Innoskate 2013: Rodney Mullen & Tony Hawk Q&A

huh hi everybody we're stopped before we start with the questions Tony and Ronny I want to thank you both so much for being here on this special festival that we're hosting here on I really sincerely am grateful that you're so willing to continually share your story with the public it's so important to reach out in that way and to give us that opportunity to hear from you and to learn from these stories and it's very generous of you so thank you for that and so thank you and to help us with the discussion and for the moderation we'd like to invite Niki Vukovich executive director of the Tony Hawk foundation come on up and help us out and we're going to get going with the questions on in just a second you'll notice that there's two microphones halfway down each aisle if you'd like to ask a question would you just please take yourself to one of the microphones and queue up and we'll get going everybody please I know you got questions get up line up man up as Lance said woman up if that's if that's your situation microphone here - bear down but need some people - to line up and make this a lively discussion firstly Jeff Jeff John I think I represent a number of people in this room when I say that as a lifelong skateboarder many of us here at striven to raise the profile of skateboarding and elevate it its notoriety throughout the country throughout the world and really get guys like Tony and Rodney the respect they deserve in various various ways through media etc and to see event like this at a national institution like this the Lim Wilson Center the Smithsonian we really appreciate the opportunity and thank you for having the insight and the faith in what these guys have created to bring this to the to the national stage thank you you know not only just opening but with the open arms with which you do it it's just good people you're so honored to be here thank you I see I see a lonely microphone over here before we start I see we have someone over here that's great let's everyone else start lining up I just wanted to say that as someone who's sort of been witnessed to a lot of what this don't covers I just had the the sense and the the the feeling that with all the accolades and all the awards to Stacy Peralta has received for his filmmaking not for analysts necessarily but since then I really truly believe that this is the film he was meant to create and as someone who saw a lot of these events and saw all of this transpire from the outside but being within that community I think that we finally do have a document a film something that the rest of the world can see that in my mind shared not just your own story but shares what skateboarding was about and some of the groundwork of what created what we have now and hopefully again it allows people to have a little more insight and understanding of the depth of the community and the culture and what you guys helped create and with that I think we have a question over here sure hi guys a pretty stoked to be here to say the least I apologize for what is probably gonna sound like a really vague question but it's kind of a personal philosophical thing of mine where I think I think the most valuable thing that any of us can possess this perspective it kind of goes with the whole idea of being able to walk in somebody else's shoes so given the unique position that you're in and everything that you've been through and you know the whole story that the film tells I'm just curious to know what is a both of you what would be a piece of perspective that you have through everything you've lived through and done and seen and experienced that you find to be really value to yourself I can ask that quickly saying that my first skateboard is going to live here at the Smithsonian as of tomorrow and I think you'd told me that it almost at any time my life I wouldn't believe that even in the heyday of the 80s of what this documents that didn't seem like a possibility we were not on that radar we were not of that success level or consider that legitimate in the eyes of the mainstream sports or media so for me that's that's huge perspective it's still unbelievable to me but I'm truly honored to to be able to to be able to donate it I mean um the backstory on that is that my brother gave it to me when I was nine years old it was my first board and so when prompted to donate something here for this event I said I'd love to give that but I had to get his blessing um smile brother see right there I'm still trying to convince him I'm still trying to convince him to let it go here so we're still in the in the negotiating process but yeah I know um but I called him and I said what do you think about me giving this away and he said I've always thought it belong there so with that he booked a ticket I booked ticket here we are so Thanks Jeff called me when he you gave me okay that you're gonna send him that board and he was so excited she's like to inspire you like oh my gosh I'll have anything that could ever match that I can't I haven't even seen it I can't well not gonna lie I expected to deliver it here but Micky FedExed it on Monday I've never been so concerned about a FedEx package in my life I to your question context and reference points as you see in this connects to what Mickey was saying about the film that it shows not just what we did or what the