Tony Hawk

skating as a natural progression. Um he was skating and I just picked up his old board and I said, how do I do this thing? And he said, you know, just stand on and go and I I got on it and I rode to the end of the driveway and slammed into the fence because I couldn't figure how to turn. Well, it's funny, I have almost an identical story because skateboarding was a big thing in the sixties. Even Jan and Dean had a song called Sidewalk Surfing, which was a remake of Surf City and with we

had the metal wheels. You had the metal wheels and you had the clay wheels. And I was in Mammoth Mountain, this type, the same type. I was there for the month of May, and you know Mammoth the main lodge, the gigantic parking lot. Okay, so the guy gives me a board with the new wheels, and I go, and then suddenly I realized, for those people don't know, it's slowly downhill and it's an eight thousand, almost nine thousand feet. It was a holy crap, I'm gonna have to walk back.

And I hadn't been on a skateboard in about nine or ten years. And I stepped off the board. Wow, because you know, I was smart after us, you have to run off the board. So you just you did. We call that a Mr Wilson. I believe I had. The only good thing is I'd come from skiing and I had, you know, multiple layers of clothing on ripped right through my turtleneck, my ski pants, my long underwear got road rash. Wow. That was my reintroduction of the seventies. Okay,

So you're you have an older brother. How many kids in your family? For we have two older sisters as well and young and you're the youngest by a lot. My my older brothers thirteen years older than me. Your older brothers thirteen years and how much older your sisters eighteen and you'll have the same parents. Yes, so I was. I was very much a surprise and accident. My mom was forty three at the time. So you essentially grew up as almost as an only child with your parents. Wow.

So where you know a lot of times when you're the baby of the family, your parents are lenient. They let you do whatever you want. Uh. That definitely that was the case. I think also my they had been through a lot of a lot of scenarios with my a lot of challenging situations with my siblings as well,

just because it was the seventies. You know, they were experimenting and my my sister got into music, my brother got into surfing, and they fully supported them in those endeavors, but you know, it just jumped them out on their comfort zone very much. So once I came along, it was like, what just keep him happy, whatever he's doing, let him do it. And what did your father do for a living? Uh? He well, he was a Navy pilot World War two really and then uh and then

he sold Um. He kind of got into it through my sister. He started selling musical instruments UM wholesale in San Diego just as a hobby because their band needed gear UM. And then he got into it and he made connections and he did that till you retired. Really, so part of the whole NAM world, etcetera. Yeah, I used to go to NAM when I was when I was like eight nine years old. For those people don't know, you know, it's the Music Merchant Show. It's one of

the biggest shows in the ammah Anaheim. Happens in January. It's a private show, but really, if you know, anybody can get in, right. But I just went because like I didn't, you know, my mom be out of town and so my dad would have to take me and I just his booth or go. You're just plowing my mind because you know, this is my girlfriend's world. My girlfriend runs a foundation called the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, which they give instruments to underprivileged schools. So why don't

you start talking. I know all these people through her that I wouldn't know otherwise. Is I got a NAM with her? So I didn't realize your father's soul music. Well it was, I mean it was a pretty it was relatively small business in San Diego. But but it was cool. I that's how I started. I started playing violent actually at that time. Really okay, but just stay with your father. So he's a navy pilot. When they have the right stuff, the movie, the book, whatever, does

he start telling stories about that stuff? He Uh, that's a good question. I don't think he didn't feel I don't want to say proud, but you know, his valor wasn't that he really wanted to brag about it. I think he he didn't like a lot of stuff he had to do in World War Two, especially, so he was pretty mom about all of it. You know. It's also he was definitely through, you know, running bombing missions, you know, with with propeller planes off of aircraft carriers,

like it was the real deal. Wow, that really is the real deal. But my father was not in the military. He was the sole support for his mother. But it was you know, my father would so internalize. It wasn't until he was like in his fifties, remember writing this, Have you ever been asked for highlands? He used to have this cheerlift that took a half an hour. And my father also started telling stories about his youth. I'd

never heard. I never got into that. I think I think a lot of it was he was he was ashamed. He didn't you know, he didn't like there there was I remember a time someone was talking about some area, some remote area and near Okinawa, Japan or something, and and they said, have you ever been there in that area? And my dad said, bombed it? You know, like but like it was kind of a joke, but you could

tell there was a very it was very weighted, right. Okay, so you're nine years old and you pick up your brother's skateboard, you skate, and you crash into the fence at the end of the road, and then you think there was no epiphany. Um, I thought, you know, I thought it was fun. A lot of my friends had started doing it around that time, so I joined them. It was more like it was a social thing, and

we would go skate around the different driveways. You know, we had these alleyways, um, and we would go skate around them. And then every once while someone would build a little a little wooden ramp, and so their their place was the place for a couple of weeks, you know, their right their driveway with their little ramp, and then uh, eventually I got invited to go to the local skate park which was in San Diego, UM called Oasis. And how far is that from your house? Uh? Like twenty minutes.

It was right by the the stadium where the Chargers played, actually where the Padres played, UM, and so I went there. And when I went there, that's when I had my wow moment. I saw I literally saw people flying around. I saw these guys. Okay, so was it more seeing what was going on? He was seeing what was going on in the terrain, because suddenly it was like, we're not just skating on the sidewalk. These are you know, empty swimming pools that have this potential to throw you

in the air. And I saw that, I saw these guys flying around. I was like, I want to do that. I want to do that at any cost. That was that was my moment for sure. And I mean, that's really enough. But any other thoughts, like you know, I might get hurt, or this might be fun or thrilling, thrilling, I mean that that was the motivation for sure. And like I said, it was they were flying. I wanted to fly, and and everything that I had done leading up to that I had played a lot of sports.

I was always frustrated that I wasn't bigger, and you know I was, you know, I was. I was a run I was like I was a little scrawny dude, you know. And I used to get mistaken from way younger than I was all the time back then, And so I would play sports, and you know I was. I was a good basketball player, especially from my size, but everyone else was taller and they just had an advantage. And like I was a decent baseball player, but it was,

you know, there was just more. I didn't have the strength of the weight, and skateboarding unknowingly leveled that playing field for me because I figured out this way to propel my what my limited weight into the air and that generally wasn't the way people could do it. And I was pretty fearless. I didn't I didn't mind getting hurt for the sake of learning. That was never my issue. And a lot of my friends would get hurt and they were over it. They're done. Okay, So how old

are you? Literally, when you go to the skatepark ten years old, you're ten years old. It's twenty minutes away. How do you get there, I would get a ride with friends. Um, sometimes my dad would take me and my brother was in college at the time. We had one day a week that he would dry. He was in um, Northern San Diego he or no, was he? Yeah, Northern San Diego. He would drive down and take me to skate park once a week and we would go

skate together. Okay, So, so when you're ten years old, how many times a week are going to the skate park? Probably too okay? And did they charge you to go to the skate park? They did? Yeah, it was. It was nominal, but it wasn't easy. Like my we were middle class ish, um, so it was you know, it was. It wasn't that I was getting a free ride, Definitely, there was. I had a paper route and I had to earn it. I had I remember earning money for to buy stickers. The buy stickers. Wow, what stickers did

you buy? Going trucks? Okay, so you're going twice a week to the skate park when you're not, are you skating in the neighborhood? Yes? Yeah, so you're pretty much skating every day. Yeah. I mean street skating as a as an actual thing was not considered so it was

just more transportation at the time. Sometimes we'd find say a curb in front of the dentist office that was that was red and you could grind it and um or a little banks like there there was a little curb right in front of my middle school that you could slide and we used to slide it in the morning until we started breaking the sprinklers. And then because this was also the era, you know, they started to be a backlash against the noise and the grinding, etcetera.

