Conclusion: Rodney Mullen is still amazing

I don't know if any of y'all ever played the Tony Hawk games, but I did. In these games, one of the characters available for play was Rodney Mullen. Rodney Mullen is awesome.

Anyway, when I beat Tony Hawk 3 with Rodney Mullen in 2002, the game played a video of Rodney skating. It blew my effing mind. To this date, I don't know if I've ever seen anything more impressive or enjoyable to watch. This man inspired me to start skating. While seriously fun, my skating career was rather brief due to the fact that I have the knees of a 74 year old woman. I had 2 operations, and my skating career went the way of Yeller.

Anyway, just watching the guy made me want to skate. He was essentially the founder of freestyle skating, and he is still the most influential creative force in freestyle and street skating.

Born "Rodney Mullen" the 17th of August, 1966, he was doing mind-blowing freestyle skating exhibitions in Japan when we were still shitting in our diapers. This guy is credited for inventing just about every damn move in the book. He invented the ollie. THE OLLIE! I don't know if y'all know what that is, but it's "the jump" with a skateboard. He also is credited for the invention of the kickflip, heelflip, 360 flip, among countless other superbadass tricks. Wikipedia has compiled a list of Rodney's "Trickography" (Trickography: the moves a skater has invented; Currin, 2008).

• Frontside & backside 180 kickflips^[5]
• 50-50 saran wrap^[5]
• Varial heelflip^[5]
• 50-50 sidewinders^[5]
• 360 Flip^[5]
• 360 pressure flip^[5]
• 540 double kickflip^[5]
• 540 Shove-it^[5]
• Casper 360 flip^[5]
• Casper slides^[5]
• Darkslides (Adapted from Mark Gonzales' idea)^[5]
• Double heelflips^[5]
• Godzilla rail flip^[5]
• Gazelle^[5]
• Heelflip^[5]
• Kickflip^[5]
• Helipops (360 Nollie)^[5]
• Half-cab kickflip underflip^[5]
• Half-cab impossible^[5]
• Helipop heelflips^[5]
• Handstand flip^[5]
• Kickflip underflip^[5]
• No Handed 50-50^[5]
• Ollie Impossible^[5]
• Ollie nosebone^[5]
• Ollie fingerflip^[5]
• One footed ollie^[5]

ONE FOOTED OLLIE?! WTF?! Honestly, how the fook do you do that? 540 double kickflip?! Holy balls in ya butt.

In conclusion, Rodney Mullen is tight. He drops fat tricks like angel shit. He's that smooth. Here are a few hilight videos to further support my point. Be warned, this may inspire you to start skating. They changed my life...for about 2 years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U-cgn3cEGA&NR=1