WEBVTT 00:00:00.208 --> 00:00:05.346 (Music) 00:00:20.346 --> 00:00:25.731 (Music) 00:00:59.917 --> 00:01:02.649 (Music ends) 00:01:06.980 --> 00:01:12.633 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:12.657 --> 00:01:14.599 So, that's what I've done with my life. 00:01:14.623 --> 00:01:16.081 (Laughter) 00:01:16.105 --> 00:01:18.713 (Applause) 00:01:18.737 --> 00:01:19.890 Thank you. 00:01:19.914 --> 00:01:24.112 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:25.312 --> 00:01:27.809 As a kid, I grew up on a farm in Florida, 00:01:27.833 --> 00:01:29.764 and I did what most little kids do. 00:01:29.788 --> 00:01:33.500 I played a little baseball, did a few other things like that, 00:01:33.524 --> 00:01:35.810 but I always had the sense of being an outsider, 00:01:35.834 --> 00:01:38.675 and it wasn't until I saw pictures in the magazines 00:01:38.699 --> 00:01:40.952 that a couple other guys skate, I thought, 00:01:40.976 --> 00:01:42.496 "Wow, that's for me," you know? 00:01:42.520 --> 00:01:45.120 Because there was no coach standing directly over you, 00:01:45.144 --> 00:01:47.400 and these guys, they were just being themselves. 00:01:47.424 --> 00:01:49.646 There was no opponent directly across from you. 00:01:49.670 --> 00:01:52.938 And I loved that sense, so I started skating 00:01:52.962 --> 00:01:56.211 when I was about 10 years old, in 1977, 00:01:56.235 --> 00:01:59.356 and when I did, I picked it up pretty quickly. 00:01:59.380 --> 00:02:02.909 In fact, here's some footage from about 1984. 00:02:02.933 --> 00:02:08.052 It wasn't until 79 I won my first amateur championship, 00:02:08.076 --> 00:02:12.853 and then, by 81, I was 14, and I won my first world championship, 00:02:14.222 --> 00:02:16.390 which was amazing to me, 00:02:16.414 --> 00:02:19.479 and in a very real sense, that was the first real victory I had. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:19.503 --> 00:02:20.668 Oh, watch this. 00:02:20.692 --> 00:02:23.227 This is a Casper slide, where the board's upside down. 00:02:23.251 --> 00:02:24.839 Mental note on that one. 00:02:24.863 --> 00:02:26.323 (Laughter) 00:02:26.347 --> 00:02:27.827 And this one here? 00:02:27.851 --> 00:02:29.639 An Ollie. 00:02:30.700 --> 00:02:34.875 So, as she mentioned, that is overstated for sure, 00:02:34.899 --> 00:02:38.763 but that's why they called me the godfather of modern street skating. 00:02:39.197 --> 00:02:41.118 Here's some images of that. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:46.041 --> 00:02:49.048 Now, I was about halfway through my pro career 00:02:49.072 --> 00:02:52.415 in, I would say, the mid-'80s. 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:56.171 Freestyle itself -- we developed all these flat ground tricks, as you saw, 00:02:56.195 --> 00:02:59.454 but there was evolving a new kind of skateboarding, 00:02:59.478 --> 00:03:04.298 where guys were taking it to the streets, and they were using that Ollie, 00:03:04.322 --> 00:03:05.706 like I showed you. 00:03:05.730 --> 00:03:09.053 They were using it to get up onto stuff like bleachers and handrails 00:03:09.077 --> 00:03:11.881 and over stairwells and all kinds of cool stuff. 00:03:11.905 --> 00:03:14.154 So it was evolving upwards. 00:03:14.178 --> 00:03:16.886 In fact, when someone tells you they're a skater today, 00:03:16.910 --> 00:03:18.881 they pretty much mean a street skater, 00:03:18.905 --> 00:03:22.191 because freestyle, it took about five years for it to die, 00:03:22.215 --> 00:03:28.270 and at that stage, I'd been a "champion" champion for 11 years, which -- 00:03:28.294 --> 00:03:29.736 Phew! 00:03:29.760 --> 00:03:33.309 And suddenly, it was over for me, that's it -- it was gone. 00:03:33.333 --> 00:03:35.797 They took my pro model off the shelf, 00:03:35.821 --> 00:03:38.633 which was essentially pronouncing you dead, publicly. 00:03:38.657 --> 00:03:40.620 That's how you make your money, you know? 00:03:40.644 --> 00:03:43.940 You have a signature board and wheels and shoes and clothes. 