Today I discovered Tony Hawk’s interview of Rodney Mullen from 2009. Both of these guys were heroes of mine as a kid. You can tell these guys not only go way back together, but that they’re good friends, too.
In part one Rodney reveals how he lost his tooth, and explains the home-grown technique he uses to tear his hip away from the socket to which it’s continually trying to fuse itself (hint: it involves an automobile):
At least that explains why Mullen was so anxious to erase his stance.
My new deck finally arrived yesterday (I swear UPS is slower than USPS) and I laid on the grippy, changed out my bearings, replaced my trucks’ kingpins, and put it all together.
I took it out skating last night, and was immediately impressed by how high this thing pops. It’s like spaceman ollies!
The concave feels very deep, which I’m not quite used to. In fact, I fell a couple of times because my feet were so “glued” in place by it.
As advertised, it does seem to flip faster, and though I’m still having a hard time with kickflips in general, heelflips seem to be easier to initiate (though harder to control, as the board flips at least another half-flip from the same amount of effort).
As a kid Mullen was my hero. I remember when his freestyle board was focused on Rubbish Heap, and I dimly recognized that, yeah, freestyle is dead. That’s about the same time I got out of skating.
Now more than ever I admire and look up to Mullen. Even today he projects nothing but a positive attitude that garners respect–a good example is how thankful he is for all the breaks he’s had, and the people who have supported him. He’s not afraid to admit his Christianity, which is fine by me; I’d rather have my son look up to a religious pro skater than one who’s amoral and befouls himself in public.
Yeah, I suppose I’m an old prude, but what do I care what anyone thinks? I’m right on this one. We need more Tony Hawks and Rodney Mullens. Skaters who are not only the best of the best, but decent people too.
Anyway, I liked this documentary on Mullen; you might too:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5332678536989755802&hl=en
