Impossible: Rodney Mullen, Ryan Sheckler, And The Fantastic History Of Skateboarding

by Cole Louison

The Impossible aims to get skateboarding right. Journalist Cole Louison gets inside the history, culture, and major personalities of skating.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Sports

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was once a skateboarder: from 1987 - 1989 I terrorized the streets of my Macon, GA neighborhood. I still have my Rainbow Gator board as a souvenir. But I broke my Caballero deck long ago.

This book describes the two primary figures in recent skateboarding - Rodney Mullen, who invented nearly every trick done today, and Ryan Sheckler, who's perfected nearly every trick done today. Tony Hawk is thrown in for good measure, and a number of other skaters show up a long the way. Louison describes the ebb and flow of skateboarding's popularity through the years and how it's changed in the last 10 years.

I bought this book as a vacation read and became so engrossed, I nearly finished it before even getting to my destination. It's a quick read, especially if you remember much of the history as I did. And I claim it's truly an interesting story. Rodney Mullen is an interesting character - essentially a skateboard monk, taking it to the edge purely for the joy of discovery.

The writing in the book is a little weak though. Sometimes, Louison sounds a little like a middle schooler who's unable to get his thoughts down on paper. He apologizes for having to talk about "uncool" stuff like wheel and board technology. And has an annoying of telling the reader he's going to talk about something before talking about it. Just talk about it, for god's sake.

Nonetheless, worth a read.

[kc]

i was lamenting how there are no women skateboarders in this version of history until the writer started introducing some women characters on the periphery … and boy am i glad he’s not writing women skaters. (there’s a sentence that he writes his editor told him to cut, and i really wish he had.)

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up because someone close to me is a life long Rodney Mullen fan and I wanted to be able to hold conversation better. I found Impossible to be compelling sports journalism with really excellent prose and evocative imagery.

The book accomplished being both a detailed dual biography and an extensive social/economic history of skating. I liked how while keeping the focus on Sheckler and Mullen the author followed figures like Steve Rocco because of how much they were involved with different eras of skating. Some additional figures like Shaun White felt like they were less important to the rest of the book and were only included because the author had some journalistic experience with them but whatever, I learned a thing or two. I understand that the thorough detail the author went into when describing the mechanics behind tricks has mixed reviews but as a non-skater I appreciated having it all spelled out.

I also learned one of my favorite musicians is Tony Hawk's son. Go figure.

[Jisiaha · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the non-fiction book The Impossible by Cole Louison, Louison attempts to bring light to the careers of both Rodney Mullen and Ryan Sheckler while also describing the evolution of skateboarding as a sport. In the beginning of the book Louison describes how skateboarding originated and vastly began to expand.
In the first chapters, Cole describes one of skating's first brands, Makaha. The author talks about the quality of baords as well as the reatailed prices. As time went on different brands began to make their boards out of stronger materials, they were often made of wood and metal as opposed to just wood. With this change came an increase in prices, boards began to retail from about $100-$130.
Rodney Mullen was one of the first ever to perform any sort of trick, inventing tricks such as the ollie, kickflip, 360 flip and many others. This book informs the reader about the childhoods and careers of both Rodney Mullen and Ryan Sheckler, Lousion talks about Ryan’s first professional contest, when he was just 13 years old.
In the book Sheckler shares some of his throughts during some of the most important moments in his career. I would only recommend this book to others skateboarders due to the fact that I think they would be very confused about who the people are and what is going on in the book. However if you have any basic skateboarding knowledge I would reccomend that you read The Impossible.
If this book included images, diagrams it would be much easier to follow and it would be much more interesting. However, despite its lack of visuals, the book gives the ultimate insider experience that you do not get while just skateboarding. As a skateboarder, I am now better informed.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a good read. Im not a huge fan of the in depth descriptions of tricks. I think thats because I was once able to do a lot of them and don't need each movement described. Theres a lot of interesting information that I didnt know about the many rises and falls of skate popularity. If you like to skate or are just interested in the culture its worth a read.

[Shaun Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read, however skateboarding does have a history outside of America! Why was there no mention of any world class skaters from Australia or the UK? Tas Pappas was as close to landing the 900 as Tony Hawk was but wasn't allowed to compete in the best trick at 1999 xgames. Very important fact in the history of skateboarding - not mentioned in this book - why??

[GnosticShockmaster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look into the skater culture, though there are a few too many page long descriptions of tricks which are a bit hard to follow for someone who has litte or no knowledge of skating or who ( like me ) has been out of the scene for a decade.

[Seraveza · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chapters 1-16 can be skipped if you’ve read “The Mutt” by Rodney Mullen. The chapters on Sheckler were ok. Felt like the writer reallllllly liked Schecks’s “golden hair, hazel eyes & tan bod”. 🤷🏼‍♀️