00:03:43.964 --> 00:03:45.995 I had all that stuff, and it's gone. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:47.051 --> 00:03:50.464 The crazy thing was, there was a really liberating sense about it, 00:03:50.488 --> 00:03:55.074 because I no longer had to protect my record as a champion. 00:03:55.098 --> 00:03:56.278 "Champion," again. 00:03:56.302 --> 00:03:58.853 Champion sounds so goofy, but it's what it was, right? 00:03:58.877 --> 00:04:02.479 What drew me to skateboarding, the freedom, 00:04:02.503 --> 00:04:05.054 was now restored, where I could just create things, 00:04:05.078 --> 00:04:07.930 because that's where the joy was for me, always, 00:04:07.954 --> 00:04:10.124 was creating new stuff. 00:04:10.148 --> 00:04:13.679 The other thing that I had was a deep well of tricks to draw from 00:04:13.703 --> 00:04:15.932 that were rooted in these flat ground tricks. 00:04:15.956 --> 00:04:18.954 Stuff the normal guys were doing was very much different. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:18.978 --> 00:04:20.808 So, as humbling and rotten as it was — 00:04:20.832 --> 00:04:22.540 And believe me, it was rotten. 00:04:22.564 --> 00:04:26.902 I would go to skate spots, and I was already "famous guy," right? 00:04:26.926 --> 00:04:28.738 And everyone thought I was good, 00:04:28.762 --> 00:04:31.056 but in this new terrain, I was horrible. 00:04:31.080 --> 00:04:34.897 So people would go, "Oh, what happened to Mullen?" 00:04:35.382 --> 00:04:37.221 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:04:37.245 --> 00:04:39.885 So, humbling as it was, I began again. 00:04:39.909 --> 00:04:44.356 Here are some tricks that I started to bring to that new terrain. 00:04:44.380 --> 00:04:48.989 And again, there's this undergirding layer of influence of freestyle -- 00:04:49.013 --> 00:04:50.779 Oh, that one? 00:04:50.803 --> 00:04:53.587 That's, like, the hardest thing I've ever done. 00:04:54.376 --> 00:04:56.087 OK, look at that, it's a Darkslide. 00:04:56.111 --> 00:04:57.951 See how it's sliding on the backside? 00:04:59.332 --> 00:05:02.176 Those are super fun, and, actually, not that hard. 00:05:02.200 --> 00:05:04.792 You know, at the very root of that, see, Caspers, 00:05:04.816 --> 00:05:06.385 see how you throw it? 00:05:07.512 --> 00:05:09.991 Simple as that, right? No biggie. 00:05:10.015 --> 00:05:13.483 And your front foot, the way it grabs it -- 00:05:14.761 --> 00:05:17.528 I'd seen someone slide on the back of the board like that, 00:05:17.552 --> 00:05:19.474 and I was like, "How can I get it over?" 00:05:19.498 --> 00:05:21.204 Because that had not yet been done. 00:05:21.228 --> 00:05:24.111 And then it dawned on me, and here's part of what I'm saying. 00:05:24.135 --> 00:05:26.328 I had an infrastructure. I had this deep layer, 00:05:26.352 --> 00:05:28.780 where it was like, oh my gosh, it's just your foot. 00:05:28.804 --> 00:05:30.876 It's just the way you throw your board over. 00:05:30.900 --> 00:05:33.160 Just let the ledge do that, and it's easy, 00:05:33.184 --> 00:05:35.584 and the next thing you know, there's 20 more tricks 00:05:35.608 --> 00:05:37.096 based out of the variations. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:39.753 So that's the kind of thing -- here, check this out, 00:05:39.777 --> 00:05:41.838 here's another way, and I won't overdo this. 00:05:41.862 --> 00:05:43.516 A little indulgent, I understand. 00:05:43.540 --> 00:05:45.552 There's something called a Primo slide. 00:05:47.642 --> 00:05:50.168 It is the funnest trick ever to do. 00:05:53.528 --> 00:05:54.845 It's like skimboarding. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:56.052 --> 00:05:58.961 And this one, look how it slides sideways, every which way? 00:05:58.985 --> 00:06:01.813 OK, so when you're skating, and you take a fall, 00:06:01.837 --> 00:06:04.914 the board slips that way or that way; it's kind of predictable. 