IW: Rodney Mullen on TED

Skateboarding, for years, consumed every aspect of my life.

My friends and I would skate during lunch breaks at school, I'd weirdly romantically carve my girlfriend's initials into my grip tape, shovel snow to clear a spot to skate in the winters, I even had a small mat I'd take outside at night to practice on in the street so the clack of the wheels and board wouldn't echo throughout my neighborhood. We had gone from curbs to stairs cases, ledges to handrails. We weren't practicing for a competition, we just loved it. When we started, it was right before Skateboarding began to transform into what it is today so we came into it feeling like we discovered this cool secret club. It was amazing.

I skated forever and dreamed about turning pro until one day I realized I had to make a choice - take the time to get better at skateboarding or take the time to get better at drawing. Art was always my first love so that's what I chose, but at the time it was a really difficult choice. There was a ton of great memories tied up in skateboarding, the friends I made, the fear and then thrill of landing that one trick, the feeling of freedom... and even years later I still catch myself scouting out good skate spots.

Anyway! Rodney Mullen was/is a huge inspiration to skateboarders around the world and he was recently featured on TED. Skateboarder or not, worth a watch.

~D