It was a little bit before that. I mean, the skating still was largely contained at the skate parks because there was an abundance of skateparks then. But as that started drying up, mostly because of liability and the interest of skating was waning. Um, that's when it started becoming this this thing that was like, wait a second, there's no more facilities for us to go to. We're taken

to the streets. And that's when the stigma changed to where these guys are a nuisance, they're breaking property, there outlaws, like we're just looking for a place to do it. Okay,

going to a parallel thing. Whenever you do any research on you it goes on about schooling and being tested and having an I I high i Q. So what was your educational experience, Like, Um, I was always putting advanced classes and uh yeah, I mean I did have this high i Q testing and whatnot, and that follows me to this day, right, But I was I really did enjoy this daredevil thing. And you know, I was the little kid that would go off the high dive and stuff like that. So so even before you were

a skateboarder. Yeah, yeah, yeah, um, and I wasn't. I wasn't Like I said, I wasn't really afraid to get hurt in the process. So I was so focused on that. But but at the same time I was I was keeping up with my schoolwork. I guess the thing that sort of redirected my education was that I got successful in high school. I started making really good money in high school, especially around my junior year, to the point where I was looking around on everyone's trying to figure

out what they're gonna be for living. I have a living, you know, And especially my senior year, I was literally making more money than my teachers. I bought a house while I was still a senior in high school and so it was kind of like there were all these signs that just said you have you know, you're you're

already doing something. You have a career, and my parents were worried that it was short lived, which they were absolutely right to um, and so they they encouraged me to maybe take some college courses, you know, on the side, or at a community college. That I went to a college, and I looked at the kind of curriculum that I would have and I said, Mom, if I do this, I won't be able to go to these events, like these competitions on the weekend, which is what's fueling my career.

Because back in those days, the only thing people cared about was your titian record, and if you weren't able to go to those, forget it. You're not making living as a skater. You're not getting magazine coverage and not giving you professional skateboard models. Okay, let's go back. So you're starting ten, your tens, that's the middle seventies. And then you say, because of liability of the skateboards, parks

died out. Yes, okay, I'd say like around eighty three ish. Okay, to what degree is their infrastructure that point in terms of skate shop, skate magazines, etcetera. Well at all. There was sort of a reorganization then, so everything everything collapsed from the inside out. For the most part. On that skate brands were just going up, you know, they were all going on a business. My my sponsors. So my my first sponsor was Dogtown Skateboards. I would go there

would manufacturer was in San Diego. At one point they just said, oh, if you need skateboards, just go to the wood pressing and go get your own. Like, these are skateboards that are no have no graphics on them, having a label on them, but they're Dogtown skateboards. So I was getting those and putting Dogtown stickers on them. And then sometime around that I stopped hearing from them.

And then I got a call from Stacy Pelta, who was widely regarded as the one of the most legendary pro skaters but also um a curator one of the best teams, and he called me and said, uh, hey, I heard Dogtown went out of business. I felt I wouldn't have known. This is the same dog Town in Santa Monica that they made the movie about it. Yeah, So I was on the very tail end of that as a young gramin amateur. So but but that's that's just an example of one of the business like that.

Literally the company involved with there was there was one skateboard magazine, skateboarder, skateboarder magazine that transformed into they called Action Now and then it covered like motocross and snowboarding, and it was kind of ahead of its time because they're those were all fringe sports. They weren't even labeled extreme yet, and so they called it Action Now and that was the only skate magazine. Then Action Now went

on the business. Then there was no skate magazine were and we're putting this about a D three eight two eighty three, and then Thrasher started. Okay, a couple how old your fourteen? And then what can you tell us about Thrasher starting? Because you know all these people, uh it was it's Thrasher started. It was it was a newspaper print skate magazine. Um, and we're just excited to

have a skate magazine, you know. And the content was it was the usual fair It was like it was competitions and a little bit of street stuff, but it was it was very geared towards a skate distributor started it, so it was geared towards their brands that they distributed.

Still it is kind of but it's more North calcentric. Uh. And then another scape, the sort of antithesicist skate magazine started called trans World Skateboarding, and their goal was to promote like healthy skateboarding, and then it became this weird like good and bad thing and um, but that's where it all started. And Thrasher obviously still exists, right, and trans World got into snowboarding and other things Transford, I mean, it was transform media. Okay, so it dies in the

early eighties. Your fourteen, when do you go to your first competition? Well, my first competition was when I was about ten years old, and because as just at out oasis, I just went, like one one weekend they're having a competition. So I signed up and you know, filled all the paperwork and then they called my name when I did my little run, and then I went and asked what

the results were. And this woman, I'll never forget, she was going through the results and she had a sheet of paperwork and I said, can you tell me you know what place I got? What's your name? Honey? So she look at the paper. She she like folds over one paper, she folds over the next paper. Finally she gets to the last column and I'm second to last out of like a hundred and how great is that? So your second second I'll never get the look she

gave me. She's like, Oh, I'm sorry, honey. You got four through whatever it was, so your second to lass and what goes through your brain? Uh? I didn't really know. I think what because went went through my brain at the time. You know, I wasn't trying to make career. No one was making I was yeah and whatever it was.

But it was more like, oh, I gotta figure out how to do better tricks, or I gotta figure out a better approach, because my approach was that I thought I was supposed to submit the tricks that I can do, to tell them ahead of time, and then do that thing. And I there was no room for being spontaneous. There was no creativity really, and I was like, I gotta figure out better tricks. It will get me noticed. And that was pretty much the catalyst for sort of creating

my own style. Okay, how do you learn those tricks? I just started tinkering with different ways to like spin my board and and do tricks that were not of It was more out of um necessity, because I wasn't big enough to do these really these really gnarly tricks at the top of the bowl and things like that

that the guys we're doing. I mean, I figured out how to do little aerials and things, but but I knew how to maneuver my board and and and switch my body around and do these relate what they called at the time avant garde tricks that didn't get much traction but set me apart. Okay, so you literally on your own trip. No one else is doing the same thing. No one but for those of us who's certainly been to the skate park and watched it takes an incredible

amount of repetition and failure to master these tricks. It does, but it was it was less so then because the tricks that you were learning back then, you were learning them for the sake of competition. So you're learning them to get consistent with them. Nowadays, you can do a trick, you make one out of a thousand, get it on video. You know it's hero. But it was not like that back then. We didn't have videos. We only had competition

to prove ourselves. So you had to learn stuff and get it dialed and put it in your competition run. That's how you're gonna get noticed with And how long was a competition run? Seconds? Seconds? And when you it's it's whether we're heroes hit San Diego? Mean you're number ninety four? Was there a big cahun in the skate park in San Diego? Uh? Yeah, Dave Andreks he was the local hero. That's why I wanted going stickers. He

read for going. Okay, So I mean, are you up in your bedroom at night plotting this or is this just one thing you're doing? It was just one thing I was doing. It wasn't until I guess, by default, the way that skating started to get really I don't want to say exclusive, but it started getting very narrow, you know. And there wasn't a lot of competition. There wasn't a lot of interest. I was still skating a

lot and and learning tricks. And the skate park had a tryouts for their skate park team, um and that team was going to go represent that park at different parks for this competition called ASPO Associated Skate Park Owners and so I went to the tryouts and I don't think I was the best skater at the tryouts for my age group, but I made everything and they picked

me for the team. I made all my tricks, and the other guys that I thought were better than me, they were trying really hard things, but they weren't consistent, and so they picked me, and suddenly I was on. I was representing Oasis as a skate park team member. So you originally went to Oasis with your friends. Did they stick with it or they fall off? Okay, they quit? So were you friendly with all these people in Oasis?

I found my community there for sure, absolutely. And the the locals were, like I said, skating was kind of drying up. So there were only a handful of locals and that became my That was my crew, and they were all from different walks of live, different age groups. You know, it wasn't like they were they were my peers in the sense of same age or the same area. Which was super cool because I got to know, you know,

I I learned about punk music back then. I I was hanging out with dudes that a mohawks and and you know, people that were coming from really difficult backgrounds that found skating as a salvation and and and I just learned so much through that. Your parents have any idea of what was going on there? My parents became

their surrogate parents. Yeah, because they really liked the They like the creativity and the they liked what it had given me, and they were helping to They wanted to help the other kids as well, the ones that we're having trouble, and so we would have like if there was a competition in San Diego at Oasis, there would be ten dudes sleeping at our house from all. Yeah, and that's the kind of parents your parents are in terms of your house. You have an open door policysel

uh to an extent. Yeah. So now you're on the Oasis team. Yeah, and how often are you competing? Um? The series is was usually during the summer for a couple of months, you know, every other weekend or so. Uh. And then we would just be gaining points for our for our team or whatnot. And then eventually, you know, the guys who were really succeeding would end up getting real sponsors and they would move up a class of of Um. So where do you fit in all this? Uh?

I got sponsored by Dogtown right around that same time. Eventually got sponsored by Powell my first year on Powell, or made my second year on on pal Perelta, which was Stacy Pearlti's company. That's when I won the amateur circuit. Like, oh, let's go way back before that, so it's not that far. I mean, yeah, okay, so you're not. You're number ninety four. Then you come up with your own track tricks. Then you're on the team. When you first start going to competitions,

how do you do? I was usually in like the top three, okay, And you're attributing that to the fact you made up your own tricks, okay. And I put the I put the effort into getting used to different terrain. A lot of the skaters back then we're only good in their home park. And you did that how well.