00:06:04.938 --> 00:06:07.982 This? It goes every which way -- it's like a cartoon, the falls, 00:06:08.006 --> 00:06:10.094 and that's what I love the most about it. 00:06:10.118 --> 00:06:11.744 It's so much fun to do. 00:06:11.768 --> 00:06:15.029 In fact, when I started doing them, I remember, because I got hurt. 00:06:15.053 --> 00:06:16.840 I had to get a knee surgery, right? 00:06:16.864 --> 00:06:21.107 So there were a couple of weeks where I couldn't skate at all. 00:06:21.131 --> 00:06:24.017 It would give out on me, and I would watch the guys, 00:06:24.041 --> 00:06:26.950 I'd go to this warehouse where a lot of the guys were skating, 00:06:26.974 --> 00:06:28.294 my friends, and I was like, 00:06:28.318 --> 00:06:31.062 "I've got to do something new, I want to do something new. 00:06:31.086 --> 00:06:32.261 I want to start fresh." 00:06:32.285 --> 00:06:35.307 And so the night before my surgery, I'd watched, and I was like, 00:06:35.331 --> 00:06:36.679 "How am I going to do this?" 00:06:36.703 --> 00:06:38.533 So I ran up, and I jumped on my board, 00:06:38.557 --> 00:06:40.505 and I Cavemanned, and I flipped it down, 00:06:40.529 --> 00:06:43.424 and I remember thinking, I landed so light-footed, thinking, 00:06:43.448 --> 00:06:46.624 if my knee gives, they'll just have more work to do in the morning. 00:06:46.648 --> 00:06:47.819 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:47.843 --> 00:06:49.893 And so, when it was the crazy thing. 00:06:49.917 --> 00:06:52.633 I don't know how many of you guys have had surgery, but -- 00:06:52.657 --> 00:06:54.096 (Laughter) 00:06:54.120 --> 00:06:55.412 you are so helpless, right? 00:06:55.436 --> 00:06:58.262 You're on this gurney and you're watching the ceiling go by, 00:06:58.286 --> 00:06:59.667 every time, it's always that, 00:06:59.691 --> 00:07:03.029 and right when they're putting the mask on you before you go to sleep, 00:07:03.053 --> 00:07:06.227 all I was thinking is, "Man, when I wake up and I get better, 00:07:06.251 --> 00:07:08.736 the first thing I'm going to do is film that trick." 00:07:09.141 --> 00:07:13.558 And indeed I did, it was the very first thing I filmed, which was awesome. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:14.084 --> 00:07:17.980 I told you a little bit about the evolution of the tricks. 00:07:18.004 --> 00:07:19.845 Consider that content, in a sense. 00:07:20.234 --> 00:07:24.081 What we do as street skaters is, you have these tricks -- 00:07:24.105 --> 00:07:26.123 Say I'm working on Darkslides, or a Primo, 00:07:26.147 --> 00:07:28.030 that you guys know this stuff now. 00:07:28.054 --> 00:07:29.820 (Laughter) 00:07:29.844 --> 00:07:32.178 What you do is, you cruise around the same streets 00:07:32.202 --> 00:07:33.989 that you've seen a hundred times, 00:07:34.013 --> 00:07:36.782 but suddenly, because you already have something 00:07:36.806 --> 00:07:42.027 in this fixed domain of this target, it's like, what will match this trick? 00:07:42.051 --> 00:07:45.067 How can I expand, how can the context, 00:07:45.091 --> 00:07:48.144 how can the environment change the very nature of what I do? 00:07:48.168 --> 00:07:51.992 So you drive and drive and drive, and, actually I've got to admit, 00:07:52.016 --> 00:07:54.740 just because I was struggling with this because I'm here, 00:07:54.764 --> 00:07:57.249 but I'll just say it, is, I cannot tell you, 00:07:57.273 --> 00:07:59.018 not only to be here in front of you, 00:07:59.042 --> 00:08:01.568 but what a privilege it is to be at US campus, 00:08:01.592 --> 00:08:05.628 because I have been escorted off of this campus so many times. 00:08:05.652 --> 00:08:08.429 (Laughter) 00:08:08.453 --> 00:08:10.459 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:08:10.483 --> 00:08:16.313 So let me give you another example of how context shapes content. 00:08:16.337 --> 00:08:19.642 This is a place not that far from here, It's a rotten neighborhood. 