Tony Hawk

goose whatever. I'm dying here. So I've been talking to athletes and sports industry professionals about what they're doing in quarantine, helping to figure out if FAM is competing as much as I miss watching it. This is the No Sports Report. When it comes to skateboarding, no matter what aide you are, one name comes to mind, Little Wayne. I'm kidding, it's Tony Hawk. I know people say someone is the Michael Jordan of their respective sport a lot, but Tony Hawk

truly is the Michael Jordan of skateboarding. The entrepreneur and philanthropist built an empire around a sport he was vital and taking mainstream, putting the X Games on the map, and signing endless sponsorship deals, including one that put his name on a video game that would not only change the gaming industry but reportedly place his net worth above

Larry Bird and Charles Barkley combined. He was the National Skateboarder of the Year twelve years in a row, a two time X Games Gold medalist, a winner of more than seventy events, the most in the history of the sport, and the first person in the world to ever lay in the coveted nine hundred, still considered the most memorable feat in professional skating to this day. He's also the first and only person to ever skateboard on the grounds of the White House, which I don't see anyone doing

again anytime soon. On this episode, I talked to Tony about the state of pandemic skateboarding, the upcoming return of Tony Hawk pro Skater and Little Cooper from Georgia, and that FedEx guy and some police academy for citizens on patrol talk for good measure. Excited to have a legend on today's No Sports Report from Tony Hawk pro Skater to except Press one, Tony, I wanted to ask first

where you were quarantined and with who. I am in San Diego at home with most of my family, so my wife and then three of our boys too, who are home from college, and then my daughter is here half the time. And uh, I'm either here at the home or I'm at my ramp, which is pretty close just down the street. I that is a lot of kids to have in I feel like, if they're back from college, you at one point we're empty nesting, and now we were very close. Yeah, you are now a

frat house kind of. Yeah. They're getting a little more mobility, a little more freedom now to see friends. And suddenly it's like, wait a second, what just happened? Now we have summer camp. Yeah. It's so weird because I remember coming back for summers to my parents house while I was in college, and you're like a grown ass man getting to do whatever you want. And then you're back under the roof of your parents. You're like, you can't

tell me what to do. Yeah, Well, luckily we have enough room that they're relatively autonomous, and so sometimes, you know, we get up in the morning, it's like, wait, how late with these guys up? What was going on here? Right, what are you guys doing to keep busy with everyone in the house. Uh, well, for the most part skating. Honestly, Um, I usually am traveling quite a bit for for what I do, Like I do exhibitions, or I do charity work, or I do speaking engagements, and all that obviously is

on hiatus. So I've just been Really it's been fun because we've been able to spend time with the kids, and I've been able to skate a lot more frequently. And um, we try to do stuff together, like we try to have at least dinner together, and maybe you watch a movie every couple of days. But like I said, for the most part, these guys are are autonomous and they're out surfing and hanging out, and we have to make an effort to bring everyone together in one place

at one time. Yeah. I mean, considering you've been a professional skateboarder since you were fourteen years old, this has to be the longest you've went without going to an event ever. Oh, for sure, this is the longest that I've been home straight since I can never remember. But it's it's been nice. Like I I it's funny. It feels busier because there's a lot of things that I do where I save up, say emails or interview stuff

for an airplane when there's no distractions. And I realized just recently that I don't have those sort of pauses to get on an airplane and do this stuff. And

it feels a lot more frantic because of that. Sure, yeah, I mean we're on one big airplane ride kind of, but because we have our kids trying to prioritize that and to be present for them, And you know, I realized that I am very lucky that my job doesn't require me going to a place of business and that, um, people are really challenged right now, and so I feel lucky that I still get to do what I love. Obviously, the income has strength, um, but I wouldn't have it

any other way. And I did see We've talked to a couple of athletes over the span of this podcast that have celebrated a birthday while in quarantine. What did you do for this very strange year? We just had a day at home, the kids were here. My wife said, oh, um, someone wanted to talk to you and brought me into a room where she basically had this surprise zoom party with more faces and more people that I've ever seen

