by Tony Hawk
There were other things I wanted to do now that I was making a decent income. I asked Erin to marry me on the empty lot where we planned to have a new house built. She said yes.
HURTS TO WALK
While Erin made wedding plans, I skated in contests around the United States. I slammed hard at a contest in Seal Beach and sprained my ankle worse than I ever had before. But I couldn’t take the time off to let it heal, because the Birdhouse Tour was scheduled to start in a couple of weeks. I used an expensive ankle brace, which had springs and metal bars in it to support my ankle, and skated anyway. Two weeks into the tour I sprained my other ankle just as badly. The first one still hadn’t healed. It hurt to walk, and my ankles puffed up like marshmallows and turned a dark shade of purple.
I took pain medicine and iced my ankles whenever I wasn’t skating. But after a week of constant pain, I was feeling awful. I didn’t want to let any fans down, so I kept going. After six weeks of skating with ankle pain, I was totally stressed out. I was in my late twenties and somebody or something was telling me that I was too old for this. I debated for the last week of the tour whether I should step back and just skate whenever I felt like it, instead of filling my life up with demos and contests.
Courtesy of Tony Hawk.
I took a few weeks off from skating after the tour ended. It was the end of summer, and the break relieved some of the pressures of touring. Erin and I were married that September and had a honeymoon in Hawaii, which gave me more time to repair. I felt good. I had a wife, a son, and a private ramp. After years of an uncertain lifestyle, I finally felt secure.
MADE-FOR-TV DRAMA
By 1997, the third year of the X Games (they changed their name—good move), things took a weird twist. ESPN was reporting a rivalry between Andy Macdonald and me (we had each won an earlier X Games). This couldn’t have been further from the truth, because Andy and I were good friends. We even skated together in doubles events. But to the millions of people watching TV, it looked like we were two gunslingers about to shoot it out on the X Games vert ramp. Both Andy and I were upset about it, and in every interview we did we explained that skating wasn’t a sport where you had to beat somebody else. It was about having fun and outperforming yourself.
My second run of the finals was my best run in a long time, and I decided I couldn’t do any better. I started to try 900s for the rest of my ramp time. (I had been trying to land a 9 for more than a decade but took a break when I broke a rib.) I didn’t come close to landing one that year, but at least I was trying.
I won the contest but was bummed with all the reporters who asked me about “my perfect run,” as an ESPN commentator called it. I’ve had many contest runs that I thought were better. Now it’s known as a legendary run because some ESPN announcer made an exaggerated comment.
That year Birdhouse did really well, and we could afford to rent an RV when we toured. We could actually lie down and sleep. No more stinky, cheap vans packed with skaters. Erin, Riley, and I moved into our new home. It was a good thing, too, because we were about to have an addition to the Hawk family.
Copyright © J. Grant Brittain.
24: THE END
Inspired by Stacy Peralta, I had always wanted to make a skateboard video that would be watched for years to come. Most videos at the time were shot with digital cameras, but we started shooting The End in 1998 with film, which is much more expensive and complicated to shoot with. By the time we were finished, the video cost about ten times what it cost to produce the average skate video. But it was worth it.
One of the reasons we called it The End was that I figured it would be the last time I’d put a lot of effort into my video part. I figured by age thirty (I was twenty-nine at the time) I wasn’t going to be able to withstand the abuse I had when I was younger. No pro skater had been successfully competitive past thirty.
Every skater on Birdhouse was in charge of his own part and was given the freedom to create a theme. Jeremy Klein and Heath Kirchart hired a stuntman to roll a fiery van and skated around explosions and fire. Andrew Reynolds hired an orangutan. I built a dream ramp with a loop in a Mexican bullring.
I had always wanted to ride through a loop, inspired by the Hot Wheels track I had played with as a kid. I didn’t know of anybody else ever landing it. I had tried it once before for an ad but lost control when I’d exited the loop, and wiped out onto my back. Back then, I had designed the loop poorly. For the video, I figured out how to build one that would make it easier to complete. Also, a huge ramp connected to the loop was built to make landing a 900 easier. Landing the loop and a 900 were two of my main goals for the video.
Throughout my skating career I have had certain tricks I wanted to land. Thanks to persistence and practice, I have crossed them all off the list. When I landed the loop (with only a few slams and one compressed vertebra), I only had one left—the 900. I was scared. What if I slammed on my head or broke a bone? I’d be stuck going to a sketchy hospital in Tijuana.
I dropped in, the cameras rolled, and…I couldn’t make myself commit to landing. I’d spin and spin and bail, get up and repeat the process. I was disgusted with myself. I took off my helmet and shook my head. The cameras all clicked off, and nobody said anything. I knew I’d let people down, but what really hurt was that I’d let myself down. I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide.
As bummed as I was about failing to land the 9, the pain was lessened by what Erin had told me a few days before—she was pregnant. We were so happy, and Riley was excited because he wanted a little brother to play with. Shortly after The End premiered, my son Spencer was born.
I’m glad The End was loved by skaters. I’m proud of the movie, even though it reminds me of not landing the 9; but many people still tell me that it’s their favorite skate video.