I would try to get to the other parks as much as I could, and my dad would make these day trips where he would load a bunch of people in his camper, in his UH pickup truck camper, and we would go like we would we would drive from San Diego to Recida really for the day, and everyone get to practice at the Resida Park for the day and then we would come home or like a friend

of a friend. I mean I remember I remember getting in the back of a pickup truck in San Diego, um, putting a tarp over me and my friend, and then he drove us to Upland to go practice. And that's that's what we had to do. It happened, Yeah, and and I don't look back on that thing like that was the struggle that was. It was more like that was an adventure. It was super dangerous. Of course. I remember going to boys Scout camp before they changed all the rules and we could ride to the back of

the pickup trap. They can't you do that anymore. But as I say, go you when how many competitions before your top three? I would say within the first second year of competition in my division. But pop three is pop three? Yeah, what's going through your brain? Then? Uh, it's so weird, you know, it's it's I wasn't aspiring to do it for a living. I wasn't aspiring to be number one or anything, because well, I wanted I

wanted to do well. But skating was such the small industry that you didn't dream of fame or fortune because no one had it. It didn't exist. So I guess that's that's the strange. Well that's the lucky thing for me. And I was young enough that I didn't have to

worry about that so much. Um. But as I did start to do better, then suddenly it was like, oh wait, this is you know these other I'm on the radar of of these bigger sponsors, and then eventually picked a couple of them up and then it was like, well, these guys believe in me. I better really performed for them. Okay, but at what moment do you internalize and say, wait a second, not only am I good, I'm better than

most of the people. Uh. I think that was around the time that that I got sponsored by Powell because POAL was considered the elite team, and I went through a lot of um issues just with self confidence and self esteem. I was made fun of a lot, and I was a scrawny little dude with a strange style doing what they called circus tricks. Like I I didn't feel great about myself, but I liked what I was doing.

I like skating. When Power sponsored me, it gave me this validation that it was like they believe in what you're doing, Like, keep keep at it, keep going that direction. Okay, and you must have been like over the moon when they decided to uh sponsor you. Yeah. Well I was that and completely intimidated because suddenly I'm on the team. I mean I was on the team with Steve Caballero, who I saw in a magazine when I was little and gave me. He gave me the inspiration to go

learn how to scape pools. You know, when I saw him flying out of a pool, I was like, I want to do that that. It looks like he's my side is wow. Okay, so now you're you're on the Oasis team. How long before that burns out? Well, Oasis closed, That's what I'm saying. Yeah, not not much long after that, and it closed because of liability. Yeah yeah, and obviously UM attendance as well. Okay, So it looks even though you're doing better and better, that the sword is dying. Yeah.

Luckily I was naive enough to not understand how what that meant as an industry and as a future. UM. I just knew that there were a fewer parks. That's the only effect that had on me. Okay, So the Oasis team is over. Where do you end up competing? Who do you end up competing for? For for power perl to brigade Um. I got, you know, I got a couple of re sponsors. I got a truck sponsors, Tracker Trucks. And then eventually I started doing well in competition.

I reached the top of the amateur circuit um and a lot of my peers started going pro. And what that men at the time, to go pro meant that when you fill in an entry form for a competition, you tick the pro box instead of the amateur box. I'm not kidding. That was it? Okay, but how old were you then? You're fourteen, they're going pro? You're on so well, it was more like I was. I was the top of the amateur circuit. Some of my peers

have gone pro. If I stayed an amateur, then I was I was a worse because I'm just um, you know, I'm taking it easy, I'm staking. But what did it mean to go pro? Then? Well, you took the box. If you were lucky and your sponsored believed in you, they would give you a scapard with your name on it. But there was no victory schedule. Not no, okay, champagne. Okay, so now you're where you're skating for Powell. Walk me through the next chapter. Uh so I'm skating for Powell.

Eventually they did give me a pro model. Um. I got a couple of royalty checks. I got one for four dollars one month. The next month, I got one for eighty. I have sense, and you're like a sophomore junior in high school. I was a Yeah, I was a sophomore probably at that point. So at that point you're not seeing the dream. This is just something you're doing. Yeah, I didn't. I was stoked, of course, with my name

on it. What could be better? And and you know the fact that I still got to skate for not for a living, but as as my main hobby. Um. I at some point I got to start traveling. I'ment to Japan when I was fourteen for a TV show. UM I went went went a little bit slower. This is before the days of email. What the phone rings or you're with the other guys with peralta. Um. I guess they had seen something of me on either video or you know, because then I was I was moving

through the ranks of the Pro series very quickly. From the first year that I turned pro, I was at the top pretty much, and I pretty much again. Would you think that's because you had your own unique tricks, because once you do them, other people can take you. It's also because I grew into my style. I got it more refined, I got bigger, I got stronger, and suddenly I had that power that I wanted, you know that I thought that I wanted to emulate from the

older guys when I saw them at first. Suddenly I was that size and the size of the the bulls and things where wasn't as intimidating and something. I could do these really difficult tricks at new heights and it was like this perfect storm of of my puberty and my skill set all coming together. Okay, but I'm interested in the internal element because anybody has competed at an elite level knows the people at the top. It's kind

of funny. You can skate with him every day, but like I used to worry, you know, ski professionally, and there were guys used to the world champion. This is freestyle skiing in the seventies. He would be better in competition, you know, he didn't choke. He went up to another level okay, and there was an internalization where he felt comfortable with his abilities. I'm interested in how you felt yourself independent, you to say when I have this nailed,

I'm better than everybody, or you're insecure, or what is it? Um? I I would obsess on competitions to the point where I to the point where my routines became boring to me. And I knew that I had that most of these, you know, I had. I had all the components to the run I wanted, and when it came time to compete, I could put them all together and feel confident with it. So I definitely had that where I did up it

when the time came time to compete. But I think that it was in that moment that that like a lot of the guys, you know, we are coming into our teen years, a lot of distractions. People are starting to party and stuff like that. I never I wanted to do that because I didn't want to. I don't want my skills to fade at all, and and I didn't want my success to fade. And I felt because I had been you know, we we've come so far

in society and whatnot. But you know, I was buoyed for the most part when I was a kid, before I started skating, and even when I did start skating by the older generation and all. I just always was trying to prove myself. You know that that gave me this fire to to keep. And you're in high school and you're getting successful. Give you any status in the

high school, that's okay. The irony of that is is I would go to these competitions, you know, I'd say I had to go to Florida for this big event, to be thousand people there cheering and they think I was great and whatnot. To come back to to high school, I was a ghost like and I would sometimes hide my skateboard because people thought there was a stigma was skating. It was like you still skate like it was like

you used to bringing a yo yo to school, right right? Okay, go back to your fourteen and you go to Japan. How that comes together? Uh so? They I I don't really know the details of it. I know that they called my sponsor and said, hey, we we would like to bring him. It's it's sort of I forgot what it was called, something about talent you know the talented Kids show kind of like that's incredib all kids back then. Um,

you know. One of the other acts was this this group of sisters all sort of um middle school age that had a band um and they were all from America. It was just you. Wasn't the whole team. It was just me. And then they had to assign uh, sort of an escort to me, a translator. After did you get on the plane alone and you go with your mother? What? I got on the plane with my with my handler.

Then they assigned to me. Really, so somebody you didn't know and your parents went in from Japan, flew to l A, met me in l A, flew me to Japan. What'd your parents say? They thought it was awesome? Okay, so you go to Japan, I gotta ask they fly in the back of the plane to the front of the plane. Oh no, there was no first class. So as as successful and as as full of ourselves so to speak, as we were back then, we were not living large ever ever. So you got to Japan. How

long were you in Japan? Four? About four days? Five days? Okay? So is it like being a rock star you could be anywhere or did you actually see what was going on in Japan? Um? What do you mean? Okay? You know, uh, this guy and Neil was sequestered. You know Neil Preston, he was a photographer for led Zepp. When he says, I've been all over the world, I've seen nothing. Oh uh no, they got they showed me around. You know.

My my um my handler was very good at just because she knew I was super excited, and I was. I was just bewildered with everything. And so she took me to some of the tourist spots and you know, they filmed me. I forgot to bring a new pair of shoes. They filmed me going to buy shoes, and and it was I mean, it was life changing for me because it was the first time I had traveled abroad and and I was alone, I was in Japan.

