Rodney Mullen (born August 17, 1966 in Gainesville, Florida) is a professional freestyle skateboarder, and considered to be one of the most influential skaters in the history of the sport. He is credited with inventing many tricks, including the flat-ground Ollie (originally called the 'ollie pop'), the kickflip (originally called "magic flips"), the Heelflip, the 360 flip, and the Ollie Impossible (more often called the Impossible).
Tricks he invented
Mullen has invented many tricks. These are:
Frontside & backside 180 kickflips
50-50 saran wrap
Varial heelflip
50-50 sidewinders
360 Flip
360 pressure flip
540 double kickflip
540 Shove-it
Casper 360 flip
Casper slides
Darkslides (Adapted from Mark Gonzales' idea) Double heelflips Flat-ground ollie Godzilla rail flip Gazelle Heelflip Helipops (360 Nollie) Half-cab kickflip underflip Half-cab impossible Helipop heelflips Handstand flip Kickflip underflip No Handed 50-50 Ollie Kickflip Ollie Impossible Ollie nosebone Ollie fingerflip One footed ollie
Movie appearance
Rodney Mullen did many of the skateboarding stunts for Christian Slater in the 1989 skateboarding movie Gleaming the Cube. He can be seen performing in order to look like Slater. At the end credits he can be seen from an overhead view riding his skateboard with the camera zooming in on his foot work.
Video game appearances
Mullen has appeared in many video games related to the Tony Hawk Pro Skater (THPS) console games. These include: THPS 1,2,3 and 4 Tony Hawk's Underground, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix Tony Hawk's American Wasteland Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land Tony Hawk's Project 8