times were like but what inspired and drove us at that time and all of us are seeking all this feeling outcasts seeking to find community but on our own terms because that's who we are in the skateboarding it was just me being on the far more everyone has their setting but we're all trying the same things to express ourselves through what we do in that in in itself speaks for who we are and as that speaks and we individuate ourselves in a way that's recognizable the community embraces us more and suddenly we find more sense of belonging and so what we're doing context wise we're just doing we're doing expressing ourselves about the community not thinking about anything we're just thinking about what can we do with this thing and how good it feels and how good it feels when our friends see it and they embrace us and as the years rolled on and this is what has been the greatest reward because skateboarding has given me everything more than I could ever dream people keep thanking me and I just like I'm thinking you because it rolls out into the present and not only the thanks that we get but for what the tricks that they're doing that's we see what we did matters to the community and now being embraced by the Smithsonian here talk about context and belonging that's what this perspective has given us a unfolds and becomes richer all the time by the way what Lance was talking about in the movie about being kind of out of place sitting here between these two guys for me is I think I'm starting to get some perspective on what Lance is talking about let me tell you guys who Mickey is by the way Mickey um Nick and I were in high school together we went to 9th grade at San Dieguito also known as Santa ghetto for good reason and um we were the only skaters in our high school and constantly ridiculed and threatened and had our boards taken away and got so discouraged with that school and with the attitude toward skating that he went to military school the next year by his own choice and for real army navy academy well everything's relative yeah and then I went I went and asked to be transferred to Torrey Pines which was the opposite end of the spectrum but still got made fun of for being a skater was just more rich spoiled kids there um but uh and and through and through Mickey has always skated loved skating did work for Transworld for one one and as our foundation got more established there was no one better qualified to do the job of getting information getting resources getting funding as Mickey for it so he is the director of foundation for good reason but I want to know the backstory that he has been skating as long as I thank you guys very finish by the way Matt Hensley went to army Navy as well so he didn't go to San memories though didn't go San Dieguito over here question first of all you guys are in the Smithsonian congratulations it's amazing I guess mine's my question has to do with perspective but it's my life I'm a 40 year old man it's paralleled I've watched you guys I make my living as a sales rep in the skateboard industry I've worked for your contemporaries Pierre Andre etc etc and I'm blown away with the professor's here that bride to see who I grew up watching who's an amazing skateboarder that that everything to me that is skateboarding and especially the two of you we have created as skateboarders and supported and built and you know in 1986 you chose to wear a Nike shoe because if that you made that skateboarding it didn't make skateboarding and now skateboarding is invaded by the larger corporations the Nikes the adidas is these companies that come in and compete with what skateboarders have created and are responsible for and it is eroding what we do and it I've seen a death what I'm seeing at least from a business perspective is we've gone through multiple deaths in skateboarding and nothing like what you guys experienced in the early 90s but right now skateboarding is at a law and it's what I see is the kids aren't supporting what skateboarding has created and what is you I'm just curious what your perspective is on on that and all of the contemporaries around you and how their businesses are really being eaten at by the Vanity Fair's and then Nikes and the adidas --is the things that we didn't create or choose to have participate in our creation um well I think it's a double-edged sword in terms of the success and the big companies that get involved because they do support skateboarding in other ways as well with doing sponsorships with doing big events with bigger prize money and to be honest allowing people who have devoted their lives to it to actually make a living at to actually make a good living at it and to have much more opportunity because they have injected their funding and interest into it and advertising dollars of course um but I think that skateboarding has gone the way of many businesses now in terms of consolidation and overseas production and so it's all relative to the Commerce of of the of this era so but I disagree in that somehow that's your routing the heart of skateboarding because I feel like the heart of skateboarding is alive and well there are plenty of people that still are only about core skateboarding or only about the gnarly stuff and as you can tell skating continues to progress it continues to evolve it continues to thrive no matter what other entities are getting