00:08:19.666 --> 00:08:22.238 Your first consideration is, am I going to get beat up? 00:08:22.262 --> 00:08:24.715 You go out and -- See this wall? 00:08:24.739 --> 00:08:30.600 It's fairly mellow, and it's beckoning to do bank tricks, right? 00:08:30.624 --> 00:08:33.344 But there's this other aspect of it for wheelies, 00:08:33.368 --> 00:08:34.658 so check this out. 00:08:35.348 --> 00:08:36.858 There's a few tricks, again, 00:08:36.882 --> 00:08:39.283 how environment changes the nature of your tricks. 00:08:39.307 --> 00:08:42.009 Freestyle oriented, manual down -- wheelie down. 00:08:42.504 --> 00:08:45.578 Watch, this one? Oh, I love this, it's like surfing, this one, 00:08:45.602 --> 00:08:47.156 the way you catch it. 00:08:47.180 --> 00:08:50.330 This one, a little sketchy going backwards, 00:08:50.354 --> 00:08:51.541 and watch the back foot. 00:08:53.116 --> 00:08:54.267 Oops -- 00:08:54.291 --> 00:08:55.704 (Laughter) 00:08:55.728 --> 00:08:57.228 Mental note right there. 00:08:57.252 --> 00:08:58.850 Again, we'll get back to that. 00:08:58.874 --> 00:09:00.025 (Laughter) 00:09:00.049 --> 00:09:01.485 Here, back foot, back foot. 00:09:02.438 --> 00:09:03.611 OK, up there? 00:09:03.635 --> 00:09:04.944 That was called a 360 flip. 00:09:04.968 --> 00:09:07.701 Notice how the board flipped and spun this way, both axes. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:09.494 --> 00:09:14.029 And another example of how the context changed, 00:09:14.053 --> 00:09:18.047 and the creative process for me and for most skaters, 00:09:18.071 --> 00:09:21.293 is, you go, you get out of the car, you check for security, 00:09:21.317 --> 00:09:22.474 you check for stuff. 00:09:22.498 --> 00:09:23.693 (Laughter) 00:09:23.717 --> 00:09:26.188 It's funny, you get to know their rhythms, you know, 00:09:26.212 --> 00:09:27.835 the guys that cruise around -- 00:09:27.859 --> 00:09:29.229 (Laughter) 00:09:29.253 --> 00:09:31.348 Skateboarding is such a humbling thing, man. 00:09:31.372 --> 00:09:34.272 No matter how good you are, you've still got to deal with -- 00:09:34.296 --> 00:09:36.327 So you hit this wall, and when I hit it, 00:09:36.351 --> 00:09:38.619 the first thing you do is you fall forward, 00:09:38.643 --> 00:09:40.333 and I'm like, all right, all right. 00:09:40.357 --> 00:09:41.507 As you adjust ... 00:09:43.105 --> 00:09:45.440 you punch it up, and then when I would do that, 00:09:45.464 --> 00:09:47.446 it was throwing my shoulder this way ... 00:09:48.067 --> 00:09:52.925 which as I was doing it, I was like, "Oh wow, that's begging for a 360 flip," 00:09:52.949 --> 00:09:55.602 because that's how you load up for a 360 flip. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:55.928 --> 00:09:59.608 And so this is what I want to emphasize that, as you can imagine, 00:09:59.632 --> 00:10:03.210 all of these tricks are made of submovements, 00:10:03.234 --> 00:10:04.552 executive motor functions, 00:10:04.576 --> 00:10:07.614 more granular to the degree to which I can't quite tell you, 00:10:07.638 --> 00:10:08.994 but one thing I do know is, 00:10:09.018 --> 00:10:12.986 every trick is made of combining two or three or four or five movements. 00:10:13.010 --> 00:10:16.275 And so, as I'm going up, these things are floating around, 00:10:16.299 --> 00:10:19.034 and you have to sort of let the cognitive mind rest back, 00:10:19.058 --> 00:10:20.324 pull it back a little bit, 00:10:20.348 --> 00:10:22.779 and let your intuition go as you feel these things. 00:10:22.803 --> 00:10:25.310 And these submovements are kind of floating around, 00:10:25.334 --> 00:10:28.298 and as the wall hits you, they connect themselves to an extent, 00:10:28.322 --> 00:10:31.897 and that's when the cognitive mind: "Oh, 360 flip, I'm going to make that." 00:10:31.921 --> 00:10:34.426 So that's how that works to me, the creative process, 00:10:34.450 --> 00:10:36.338 the process itself, of street skating. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:36.362 --> 00:10:37.737 So, next -- Oh, mind you ... 00:10:37.761 --> 00:10:38.827 (Laughter) 00:10:38.851 --> 00:10:40.015 Those are the community. 00:10:40.039 --> 00:10:42.688 These are some of the best skaters in the world. 00:10:42.712 --> 00:10:45.835 These are my friends -- oh my gosh, they're such good people. 00:10:46.307 --> 00:10:48.815 And the beauty of skateboarding is that, 00:10:48.839 --> 00:10:50.803 no one guy is the best. 00:10:50.827 --> 00:10:54.199 In fact, I know this is rotten to say, they're my friends, 00:10:54.223 --> 00:10:57.699 but a couple of them actually don't look that comfortable on their board. 00:10:57.723 --> 00:11:02.739 What makes them great is the degree to which they use their skateboarding 00:11:02.763 --> 00:11:04.022 to individuate themselves. 00:11:04.046 --> 00:11:06.369 Every single one of these guys, you look at them, 00:11:06.393 --> 00:11:08.807 you can see a silhouette of them, and you realize, 00:11:08.831 --> 00:11:11.120 "Oh, that's him, that's Haslam, that's Koston, 00:11:11.144 --> 00:11:13.695 there's these guys, these are the guys." NOTE Paragraph 00:11:14.323 --> 00:11:18.377 And skaters, I think they tend to be outsiders 00:11:18.401 --> 00:11:21.742 who seek a sense of belonging, 00:11:21.766 --> 00:11:23.816 but belonging on their own terms. 00:11:24.704 --> 00:11:29.347 And real respect is given by how much we take what other guys do, 00:11:29.371 --> 00:11:34.267 these basic tricks, 360 flips, we take that, we make it our own, 00:11:34.291 --> 00:11:36.577 and then we contribute back to the community 00:11:36.601 --> 00:11:39.227 the inner way that edifies the community itself. 00:11:39.885 --> 00:11:42.095 The greater the contribution, 00:11:42.119 --> 00:11:45.198 the more we express and form our individuality, 00:11:46.372 --> 00:11:50.237 which is so important to a lot of us who feel like rejects to begin with. 00:11:50.699 --> 00:11:52.501 The summation of that 00:11:53.281 --> 00:11:56.366 gives us something we could never achieve as an individual. 00:11:57.784 --> 00:11:58.951 I should say this. 00:11:58.975 --> 00:12:00.849 There's some sort of beautiful symmetry 00:12:00.873 --> 00:12:03.680 that the degree to which we connect to a community 00:12:03.704 --> 00:12:06.325 is in proportion to our individuality, 00:12:06.349 --> 00:12:08.426 which we are expressing by what we do. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:09.322 --> 00:12:10.478 Next, 00:12:10.502 --> 00:12:14.900 these guys, very similar community that's extremely conducive to innovation. 00:12:14.924 --> 00:12:16.110 (Laughter) 00:12:16.134 --> 00:12:19.287 Notice a couple of these shots from the Police Department. 00:12:19.707 --> 00:12:22.481 But it is quite similar, I mean, what is it to hack, right? 00:12:22.505 --> 00:12:25.789 It's knowing a technology so well that you can manipulate it 00:12:25.813 --> 00:12:30.172 and steer it to do things it was never intended to do, right? 00:12:30.196 --> 00:12:31.531 And they're not all bad. 00:12:31.555 --> 00:12:35.625 You can be a Linux kernel hacker, make it more stable, right? 00:12:35.649 --> 00:12:36.887 More safe, more secure. 00:12:36.911 --> 00:12:38.841 You can be an iOS hacker, 00:12:38.865 --> 00:12:41.789 make your iPhone do stuff it wasn't supposed to. 00:12:42.159 --> 00:12:44.550 Not authorized, but not illegal. 00:12:44.574 --> 00:12:46.919 And then, you've got some of these guys, right? 00:12:46.943 --> 00:12:49.485 What they do is very similar to our creative process. 00:12:49.509 --> 00:12:52.205 They connect disparate information, 00:12:52.625 --> 00:12:58.096 and they bring it together in a way that a security analyst doesn't expect. 