love to watch these stunts, I get so stoked.
The hare is going to end up bummed out. Did that stem from your interest in engineering? Rather than frame it from engineering, even though I used a lot of that understanding and background, the origin was this: in terms of Tensor, the company grew and we realised that everyone could make trucks, not just Indy. Make up a truck! Things like nollie hardflips are pretty awkward set-ups. I wanted to build a truck that would help you do those kind of things better.
I understand that you recently had problems with your hip that threatened your skating. Could you tell me more about that? It was the most dramatic thing. Some scar tissue wrapped around my femur and pelvis and clasped together, pulling my femur into the hip socket.
It was calcifying and was going to be the end of me walking normally. The bones had already started to fuse together so I had to physically put enough pressure on myself to break my own bone. I did that for an enormous number of hours.
I stuck my leg in the wheel well of a car and grabbed the bottom of the frame and tweaked and tore as much as I could. Switch helps you a lot to learn how to re-establish shoulder settings and stuff so that is what I do after any big thing I am done with. At the end of any video it is always a big stop point in my life where I try to look at things from a newer perspective, starting over. I will try and explain.
You do like a noseblunt on the ground, front wheels and nose touching, and with your back foot you throw the board , so it cracks the rail. Is there a trick you have never been able to learn? Was there one that got away? There are always a couple that got away. In the video I do a casper to nose wheelie and I really wanted to do a casper flip to nose wheelie. That one got away. Another heartbreaker.
Was the Casper slide an accident? That was not me, that was Mike Ternasky. I still think of him all the time. I wished. Those guys who put those things together are always so funny, I always bring boards to try to bribe them into making me look younger! I have never played one single video game! After this Tony Hawk boom, do you think that kids who play these games expect to pick up a skateboard and skate just like their idols? Maybe they will, but I know a lot of those kids drop out pretty quickly.
Skateboarding has given me everything, and maybe it can do the same for one of these kids that just started by playing video games.
Videos themselves are like the game a little, to an extent they are make believe, you go out there and try all day for one single trick. There is a barrier of disbelief, and if you see one person do it and get through that barrier it becomes believable. Take Pat Duffy as an example, then you get kids everywhere flying down rails and they can do it.
Seeing is believing. If a deceased spot was resurrected tomorrow, which one would you like it to be? I only went to Love Park in Philly a few times on tour but it had the best vibe.
I know it meant a lot to the locals there. It would be super cool if people could skate there again. I really want to know if you can do a hang-ten nollie back foot impossible, cos i know someone who can. I would like to see Meanwhile Darren and yourself in a game of skate. I hate these little one liners as they always sound cheap, but I suppose what you see in the videos, it takes over a year to get those things out.
Just skate from what is inside you and this the real thing that will keep you going and that is the beauty of skateboarding. Just skate from your inside. Close Menu Skateboarding. DVD Reviews. Product Reviews. Music News. Buzz Chart. Live Reviews. Album Reviews.
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