It was all it was exciting, right, Okay, So at that time forgetting the trip to Japan to what degree, how frequent were competitions? Uh, they started to get more and more frequent around that time. So I would say every three or four weeks, And how often would you have to get on a plane or somewhere to go st to a competition. Um, but the same there there were some sometimes we were doing exhibitions in between those.

You know, every once in a while we get called some big skate shop would want to put up, you know, a skate thing, and we would go do that and then uh, and then they started putting together tours. So we would actually go out on the road for five weeks in a van, five of us with a bunch of ramps shoved into the back, like we would travel with our own little skate park and put it up in a parking lot. At what point does it turn into money? Um? Around the time for me, around the

time I was sixteen. Okay, what change that turns it into money? Uh? The hype the skating started to get popular. I mean you started to see it on TV. Like in the eighties. Back to the Future was a big deal. Yeah, a lot of people in that generation started skating because back to the Future that's amazing. Put those together. So you're not getting paid how by winning competition, by sponsorships, mostly by royalties skateboard royalties. Um, the boards. What's the

traditional deal back then? Uh? I think that roughly you got about a dollar per skateboard they sold. Uh, we started. I mean, what do we know? You know, we were yeah, and and there was no like, there's no template for this. We didn't know how we're supposed to handle this or what, you know, what the best way to save money is and whatnot. And suddenly we are making ten grand a month. And then it turned into like sometimes twenty okay, of the ten grand a month, most of that was board royalties,

all of it. That's a lot of boards. That's ten tho boards. Yeah, it And and then we're like we're invincible. We're buying you know, we're buying cars and we're flying our friends of Hawaii and and you know, not realizing that we got a half of that we got to say for taxes, of course. Um, and I was I was really thankful that. You know, the reason I bought

a house is because my dad encouraged me. He saw this money and it was substantial, and he's like, you gotta put something away, you really got to say, for the future. And it's like, what are you talking about, because like I used to my house, like, yeah, my own house. So hi, everyone Bob left sets here. I'm humbled by the initiable response of the podcast, and I've been able to line up some excellent guests in future episodes.

I can't wait to share those. I think you're in for a treat, so be sure to subscribe, leave reviews, tell your friend it's gonna be a big year. And now more with Tony Harn. Okay, so now you're in high school, you're doing all this stuff and you're making more money than the teachers, etcetera. Say I found my calling. Okay, for those of us you know who think about your ubiquity, it really kind of coincided with the X Games. Would

you say the same thing? Um? Yeah, I mean there's a lot of skipping, a sort of no, don't skip it. Don't skip it. That's what. Want to know how we get to there? Okay, So that that hype of the eighties was was relatively short lived. I would say that the gravy days were eight six to where we were making a lot of money. You know, we're being recognized, We're being asked to perform, to go on TV, to do videos and whatnot. Um. I spread myself extra thin

with mortgages. I bought another place with a lot of properties so I could build my own ramps and around ninety everything started falling. And I mean like skating again. The skate parks that were being built at the time, they weren't concrete anymore, they were generally made of wood. They all lost their liability. Skating was considered a fad. People started to quit. Uh my income drop by half every month without every kidding, not kidding. Yet how load

did it ultimately go? You know, relatively non existent? I mean in ninety one, Um, I found myself with two mortgages. Uh, money just not coming in at all, and I was scrambling to do whatever I could, and luckily my name was it was still sort of out there in the ether, can you know, with skateboarding. So, for instance, they would do they're gonna do a commercial. Let me see what was the commercial. There was a coat commercial for Japan and they said, oh, we need we need stunt skaters

and we need a skate coordinator and they called me up. Okay, you had no handler, anybody which went directly to you. Yeah, and I'm just getting scale, but absolutely, But I'm about a segue to a different thing, which I find fascinating. You buy your own house, but you also got married and had a kid. Yeah, well that's so that comes right at the tail end of all this dropping. So

I happened at the tail end. I didn't know, as this is all sort of dropping, like when it's getting dire, that's when we have a child on the way, and it's like this is this is it? Like I don't I don't know. I'm not sure how to part lay this career into something else. I don't want to get a nine to five job necessarily, but I will if I have to. And so I took my I mean this is literally like all at the same exact time.

I took my equity in my house that I was in then um and used it to start a skate company, which seems like it seems like deeper, but for me it was my In my eyes, skating it was cyclical. It had come and gone twice already in my like while I was doing it, Um, it's bound to come around again. I feel like there's so I always knew there was something more to skating than the general public was seeing. You know, they were just seeing like the crazy graphics and the hard news and the punk music,

and it was like there's something else here. There's you know, there's a there's something that provides two kids that they can't find anywhere else, the ones that don't fit in, the ones that you know, don't like team sports or whatever it is. There's an artistic element as well. And I wanted to be in the skate industry, and I thought my career as a skater was over. I really did. I was like, I've I run my chorus as a pro.

You know, I was on number one for ten years in competition, and I want to form my own company and do my have my own direction and get my own skater. So I did, Okay, you totally did it on experience. Did you have a friend and mentor any of that stuff. I had another I had a friend that was a former pro skater. Well, coincidentally the guy who did the skating and Back to the Future um Para wheelander who was but he had a business degree, and he said, hey, I heard you're thinking about making

a move. I would like to pool our funds together and do something because I have the business Yeah, exp well, expertise that more knowledge, you do it? Yes exactly, and uh, and I said, yeah, let's do it. So we formed a distribution company with a skate brand inside of it. Birdhouse. Um, and off we went. And you know, at at one point there were three of us that worked for the company. Uh. I was doing graphics, ads, videos, team management and being a pro skater at the same time. Um. It took

all my time. You know, it was super Obviously it was a big strain on a marriage and can a toddler. Um. But you know that was the dream for me. That was the dream was to have a company. And what are the other two guys do? Uh? Well they did. They did most of the paperwork, phone call calling shops. Say, so you start. Was it successful from the start? No? Um, no, I mean nothing was. We made a splash, like we

we were on the radar. I think what I what I knew back then and in hindsight especially, is that it didn't take a lot of capital for us to be known because skating was so small, so for us to get like say the back page of trans World or Thrashing. They were begging for advertisers. So we positioned ourselves pretty well at the time when didn't cost a lot, and we were we were making really good videos. I had an eye for talent, I had one of the best teams. So our videos were you know, they were

they were sought after. UM. So we were Let's just say that we were staying above water, okay, and you make big mistakes, uh not at the time. UM. I think the mistake that we made was that we thought that it was gonna turn around quicker. So somewhere around the third year of business, pair and I had had a pretty heavy discussion about how do we disband this? You know this, because we can't we barely stay afloat um. And that's right when the X game started. Okay, so

you did you break up? Are the partnership? We both we both took pay cuts, were just said we gotta okay, let me ask you this. How do you decide to get married at age two? I? UM, I had been with the same uh girlfriend for a while. We lived together, and there was a little bit of outside pressure where it was like you guys lived together, you know, it was that era. It was just like what how do you? How does that work? And so we got We got

married because we thought that was the natural progression. We were both way too young and working at the time. She was working full time, yeah, as a manicurist, and she was the breadwinner at the time when we got married, and then how did you decide to have a kid? Uh? I don't think it was a conscious decision. But so you're like, twenty three year old old with a kid. What did I don't even have kids? What is that? Um?