00:12:58.672 --> 00:13:00.362 It doesn't make them good people, 00:13:00.786 --> 00:13:03.078 but it's at the heart of engineering, 00:13:03.102 --> 00:13:07.632 at the heart of a creative community, an innovative community, 00:13:07.656 --> 00:13:10.521 and the open source community, the basic ethos of it 00:13:10.545 --> 00:13:14.053 is, take what other people do, make it better, 00:13:14.077 --> 00:13:16.241 give it back so we all rise further. 00:13:16.265 --> 00:13:18.654 Very similar communities, very similar. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:18.678 --> 00:13:20.669 We have our edgier sides, too. 00:13:20.693 --> 00:13:21.898 (Laughter) 00:13:21.922 --> 00:13:23.385 It's funny, my dad was right. 00:13:23.409 --> 00:13:24.789 These are my peers. 00:13:25.908 --> 00:13:28.492 But I respect what they do, and they respect what I do, 00:13:28.516 --> 00:13:31.265 because they can do things, it's amazing what they can do. 00:13:31.289 --> 00:13:32.921 In fact, one of them, 00:13:32.945 --> 00:13:37.144 he was Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year for San Diego County, 00:13:37.168 --> 00:13:40.228 so they're not -- you never know who you're dealing with. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:40.252 --> 00:13:43.734 We've all had some degree of fame. 00:13:43.758 --> 00:13:48.802 In fact, I've had so much success that I strangely always feel unworthy of. 00:13:48.826 --> 00:13:51.785 I've had a patent, and that was cool, and we started a company, 00:13:51.809 --> 00:13:53.931 and it grew, and it became the biggest, 00:13:53.955 --> 00:13:56.840 and then it went down, and then it became the biggest again, 00:13:56.864 --> 00:13:59.535 which is harder than the first time, and then we sold it, 00:13:59.559 --> 00:14:01.080 and then we sold it again. 00:14:01.104 --> 00:14:03.064 So I've had some success. 00:14:03.190 --> 00:14:05.667 And in the end, when you've had all of these things, 00:14:05.691 --> 00:14:07.555 what is it that continues to drive you? 00:14:07.579 --> 00:14:09.864 As I mentioned, the knee stuff and these things, 00:14:09.888 --> 00:14:11.454 what is it that will punch you? 00:14:11.478 --> 00:14:13.299 Because it's not just the mind. 00:14:13.323 --> 00:14:16.168 What is it that will punch you and make you do something 00:14:16.192 --> 00:14:19.210 and bring it to another level, and when you've had it all, 00:14:19.234 --> 00:14:22.879 sometimes, guys, they die on the vine with all of that talent, 00:14:23.492 --> 00:14:26.160 and one of the things we've had, all of us, is fame -- 00:14:26.184 --> 00:14:28.994 I think the best kind of fame, because you can take it off. 00:14:29.018 --> 00:14:31.064 I've been all around the world, 00:14:31.088 --> 00:14:33.708 and there will be a thousand kids crying out your name, 00:14:33.732 --> 00:14:35.780 and it's such a weird, visceral experience. 00:14:35.804 --> 00:14:37.411 It's like, it's disorienting. 00:14:37.435 --> 00:14:39.513 And you get in a car, and you drive away, 00:14:39.537 --> 00:14:42.407 and 10-minute drive, and you get out, 00:14:42.431 --> 00:14:44.242 and no one gives a rat's who you are. 00:14:44.266 --> 00:14:45.632 (Laughter) 00:14:45.656 --> 00:14:48.937 And it gives you that clarity of perspective of, man, I'm just me, 00:14:48.961 --> 00:14:51.671 and popularity, what does that really mean again? 00:14:51.695 --> 00:14:53.116 Not much. 00:14:53.140 --> 00:14:55.299 It's peer respect that drives us. 00:14:55.323 --> 00:14:57.644 That's the one thing that makes us do what we do. 00:14:57.668 --> 00:15:01.749 I've had over a dozen bones, this guy, over, eight, 10 concussions, 00:15:01.773 --> 00:15:04.293 to the point where it's comedy, right? 00:15:04.317 --> 00:15:07.048 It is actually comedy, they mess with him. 00:15:07.072 --> 00:15:08.500 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:15:08.650 --> 00:15:09.821 Next, 00:15:09.845 --> 00:15:12.417 and this is something deeper. 00:15:14.250 --> 00:15:17.762 I think I was on tour when I was reading one of the Feynman biographies. 