As a founding member of the Bones Brigade team, Mullen demonstrated an originality and creativity that remains unmatched. His specialty wasn’t vertical. His moves were not “bionic,” skaters’ parlance for powerful high-flying tricks. Instead, they were what’s known as freestyle — controlled, precise, performed on flat ground and, in his case, virtually impossible to duplicate.
He mastered most of the moves in solitude, living in rural Florida, but he faced stiff opposition from his father. “He thought I’d get hurt and never get good, and the culture was bums, and I’d turn into one,” Mullen said.
He won 34 of the 35 contests he entered as a pro, turning the skateboard into a three-dimensional object by riding every part of it. Appropriately, he’s known as the “Father of Street Skating.” In 1981, “Mutt” created a trick known as the Flatground Ollie — the rider slamming the board’s tail onto the concrete to get it to “pop,” with all four wheels leaving the pavement from the impact. Today, it’s the most important element in skating, the first trick that any young skater seeks to master. Additionally, he invented the Kick-Flip, the Heel-Flip, the Impossible (aptly named), the 360-Flip, Ollie Nosebone, Ollie Airwalk, Casper Slide and many, many, many more.
