I’ve listened to Rodney Mullen interviews, podcast appearances, and his public speeches. I love how enthusiastic he is about skateboarding, how deeply he thinks about tricks, and how kind and humble he is.
He actually gave my favorite TED talk, and I’ve watched it several times. I love his humor throughout it, but the most important things he talked about were creating for the sake of creating and his comparison of the skateboard community and the open source community. I love his thoughts on taking something, making it your own, and then giving it back to the community, and how that makes the community stronger. It reminds me of what the IndieWeb community does.
I also love how he found freedom in failure and used it as a way to not only reinvent himself, but also profoundly reinvent the sport. Rodney Mullen’s innovations, which include more tricks than anyone else and the modern popscicle shaped skateboard, have earned him the title of being the Godfather of Modern Street Skating.
I highly recommend Rodney Mullen’s TED talk, even if you’re not a skater.