on one call. That was really fun, super chaotic, kind of almost incomprehensible and in a lot of ways impossible to communicate. But it was fun to see all the faces looking at each other and just sort of laughing. Yeah. I can't imagine how we've been able to like have a zoom call with more than two people ever, Right, So I would say this was about forty at a time and people trying to actually talk to each other

and have individual conversations and it just was just noise. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, we do have to talk about the one TV show that is still on the air. It's The Mask Singer. You were a participant this year as the Elephant. I was a producer on the first season, so so I know what you went through. Tell people how painful that costume was for you, You know what. I was kind of lucky that my costume was a little more mobile than the other ones. The only part that was difficult

was that I had to wear a helmet. Luckily, I wore my own skate helmet, but I had to get it really tied on my head and then the mask was built around it. So by the end of the first take. I had kind of a headache. I that is actually, to be honest, that is kind of lucky because we thought in season one we thought we killed Terry Bradshaw at one point, like he wasn't moving back age.

We figured out he was asleep. Not a joke, by the way, But but you did have it easy if that's the most you faced, and the people don't know those things are constrictive. Yeah it was. It was really heavy. And it's weird too when you rehearse, because you rehearse with such freedom, and so we're doing all these wild moves and stuff. And then when I finally got the mask on, I realized that I have about of the mobility that I did when I was actually practicing these dances.

And it really changed how I could do it and how I could sing because I had to sort of fit the microphone way under the mask and hold it in a certain place to get the sound, and uh, it just you know, it changed the whole dynamic. But I had a blast. It was fun. I can't complain. Was that just another example of Tony Hawk just challenging himself to do something new? Yeah, it was. It was way beyond my comfort zone, but um, I thought, why not? You know it was it was? It was fun idea.

I sincerely had hoped that I would be out by maybe the second song, because I didn't know how many more I had in me, and so it was a little disappointing to be the first out of my group, but at the same time, I didn't expect to go much further, so it was fun. Well, kudos to you. Have you been able to keep in touch with skaters

the other guys from the Birdhouse teams? Sure? Yeah, we have a big group chat going on and um, actually one of our skaters, Clive Dixon, he was in the X Games Real Street event, So that's an event where you submit a video of of real street skating and I think that's kind of the only part of X Games that's happening right now. And he ended up winning the fan favorite, So there was a lot of celebration going on in these group chat. Yeah, he's he's killing it.

He's I assume he's going to be Skater of the Year. But I was wondering if maybe in the group chat, Jaws is admitting to like baking his own bread or whatever. H Jaws is an enigma. Um, you know he's sure. He's like always on some some new projects. Uh and uh playing the mouth heart and yeah, making his own food and he's all out there skating quite a bit. So Um, he hasn't given up that. Yeah, Like, have

you seen skaters adapting on social media during quarantine? Like, is there anything you're seeing that's innovative because of the restrictions we have from the pandemic. Well, I've definitely seen people making use of their house in ways and I never imagined, and in ways that either puts them at risk or damages their their own property. But it's really

creative and it's fun to watch. I am surprised that I haven't seen more footage of people out skating schoolyards and stuff like that, because at its core, that's what skaters do. They hop fences and they go skate. And now of any other time is that stuff more available. But I think that the the risk factor of getting caught is a lot more. Now, Yeah, there's a kid,

This is for real. Is there's a kid who is down the street from us, and he is hopping the fence of the elementary school near us, and he's just playing lacrosse against the wall, and I was like, that seems like you could do that anywhere. Kid, right, Well, maybe it makes him feel like a rebel. Maybe COVID nineteen has postponed the Olympics, which was going to be the first time skateboarding was included as an event. I know it's somewhat controversial within the genre, but what is

your opinion on its inclusion. I think that, um, it'll be good for the growth of skateboarding on an international level in terms of countries finally embracing it and supporting it that maybe have tried to discourage it in the past. I mean, they're not going to reinmit the wheel. We We've had skate competitions for the last forty years more so, it's not like suddenly they're mold to get into something it's not and it'll just get more exposures. So I

