And the style that he has just puts it over the top. There are tons of skaters now who grew up attempting to directly copy his repertoire, but when they get to the more difficult flip tricks to manuals and chains he puts together they are lucky if they can land it much less make it look that good. That much physical talent and equal creativity are an extremely rare combination.

I recommend checking out his autobiography, he's led an interesting life.

I'm not sure if any professional athlete has ever dominated a sport like Rodney dominated freestyle skateboarding. At the height of his dominance when he'd show up at a competition it was never a question of who would win, it was a question of who would come in 2nd place behind Rodney.

Yeah, I haven't seen anyone do a darkside other than him yet.

Wes Kramer, this years skater of the year, was the first to do it...pretty stylishly too: http://youtu.be/PIY-qD8rUmw?t=4m27s

Mullen could pull it off on command, with a casper slide to top it off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcjN5LhYmdE#t=259