You know, it's weird. It was I've I have many children now, so I know, you know, I have a better road map of what to do. But at the time, it was really fun because I grew up with a dad that was so much older he couldn't really participate in this stuff. With me, I was right there in the mix. You know, I was super fun. I was. I was and I was you know, I was just sponsible enough. But but I was pulled in so many direct trying to make a living that it did get tricky,

you know. And there were a lot of attractions for sure, and ultimately pulled us apart um just based on our schedules. But you know, it was just different scenes and and there were a lot of strains back then. It was it was really it was really tough, um. And and it's it's hard now because you know, my that's my oldest son, Riley, he's now a pro skater. A lot of people think he just had a free ride, he

had silver spoon. Like. No. At one point he was living with his mom and a trailer on her boyfriend's dad's property. You know what. Like it was not easy at all, and I was out trying to to to make a living for us. How hypothetically, if you couldn't make ends meet, could your parents help you out? Yeah, to an extent. But my expenses were pretty big at

the time. I really I sold. I sold my house for what I owed on it, um and moved into a duplex, the original one that I had bought, and you know, just cut back and I literally ate top brahmin and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a couple of years. Wow. I mean, I don't know how we'll publicized that is, but okay, so am I leaving anything out if I go to the X Games next or no? I mean that's around that same time. Okay, So that's so. That's so the X game started. Is this something in

your world? Do you see the potential of that in a lot of ways? Yes, Um, there was a lot of pushback because it was the strange experimental event that was including all these disciplines and all these sports that we had nothing to do with, and then suddenly they're like, it's extreme, Like what does that mean? Like, well, you know, rock climbing and skysurfing and bungee jumping. And I was like, I don't do anything, Like we don't do any of those things. I don't identify with any of those people

like doing that. And but but I saw the opportunity to be to to have to have modern skateboarding televised properly basically I don't properly, but to have it shown for what it really is, you know, not just for the graphics and the hair dues and and the eccentricities, but really for the for the physical feats of of

some of these talented skaters. And so I felt like, if we just stay the course and we're skating and we're not falling into you know, all the goofiness of what this can be or the side show that this is in a lot of ways, I feel like what

we do will shine through. And I made that no until a lot of my peers too, you know, I was like, Hey, we have this opportunity, Like I know people want to ban this and whatnot if we banned this, then these random other skaters that maybe aren't even as accomplished or as good are gonna be the names everyone knows. Like I literally did say that to a few people who were considering boycotting the event. So you go, at

this point, you're still competing while you're still running your Birdhouse. Yes, well okay, so so around that time, um, we're getting deep here. But around that time, I was still doing all the ads, you know, all the marketing for Birdhouse. I had tried to sort of step back from being in the spotlight just so that I could run the business. And one of my one of my best skaters on the team and my partner pair in the company, they

sat me down. They said, you're way better for us front and center than you are sitting behind a computer. Like you're way more effective. You're still skating super good. We want to bring back the Tony Hawk skateboard. You know, we feel like this is this is the time, and and there's these events and your name is still out there, like this is what we should be doing. And I was kind of reluctant because I just felt like, I mean, at that time, what it was like twenty you know,

twenties six or something. UM, And I was like, I'm old, I'm over the hill, like I was. I felt good about my skating, but I was just like, you know, I've feel like at that time, no one was in their late twenties professionally skating. No one was in their thirties professionally skating. There's you know that wasn't that was nunheard of. Um. But I listened to him, and I, you know, I really focused on my skating again and and got better than I was and became you know,

this name that people knew from the X Games. Okay, but a little bit slower. Okay, So you had to hone your chops for the X Games. Um, I just had. I had to get back into competition mode because by then I was just more shoot skating for myself and for video for for video coverage, which is a different type of scanning. It's a little more risky, um, more sporadic. You know. Competition skating is like you gotta work on these routines, and you gotta work on these combinations, and

you gotta make them consistently, and you gotta score good. Okay, So you go to the X Games. The first X Games and you go and as I say, you're coming from a thing where you see the up and down skate paring. You don't go with great anticipation. This is just another thing you're doing, right. Um. Yeah, but I knew there was a lot of potential and that it's the biggest thing we had ever seen. So what was it like on your end of it? You go, it's on TV for you know days, did you feel it? Um?

Afterwards when we left there, I started getting noticed again. It was like, hey, Tony Hawk, saw you on that Extreme Games Like that was awesome? You know whatever? The Mick twist and it was like, what you know what twist is? Like? Um, a little bit of that, but but a noticeable shift. Okay, And did that now start to grow? You have to wait for the next year's

X Games. I would say it was the third year of X Games when we relate and they got rid of a lot of the BS sports to be yeah, I mean yeah, the bungee jumping for the rock climbing was on its way out right, and then skateboarding actually took a new higher level. Yeah, and they started adding modocross and it was like, okay, this is what I'm more familiar with UM. But by then, you know, I was doing really well. I was still kind of dominating

the competitions, and that was the name they knew. And I had survived one wave of skateboarding, so I was on the second wave, and so people knew my name from prior generations. And suddenly we felt it. In sales, Birdhouse was profitable, like it was a real thing, um, And I was being asked to do a lot more things. I was getting sponsors that were non endemic, you know, like random okay, a club, med you know, hot wheels, um.

And and it suddenly it was like, wait, hey, this is a business now at this point in time, do you have a team, you have a lawyer, you have a manager of any of that stuff? I am no, not really. I UM. My sister had come from the

music industry. She actually used to sing back up for Michael Bolton yeah and for the Righteous Brothers, and she got pregnant with twins and she was a little older, so she decided to pull back for that and then as my as as my career started to rise, she said, hey, I think I can help you with the stuff because it is very much like entertainment these times. Um, so she became my my business partner and manager and helped me navigate these you know, strange territories of endorsements. Why

don't you start dealing with those companies. There's real money involved. Yeah, yeah, and they don't want you to know that. Yeah. Um. And then not long after that, I got a real agent. I mean she she was still my business partner, but I got a real agent because suddenly there were things that I just didn't really understand at all. I mean I was getting like these these endorsement deals and they required me to travel and they want all his time for me, and um, it was it was a little overwhelming.

And then suddenly someone stepped in and said, oh, if you know, you need a real manager. And suddenly my my income jumped tremendously because because they know the landscape exactly, they they negotiate for a living. Okay, So now you're in this heyday and everybody knows about skating. Once you get to the mid to late nineties and you're the face of it all, so is it all groovy or whether you know deep inside you when they're still questions, um,

was it all groovy? It seemed like it was all groovy. Um, for sure, I was, you know, I was falling into distractions and I probably I probably could have given a lot of more of my time to my kids, you know, but I was. I was suddenly thrust into this, this level of success that I didn't know it was possible in my field, and one that was like, wait, this is reserved for you know, actual movie stars and things, and is not what I'm supposed to do. And I'm

just got all the brick carpet events and stuff. So I kind of fell into that for a little while. Um, you know that I regret now, but I had to learn from those problems everything to know whether it's good. Yeah, but you know what I mean. At some point I was like, wait, why don't have to wear a suit here? What? I'm not friends with these people, you know what I mean? Like no, no, no, slow down a little bit. So how much of this did you actually do? Showing up

as being Tony Hawk the skater? Well, I just got I keept getting requested, you know, like and that was the day of awards shows, so it was like the Blockbuster Awards and the Video Game Awards, and it was like they want you to present, and I was like, I'm you know, at one point I had a wardrobe stylist and it was just like this is a little bit of a little out of hand, but um, but it was fun for sure, and and and all along.

I knew that it was amazing for skateboarding to you know, even though some of these opportunities were for me only, I was the one that was raising the profile of skating through doing that. Like I got endorsement with McDonald's and I knew that I was going to use McDonald's marketing money to promote skateboarding. Okay, but you're the face. There's a lot of solid grapes people out there, you know. Sure, but you know, being at the top is as they say, it's lonely at the top. So what was it like

being the number one guy? I mean, you're a friendly guy and it's a community. There was a lot of pressure. It was a lot of pressure, and there was you know, there was a lot there was a lot of pushback, like a lot of haters. But I guess I I endured the haters for so long as a kid that once I got to this level of success, I was just like, yeah, right, like, go ahead and say all you want, you know, and it was just like, oh,

you're a sellout. I was like, am I Because if McDonald's had offered me a sponsorship when I was fourteen, damn right, I would have taken it like I was eating there back then. So I don't know what the selling out. I feel like, you know at some point and it would seem cliche, but people are only calling you a sellout when your stuff finally sells. Then what they say in the music business, as they say, you know, I've been waiting so long. I'm dying to sell out.

You know, anybody's got the money. But you know, it's interesting that you make your point. I want to finally sells. That's what people are paying. It was like, you guys have had a skateboard with my name on it since I was fourteen. You did not care. Back then, no one cared. And now now suddenly I'm gonna sell out. No, my boards are selling, you know, and and people are finally asking me to to do promotions and things like that. It's what you know, this is a dream come true.

But I was the one to first breakthrough that sort of boundary that it would be okay to do sponsorships and endorsements outside of the skate world, right, And I guess that, okay, go back to your point where you wake up one day and say these are not my people,

I don't want to wear a suit, etcetera. Um, I think that was that was more I learned it maybe a little too late, but that was more in the early two thousand's when my video game was really hitting, and you know, suddenly my name was synonymous not skateboarding but video games as well. And it was like red carpets and parties and and bottle service and all that stuff.

