10 ms·

There's a lot more to Tony Hawk than skateboarding: he single single handedly turned skateboarding into a multi-billion industry. Skateboarding was a big part o

There's a lot more to Tony Hawk than skateboarding: he single single handedly turned skateboarding into a multi-billion industry. Skateboarding was a big part of my life in the second half of my teenage years and that was in the mid 2000's. What's astonishing about Tony Hawk is that he made a huge impact during a time when vert ramps and half-pipes were extremely unpopular to put it mildly. Late 90's it was all about street skating. The video series that still largely captures that period to me is Eastern Exposure. But also skateboarding as a whole was dropping in popularity relative to the early 90's. What the Tony Hawk series did was they captured the imagination of the next generation which took the 90's skateboarding to a scale which I don't think anyone even remotely considered possible. I remember in the earlier 2000's when seeing someone jump down 10 stairs seemed like something out of this world. By 2005-6 that was looked at largely as "k, cool". That+the fact that skateboarding was at the top of the game once again. I'm not sure what the situation is today but I feel like it's dying again when I walk around the city. There's no denying that skateboarding is difficult: it will take you months to get a hang of the basics whereas kids can pick up a scooter and start doing tricks as soon as they set foot on them. Kind of sad now that I think of it. Every now and then a gif will pop up on the internet and I'll instinctively want to start clapping. Shame.

mistrial9 5y ago
interesting to read this, as a skater from the xx's .. hint, I read the original Thrasher low-budget local zine. There was a rebel and/or punk side to urban skating - getting hurt, breaking rules, thrills. Tony Hawk seemed part of a Los Angeles scene which was big on color photos with good lighting, making skate heroes with sponsorship, and selling a LOT of skate gear and advertising space. Needless to say, the urban Thrashers were not impressed by that part of Tony Hawk, although yes, the guy can skate certainly.. and breaking new moves etc.. I like to hear that things evolved, and this positive light on the publicity is soothing to the eternal grump side of being a rebel. Skating is great fun, bruises and all.. thanks for this post
- gscott 5y ago
  I watched a documentary of early skating and it seems that Tony Hawk's success is making the most of the MTV X-games and not getting into drugs. I had a neighbor (jeromygreen) who knows Tony Hawk and it seems Tony Hawk just absolutely shows up everywhere, gets to know every skater, remembers every skaters name.
  - exhilaration 5y ago
    That sounds like the very successful politicians I've seen up close. And I mean that as a compliment.
lloeki 5y ago
I've always been fascinated by Rodney Mullen, and only learned years later he was nicknamed the Godfather of skateboarding. And with good reason! He rose in fame at a young age, pulling up insane freestyle tricks, yet started before street skateboarding was a thing, and was overnight rendered obsolete. But he went on to reinvent himself and created so many tricks, some he's still the only one able to do, or do with anything close to that level of mastery. He then suffered a medical issue where his hip joint fused... Wasn't supposed to skate ever again but came back from it, relearning everything with a different balance. He's over 50 now, and skating with such style[0], pulling off one-handstand flips which is insane at any age. I respect Tony Hawk, but Mullen is an alien alright, less popular but so much more fundamental for skateboarding. https://youtu.be/xjMGAQCXppc https://youtu.be/xjMGAQCXppc
- brandall10 5y ago
  I wouldn't say Mullen is less popular, at least amongst skaters. I skateboarded in the mid to late 80s and had a Powell Peralta Mullen board (in addition to a normal street/vert board), so my memories of Mullen really were of this geeky kid in helmet and pads doing the impossible and rarely messing up. More than anyone else, I would watch Bones Brigade VHS tapes on slow motion to figure out just how the heck he pulled this stuff off. I have a theory that freestyle never went anywhere because Mullen was just too good - no one watching him could ever think "yeah, I could do that". That's not to take anything away from Tony Hawk, but for instance, he had contemporaries like Hosoi to keep him in check. Mullen was an island. So happy to find out years later he transitioned to being the king of street skating. Obviously many of the street tricks he invented were on that tiny freestyle board, so he deserves the title regardless, but it's just so cool to see he had a second career and has maintained relevance into advanced age like Tony.
- mycologos 5y ago
  I know relatively little about skateboarding, but there's a certain genius-from-restriction, literally tinkering-in-the-garage romance to Mullen's skateboarding journey that I really like. From Wikipedia [1]: > When his family moved to a farm in a remote part of Florida, Mullen began perfecting his flatground techniques in the family garage; he has said that the isolation and lack of terrain naturally guided him towards freestyle skateboarding. Mullen cites July 1979–August 1980 as his "most creative time," a time when he was predominantly a loner who counted the cows of the family farm as his best friends....[i]n 1980, the 14-year-old Mullen entered the Oasis Pro competition, defeating the world champion, Steve Rocco. Every now and then I think about trying skateboarding again, but I wince just thinking about all that force on early-30s knees. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Mullen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Mullen
ergot_vacation 5y ago
Some good points, glad someone posted this. I went down a rabbit hole of Tony Hawk videos and interviews a couple years ago, including some in-depth ones where he talks the history of the sport in general and his history with it, and it's fascinating. As a sport it's been much more unstable than something like football or baseball, always expanding and contracting as laws and cultural attitudes change. Lot more room for innovation too though. And man, after watching three or four interviews with the guy, you really get an appreciation for how chill he is.
reducesuffering 5y ago
> I'm not sure what the situation is today but I feel like it's dying again when I walk around the city. Do not fear, the pandemic only supercharged people finding new outdoors hobbies. Skateparks are wildly more packed than ever, many new ones have been created in the past few years to keep up, and hard goods have been flying off shelves at shops.
- axegon_ 5y ago
  Not afraid at all, I'm very much in a different world now so it doesn't bother me all that much. There are no skateparks close to my place so I'm not entirely sure what is going on but I'm getting the impression that skateboarding is dying. The thing is I have flat feet and as such, skate shoes are pretty much the only shoes I can wear so I still visit skateshops for that purpose. What I notice is that skateshops these days are 85% scooters and longboards which does not seem very promising for street skating. I could be wrong, that's just my observation.
joewrong 5y ago
I've been seeing some amazing skating on tiktok