don't see the harm in it. I understand people's concern that that somehow this is this is not the creed of skaters that like to do stuff off beaten path, kind of against the grain. But at the same time, we've been having big international televised competitions for years now. Yeah, will the team be like the US a dream team or is it gonna be just are you guys gonna look at and be like, these guys aren't the top of US charts? You know? Oh? No, I think that

the teams are going to be the best. I'm not part of that process at all, but I think the U S team is going to be extremely solid, some of the best skaters. Brazil is gonna be a serious contender. Australia. Um, we will have a dream team, but doesn't mean that we're gonna dominate. Amzing uh. Well, speaking of dreams, you made a lot of kids dreams come true during the quarantine with one of the biggest announcements in video game history. It seems like the return of Tony Hawk pro Skater.

Did you expect that kind of response? I had high hopes, I gotta admit, but um, I didn't expect it to be such a phenomenon. No. Um. I thought there would be a lot of reminiscing and and sort of retro nostalgia. But it seems like there's a generation of people that that was their go to video game and they are still gamers, so they're just as excited for this new release and I think the the more exciting thing to me is that it's going to introduce our franchise to

a whole new generation. Absolutely, it is a remastering of the first and second Games. I thought the coolest thing when I was reading through this you took all the original skaters, but you are now putting them in their present day ages. So it's not like they'll be what they were in ninety nine. This is now them in

two thousand and twenty, right. But also a lot of that is because they all mostly still skate, and so it's not like it's not like someone has retired and and you know, gotten way out of shape and then that's the that's the version of themselves we're putting in there that you know, everyone is still active, healthy, and I thought they should be presented the way that they are and you'd be proud of it, I think, including myself. Yeah, no, it's cool. I mean I I would look like a nark.

I'd be like holding the board like hello, fellow kids. Like I would I feel like I come off. I would want me to look younger because I'm like, that's when I was cool. You guys all are cool even now. Well, thank you Yeah. Uh, Jack Black was in the announcement video. Does this mean he's in the game. No, But you know what, he has been a huge fan of the series from way back, so um, he was genuinely excited

to know about this happening. And it was funny. I planted the scene with him because I had done a video with him at his house um last year, and while we were there, I had to whisper to him, Hey, we are actually working on remastering the first games, and he's like, I have to break that news. You have to give that to Jablinsky, And so he was the first one to get the info on It's so funny. I mean I've been noticing too, like the nostalgia for the game is very high, but I forgot how high

everyone's nostalgia is for the soundtracks. Yeah. I mean that definitely was a surprising element to our games in terms of the sort of impact and had I mean, I was proud of the soundtrack, which I felt like it represented the soundtrack of my youth in terms of skating and punk music, and then that resonated with people who played it and in a lot of ways shaped their taste, some of them shape their taste in music for their lives and so um, they were very adamant about getting

a lot of the original tracks in there. Yeah. I mean, I every time I hear Superman by Goldfinger, it's like my thumb gets a blister, Like it's all I only know it from the video games, and I know that's coming back, so I'm super excited. Yeah, I would say that is the uh, that's the most identifiable song. Yeah,

for sure. When the game originally first came out, there were tricks possible with the joystick that hadn't been performed really in real life at all, and people thought were never possible, And then now skaters do them in real life that that still boggles my mind. The stuff that I see people come up with, especially with the combos. I mean, it is just HPS as far as I'm concerned.

And when we were doing those combos and when we made those tricks available in the game, it was because we thought this is just fantasy, and now they do it, and now they do it. Yeah, did you approach the remastering with that in mind too, or their new tricks in the game that maybe we'll see in the streets down the road. I think potentially always Yes, that's cool. I'm now I'm down. I mean, I'm playing this no matter what. But this is going to be one of

those everyone downloads on day one kind of thing. And I get it, the nostalgia. This is my entire college life. So I'm I'm thrilled. Oh well, I'm so thankful that people have such a fondness for our series that they want to see it come back. I'm thankful that Activision was agreeable to to try and remaster it and uh,

