Chapter 1: How did Tony Hawk's upbringing influence his skateboarding career?
Kings Network. a genuine legend in our midst, somebody who basically made a sport matter in this country. I feel like I can say that without overflattering the skateboarding legend and now a gaming and cultural icon in Tony Hawk. You winced on that.
Thank you. Well, I mean, it's a lot.
But those things are all so. I said nothing that was wrong. I appreciate it. Everything is correct. Your body has paid the price for that to be the glory. Was it worth it?
I will concur on that point, yes. Was it worth it? Yes, always.
Chapter 2: What challenges did Tony face when skateboarding fell out of popularity?
I'm here. I still get to talk about it. I still get to do it. It's wild.
It is crazy, right? If you took me back to the early 1980s on whatever it is you thought your life would be, what did it look like from back there?
Well, I was very young, so I certainly didn't think I was choosing a career because there was no career to be made. When I turned pro, it meant that I just moved up a division in competition, and then I was gunning for $100 first place prize money, so... That didn't feel like a career move. And I was young enough and naive enough to just think, oh, this is fun.
And then as I started to get into my later years of high school, it became a living. And I realized when I graduated that, oh, I already have everyone's figuring out what they're going to do with their life. I have a career path, although I didn't know how long it would last. But, you know, ignorance is bliss and youth is... Wasted on the young.
Chapter 3: What injuries has Tony Hawk sustained throughout his career?
It is wasted on the young, but you, I would imagine, had a little bit of your childhood stolen, right? You're doing this one thing professionally, but you're so professional that all of a sudden you're not a kid anymore. You've got a bunch of sponsors at 16.
yeah i would say especially in the summer because oh even even in the during the school year because i was expected to travel to these big events in florida and in chicago and um in atlanta and i would have to miss a thursday or friday from school go there compete you know be there try to try to do my best performance
a lot of fans and whatever else, and then go straight back to school on Sunday or come back home Sunday and go to school on Monday. And I was in a different world. I was living this paradox. And then when we'd go on tour, it was just every single day, big exhibition, big crowd, drive to the next city, just like a touring band.
And I definitely didn't have the same formative years as any of my classmates.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, that's putting it simply, but in what ways did that ends up distorting the adult?
The fact that it's a little tricky only because, well, I have to say, I think that the, the, the silver lining of the downfall of skateboarding and I don't mean downfall of skateboarding in general. I mean, the popularity of it in the early nineties was that I was faced with reality very quickly and, And it was like, oh, no, you're an adult now.
You are now providing for a family and your chosen career path is fading.
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Chapter 4: How does Tony Hawk view aging and the changes in his body?
And so I had to kind of hustle and figure out how do I make this work while still skating. And I'm thankful for those years because I loved it so much. I wasn't willing to pick up a nine to five. I just tried to make it work however I could. And what I mean by that is I would do odd jobs. I was actually a consultant for a few Hollywood shoots.
I was the skate consultant because I was too old to be the skater at age 24. But that didn't matter. That allowed me to be in the skate world and still do it, but have a different role in it. But it got weird because I was thrust into, I kind of bypassed a teenage childhood and it got thrust into responsible adult all at once. I mean, it really happened very quickly.
Well, take us back there. You're talking early 90s. You have to refinance your house. What other things like that were there where you're looking around and you probably didn't pay attention to your finances the way that you had to when it's all coming in.
Chapter 5: What is the significance of The Skatepark Project?
You have to concentrate on being great at the thing you do, right?
Well, I mean, there were definitely some milestones. I remember driving to the water company to pay my bill in cash. for the better part of a year because I was behind on a couple payments and I got fined because it was a drought and we had a big property so that kind of thing sticks with you yeah I mean really just cutting back on all expenses eating a lot of
instant noodles and peanut butter sandwiches.
Oh, so take me through your mental state at that time. So you go from pulled out of high school, stardom, 20 years of, wow, what a- Well, yeah, not 20 years.
So I would say that career cycle of the late, mid 80s to early 90s, that was a span of like six or seven years where it seemed crazy and then it was really crazy and then it was nothing. Just like that. Just like that, yeah. I mean, it was like the span of a band with one good album. You know, we toured on it. And I don't mean that in the sense that my skills were fading or anything.
I just mean that no one was interested. And kind of regrouped.
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Chapter 6: How did Tony Hawk's video game franchise impact skateboarding culture?
Yeah. Like you said, I had to refinance my home. I ended up selling it for what I owed the bank and moving into a more modest place and just kind of saving.
But how scared were you and how much were you looking back with regret on? Wait a minute. How did this all end? I didn't expect this was going to end here.
Yeah, I don't know. I guess I had the inkling that it wasn't going to last only because I had lived through the first wave of popularity of skateboarding in the 70s. And that's when I got into it, was when it was popular. And when I really fell in love with it is when it dove in popularity. But I didn't care because I was young enough and I was naive enough that...
The skate park near me was still open. I can still go there whenever I want. I'm still learning these tricks.
Chapter 7: What lessons has Tony learned about success and failure in skateboarding?
That's enough for me. And then I realized that, oh, this is dying in popularity because that skate park closed. And then I ended up localizing a different park. And I got very lucky in that that was one of two skate parks open in the U.S. in those years.
Okay.
And do the X Games, are they the thing that help all of that readjust in a way where the popularity then returns? That's about 95.
95, yeah. I would say that that was definitely a catalyst, yeah. The years 92 to 95 were very tricky to make a living as a skateboarder or having a skate company. It just wasn't popular. Parks couldn't afford liability insurance, skate parks. So everyone took to the streets. That became the movement.
Chapter 8: How does Tony Hawk define his legacy in the skateboarding world?
That was kind of not my style, obviously. So I ended up starting a skate company in those years and getting more of a street team so that I could still be in the industry and I could facilitate them with opportunities, hopefully, because of what I had learned. But it was tricky. I mean, I guess I don't think of those years as such a struggle. It was just more of a learning process.
Well, it sounds like you were confident throughout. And I guess to do what it is that you did in general, you weren't doing a whole lot of measuring of consequences. You're almost not allowed to doubt the way that you're built, given what it is you've done. Like, how much doubt do you lack?
Yeah, I never thought of dire straits. I never thought of what happens if this doesn't work. Because...
i guess just through through skating you learn perseverance and you if there's one thing it teaches you it teaches you to get back up so yes i was hitting all these setbacks in terms of livelihood um and you know in a lot of ways how do i navigate all this but at the same time um i gotta skate i mean that like We went on tour, let's just say 1993. We went on a team tour.
We were driving a van, beat up Toyota van that was our delivery van. There were six of us. We're going to different skate shops throughout the US. We would skate in a parking lot and they would set up some wooden ramps or curbs or whatever they had. We would skate maybe for anywhere from 40 to 100 people.
And then we would beg them for $300 so that we could get a hotel room, gas and food to get to the next place. And all that sounds like a struggle. But at the same time, we got to skate. We were having a blast. We all stayed. We all shared in one hotel room. And we would go out skating at night, shooting video, street skating in these new towns.
I mean, it was all sort of, I guess it was sort of magical. I don't know.
If I asked you for a quick snapshot on when you were happiest any time in your life, would it be around there or would it be somewhere else?
No, it'd be somewhere else. But definitely I was, as far as I was concerned, I was living the dream. in those moments. That was the best you could hope for in skateboarding. And we made it work. No, I mean, my happiest days are these days. You know, just the idea that skateboarding has come so far and transcended just popular culture.
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