Copyright © Jeff Taylor.
Copyright © J. Grant Brittain.
25: 1999, THE YEAR OF THE 9
I didn’t tell anybody, but I knew in January 1999 that at the end of the year I would stop skating in contests. The decision was different from the other times I had flirted with competitive retirement. It wasn’t due to any crushing pressures that I felt; it was the sense that I was satisfied with what I had accomplished. I didn’t want to follow the rigorous competition schedule anymore, and I didn’t feel the burning desire to skate my best in a contest. After fifteen years of pro contests, I wanted to return to the days when I just skated with my friends. I still pushed myself, but I knew I could go in any direction I wanted and not have to worry about people judging me.
Perhaps I should have “retired” at the start of the year, because once I’d made the decision to stop, it was almost impossible to make myself excited about a contest. But it was still a fun year. Disney made the movie Tarzan, and the artists told me that they’d used footage of me from The End to get ideas for Tarzan’s movements through the trees. This was a huge honor and scored me some serious bonus points with Riley, because he was a big Disney fan. My fame from skating meant nothing to him, but being involved in a Disney movie—now I was cool. He and I filmed a commercial for the movie’s video release.
MY LAST X GAMES
I had to drag myself to the X Games that year, which I wasn’t too excited about. I didn’t skate my best during the vert contest, but I looked forward to one of my favorite events—best trick. This was a loose format where I could skate with five friends. We’d do our best to impress one another. When the contest started, I wanted to land a varial 720. I hadn’t even thought about doing a 900. I hadn’t tried it in a long time.
I landed the varial 720 in the first fifteen minutes of the event and had fifteen minutes left to skate. I didn’t have anything else planned. I thought it would take me the entire time to land the varial 720. I walked up the ramp, thinking of tricks to try, but once I put the tail of my board on the coping I knew I wanted to spin a few 9s. Not because I was sure I could do it, but to stoke out the crowd.
I had been attempting 900s for more t
han ten years. I remembered the last time I’d thought I was close to landing one. I ended up slamming into the ramp, fracturing a rib. Another time before that I got lost in the middle of my spin, landed on top of the ramp, and bounced off onto the flatbottom. There were parts of the trick, such as how to control the spin and adjust my weight for the landing, that I just didn’t know how to do. Once I would solve one problem, another would present itself. I had my doubts that it was even possible to land one.
My first one felt good! This was odd, because usually I was more scared and had trouble controlling the spin. As I kneeslid down the X Games ramp from my first attempt, I thought that I might be able to come closer than I ever had before. I tried a few more. Each time I felt more comfortable. I usually had problems spotting the ramp and seeing where I was about to land because I was spinning so fast, but now I had control of the spin. Every time I bailed, I became more focused. The cheering crowd, the announcer, and the music all faded into nothing. I didn’t even think about landing it; I was concentrating on making adjustments to correct my spin. Every try would bring me closer and provide one more hint to what I was doing wrong.
On my twelfth try I felt an odd sensation; it was the impact of my wheels hitting the ramp and my hand skimming the ramp surface. I was trying to keep my balance and squatted so that my center of gravity was more stable. I began kickturning on the other side of the ramp before I realized that I had just landed the 9.
My fist shot up automatically, and I yelled as loud as I could. All the skaters ran on the ramp and tackled me before picking me up and carrying me around. It was the happiest moment of my skate career.
To my surprise, newspapers and news programs from all over the world reported my landing the 900 as a major sporting event. Skateboarding had never received coverage that widespread before. It shocked me and made me feel a little weird. A few years earlier I was being harassed for being a skater, and now I was being celebrated for landing a new trick.
Copyright © J. Grant Brittain.
26: THE GOOD LIFE
After the ’99 X Games I skated in a few more contests and won the last one of the year. After my last run I told Grant Brittain, the old manager at Del Mar who is now a world-famous skate photographer, that it was my last vert contest run. He nodded and smiled at me. It was cool that the guy who had signed my slips for Skateboard PE back when it was considered a loser activity was there when I stopped competing. I still skate specialty events, like doubles and best trick, but only because those are relaxed and more of a novelty.
CRAZIER THAN EVER
I thought my life would be less busy once I quit contests, but the opposite happened. Activision came out with a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game, which became the best selling video game in the world at the time of its release. The game added to the 900 media frenzy and made me more popular than ever. Any spare time was quickly booked with demos and appearances.
One of my dreams always had been to show the world what skateboarding was really like. I was tired of television shows always presenting skating in a competitive way, so I started working as an ESPN commentator. I didn’t like that people thought skaters were rebellious clowns, so I started 900 Films, a production company, with two of my friends and worked with ESPN to create a TV program called Tony Hawk’s Gigantic Skatepark Tour. We had control over how the show looked. I gathered a bunch of my friends and fellow pros, and we toured around the world skating the best skateparks we could find. We showed parents and kids that skateboarding is a positive influence and that competition is only a small part of the picture. One of the things I’m most proud of is that many people tell me that Tony Hawk’s Gigantic Skatepark Tour is fun to watch. They say it made them appreciate the dedication it takes to become a good skater.
