I just flew through the Rodney Mullen Autobiography this weekend. Simply put it was a very good book. Just when I think I know a lot about the skateboard industry I get schooled. But besides a cool history lesson on how the outcasted major pros of freestyle skateboarding in the 80’s are now multi-millionaire industry owners, you get to meet the real Rodney Mullen. Through his transparent stories of his upbringing and personal struggles you really get a feel for who Rodney is as a person as well as an insight into the intellect that is most responsible for shaping the discipline that became today’s street skateboarding. Hearing about the way Rodney thinks and approaches skating is really, really interesting and inspiring. Needless to say I would recommend the book. 

One cool thing I learned from the book was how Steve Rocco and Rodney were the original investors in World Industries. But the name “World Industries” was sort of a necessary change of name that was forced upon them. Turns out Rocco was borrowing the name SMA (Santa Monica Airlines) from a SMA employee and made his own branch of SMA called the “Rocco Division”. It became a totally separate company and SMA was no too keen on them using the name. Steve and Rodney eventually started putting “World Industries” under “SMA” and then the “SMA” part slowly was removed with more and more legal pressure. Long story short, that knowledge brought new meaning to this Rocco SMA deck that I acquired many years ago but no longer have. Turns out this is one of the first decks on Steve and Rodney’s SMA side project. Although I wish I still had the deck, the price it fetched on eBay helped me buy an engagement ring for my now wife. I forget the collector I sold it to, but I think it’s in a good home.