involved in it um you know I've seen it from me from such a perspective of rising and falling three times really in popularity and how the skating itself continues to evolve through that skyrockets you know that the the techniques and the and now the facilities I mean now you know kids doing 10 80s on mega ramps that's just unbelievable stuff that's happening out there because of these big advertising dollars I mean it's not because of them but that definitely helps the process so it's a you know it's it's definitely a fine line to walk but there there is a faction out there of skaters that just support the skate companies the quartz skater owned companies and also are progressing skating but more the the underground sort of rebellious roots of skating is still alive and well I can tell you just from my own son Riley and the crew he hangs out with Roddy you you helped found a really core company that redefined the skateboard industry and they got really popular and then you sold out to huge conglomerate please comment it's Rodney started it's all his fault answer the man's question I think Tony's precisely right and double-a but I think that there's there's something in terms of the culture and this draws us back to tomorrow's event and being here we're drawn to what we see in general I started skating because the guy down the street was aloof and cool because he skated and I just thought I'm that's what I want to be and it's the lens through which we see now skaters they're seeing on TV between motorcycle racing and stuff on fuel right sweetly feels gone but it's okay Ronnie we know you know I saw ya today okay what is it anyway it's gone whatever they're seeing on there their sandwich in between more regular metrics sports and into some extent I think it's good because it attracts people they see what skating is and they'll get it once they're in and if they don't like it after a while they'll figure that out no bail the other side is that the more that's advertised the more people are drawn to that more to be like what what they see and I see it was stunt skating or whatever you see all these big great things that look awesome in magazines and you're around the news it really skate their day we'll do that every day they just like to have fun and they gear up for what's going to be the big photo and so it gives a transmogrified perspective of what we really do what we're really about and the culture itself has always have been about again this outside community about doing your own thing representing yourself by what you do and not by trying to outdo the other specifically in terms of yards or whatever the inches and so one of the dangers that I see is it will become more like that and there are parts of that and indeed indeed are that corporate or not it's just how it's seen the other side is the parts such as the Smithsonian Smithsonian embracing us tomorrow for in a skate that say hey what you do is special in innovative and it's conducive your culture itself is is is conducive to things new different and let's try to amplify that part of it let's be seen in this context and that sends such a good message a message that's resonant with the true part of what skateboarding is and so that's again why I want to thank the Smithsonian I think also to your point there's Arizona is always the fear that the the core the heart of skateboarding is threatened with growth with change I think in in the 30 years or more that I've been involved I've seen skateboarding evolved to the point where basically every form of skateboarding that ever existed exists again and it's each form of it is thriving whether you're talking about pool skating ramp skating Street skating slalom you know old-school freestyle they all have their niche they all have their events they all have their community their web sites whatever and so that's all thriving and whatever aberrations you see whatever big media events you see those are just extra there you know satellites around the planet I don't think they threaten the heart the soul of it and I think in terms of the companies the Nikes and the Red Bulls and whatnot that our community scaper name is Tony said they're providing important resources that a lot of these skaters who ride for them their board companies can't afford to do so they can represent their board company and make their living with a soft drink or a shoe company but I think another important thing is Antonio my work with the Tony Hawk foundation over the last decade or more we've seen you know going into communities and trying to work with the skaters and have them go to their local leaders and make the case for why a skate park is important a safe place for the growing number of skaters to go on ride you know it seems silly to have to go there and make the case but that was that was a situation ten years ago you had it convinced people that you know kids are not playing baseball anymore there's skateboarding and stop building baseball fields and start building skate parks in the last four or five years that that whole conversation has changed there are City Council members and mayor's who if they're not skaters themselves they have kids who skate they get it so we walk in and the quit the conversation isn't you know here's why you need a skatepark it's it's it's them asking us okay we know we need it how do we do it you know where do we