What do skateboarding and innovation have in common? Why is this on Flatmatters?? Well for more reasons than you might think…. A successful entrepreneur and innovator, Rodney Mullen is widely considered the most influential street skater in history, inventing most of the tricks used today. There are so many similarities to what he is saying in this talk to flatland riding, he continues to skate, innovate, and design some 30 years after he won his first world championship at the age of 11. How long will it be until a flatlander gives a talk like this? Well worth a watch.
don’t have time to go through this now, but it might lead to an interesting discussion, i’ll see this tonite
It is so apparent why he’s a legend. This is great to watch. He brings up so many interesting and valid points. The flatland community could learn legions from watching this clip and it is much needed in this day and age. It nice to see that you posted this E. Thanks. It is something that wouldn’t hurt to make it’s way around the BMX community in general as well. Take note.
i agree with Bill Freeman, this is so dense with interesting ideas, i got to watch this again. I remember he talked about using tools to make them do things they weren’t supposed to in the first place, that’s creation. He also talks about taking a part of some trick, bringing to another level, and giving it back, and the giv back idea is very important for us flatlanders, This post could be stickied it has the potential to lead to interesting positive discussions, way more interesting than who deserved or not to win any contest…
From listening to him it is so eSy to see how his mindset changed the face of skating..
Amazing, people need to see this!
so many interesting point of views that i feel so close-minded and not enough high right now hehe 🙂
what i really find interesting in what he says is the global aspect of creation and progress. Creation and progress is teamwork, you take something existing, give it a little push in your own direction, and someone else takes what you have worked on and gives his own littl push in another direction , TOWARDS SOMEONE ELSE, and so on. Too often creation is described and understood as the genius work of a single person, in my sense this is a very short sighted picture of the aspects of creation. With this idea, i find very normal that riders in their first stages of riding only ‘copy’ what’s around them, and after a while add their own twist, wich will inspire other riders a few years after. Creation should not be copyrighted, copying is part of the creation process.
Sorry for writing so much but there’s a lot to be said. I also remember when he talked about his professioanl career that came abruptly to a dead end when street riding took all the attention from skateboarders. And he felt reliefed because fre to do anything he wanted to. Could it be that contests lead us to be counter creative ? because of all the pressure they put on riders in terms of format, points, the need ot do certain things to have a good ranking, etc…i totally agree with that point and naively dream of a flatland community that wouldn’t need Redbull contest to exist. By the way Flatland doesn’t need any energy drink company to exist, just saying, but that’s another discussion
Agree Julien, this is part of the reason i posted the video, it is food for thought as they say. I find so many similarities to skateboarding and flatland, it might as well be flatland he’s talking about! Doesn’t anyone else think like that??
He is a genius
Best Street skater ever ,knowledge is power.
one last thing on how context shapes content, how i think that applies to flatland, it can be many different thngs but i think the most obvious is how mistakes shape tricks, i think this happened to everyone struggling on a trick and falling by mistake on a new one. it just happened to me today trying to pull a trick i can’t do i stumbled on a new one, or more a different way to do it…so it’s all about looking at what is around with an open mind, sometimes more productive than just trying to control everything.well too much to be talked about internet is probably not the right place
Great watch, thanks for posting this E (I might not have otherwise seen this). Two points really resonate with me:
1. You win once, the rest is defending. Defense stifles creativity. It’s very refreshing to see a pro class that is truly up for grabs each contest. No better motivation to progress and innovate.
2. The skateboard / hacker comparison and Nobel prize bit. Individual accolades can’t really compete with collaboration in terms of moving an art/sport to its next level. I feel like I’m seeing a lot of this in Flatland lately. A lot of “team” attitudes and support for fellow riders. A lot of amazing edits and events that have no individual goal.
It’s crazy how watching a skateboarder talk can inspire and motivate me like this.
The parallels to the skate and BMX worlds are really nothing new. They have been around for easily three decades. In fact, there is a large number of highly respected riders in the BMX community that have at least dabbled in the realm of skateboarding. I think that it is this “cross training” for lack of a better description that really help open their creative side. A few that come to mind would be Jason Parkes, Dave Vanderspek, Ron Wilkerson, Bob Kohl, Spike Jonze, and yes Kevin Jones. It is also no wonder that some of the most influential and innovative modern street riders site skateboarding as an interest or hobby.