Erin and I had another baby boy, Keegan, in 2001. Riley enjoys skating and always goes on tour with me if it doesn’t get in the way of school. Spencer, who just turned three, is a daredevil, and I’m a bit afraid of what might happen if and when he gets near a skateboard. Activision released two other versions of my game and each one sold better than the last. (The best part of having your own video game is that you can play games and tell your wife that you are working.)
I never expected to make a career out of skateboarding. I think I lasted so long as a professional because I was always thankful for what skateboarding did for me. I enjoyed skating with my buddies and pushing myself to learn new tricks. The fame that came with it never interfered with my skating. Skating taught me self-discipline at a young age and helped channel my frustrations and turn them into something useful. Even if I hadn’t been successful at it—if I’d never made a dime—I would still be pushing around with my kids at the local skatepark. I don’t know anything that’s as fun as skateboarding, or any activity that could have better shaped my life.
Copyright © Jeff Taylor.
Copyright © J. Grant Brittain.
Copyright © J. Grant Brittain.
APPENDIX: TONY’S TOP TENS
Ten Favorite CDs
The Clash: London Calling
Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Kraftwerk: Electric Cafe
Jane’s Addiction: Nothing’s Shocking
AC/DC: Back in Black
Pixies: Doolittle
Radiohead: OK Computer
Ministry: A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste
U2: Joshua Tree
Beastie Boys: III Communication
Ten Favorite Tricks
540—I can do many variations, and it’s always a crowd pleaser.
Backside ollie—It is the one ollie on vert that I feel like I have total control over.
720—I learned it in 1985 and it still feels good to land a clean one.
Caballerial—Steve Caballero, what more can you say?
Elguerial—Eddie Elguera. Ditto.
Backside lipslide—It is one of the scariest tricks to learn, and they don’t feel that hard anymore.
Tailslide—It can be done with almost any amount of speed. A good filler trick.
Tailgrab—It always looks stylish.
360 flip—I practiced it every day for months before finally figuring it out. One of the few (street) flip tricks I can do consistently.
Varial—The first trick I ever made up (backside). I just can’t let it go.
Ten Favorite Movies
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Repo Man
Robocop
The Usual Suspects
Reservoir Dogs
Being John Malkovich
Living in Oblivion
Happy Gilmore
Airplane!
Prince of Darkness
Ten Hardest Tricks to Learn
900—It took me five years just to get the guts to try it, and then another five years of failed attempts.
Kickflip McTwist—I tried it (and it only) for nearly two months before finally making one.
540—Learning to spin is only half the battle.
Kickflip—It just seems impossible when you first try it.
Frontside invert—I could only do Miller flips at first. I still miss the coping half the time.
Stalefish 540—Grabbing this way slows down your spin.
Ollie 540—I didn’t really think it was possible until I tried it lower.
Ollie blunt—It’s like relearning an ollie.
Backside revert—You can’t see as you turn, and it has great whiplash potential.
Ho-ho—I could never do one properly. It takes a background in gymnastics.
Ten Favorite Types of Food
Japanese—unagi and zaru soba
Indian—chicken korma
Thai—gaeng mussaman kai
Italian—spaghetti and meatballs
Jamaican—jerk chicken
Greek—hummus and gyros
Pizza—pepperoni or pesto and chicken
In N Out—the #1, no onions
Taco Bell—bean and cheese burrito, no onions<
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Erin’s cooking—chicken katsu
Ten Favorite Skaters
Eddie Elguera
Steve Caballero
Mark Gonzales
Christian Hosoi
Bob Burnquist
Bucky Lasek
Danny Way
Colin McKay
Eric Koston
Rick McCrank
Favorite Contest Run
Munster World Cup, 1998, I made every trick I had hoped to, and threw in a couple I wasn’t sure about. My contest performances that year were not outstanding up until that point. I couldn’t improve on my second run in the finals, so I did an entire old-school routine for my last run.
Tony’s Ten Website Links
Birdhouse: www.birdhouseskateboards.com
Quiksilver: www.quiksilver.com
Hawk Clothing: www.hawkclothing.com
Hawk Shoes: www.hawkshoes.com
Arnette: www.arnette.com
TSG: www.tsgprotection.com
Ramp Logic: www.ramplogic.com
Fan club: www.clubtonyhawk.com
The Tony Hawk Foundation: www.tonyhawkfoundation.org
Activision: www.activision02.com
Courtesy of Tony Hawk.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Erin, Riley, Spencer, and Keegan; Mom and Eric; Lenore, Dick, Greg, and John; Pat, Alan, Hagen, and Emily; Steve, Pamm, Will, and Cameron. All at THI, SHP, WMA, Slam, Blitz, 900, Hawk, Quik, Atlas, Activision, Neversoft, BSP, Rebel Waltz, TWS, Big Brother, Slap, ESPN, Redline, Heinz, TSG, Arnette, Mainframe, Nixon, and Apple; and all my friends who will hopefully forgive me for not listing them.