find the money what do we how do we design etc etc we've evolved beyond the question about whether or not it's valid or relevant or necessary and I think with a lot of the large companies you have the same thing you have now skateboarders in those companies in middle and upper management maybe they don't own those large corporations but they're in influential positions and so these companies that came into skateboarding have absorbed skateboarders and are becoming part of skateboarding in that way and I think that skateboarding's influence is now affecting even those large corporations so I think that it's a matter of perspective and set to some degree and it's not so much an invasion as maybe it used to be in the 90s when they first started coming in you know now we've infiltrated so to say and so I think that there's any more interesting things coming coming about as a result of that first it's like an honor and a privilege to address you Rodney you know you returned and went back to the drawing board with the adapting your style into the street and you know and skateboarding will forever you know thank you for that and that took I know it took probably a lot of courage and a lot of work and Tony you put your pretty much your life financially on the line to start your company and and that was a big you know a big risk that you put in with your heart and I think if people like you guys are still in the game that I don't think skateboarding can dial the way but my question was did you guys skate today betsy has my board I skated here and I'm headed out to skating for the White House - let's just say I got from point A to point B while I was here but I sprained my knee a couple weeks ago so I'm kind of laying low but I am able to get from one place the other without actually leaving the ground yet thanks guys transportation just one more of skateboarding's many facets hi I just think it's super rad how not you guys are not only you know the icons of skateboarding but also very successful entrepreneurs and I was wondering when you guys were first starting your businesses if there was inspirations outside of the skateboard industry that motivated you or kind of gave you guys inspiration or even to this day with your businesses if there's stuff outside of skating i I didn't have too many examples outside of skating because I was relatively young when I started my business I was 24 um so which seemed like super old in skate years so I felt like I had to go do something and be responsible um my best example was Stacey Stacey did it and I wanted to go do it oh god what we did it's Ron but it shows the little guy inside me that really drives me is is the things that inspired me or all the things I didn't want to be you know they're very corporate and structured at the time and it's not a dismissal but clearly you can see what happened toward the end with pal that Stacey tried to fight or militate against and and again my partner had come from vision which was not great and and so we in a sense reacted in an extreme way and it became Lord of the Flies but it did last and it created something that allowed for the future of young skaters they could when they started to get banged up or just a fear that they were going to get banged up they would have a home where they could start a company and that was in our hearts just what Stacy said so that Stacy was a motivation for us what we wanted to do but a lot of the environment were bigger motivations that we didn't want to do in terms of happened to us or our friends Rodney would it be correct to say that when you and Steve Rocco started World Industries your your strategy was to hire the right people and give them the freedom to do what the ultimate end goal was that's exactly right that's exactly it was about freedom and and autonomy express yourself do you think and that's what we created in it last yes I grew up skateboarding in the 90s and 2000's here in DC and I was able to see how skateboarding went from being something that was completely unacceptable to something that is now so acceptable that it's everywhere and you see it advertising you know orange juice commercials and it's things in large part to a lot of things that you did Tony especially in the late 90s and 2000's it's even gone outside of the US having been able to travel I've seen gone to countries where skateboarding has been completely outlawed and they still know who you are now my question is where do you see skateboarding's place in American society and the global society in sports but also throughout the culture how does it play a role because even though skateboarding still accepted you still obviously have a lot of problems especially in the u.s. when it comes to Street skating or even though people like to take advantage of skateboarding's cool image but then give oftentimes gives skateboarders a little respect when it comes to anything that's outside of the actual activity of skateboarding um well I think that that image is changing that that attitude towards skating is I mean largely changed over the last 10 15 years and is still changing for the better but if you're asking what's key boardings place in American history or society is I feel like we're at a write a point where it's no longer a novelty or at risk of dying so to speak or become a fad you know the the proliferation of just skate parks alone is