Bones Brigade

I remember, I was super thin, and I was falling apart in school, ’cause I really didn’t care anymore, and I remember he [dad] couldn’t do anything about it. It wasn’t acting out … you don’t do that in the house, you don’t do that … but the thing is, is I was withered in a way you could not control. And I was spinning. I remember the teachers and stuff … going to counseling, and they were like “we dont’ know what’s wrong. Something is wrong at home … eat.”

My dad is not some evil man – he was trying to do the best he could for what he had, with what he had, with me. But those are those formative years, teenager, when things start to hurt, in a different way. When I found skateboarding, it was the first thing I loved. I mean, I loved it. And it being pulled away from me, hardened something inside of me … where nothing mattered.

…

Everything I am today somehow, is probably fed by my need for acceptance. With my dad that’s not necessarily the acceptance sons are hoping for, you know … of it’s good you did this but do you get the point you are dominating something that really doesn’t matter? Apply yourself to something meaningful. But because of Tony [Hawk] and [Steve] Caballero and these guys, that gave me a sense of acceptance and belonging that was reciprocated and bounced back and churned in synergistic way.

And that’s what created the Bones Brigade.

–Rodney Mullen
Bones Brigade: An Autobiography (Netflix)