mistrial9 5y ago

interesting to read this, as a skater from the xx's .. hint, I read the original Thrasher low-budget local zine. There was a rebel and/or punk side to urban skating - getting hurt, breaking rules, thrills. Tony Hawk seemed part of a Los Angeles scene which was big on color photos with good lighting, making skate heroes with sponsorship, and selling a LOT of skate gear and advertising space. Needless to say, the urban Thrashers were not impressed by that part of Tony Hawk, although yes, the guy can skate certainly.. and breaking new moves etc.. I like to hear that things evolved, and this positive light on the publicity is soothing to the eternal grump side of being a rebel. Skating is great fun, bruises and all.. thanks for this post

gscott 5y ago
I watched a documentary of early skating and it seems that Tony Hawk's success is making the most of the MTV X-games and not getting into drugs. I had a neighbor (jeromygreen) who knows Tony Hawk and it seems Tony Hawk just absolutely shows up everywhere, gets to know every skater, remembers every skaters name.
- exhilaration 5y ago
  That sounds like the very successful politicians I've seen up close. And I mean that as a compliment.

lloeki 5y ago

I've always been fascinated by Rodney Mullen, and only learned years later he was nicknamed the Godfather of skateboarding. And with good reason! He rose in fame at a young age, pulling up insane freestyle tricks, yet started before street skateboarding was a thing, and was overnight rendered obsolete. But he went on to reinvent himself and created so many tricks, some he's still the only one able to do, or do with anything close to that level of mastery. He then suffered a medical issue where his hip joint fused... Wasn't supposed to skate ever again but came back from it, relearning everything with a different balance. He's over 50 now, and skating with such style[0], pulling off one-handstand flips which is insane at any age. I respect Tony Hawk, but Mullen is an alien alright, less popular but so much more fundamental for skateboarding. https://youtu.be/xjMGAQCXppc https://youtu.be/xjMGAQCXppc

brandall10 5y ago
I wouldn't say Mullen is less popular, at least amongst skaters. I skateboarded in the mid to late 80s and had a Powell Peralta Mullen board (in addition to a normal street/vert board), so my memories of Mullen really were of this geeky kid in helmet and pads doing the impossible and rarely messing up. More than anyone else, I would watch Bones Brigade VHS tapes on slow motion to figure out just how the heck he pulled this stuff off. I have a theory that freestyle never went anywhere because Mullen was just too good - no one watching him could ever think "yeah, I could do that". That's not to take anything away from Tony Hawk, but for instance, he had contemporaries like Hosoi to keep him in check. Mullen was an island. So happy to find out years later he transitioned to being the king of street skating. Obviously many of the street tricks he invented were on that tiny freestyle board, so he deserves the title regardless, but it's just so cool to see he had a second career and has maintained relevance into advanced age like Tony.
mycologos 5y ago
I know relatively little about skateboarding, but there's a certain genius-from-restriction, literally tinkering-in-the-garage romance to Mullen's skateboarding journey that I really like. From Wikipedia [1]: > When his family moved to a farm in a remote part of Florida, Mullen began perfecting his flatground techniques in the family garage; he has said that the isolation and lack of terrain naturally guided him towards freestyle skateboarding. Mullen cites July 1979–August 1980 as his "most creative time," a time when he was predominantly a loner who counted the cows of the family farm as his best friends....[i]n 1980, the 14-year-old Mullen entered the Oasis Pro competition, defeating the world champion, Steve Rocco. Every now and then I think about trying skateboarding again, but I wince just thinking about all that force on early-30s knees. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Mullen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Mullen

ergot_vacation 5y ago

Some good points, glad someone posted this. I went down a rabbit hole of Tony Hawk videos and interviews a couple years ago, including some in-depth ones where he talks the history of the sport in general and his history with it, and it's fascinating. As a sport it's been much more unstable than something like football or baseball, always expanding and contracting as laws and cultural attitudes change. Lot more room for innovation too though. And man, after watching three or four interviews with the guy, you really get an appreciation for how chill he is.

reducesuffering 5y ago

> I'm not sure what the situation is today but I feel like it's dying again when I walk around the city. Do not fear, the pandemic only supercharged people finding new outdoors hobbies. Skateparks are wildly more packed than ever, many new ones have been created in the past few years to keep up, and hard goods have been flying off shelves at shops.

axegon_ 5y ago
Not afraid at all, I'm very much in a different world now so it doesn't bother me all that much. There are no skateparks close to my place so I'm not entirely sure what is going on but I'm getting the impression that skateboarding is dying. The thing is I have flat feet and as such, skate shoes are pretty much the only shoes I can wear so I still visit skateshops for that purpose. What I notice is that skateshops these days are 85% scooters and longboards which does not seem very promising for street skating. I could be wrong, that's just my observation.

joewrong 5y ago

I've been seeing some amazing skating on tiktok