huge and cities are spending that money not considering a temporary investment and more kids choose to skate and play Little League if Little League's are American pastime then here we are you know that that kind of sums it up right there that the skateboarding is is as popular as baseball among youth if not more popular um you know we'll likely seen the Olympics mixed feelings about that but um but it that's we're here to stay that's how I feel about it and I feel like that is starting to spread that idea and that popularity is starting to spread globally as well thank you I think you have a very layered question statement here we go yeah I just wanted to test the first layer it's hard with filming at schools and stuff was way easier just some years ago with greater popularity and greater exposure get more tickets than ever and it's hard human nature is what it is you treat someone badly or like a criminal then they act accordingly and there is that there is that dynamic and it just turbulence makes things cloudy sometimes in one sense I can look at the earlier eras and if you seem Dogtown and a lot of a lot of the older dudes they you don't want to be them you know in terms of where they're gone skateboarding is now drawing in more kids that see it as as wholesome in a they're wholesome kids to begin with and they're treated better and they act accordingly and it's cleaner but then the harassment sometimes I do call it house but sometimes you know skaters got it coming I get that I get that so it's it's it's it's layered and it's hard but with the greater popularity of it it's it's they're more tickets in some sense it's much harder to do things it's it's it's frustrating that's how I mentioned earlier the difference in perspective from politicians local politicians how they're much more accepting these days of skate parks and skateboarding their communities that's not always the case once in a while you find a community or our particular politician or mayor who's just dead set against that they have their idea of what they did in 1950 as a kid and that's what kids want to do today and that's what they want to do in their cities and it really frustrates the the local parents and the local skate park advocates and the skaters obviously and I just tell them you know the skate park that you want to build bringing skateboarding into your community in a real formal way it's inevitable it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when and the one thing you have going for you is your passion and your commitment to it and one thing they have against them are tournament term limits so it's just it's it's just a matter of time it's a matter of time I think first of all I just wanted to say thanks for what you given me and people here and so many others and my question I think was a little bit too similar to the last question so I'll maybe take it a little bit different direction last time I saw you guys up this close was 1986 at the Sunshine House in Bethesda Maryland and and as as a lot of people have alluded to it was it was kind of bad news to be a skateboarder back then and I remember when I first wanted a skateboard my orthopedist granddad went nuts you know he was completely against it and the famous Santa Cruz bumper sticker skateboarding is not a crime that was you know a big deal and I guess if you guys could comment a little bit more on what it was like to have that be such a theme and then when you knew maybe that that was no longer such a factor and when the acceptance kind of became obvious uh well I think it's different levels of acceptance you know definitely in the 80s we did not get the level acceptance we have now obviously it was still considered this sort of outcast sport even though it was popular it was more of an underground alternative movement um aha I can't I don't know what the tipping point has been in recent years but for me it was around 1999-2000 when our first video game was released and things went crazy and I started getting invited to do talk shows and encouraged to go skate places that I would absolutely get arrested for in the past um so for me it was around around those years for sure when I started getting to do stuff that was just like beyond anything I could ever imagined being on The Simpsons stuff like that well I will say me and all my buddies went to go see police academy just cuz y'all were in it yeah thank you a friend of mine knows Matt Groening I got to have dinner with him from The Simpsons and he yeah but he was so one of the things he talked about like Tony Hawk he was the coolest guy he was so honored that you were there oh that was so fun that was one of the funnest things ever never mind Mickey let me interject just real quick on we're nearing the point of the conclusion of the program we're going to take a few more questions I say that with great sensitivity because anytime that we close this session it's going to be too short and I realize that you're just time we're going to go for a few more minutes and I'm gonna have to close it out so Jeff we just ordered all the beer and pizza nevermind hi it's a real privilege to be here addressing you too and you Nikki I just didn't know you I didn't know you can call me Lance really it's starting you know we're here at the Lemelson Center for the study of invention and innovation and what's really struck me watching that