And at some point I was like I was just too distracted, um and I and I was getting away from the core of skating that I really loved and falling into this weird sort of celebrity existence. Um And I think it was, you know, around that time where I decided, like I need to really scale this back and get back to what I love doing because I'm not loving doing this, and and get back to my children because I was really kind of off and running.

And Uh, I would say it was more like, you know, in the mid to late two thousand's that I that I've felt like I made a positive change in what I was doing, And what does it take to make you put on a suit? Now? Um, a wedding okay, but shy of that anyway you go, you're going as yourself. Yeah, at this point, at this point, like, if they're not gonna let me in with what I'm wearing, I don't want to be around them anyway. If I can't wear my sneakers, forget about it. How does the video game

thing happen? Uh? So that was around the late nineties. Basically I was always into video games. I mean I played Missile Command, pac Man as a kid. I bought the first you know I had in television, I had super anties, and I was a video game kid. I was an arcade kid. So, uh this this PC programmer approached me and said, hey, I'm thinking about doing a video game skateboarding on the PC. And he had this

really crude little engine in motion. It was pretty sad, I mean this thing he had created, but it was something. And he's like, do you want to go pitch you with me? And if we can get the right partner and we can get funding for this and make it something real? Said yeah, sure, So I went, I went to pitch meetings with him. I went, we went to Nintendo, we went to different software publishers, and we just came up against like, you know, barely a wall. Like it was,

I mean not barely any interest. It was like we are I would spend the whole meeting defending skateboarding. Well like, why would skiboard is unpopular? I wouldn't want to play video games? Why I think skebord could lend itself to a video game and whatever. That. Finally, after the our last meeting with Midway, who were probably the I usually say this story and never mentioned them, but at this point I don't really care anymore because it's such a

long time ago. They were so discouraging and kind of insulting that that he gave up after that meeting, like literally walked out, signs like you know what, I don't really have time to do this anymore, but you know, I wish you luck, and that had planned to see eat in the video game world. That said Tony Hawk is interested in video games. And not long after that, Activision called me. A few other companies call me, actually, but Activision called me and said, hey, we heard you

want to do a video game. We're working on a scaate video game. We'd like to have you come look at it. Well, it's very interesting because you know you're talking about this. I find if people reach out to me, it can work. If I'm selling it never worked. You have to explain who you are. It's just never the right thing. So anyway, you go to Activision. So I go to Activision and I sit in this boardroom with

all these heads, you know, administrative dudes. I've definitely not dressed apart, but I think that's what they expected on me. And uh, they hand me a joystick and they're like, well, this is what we're working on, and this is the engine. And and this engine was built for a game called Apocalypse with Bruce Willis, based on not a movie, but but you know it's supposed to be this sort of

dystopian waste land. He's got a gun and whatnot. So literally, the first time I played my own game, I was Bruce Willis with a gone on my back, skating around this desert doing kick flips and stuff. Um, and I knew immediately that this was it, really instinctively, the way the controls were laid out, Like I started playing it, immediately started doing tricks and I figured out what they were, you know, the sort of mechanism and they're going for. And I was like, this is this is it with

my influence, this will be the skating game. Like it's funny. Now, I thought you're gonna say the opposite, They're gonna say this is terrible. No, it was. I mean it really was that. It was. There are a few moments in my life that I feel like it was an epiphany, but there, for sure it was like and it wasn't an epiphany, like this is gonna be the biggest thing ever game my in my head, I was like, skaters are gonna love this, and skating wasn't even that big.

So I was like, maybe this will inspire skaters to buy a PlayStation. Okay, and there at that point it was the Bruce Willis game. How much input did you have into the final game? Oh? Was there every step of the way. Yeah. For for the better part of probably two and a half years. Um, they I would be up there, I'd be it never soft up in Woodland Hills. Uh. They would send me burns of the new bills on on c D. They would send me CDs like every week, and I would play it and

give feedback. And uh, I, I mean I was. I wanted to represent skateboarding, so it really is your game, absolutely. I mean, you know, I can't take credit completely for the whole soundtrack for um, you know, some of the mechanics and things like that, but but for sure, I it didn't pass without my approval. And do you have

any idea how lucrative it was gonna be? No? Never, I mean I knew, well, I knew that there was something happening because right before its release, Activision call and they said, hey, we all want to see if you want to get an advance on royalties or a buy out on royalties. So what does that mean? They said, well, we'll give you half a million dollars for advanced royalties for royalties forever, like that's my buyout. And I never heard anyone say half a million dollars to me, you know,

and and um, and I was. I considered it, but I had just bought a new house, you know, I felt comfortable in my finances beyond that I wasn't making money from them yet, and I just said, you know what, I'd rather just see what happens. I mean, for sure, that was the absolute best business desision I ever made in my life. But I didn't realize it at the time.

I didn't even think it was that significant. Um. And then I knew that something was happening when they, you know, right as the first game was released, they called me and said, we got you need to come up and start talking about like what we're gonna do next? What do you mean next? Well, for pro Skater two, this thing just came out like, well, we need a year to develop the next one, Like, oh, I guess we're

doing a new one. And then the sort of the next level of that was when number four came out. The the other three were still in the top ten of sales, and that was the turning away. That's when things got into like crazy money that I never imagined. Wow, I mean I almost can't say anything. What about the when you have the tour of the huck Jam thing? Um? So that was supposed to be my uh, that was

supposed to be my transition from competing. I wanted to not compete anymore because I didn't I didn't like the schedule and the pressure and I at that point I've done it twenty years of my life, and so I started the huck gam as a response to always being the side show to bigger events. So if they ever saw skating at an event, like at the Warp tour or at a football game, it was like oft in the parking lot or at the you know, it was

on the halftime show. And I was like, I feel like we've come so far with our sports that we could be the headlining act and yeah, we'll have music, but they're gonna play in the middle of our show. And I got um. I partnered up with Jim Giarre now would approach me Um, who was a music manager who had approached me around that time about working together on anything, and that was my what I presented to him.

I said, I want to do this tour. He's like, it's great, I know all the people that do tourist Like okay, He's like, we'll get Offspring to play. I was like, Offspring said, yeah, I can get Offspring and I can get Social Distortion. I was like really, and he's like, I think I can get Diva. I'm like, you gotta be kidding, right, they just say Devo. He's like, yeah, I think they might want to play a show. And I was like, that that's my Speccoli van Halen moment.

If Devo played at my show, that that is the end all to my existence. And it happened. And so what did we learn? Ah? I learned that the concert industry is um a wild ride, um and way bigger than I imagined. I learned that selling tickets is very challenging to any event. Um. I learned that. Uh that, well it's totally different now, but back then that the getting an underwriting sponsor was everything. Um. Luckily ours was

usually activision, you know, by default. Um. And uh, I learned how to I learned how to curate a show. I mean, I want to say curate like produce a show, to make it something that is fun to watch from start to finish. But you stopped doing it. We stopped doing it just because sponsorship dollars, you know, in the mid two thousand's got very difficult. We couldn't get someone to write a million dollar check to underwrite a whole tour that would take place in arenas because very few

people were comeing to arenas. Um. It just you know, it just got to the the business model of it was too tricky with the with how big it was getting, so we scaled it back. We did it in sheds uh with sort of half of our gear, and we made it work, but it wasn't the huck Jam that I was really proud of. And then six Flags saw one of our shows and said, we want you to

do that in six Flags next year. So we actually did a six Flags huck Jam tour with sort of the the scaled down version of it, which was still fun, but it was weird, you know, like doing shows in an amusement park. But some people came just for the show. Okay, this point in time, your house you have all what do you have in terms of skate facilities at your house? So I have a I have a concrete park in

my backyard about four thousand square feet. That's that's sort of like a traditional skate park you would see, you know around the street. UM. And then I have my huck Jam halfpipe ramp in an office nearby. And how often do you go on and go out on either of them? I skate my ramp at least three times a week, three or four times a week. So I still do I still actively do exhibitions, UM and I want to. You know, I still love skating obviously, but

I but I started to stay in practice. If if I'm home and probably skating out with the kids maybe once every other day out in the backyard. But they all got their own crews. Like, you know, even though I'm a professional skateboarding well known, they're not. Really they don't want to go skate with me in and do they all want to skate. It's so I mean, it's not strange, it's awesome, but it's a totally different time. They all skate, they all love skating, and it's not

because of me. I mean, it's accessible to them because of me. But you know, when I was a kid, skating was rare. It was you know, it was the really outcast that we're doing it. And now all their bro skate. So why would you assess in terms of the up and downs? Where would you put skateboarding now?

