This is a short post about someone that should be studied in school as part of the curriculum. Well spoken, humble, intelligent and possessing a character that is virtuous, valorous and admirable. No need to state that he is an inspiration to me and I learned a lot from him in a short time. His name is Rodney Mullen. He is a skateboarder among many things. One trait he has plenty of and one he shares with many other skateboarders, is perseverance.

Freestyle

Rodney starts out as a freestyle skater and that means a good mix between art, dance, ballet and skateboarding. He does not just get a board, no. He has to beg his parents for one. This is already a big thing, nobody acted out in his household. So asking for something you really wanted must have border-lined on treason. He gets a board, but only until he falls or gets hurt. Then it is immediately over. The agreement has been made. He gets padded up and starts practicing. He has to wear special boots to overcome an condition to his feet. This does not stop him. He enters a competition and becomes fifth. After having the skateboard for only just over a year.

He moves to an even remoter part in Florida and only has a small space in the garage to practice skateboarding. It is all he can do. Then something happens after winning a lot of tournaments and competitions. Freestyle dies out.

Loss of identity

What do you do when something that defines you is no longer there? This is a question that Rodney asked himself as the one thing he could do was no longer existent. Well, he took what he could from freestyle and applied it to street skating. It is the act of doing the tricks and moves out unto the streets and what you might call the real world. Not the flat ground of free style tournament pavement.

He takes like a duck to water. Invents even more tricks than before in free style.

Issues

He states he has issues, but he is not a special case. Everything is relative. I think most of us can identify with this statement in some way, shape or form. I know I can. Something from his youth fractured something inside him and he started to resent the trophies he had rightfully earned so far. Although he does not feel like that. He played it safe when he won those and so they are not a testament to his skill, rather to his cowardice. Some might argue to the ineptitude of the other contestants. That is just what you get when you have to ride the competitor that is from the future or in other words way ahead of his time.

He throws away and gives away all his trophies and is freed from his shackles.

True test

Then at the age of 41 he is still skating, still going strong. Apart from the fact that his body is grinding his left femur into the hip bone. He sees a doctor who tells him with his eyes what he does not say with words, that Rodney is done skating. He gives Rodney a tool, a sort of small plastic screwdriver, to try and wrench the scar tissue loose. Try to create a little room to stretch the muscles and create more room and get the scar tissue loose. This is excruciatingly painful. Again what do you do when the identity that defines you for the last couple of decades at this point is stripped and becomes seemingly unattainable?

He eventually moves up to an actual screwdriver and on to fire hydrants to get more leverage. He gets better and better at this practice. Finally after three and somewhat years, 13 days out of 14, hours on end hanging upside down in his car and using the wheel well to get the maximum leverage he feels like a tree trunk breaks in his leg. He starts writhing around on the floor, screaming and kicking. He gets up. He can walk again, he can walk again, with a ball and socket in his left leg. Not the stick shift hobbling gait he had before.

Formless

In skateboarding you are either regular or goofy footed. You either lead with your left or right foot respectively. At the age of 43 Rodney had to relearn skateboarding, the “wrong” stance. This is also called switch. Now you can liken this to having drawn your whole life with right hand and then due to paralysis you can only use your left hand and so relearn to draw with your left hand.

However he can skate again. So he gets back up again and realizes that the tricks he is doing not-switch are the same movement in switch. So for example, an ollie in regular stance means you pop your back foot and slide with your front foot. In switch however you would do the same with same feet in the same motion to do a nollie. A nose ollie. The idea of switch and regular went out of his head. He skated. He learned new tricks that were unattainable before.

Soft spoken

Rodney did not speak for a long time. In his childhood mostly in whispers. Another token of perseverance and dauntlessness is the fact he did TED talks and other seminars starting in 2013 and onward.

Getting back up

The power of getting back up and keeping at it, cannot be undervalued nor overstated. The trick is to keep going, calibrating as you go, fine-tuning yourself to make sure the path is correct, to the end goal of landing a trick. Or for that matter, any other attainable goal that you set your sights on. If you stop just short of obtaining it, all is for naught.

I do think there is in his life in every aspect something you can find inspiration in. Strength has nothing to do with muscle, it has to do with willpower and the fact what you do in the face of extreme adversity. The will to defy people and peers that will counter what you are trying to do whilst knowing you are on the right path. The mindset to not let pain, suffering and failure stop you from getting you where you need to be. On the other side of where you now are, the other side of more than you were but still less than what you can become. The power of not overthinking too much and dealing with problems as they arise. Being oblivious to what the barrier of disbelief is. All of these things contribute strength and Rodney Mullen is one of the strongest people I can think of.

This applies to so many more fields than just skateboarding. This is how you should live your life.

Almost Round three

The skate video Almost Round Three features a segment of Rodney Mullen, and under that segment is the song of The Clash – Train in Vain (Stand by me). The reason why this song fits so well is for many reasons. For one the band added it to the record as a last minute addition thinking it deserved to be out there when having it for a promotion failed. It was written and recorded in one night. The title of course I liken not to a train, but to the verb to train. So to train in vain would be what most people would feel like when you have to reinvent yourself after your sport dies out and most assuredly at the age of 41 when it is said you cannot do a certain sport anymore. Then the second part is the lines in the song:

Did you stand by me? No, not all Did you stand by me? No way

Rodney did it on his own. His parents never stood by him. Then the love part of the song also applies in the fact that he had a genuine love for skateboarding and it betrayed him almost. It all came tumbling down, however he never lost his love for skateboarding.

#thoughts