movie was the incredible inventiveness and constant innovation of the way you kind of took this tool in a way and used it to create something new all the time and Rodney you said something in in the movie I'm looking at my facebook post so I can remember it in court appropriately he said belief is at the heart of everything and then a little bit later you said joy is what comes out of you and what struck me is that but I but I'm asking I guess your opinions on this what is it that created that joy of inventiveness for each of you nothing just because it was funny it's like anything the more you do something and the better you're able to do it okay I can do that and you start to add them together and that becomes a connecting the dots or clear representation of this is who I am and as that unfolds it's two fault and it is synergistic and one is pushing the other like a motor you know it truly is it's always that that as you express yourself you feel greater joy like I'm empowered to do that look at what I did and no one else did that and that creates something and then then you have the pieces more pieces to work with and in itself that feeds you in recognizing that that's a joy of accomplishment Wow I did that and then you push further and higher but articulating who you are and also in a sense a kind of pride of look at what we have in that since it's open source and so when you do something that becomes part of your identity I think what fuels innovation is when it's so incorporated ingrained into who you are doesn't take great minds necessarily it's someone who feels it so much it's all they think about it's always part of them and things that's naturally flow they don't know they're inventing they're just being you know so that's at the heart of what I said yeah what he said really yeah well I mean okay to be honest I can't I just know I'm gonna speak it more eloquently in the Mirani but for me the absolute joy of for me the absolute joy of skating was doing something that I've never done before whether it be no one's done it before or someone else has created it and I didn't know if I was capable of it but I wanted to see if I could do it um that's that's the buzz that's the high and even to this day I mean you know I want to go out and learn noob stuff like I just learned good buddies the other day which is a totally old 80s trick but I never tried it and Kevin Stav was trying it so he and I learned it together in our 40s so the N I was type but I was there that's that's the by looks that's the it's it's the buzz you keep chasing and and and to master things like that is is amazing that you you know you love it so much you're willing to repeatedly do it until it's almost boring but suddenly you realize you have it mastered and that's amazing to know that you have that in your arsenal you can just go out and do it wherever and it's you know with all that with all that practice that just seems routine it's not it really is moving towards something greater hi Tony Rodney Mickey um my question is for Tony and Rodney two parts back in the day when we were all skateboarding Tony what was your favorite skatepark to skate at besides your home park did you have a favorite and why um my favorite just in terms of terrain was Big O because it had a little bit of everything and it had that channel that was so the you know well it wasn't that huge that's what I loved about it is that it was accessible to me as an amateur I could actually jump over this channel and and every other channel you know Channel when we talked about it was like are like gaps in the rent in the bowl you could open in the bowl you could jump over well the bigger ones were just seemed unattainable to me but Big O had one that I could do and so and it also had different terrains so I loved it a lot but but I loved the vibe at Whittier the most because Whittier had the coolest crew Lance Jones Cerro Jeff Grasso Lester it just that place was full of super creative energy so we used to go up there as much as we could actually we went there the last day it was open it was one of the few skate parks at that time where just about everything in the park was actually built well and all the pools had Thailand coping which was like you know very premium at the time and you could skate everything in the park and enjoy it instead of like oh this park with ten runs has two good things you know which was difficult back then and second ups are the second part of the questions for Rodney I know that you used to skate at Hermosa pier with Steve Rocco and I remember you watch watching you learning trick after trick was that one of your favorite places when you were in California to practice or were there other places that you were going as well that you really enjoyed where you get creative thank you and that last little bit you tacked on it changes the complexion that was fun because it's beautiful appear awesome you know everything you think of California is it is that there oh it's where we had lunch you know mm-hmm but the place for me that's most creative usually it's a it's like you get comfortable in places that make you uncomfortable and that's conducive to doing something new and so I it's always that place just on the other side of the freeway that's a little dark and dank you know and that's where I go and and I love that because you feel like this little mission