00:15:17.786 --> 00:15:19.809 It was the red one or the blue one. 00:15:19.833 --> 00:15:23.515 And he made this statement that was so profound to me. 00:15:27.101 --> 00:15:31.190 It was that the Nobel Prize was the tombstone on all great work, 00:15:32.086 --> 00:15:35.921 and it resonated because I had won 35 out of 36 contests 00:15:35.945 --> 00:15:39.286 that I'd entered over 11 years, and it made me bananas. 00:15:39.310 --> 00:15:41.556 In fact, winning isn't the word, I won it once. 00:15:41.580 --> 00:15:43.632 The rest of the time, you're just defending, 00:15:43.656 --> 00:15:46.231 and you get into this, turtle posture, you know? 00:15:46.255 --> 00:15:49.365 Where you're not doing -- it usurped the joy of what I loved to do 00:15:49.389 --> 00:15:52.541 because I was no longer doing it to create and have fun, 00:15:52.565 --> 00:15:54.276 and when it died out from under me, 00:15:54.300 --> 00:15:56.356 that was one of the most liberating things, 00:15:56.380 --> 00:15:57.966 because I could create. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:57.990 --> 00:16:02.685 And look, I understand that I am on the very edge of preachy, here. 00:16:02.709 --> 00:16:03.873 I'm not here to do that. 00:16:03.897 --> 00:16:06.639 It's just that I'm in front of a very privileged audience. 00:16:06.663 --> 00:16:09.543 If you guys aren't already leaders in your community, 00:16:09.567 --> 00:16:12.635 you probably will be, and if there's anything I can give you 00:16:12.659 --> 00:16:15.839 that will transcend what I've gotten from skateboarding, 00:16:15.863 --> 00:16:18.885 the only things of meaning, I think, and of permanence, 00:16:18.909 --> 00:16:20.967 it's not fame, it's not all these things. 00:16:20.991 --> 00:16:24.902 What it is, is that there's an intrinsic value in creating something 00:16:24.926 --> 00:16:26.719 for the sake of creating it, 00:16:26.743 --> 00:16:30.914 and better than that, because I'm 46 years old, or I'll be 46, 00:16:30.938 --> 00:16:34.564 and how pathetic is that I'm still skateboarding, but there is -- 00:16:34.588 --> 00:16:40.411 there is this beauty in dropping it into a community of your own making, 00:16:40.727 --> 00:16:44.014 and seeing it dispersed, and seeing younger, more talented, 00:16:44.038 --> 00:16:47.279 just different talent, take it to levels you can never imagine, 00:16:47.303 --> 00:16:48.967 because that lives on. 00:16:48.991 --> 00:16:50.693 So thank you for your time. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:50.717 --> 00:16:57.717 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:17:00.616 --> 00:17:02.838 Kristina Holly: I have a question for you. 00:17:02.862 --> 00:17:06.610 (Applause) 00:17:06.634 --> 00:17:10.531 So you've really reinvented yourself in the past, from freestyle to street, 00:17:10.555 --> 00:17:13.840 and, I think it was about four years ago you officially retired. 00:17:13.864 --> 00:17:16.191 Is that it? What's next? NOTE Paragraph 00:17:17.150 --> 00:17:20.879 Rodney Mullen: That's a good question. KG: Something tells me it's not the end. NOTE Paragraph 00:17:20.903 --> 00:17:24.687 RM: Yeah. Every time you think you've chased something down, 00:17:24.711 --> 00:17:27.848 it's funny, no matter how good you are, and I know guys like this, 00:17:27.872 --> 00:17:30.238 it feels like you're polishing a turd, you know? 00:17:30.262 --> 00:17:33.468 (Laughter) 00:17:33.581 --> 00:17:36.028 And I thought, the only way I can extend this 00:17:36.052 --> 00:17:38.083 is to change something infrastructural. 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:42.118 And so that's what I proceeded to do, through a long story, 00:17:42.142 --> 00:17:46.403 one of desperation, so if I do it, rather than talk about it, 00:17:46.427 --> 00:17:48.370 if I do it, you'll be the first to know. 00:17:48.394 --> 00:17:51.396 KG: All right, we won't ask you any more. RM: You'll get a text. 00:17:51.420 --> 00:17:54.395 KG: Right, thank you, good job. RM: Thank you. Thank you. 00:17:54.419 --> 00:17:59.107 (Applause)