I would say that it had a meteoric rise um in the early two thousand's, uh that continued gradually but tapered off a bit into the late two thousands, and it's sort of plateaued but still wrong now in the US, um elsewhere it's growing and now skateboarding is gonna be the Olympics in that's gonna raise this global awareness. You know, suddenly there's gonna be Olympic teams from Ethiopia for Cambodia.

Like that's true, it's gonna happen. And that's what excites me now is this sort of global interests of skateboarding where these kids from the most unlikely places are gonna feel that passion. So what's a typical day like for you now? Uh? Well, I try to uh, I try to limit my travel as best I can, or to include my family when I do. I've I've really you know, made a very conscious effort to be more present for

them in recent years. And so a typical day is waking up, getting the kids off to school, taking uh. In any given day, there's usually two to four teenagers, um, and then we have four teenage boys. My oldest son lives on his own, and then my daughter is uh, she's nine, she's with us most weekends. So it's kids, our houses. Kids. It's just it's super fun. I love it. It's always lively, you know. Um. But but that's what

it is. I'm you know, I'm taking I'm usually I used to call myself just kids chauffeur because it's just like, all right, wait now that a lot of them are driving, which is the best the best, um, And so I take one of the school I usually will go to my office not long after that and try to do whatever business I need, emails, interviews, you know, just dealing

with licensing stuff, for scheduling stuff. And then I try to skate my ramp before school gets out so that I can pick up my kids from school and I can beat what I call the X Games Finals crowd, which is basically all the best skaters around my area love skating my ramp because it's the It's original Hucksham ramp. It really is the best built ramp in the world.

Cost me a million bucks a better be but um, but they all come to skate and their sessions are so heated, and you know they're they all have that fire, they're all competing. I don't like, that's not my scene anymore. I don't want to fight for a turn on my ramp.

So I have that we called the old Man session, usually around around eleven or twelve, and then you and other any other buddies go out, yeah, like a couple of friends that are you know, my of my generation will be skating and they're they're all still skating really good. It's just that's our scene because we're gonna get kids from school, right and so your kids, you know, Riley's a professional skater. The other kids are driving, they're going to be out of high school. What do you want

them to be? What do they want to be? Um? Well, one of them is already h he's at the Berkeley College of Music as of this year. My son Spencer, and he's he's loving it. He does his own E d M type of stuff. They all play music. Uh. My other son, um, he is he's a hip hop I mean he's a hip hop encyclopedia. Um. He wants to study doing something not making him up, but producing like a line or management or something within that realm, because he really does have an ear for it and

and uh he has an eye for the creativity of it. Um. One kid is really into computers, like designed his own VR type of stuff, and so he's kind of go in that direction. The other one is, Wow, what is he he? He uh, surfs, he skates, he plays piano. He's like a maestro piano. They're all they all are very creative, but you know, kind of within the same worlds. Okay, skate and punk go together. How do you feel about

hip hop? I love it. I love that it's like urban and it came from the streets, and you know, it was very infused in skating in the in the nineties. Skating and hip hop we're we're kind of hand in hand because they came from the same milk um and a lot of skater you know, a lot of rappers are skate. That's like, that's their activity. Thanks for listening to the Bob left That's podcast. If you want to see Tony with me at tuned in studios, check out the tune in Instagram account at tune in for some

picks and videos from behind the scenes. If you simply can't get enough, I want to know more of my thoughts on the future of the music industry, technology and current events. You'll want to subscribe to my newsletter. Find and subscribe at left sets dot com. Now I'm not shameless promotion. Let's dive back into the interview. So at this point in time, what personally do you still want to achieve? Um, you know what, I don't. I never I've never made any lofty goals like that, like I

gotta do this. Um, I'm just enjoying the ride now. I really like, I love I love that I still get to skate, like I literally do skate for a living in some ways still, Um, and I'm very proud of that. I'm gonna be fifty this year and I'm a pro skater and I still feel somewhat relevant, so that that's unbelievable to me, you know what I mean.

And and just sort of enjoying the opportunities to come with that a lot of unexpected A lot of them are ones I never imagined, but um, but I really enjoy them and and embracing them and and being up for the challenge. Like I do a lot of public speaking now, and that's not something I ever like. I wasn't. I didn't think skateboard was the springboard to public speaking.

But what kind of gigs do you do? Corporate events or like text summits and stuff, And you know, usually there you know, we had like a little conversation about that once, But usually they're looking for inspiration. Do you give them inspiration? What speech? It's usually follow your passion for the most part, but a lot of times I'll tailor it like I've I've done it for long enough that I can kind of guide it a certain direction if they need me to. So, you know, one was

more geared towards social media. One was more um adapt to the market place and um, I try to focus on those elements, but the easiest ones. And when I can just answer questions. Right when you go to a gig, do the group he's come up after no matter where you are, the year old skaters saying blah blah blah

blah blah, they want to talk stuff. Yeah, and and it's well, the fun thing about that is when you were a skater in the eighties, it was a very you thought it was a very exclusive club, and it was in a lot of ways because it just wasn't that popular. But once you're in, you like, you loved it, and you you hold on to every magazine and video.

And now that generation of news are mostly dads, and so they come up to me and they're like, I love my kids skates, and I tell them about Christian story, you guys, and for good and you know the fact that they have this in and they're still excited about it. It's it's really fun. Like I, I can't, I can't believe that that we've come this far and that it's still it's still that relevant, but also that that it

inspired so many people back then. Okay, going back to your own think, I mean, listening to your story, you definitely went you know, this is like the people of the d M world. It goes up and it crashes. It goes up and it crashes, but you're victimized by that with no fallback position. So are you basically saying that it was luck that skateboarding came back, or you're so passionate, or you're a unique individual that would succeed

in anything. How do you put that together? I think that I had the well, I had the advantage of not ever in the beginning, the goal was not fame or fortune. That was never the driving factor of what I was doing because it didn't exist and there wasn't just wasn't the the idea. The idea for me, it was just to keep getting better at skateboarding. So through the more difficult times and the more challenging times, that was still my motivation and I wanted to keep skating

however I could. So I was doing odd jobs and and this and that, just so that I would have some time to skate ad jobs, not skateboarding games on skateboarding. Yeah, I had some video editing equipment, so I used to like edit videos for really this is when in like

your early twenties. I uh, it was the only time I actually got borrowed money from my parents was to buy this this three quarter deck editing system that was run through my computer through a video toaster, which was one of the first home Yeah, I had an Amiga, and so I had the advantage of doing graphics with this video ating system. And so I mean I did. I did a couple of like I don't want to say big time stuff, but you know, legitimate jobs. Well,

what percentage your income was based on video? Very little? And did not pay my parents back the food that way, but it was paying the bills at the time. No, it's just you know, being in the ski world. You know, you wake up one day, it's very hard to make it. Skiing is not like we say the people from California surfers. They could live on the beach. You have a board,

that's it. Where if you're living, uh snow country. You gotta have a roof over your head, gotta have a pass, gotta have a women And eventually some people turn to dealing drugs. Other people quit, other people got to work for the industry. Other people get straight jobs. It's it's hard to survive. It's not as simple as saying, oh, I have a dream and it worked for you, okay, and I think that has something to do very special

to you. But I I'm weary. Well, I knew when I knew when to sort of pull back on the focus of my own, say, career in skating, in order to nurture, say, my company that I started. So what's the status of the company today. Uh, well, we've ben gon twenty five years, Birdhouse and that same three guys. No. I ended up UM buying my partner out about ten years ago, so it's just my inst but we do

have we have four employees. For the most part, we have a team of about ten skaters who you saw when we video premiered our video UM And when I took it over from my partner, it had kind of lost its focus because he was distracted with doing a lot of other brands, and I said, I want to put Birdhouse back on the map, and that's pretty much what I've been doing for the last i'd say eight years with Birdhouse UM culminating in this video we just

made and finally getting us back on track to sell skateboards. And so at this point in time, the last at this point in time, the last kenter ten years, is Birdhouse a profitable business? Uh? It is, but only because I will do UM sort of exterior licensing and sometimes not even a the Birdhouse brand, but just of my name to keep the ship afloat. So for instance, I have this uh Tony Hawks Skatepark series of skateboards that are more UM entry level skateboards that we sell at

box stores. Those royalties go to Birdhouse in order to keep it going and pay the salaries of my skaters. So at this point in time, because they don't want Birdhouse at that level, but I don't mind my name being at the right exactly. So your main business enterprises today are Birdhouse. Uh. Birdhouses is still tricky, but it's surviving. UM, it's licensing, it's licensing our clothing line, Tony Hart clothing,

UM endorsements. I have an endorsement with many USA. UM. And honestly, like, with the success of social media, that's become a source of income, which I never imagine at UH doing doing sponsored posts or campaigns things like that. You know, I was, I was there very early on on Twitter. Um and Uh. In fact, you wrote about one of my things I done on Twitter I miss like ten years ago, uh, which is how I learned about you. And and I just was trying to make

it fun. You know, I knew that it was it was, it was far reaching, but I was just trying to make it fun for the people because I didn't want them to just think like, oh, hey, I'm hungry, Look I got coffee, Like what who cares? Is it's just your intern voice and now. And I was just trying to think of like what would I want to read from someone or what would I want to participate in?