type of thing and that's where new things always come and that's what makes it my favorite always can I tell sorry about Westwood room Stacy sticks to Westwood whenever we would be whenever we'd be staying at Stacy's I know it's all on there but whenever we go to an event stay at Stacy's house the night before a contest he would take us out to eat pasta that was his big thing like we're gonna go get you guys energy carbohydrates pasta all right but he would always take us to Westwood in LA and Westwood was like the I don't know how to explain it you know was sort of the touristy hot spot touristy just you know the nightlife buzzing street performers you know this just it's crowded as hell and we went there he parked pretty far so we skated to this Italian restaurant in Westwood and then on the way back Rodney starts skating on a corner just skating and doing all this crazy stuff that he does so well and and people started crowding around thinking he was a street performer and they started throwing money I'm not even kidding they started throwing money at him and this other street performer came from up the block like a block away stopped what he was doing came over and started chewing rotting out like you don't come on my block and without prior permission and start doing this stuff and taking my crowd away and yelling at him and he made him stop damn you for speeding well and he got like 50 bucks right first time I was in New York I was straight off the farm such an idiot you know I was like 16 SEP 16 and I go out at night skating his same deal just rolling around and how people are gathering New York and I don't know it felt good and breakdancers down the street they came around me and this one guy took off his hat he was like I'll give up for the matter he starts cruising around collect all this money and then he just walked off time for more okay I'm gonna be really sorry I'm gonna put a lot of pressure on you I'm going to ask you to ask the final question for this evening and my apologies to those make it a good one it's at the Bangor end of the video ready please see the hammer you guys are saying Joey that's actually my name we're but it's a great name it's a great name rap battle alright this is I'm gonna be honest I was kind of nervous to get up in front of a bunch of skateboarders and admit that I'm a roller blader personally but okay I expected that I expected that alright I expected it but I will say I have nothing but love and appreciation for what all of you guys do what you guys do almost my best friends are skateboarders I mean I grew up playing Tony Hawk pro skater and watching his skateboarding videos I tried to be escaped where I stuck I just happened to be good at rollerblading you know but I've seen what from that video and you know just from skateboarding in general what you guys went through when it was when you guys were ridiculed and you were looked at like I am when I go to skate park for skateboarders because I've actually been booed out of skate parks and not letting the skate parks um I have I just want to know you know I have pro skater friends that make like a thousand dollars a year skating but they're like the best skaters in the world they have no health insurance they risk their lives every day and it's a beautiful sport just no one sees it because it hasn't been on TV for 13 years and I just want to know what your advice is to people like me that dreamed of you know becoming a pro skater and living my life that way being paid for it and what you think it would take for rollerblading to get back into the limelight and you know appreciated by people that think it's a joke pretty much you know because it's it's a big problem with us it's so underground it sucks um well it was popular yeah for sure and to be honest to be honest I think rollerblading because I was a special guest at rollerblade demos in the early 90s and that paid my rent like for three or four years for real I was like I was like the one special guest skateboarder at these big rollerblade events and I'll say I was hyped I got to go skip vert and get 100 bucks but um I I don't I don't really have the answer to that I think that if you really love doing it you just got to keep doing it and not listen to the haters that's the word living examples of that you know we had if we were listening to people mostly people that told us we suck or that we were doing something useless than we would have quit a long time ago so you just gotta you get a stay true and you got to keep doing what you love and at some point if you get any amount of success you don't even think about it because you still getting to do what you love for living you know we do this now we do something that we would do for we get do we do something that we get paid ridiculous amounts of money to do that we would do for free anyway and that's how you have to view it it's because no matter what you're still going to keep doing what you love doing for a living so just keep if you love it keep at it you know who cares people are dicks I appreciate that man okay we're going to take it this last question I got here thanks everybody paid me $20 skateboarding is my heart and soul but I do get down a little bit of street hockey every now and then so we're cool um two questions regarding the evolution of skateboarding I ride for a charity group called the DC wheels with a lot