Summary Of Rodney Mullen: The Godfather Of Skateboarding

Rodney Mullen: The Godfather Of Skateboarding What do you think it would be like to be the best in the world at something, but you still feel empty inside? Rodney Mullen knows exactly how that feels. In the late 1970’s and 1980’s, skateboarding became very popular. After a few years of skating everyday, Rodney became the best in the world. But with success, there comes struggles too. Rodney had his fair share of both. Although Mullen had struggles throughout his entire life, he became a major influence and success in the skateboarding industry.
Although Rodney Mullen struggled throughout his childhood, he managed to have many successes as well. Rodney started skating one day with his neighbor Jack and instantly fell in love with it (Mullen

After Rodney came back from California, his father would not allow him to skate any more. During the times that he would usually be skating, he was sitting in his room writing, reading, and thinking about skateboarding (Mullen 97). On the third day back from his trip, Rodney received a phone call from Skateboard News, which was the leading skateboard magazine at the time. They interviewed him for fifteen minutes. Rodney’s dad heard the whole conversation and called Rodney to where he was sitting (Mullen 97). He asked him who was on the phone and Rodney told him who it was. Rodney’s father decided that, “...with all these people investing money in you, maybe you should keep skating…” (Mullen 98). In 1982, Rodney invented the flatground ollie (Mullen 115). This was a huge accomplishment because without the flatground ollie, modern street skating would not exist. Not only did this accomplishment help him win more contests, it also compelled him to invent new tricks, the likes of which nobody had ever seen before (Mullen 116). After Rodney graduated from high school, he attended the University of Florida (Mullen 142). Rodney was worried that he would have to stop skating when he entered college, but having always been a straight A student, college was surprisingly easy for him. “No one was more surprised than me when I got straight As and won the two freestyle