Tony Hawk

It's such a passion.

I mean, when I was growing up, I got very lucky that I lived near one of the last skate parks that existed at that time.

And it was never lost on me that I had a place of belonging because skateboarding was not cool in the early 80s.

It was probably the furthest thing from cool you could do.

I got hassled a lot at school.

In fact, I would hide my skateboard before school in the bushes near the bungalows, San Diego High.

And I would hide it.

And then when the bell rang, I would go retrieve my board.

Because if I walked through campus with it, I would get harassed.

They would steal it.

I'd get thrown in a trash can.

I mean, it was the 80s.

That's how it was.

You got picked on.

And so nowadays...

that whole attitude has shifted so far the other way, where, I mean, for the most part, like the cool kids in school skate, which is wild to me.

And so if I had anything to do with that shift of consciousness, I'm hugely proud of it.

But just the idea that skateboarding's part of the zeitgeist,

I mean, that's my best work then.

It's pretty impressive.