Tony Hawk

And I did feel that sense of responsibility.

I never took that for granted.

That, okay, yes, I will be here.

Yes, I'm more of a half-pipe skater.

I'm more of this era.

But this is what's happening in skateboarding.

This is the contemporary of skateboarding is street skating and these skaters and this crew that we invited to be part of our video game and all that.

And I always felt like I had to represent it authentically.

And no one really put that on me.

I think I just sort of grew into it.

I had too much respect for it as a whole than just being successful myself.

Um, I would say probably my mentor in that was Stacy Peralta.

Stacy Peralta was always driven to represent skateboarding in the best light and show it to a bigger audience.

He just never had a vehicle like I had with, with the video game.

Um, wow.

I know because I don't think of those terms.

I guess it's just more that, that I knew, I mean, in those days and, and, you know, these are, these are just media examples, but I was invited to do Leno and I was invited to do Letterman.

And, and at some point I felt the need to speak on behalf of

the the skateboard world which was far bigger than me and far bigger than my accomplishments um i and i i don't know what what i can't explain no one really planted that seed no one said oh you know with great power comes great responsibility you have to go out there and do this it was just more like i i just wanted skateboarding to be

more i just wanted to be more awareness of it and for kids to be encouraged to do it i think that was one of the big shifts especially with um the popularity of our video game the popularity of x games is that parents finally encourage their kids to try it in my day like i got lucky that my dad did none of my friends parents wanted them skating