of great men and women a lot of great men and women in this room right now part of the team founded by Jimmy Pelletier and I experienced no one no one on this planet has shown me more than Jimmy Peltier that skateboarding truly saves lives and I wanted to ask you guys if you ever thought it would get to that point where it is so many people on this planet their lives are being saved because of because of a skateboard it's amazing and my second question which isn't as deep but uh Rodney when you did your first kickflip when you saw that grip tape come back around for the first time did you think someone was going to be doing that into a back Smith down a 20 seer handrail in the first capelet with an accident by the way that's awesome I'm sorry with the first question seen world statement but to say that again about all the people did you think it would get too low did you think so many people's lives would be change like in such a positive way from skateboarding you know I I I have mixed feelings about that because when people ask me did you ever think it could be this big or this popular and in my heart when I was growing up I could never figure out why people didn't like it you know what I mean it wasn't like I was doing it to be rebellious I didn't really mind that it set me apart I mean I like that it made you individualistic and give you your own direction but at the same time I was like why do you think this is lame this is amazing you know this is this creative this is artistic it's athletic it's challenging um and so when it got big I was like yeah finally they figured it out you know what I mean and and it definitely like oh it saved me from from save me from myself because I was always so frustrated with with how I could perform doing with traditional sports I just didn't I would I wanted to do things but but I wasn't physically capable of them and I was able to figure that out in skateboarding how to maneuver how to really work around what was considered hardcore skating you know I learned how to ollie into my arrows because I didn't have the bulk or the speed to reach down and grab my board and muscle it up um and it was lame at the time you know Alling in tears I was like they said I was cheating yeah that way you can grab it any way you want you know but but in that um just in terms of how much it means to people on how they say it did save their life it saved mine as an early age you know I didn't I had no identity in the mainstream support in the mainstream world of kids and my age and so it did for sure and when it finally came to be that it was recognized on a bigger scale it it allowed that many more kids to find themselves and I'm proud that we had something to do with that thank you it definitely changed my life I was just going to add quickly to that node is that's the community itself is so rich let me say from just a perspective of experience that through the years having companies you go on tour every summer with guys a lot of guys that you have very little in common with in general you know guys from different walks of life and for sure guys I would be afraid of normally and you're in a van together you travel and you have this mutual respect and the bonds that we create there's a mutual recognition of what this thing is different as we are saving lives is a very strong statement but giving us enough meaning or sense of meaning well we feel a sense of how valuable our lives are and there's a thickness this sort of a blood that runs through it it's it's kind of an amalgam it binds us together in a way that I think that a lot of sports don't normally get or call the sport collar or whatever it is it is also we have such a treasure of a community and it comes from that very what you're talking about the essence of that I also want to say the first video part I ever saw was your ender and opinion and I I immediately went outside and started learning Primo's and truck stands hand stands before I could even Ollie so thank you for that there'll be a lot more discussion about it tomorrow but to really see how far skateboarding has come and how deeply it's penetrated the lives of youth around the world I urge you to google Uganda skateboard Union and skater stand okay I'm sorry to do it we're going to call a temporary halt to the conversation I do mean that temporarily because we're going to begin it again tomorrow morning all right this has been an incredible launch the intestate event in tomorrow at 10:30 we're going to go right out in front of the museum on the national ball with the skate ramp and we're going to accept the donations of the skate community into the National Museum of American history please join us at that time for the rest of the day we will begin and continue these conversations we're going to have sessions and discussions looking at the role of invention innovation in skateboarding and intermix with that going to have demonstrations and skate session so please come out and join us thank you for being part of this evenings event this was an incredible launch and once again let us all thank Mickey Tony and Rodney for making it such a special conversation

Channel: LemelsonCenter

Views: 84,300

Rating: 4.9021583 out of 5

Keywords: Rodney Mullen (Skateboarder), Tony Hawk (Author), tony hawk (skateboarder)

Id: NgyrI6RTBKk

Length: 52min 41sec (3161 seconds)

Published: Thu May 15 2014