Mullen Decade By Skateboarder Magazine example essay topic

Rodney Mullen, the king of freestyle, knew what he wanted to do from day one. He wanted to be a skateboarder. Although, this wasn't going to be easy because he was the son of a Doctor. His dad was completely against skateboarding and forbid any idea of him doing it, but Rodney was persistant. Rodney got his first skateboard on New Years day, 1977.

After much begging and pleading he had finally gotten a skateboard. Although, he had some rules and conditions he had to follow. If he was ever injured or caught skating without his pads he had to stop skating then and there. He reluctantly made the deal and did what he had to do to get that skateboard. Rodney ran as fast as his little legs could carry him straight to the local shopping mall and picked out a black Bonsai aluminum skateboard with Precision wheels and ACS trucks. He soon found out that his dad had nothing to worry about as he began practicing and learning freestyle tricks.

He started getting very good and recieved his first sponsership after only nine months, The Inland Surf Shop. He then started competing in local Florida competitions and he won his first contest. He blew many of the California pros away when he placed fourth in the Kona contest. Rodney continued on and took the top spot at the Oceanside contest in California and got another sponsership, Walker. His father tried to get him to switch over to another sport seeing as he had proven best at skateboarding. Rodney Mullen was definitely not going to stop his beloved sport just because he was good at it.

That idea was tossed out the window. Dad's have more power than sons though, so in know that he might have to quit soon he worked harder and harder on learning new tricks and becoming better. He invented three tricks within his first three years of skating. Rodney recieved a call from Stacy Peralta inviting him to enter a contest in Sand Diego. This was supposed to be his last contest it was the day after his thirteenth birthday and he would be competing with top Sims freestyle Steve Rocco. The contest was very close but Rodney came out on top!

He and Steve later became good friends. After winning the contest he recieved another sponsership from Powell-Peralta, one of the biggest and most well known teams of the decade. His skateboarding took a huge leap from there. His career jump started and he started getting publicity. More and more contest came up and Rodney knocked em down. He dominated the freestyle contest for an entire decade.

The 80's decade was called "the Mullen decade" by skateboarder magazine. In all of Mullen's years of competing he only came in second place once. He was crowned World Freestyle Champion 35 times over. Apart from all the competitions Rodney invented over 30 new tricks throughout that time and many of these tricks on the basis for modern day skateboarding.

When the 90's kicked around freestyle died out and street skating begun. Mullen quickly adapted and is still today one of the greatest skaters of all time. He was just recently voted "Skater of the Year" in Skateboarder Magazine, 2002. Rodney Mullen is one of the most intuitive and creative skateboarders of all time and his skills cannot be matched by any other skateboarder today. He has provided a legacy to skateboarding and in general "the man just has it". He lives it.

He breathes it. He is skateboarding.