And so through that I had success. I got a lot of followers on Twitter obviously, and then through Instagram and through Facebook, and suddenly, before I knew it, I had this sort of business opportunity. And it's not really why I do it. It never has been, but it's suddenly it's like, wait, you'll pay me to what really and I don't really have to change my voice. That's the only stipulation I have. Like, look, if you want me to do this, I have to do in my

own terms. I'm not just gonna put your marketing you know, you're talking point out there like I'm gonna make it my own voice. So although no one calls anymore, is the phone still ringing? The opportunities? Could the opportunities continue to come in at the same level they do? Yeah? And and like I said, when I when I do get an opportunity, I embrace it and I try to make it something fun and it usually ends up playing

into something else. And who's fielding all those Uh? Well, I do have people at my office, so I do have um my sister is still my business partner, but I have a you know a few people in my office where they answer the phone and they do my schedule. And okay, but your story listening to it now for the past hour, you always say yes, is that true? No? No?

In fact, once I got that level of success, especially with the video game, that was the finally the time where I was allowed to say no because I was I was coming. I wasn't struggling to make ends meet. I didn't have to do every single thing. And even now, I mean for sure, nowadays I'm saying no, way more, just so that I have my own time, so that I, you know, have control of my life and I'm with my kids. Um. But it but it's a difficult. It's a difficult transition to make, you know too. Where it

suddenly it's like, wait, what you want to do this? No, I don't what. It's not gonna you know, that's not gonna change what I'm doing or the reach that I have, and it's just gonna take up more of my time, like getting there and doing what you've been up and down financially this Wait, do you have any fear that you're going to run out of money? Or you feel Okay, I'm set and it will continue to be opportunities. I I'm not set in the sense that if I stopped everything,

I could just live off my savings necessarily. Um, because I still want to provide for my kids into their adult lives, you know, or at least have them not. I don't want them to want for anything. I don't want them to struggle with you know. I want them to be productive and to take pride in their work, but I don't want them to feel like they're going to start UM. So yes and no, I mean yes, I would We could live modestly throughout our days and

be fine. UM. But but I do feel like there are other there are other things that are that are still would be fun to accomplish. UM. I would love to UH. Our clothing line has has lingered in the US for a long time. It was exclusive to calls for almost ten years, and I would love to see the international potential of that. Because our clothing line was started by my siblings and I because we all had kids and we couldn't find cool clothes for our kids.

That was that was it. That was the basic concept, and we started making cool clothes for toddlers, and then it started getting into young men's and then we had something. We had a legit clothing line, and Quicksilver bought the I P then UH Cherokee bought it, and that that now gives us the opportunity to take an on a more global scale. Just going back, one final thing, if you look at your success, which has been over decades and multifarious, what do you think the key element is? UM?

I think the key element for me was um for sure, perseverance, but also um not being detracted or or um discouraged by the naysays, not listening to them. And like I said, I had plenty of that early on. I mean, it's set me up so well for so many different things

in life. But I had so many naysayers early on in my skating career and and sort of found my voice and you know, became successful with it that once I started getting sponsors, the big sponsors, and people were like, oh, you're selling them whatever, you know this, I'm happy with what I'm doing. I'm proud of what I'm endorsing. And then came social media with hate like you've never known, and I was ready, you know what I mean, I had been through these different waves of it. My shell

was tight. Okay, so somebody says something negative rolls right off, you know, absolutely, Yeah, I mean, you know, sometimes it stings a bit, but um, I'm sure you have haters like I have who hate multiple times a day every day. Sure, yeah, but then it's just like but then if you go to their feed, that's all they're doing is just yelling at people, and it's just like, well, I'm not. I'm not exclusive in your hate, so I don't take it as as harshly. It's only when they talk about my

my kids when I will not get involved. I just deleted because they don't need that. They don't they're not they're not participating in this. They're not certain lines that are very similar. One thing. I'm definitely not as a naysayer. Certainly, there's so many people with a profile who are essentially nonverbal. Musicians are most famous for that. But you can certainly tell a story. It's been very edifying and interesting. I'm sure my audience will love it. Tony, thanks so much

for coming. Yeah, thanks for having me, and thanks for writing about the Birdhouse video. That was Okay, it was great. It was great. Kind I mean, that's one of the things that's a big cultural change. You know, we live in this society right now where the self anointed media elite is frequently out of touch with what's going on. And one of the interesting things I saw, primarily in as we would say, you know, X games or sports

of that ilk was the community spirit. When I grew up as a baby boomer, people wanted to win, and there were the winners and the losers where if you watch, you know, a skate competition whatever, they'll rally all around. You know, the winner will be with a loser, will all be a sense of community. And I learned that from skating, and then it evolved even amongst a millennial generation. I mean in my when I grew up and I was going to school, people would raise her hand, want

to stand up a lot of people. I don't want to stand out. I want to be a member of the group, et ceter up. So there's been a huge cultural impact. And it's also interesting because people your aged ten years younger than myself. Uh, you know, I go, I goes, you know, I hang with these people and skating is such a big part of their culture. People don't realize this. Like this guy, Ian Rodgers presently works for an l M v H l V you know, Louis Vattone LVMH used to work for Apple and Beats whatever.

Oh yeah, big skater Okay, And I know this guy okay, my friend Mark Writer who works with Metallica, big skater. And we go with Joel Gomez who got started. It's amazing what a culture and how it intertwine. Now another thing you're doing. Although I said we were ending here is you're also your foundation is building skatepark. So tell us just a little bit more about that. Uh So, we started the foundation UM about fifteen years ago and the goal was just to help people get through the

process of getting a skatepark. It wasn't our it wasn't our intent to just pick a city and say the city needs apart. It was more it was more um, looking at communities that are trying to get something going for themselves and giving them the resources necessary for it. So giving them funding but more is importantly the guide to getting through the red tape to city council meetings

and petitioning and all that stuff. UM. And we've learned a lot through the through the process, we've gotten you know, the supportive of larger philanthropy in a lot of ways. And so we've helped to develop almost six skateparks now. So what is the biggest challenge building the skatepark other than them really usually the approval process, getting getting either the city behind it or the location. UM, the funding

can be a problem. And usually with our with with our grant and our endorsement, that will get them a lot more in matching funds and and maybe even there'll be the tipping point for them getting it approved completely. Um, it's definitely the work I'm most proud of and and I you know, I enjoyed and selfishly, I just get more places to skate. And then what's the liability issue today? Well, the skateboarding was added to the hazardous activities lists about

fifteen years ago. Well maybe a little less, but that was right around the time we started doing it, and that allowed people to build skate parks in public areas and not have them monitored because skating is at your own risk. Like it actually fell under the same stipulation as skiing. So ski you get hurt, can't blame anyone. Nowadays, skate you get hurt, you know, and that's working out,

it is. Yeah, it it gets weird because if they do a skate park and they want to enforce pads, um, which you know I encourage, specially for beginners, if they if they want to enforce pads and someone is skating without pads and they get hurt, then they are liable because they weren't enforcing it enough. And it gets really it's just you knowable somebody such a nightmare. Okay, well we're not gonna get hurt here in the studio. Thanks again, Tony. Hey, this is Bob left Sex. I want to thank you

for your time. Much like the Left Sets Letter, I want to hear from you. You can email me at Bob at left sets dot com and let me know what you think. I appreciate your comments. Be sure to subscribe on tune in, Apple Podcasts or your podcast player of choice if there are apps were not available, and let me know we'll get them there. Remember, distribution is king.

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