The thing that Rodney talks about that I think would be most beneficial to a flatlander is the use of micro movements and how they are granular. Which in my mind translates directly in to techniques. The more techniques that you can master as a rider at any skill level the better a rider it will ultimately make you. It is this aspect that makes riders like Chase Gouin, Viki Gomez, Simon O’brien, Michael Steingraeber or Martti Kuoppa and their links and style so landmark. It often is what makes their moves capable of standing the test of time. It gives them an edge as riders and it is what makes them all such truly unique individuals. New doors get opened because of that notion of taking an idea or technique and making it your own. This is when a technique get used in a new way or is ultimately redefined and used for other purposes over and over. It is this creativity that leads to invention that will then come full circle when these acts are given back to the community.
“I see so many people, with so much talent, and all these attributes I wish I had. And then they get what they want, whether it be money, or fame, or whatever it is they may idealize; that “that’s it for me”. And then it just stops. They won’t run, they won’t chase anymore. It somehow robs them if the joy that they had, of doing what they did… What am I without contests? To be number one, is that important? No it’s not important, because I just skate. I love to skate.Â
Love the simple things. Don’t expect to be put in any special position… Just do the simple things. What’s the ultimate achievement you want? Not just in skateboarding but in life? I want peace. I defended that title. Call it a title, that’s so corny. But you know what I mean. ” World Champ”, whatever, all those years. And that’s slavery. Slavery!” ~ Rodney Mullen
i’ve known a few good sk8er’s over the years and one thing that’s always struck me is the way they share technical trick information, breaking everything down into it’s most basic components and learning to execute it as one fluid motion. of course that’s also how flatland works, but i’ve never really seen advanced riders sharing that kind of information the way sk8er’s seem to communicate it. if we as a community could do that everyone would get better (who put effort in) and the tricktionary would grow
garyflyer, i think this has something to do with the number of persons playing the same activity. and at wich frequency they meet. look at me i’m alone all year around in my riding spot, i’m not sharing anyhting. If we were 5, may be 2 riders will share informations, but if we were 100, then 40 would be sharing, and in this way i think that traffic information is not a straight line but more an growing curve. 10 people sharing is less than the double of what 20 people will share, because informations feeds on information. Don’t know if i’m very understandable, i’m not even sure i’m right, just an intuitive idea here.. So in the end i would say we’re the same as skateboard, but we don’t have the same opportunities for sharing as they do, because we’re so few..
@julienpoliti, now is a good time to start sharing
All I got from this was: Flatlanders should be riding banks.
hahaha, just kidding.
I realy feel Garyflyers point of sharing techniques. I am learning more and more that my pose/stance/posture is realy important with flatland riding. I can understand the movement of tricks but if my stance is not correct the trick is not working. Sometimes I need to bend my knee’s more and other time I need my hand/wrist placement to be a little bit different. Now that i realise that i can give better advise to other riders. You can recognize what goes wrong and you can explain what to do better.
Very true jan and garyflyer, one of the frustrating things with flatland sometimes, you can be 1-2mm off the stance you need and that trick is not happening, so like you both said there is definitely a lot of mileage in going down this route of explaining exactly the process you go through on tricks, down to stance as well.
Julien Politi point about sharing makes perfect sense. Also, when are we going to see that Jungle rider set-up?
create to create, he said when he was riding to defend was when he created less, ride for fun and create to create, my puzzle peaces falls into place. Would be cool to see flatlanders talk, like martti or chase, i think the sport/art/hobby or what ever makes people think and consider, and that is what makes a person ”smart” or intelligent.
Nice ice breaker Effraim! we’ll back it up!
its wet and rodders got me thinking word up!
that’s so right, there’s so much to do about correcting your stance. BUTt, at the same time the amazing thing about incorrect stances, or incorrect placement of your body on your bike to achieve a certain trick, is that it could turn out to be creative and lead you somwhere else you would not have thought of. i am thinking about when Rodney says his body was accidentally falling into a certain place doing that flatland trick on a bank, and that called for a 360 flip !! mistakes or incorrect stances might lead you to unexpected moves that you can make your own if you accept it, That’s the whole point of Context creating content, except that here context is your own point of balance, not the street or the bank or whatever else, and your body is driving you into a certain style of movement.
Jan i did not receive the Jungle rider yet, but be sure i’ll take picture WHEN i get it as a frame, and when all set-up, and riding it !!
In general, i find , about stances, that tricks become easier if your point of balance is always above the stem, or steering, unless you want to turbine. Tricks are also easier for me if i keep my elbows closer to my body rather than out, this way i ahve more leverage and force on the handlebars, you have more force and that turns out to be very useful especially on nose manuals.