Manny Maniacs #5: Rodney Mullen

Rodney Mullen is an enigma wrapped in legendary status with skills that are incomprehensible. Including him with the manual masters is a must when you can combine casper slides (2:43 above) and primo slides (4:38 and 4:43) into your manual combos, not to mention darkslides (2:10) and even handstand finger flips into manuals as well (0:28). Before I was even born, Rodney came out with manual tricks in his timeless part in Virtual Reality that you still see guys doing today (starting around 2:24). I still don't even know if I've someone even front heel fakie manny even today, which goes to show you that Rodney's on an entire different level. Any round with Daewon is mindbendingly insane, but I think his part in Almost's Round 3 (shown above), being one of the first bits of skateboarding I'd ever witnessed, acts as the skateboarding Bible for me today.  Some tricks from this part are untouchable to this day. For manuals specifically, besides the ridiculousness mentioned above, his stationary one wheel manual spinning at 0:33 demonstrates Rodney's freestyle background and explains why he's able to do so much on a skateboard, and right before demolishing the banked manual spot with tricks on tricks on tricks he comes out with an impossible nose manual nose impossible out at 3:46 that to me is still one of the best "straightforward" manual tricks done to this day.
Since then, I have felt an everlasting craving of more Rodney footage (Almost, please tell me you weren't kidding when you said on 5-Incher that he has a part in the works) and was partially satisfied by a few clips in Globe's United By Fate.  After hearing from interviews that Rodney went through some tough physical issues and through his own willpower is legitimately attempting to get rid of any stance that he has, I was intrigued to say the least.  His tricks in the short segment from United By Fate exemplify his goal in that he does a nose manual nollie 360 shove to manual in both "stances"...and makes it look just like a mirrored image! Most skaters show some signs of their stance in their shoulder and foot positioning but Rodney genuinely does not with these two tricks, making me think that once again he is breaking boundaries in skateboarding that no one else would think of breaking.  And just for good measure, he throws in a *switch* kickflip one footed nose manual as well.