and that they put Vicarious Visions on. I mean that that really was That was the clinch, is that when Vicarious Visions got ahold of it, they have such respects for the original series and to keep it feeling the same and the authenticity and and it was just the right partnership. Yeah. You don't see them calling Tony LaRussa to bring back Tony LaRussa baseball. This is this is a classic game with Tony Hawk. And I know there was a documentary that was going around festivals before COVID

about the game. Are we gonna be able to see that soon? I believe so. I think they got a distribution deal. I am not directly connected with that either, which is sort of hard for people to understand because it was made by one of them guys who was on the development team, so he was definitely qualified to tell the story. And I heard they just got a distribution deal. I don't know where it's going to end up,

but I hope that people get to see it. I mean, when you first signed onto this game, I mean you became a bit of a John Madden, which is like you are a hundred percent the face of video games for skateboarding, same way Madden is for football. Like, did you ever think it could have been a phenomenon? No? I I really thought that the game was going to be embraced by skaters and maybe inspire them to go buy a PlayStation. And because you know, I thought we

we represented skating well. It had an authentic field, tricks, soundtracks, skaters locations, and skating was not that big at the time when we released it. You know, it was on the way up, but it but it hadn't really hit the mainstream, and so I think it was just sort of the perfect storm. People were looking for something else. They found that this was fun to play even if you don't skate, and then skating was starting to take center stage like with the X games, and it just

exploded from there. And the gameplay, Man, the gameplay was just so easy. It was like a pick up and play kind of thing. Yeah, I mean, that's that's what drew me to it in the first place. When I went to Activision the first time and played their sample, it was intuitive. I was immediately doing all these and kick flips and I and it was like, Oh, this is this is how we should do it after this

more with Tony Hawk. Right now, Feeding America is working tirelessly to ensure our most vulnerable populations, like students who were out of school, the elderly individuals whose jobs are impacted, and low income families continue to have access to food and other needed resources during the COVID nineteen pandemic. The Feeding America Food Bank Network is committed to serving communities and people facing hunger in America, and their greatest need

is donations and support of local food banks. This podcast is committed to donating a portion of the proceeds from the show to Feeding America, and we hope that you can join us in this effort to find out how you can help Feeding America dot org. Backslash COVID nineteen. Now here's the rest of my chat with the legend Tony Hawk. One thing that you have really gravitated towards

during quarantine is charity. You normally do a ton of philanthropy, but you've really turned it up over the past six months. Let's talk about what foot the bill is. But the bill is a Van's Shoes initiative where they're trying to help any of the skate shops or businesses that are related to skating, uh stay in business through the through these lean times and so a lot of skate shops

were shuttered. And so what they did was they would do a unique design for that skate shop and if you bought that shoe, then the proceeds would go to the shop. Um and I I got to nominate a skate shop here in San Diego called with Carl's About Pipelines, who is actually my first skate shop sponsor. So um they used a picture of me from the eighties with a with Carl's About Pipeline sticker on my board that I used to always run on my tail. That is very cool and they're still in business as far as

I can tell. And I think they're going to be open for legitimate business here in the coming weeks. So I was thankful to be able to help. That's very cool. I mean you are new to the Van's family a bit correct, I am, yes, uh, just the last couple of months. And are you planning on having your own shoe advance like a Tony Hawk signature? Um? Not at the time, No, but I'm open for discussion. I listen. I I look at you as I say, he turned

a video game into a phenomenon. I'm saying, you get your own air Hawk like I. I see it as a possible Jordan move, you know, after watching the last dance, you know what. I'm happy just wearing the old school high tops two I've and those are the first skate shoes I really had as a kid, so it's funny. When I put them on, it really sent me back to that time, and I got used to him right away. And it would be a miss of us to not talk about Cooper from Georgia when we are having this conversation.

You are a day out of trending on Twitter and all sorts of Facebook posts about this FedEx guy for people who didn't uh see it. A FedEx guy post a video about an eight or nine year old kid who ran up to his truck and said, listen, I need you to send something for me. He brings back a beaten up skateboard that just says to Tony Hawk, he doesn't have a box or any sort of postage.

So this guy posted on I guess it's at that point Instagram, TikTok on TikTok and uh and it gets to you and what happens then, So a lot of people I have a TikTok account, but I haven't been using it recently, and people were tagging me in different um social media platforms saying, hey, you got to see

the TikTok, get us this TikTok. So I went over there and saw what McHale, the FedEx driver had posted, and I just thought, oh, that's very cool, and so I posted a reply like, hey Cooper, thanks a lot for the skateboard. I'd like to send you mine, and that just exploded. So I actually, just half an hour ago, was on a Zoom call with him and his family and he was showing me his whole skateboard collection. He

was showing me his pets. It was very cool. I mean, it's so funny that social media can do so much garbage damage and then you hear a story like Cooper Cooper from Georgia and you're like, this is the best time in American history. It was pretty cool. It was funny. There was a reality base to it, though, where Michale sent me a message on TikTok when he finally saw my reply and he said, yeah, I can send it,

but I need your f X number. So cute. I guess I thought about this when I read the story to like, you are like a Santa Clause in a way that you must have so many requests to do things, to appear at places, to get involved in things like this with Cooper, Like how are you able to really like just work through them. It's just more prioritizing And uh, I mean that one obviously just seemed like a lot of fun. It wasn't some charity driven or any reach

for publicity. It was just like, oh, people have been seeing this. At least I can do is reply and offer something in return. But in terms of other charities, I just feel like whatever I think we'll have the most impact, that can do the most good and most recently, I did the All in Challenge and I think that my experience that I offered raised about four or fifty dollars for people who are out of work. So I was really proud to do that. And whatever I can

do that will resonate the best. What what was your all in Challenge? What was the experience? A personal scate? Lesson whenever we're allowed to all hang out again? Oh, I hope it's like a seventy five year old woman. That one. Well, I basically I made it very vague. I said, look, come out here with you and a guest. I can teach you how to skate, or you can just watch, or you can make suggestions. You can tell me to do a kickflip and I'll do a kickflip.

Oh that person is looking at you and telling you to do a nine. Yeah, well, I guess I'll have to make some limitations. Then that video, too, weirdly got back on the internet this week of you doing a nine at what age? Yeah, like that had another life. You have so many viral moments from your career, but they keep popping back up. Yeah. I guess people don't realize that I'm a few years out from that so they think that's very current. Well, let's let them think that.

That's fine. Yeah, that's totally fine. Uh. We usually like to end each interview with something positive and then some dumb suggestions. So first let's get into the positive. Is there something that you see during quarantine that we've adapted to that you hope lives on once we're back out into the wild and there's a vaccine and such. I

think an appreciation for the quietness. And I know that it could get monotonous at times, but I feel the idea that you can be in one place and be content is something that people were kind of forced to reckon with and maybe they'll appreciate that more going forward, where you know, take some time out during the days, hang out, hang out with your talk to your family. Yeah, hang out with your kids. Oh no, don't don't ask

me to do that. Alright, So some suggestion. You don't need any of these, but I'm gonna give you some suggestions for things you could do in quarantine. H you tell me what you think first this one. I oh boy, the last few weeks have been quite painful for me in my wallet because I've delved into the world of buying vented shirts on eBay. Um, that's a good one. I've always a little creeped out on sort of used clothes and it's never been my thing. Well, I don't

wear them as soon as they get delivered. I do wash them. Yeah, I don't know. Mean, it depends on truly how cool they are. Okay, well, now you've got me thinking people have murdered people in these shirts. I think it's because I grew up in a family it we live modestly and I had an older brother and a lot of stuff is hand me down That kind of gives you PTSD. Sure, I mean I guess now you I mean, you're making me think that that I've never even thought of these are dead people's shirts. Oh no,

I'm saying they're dead. Oh no, haunted shirts definitely hand me down though they are that well, it's so minimal because it starts with me just thinking to myself, like can I get a big Johnson shirt in? You know what I mean? And then and then I bought a TNC surf shirt for like two hundred dollars and I'm like, what am I doing? You know what? Okay? You got

me there? H I c Yeah, that'd be pretty all right, good okay, and I am on the search for a very good condition bugs Bunny and Taz with their clothes on backwards, you know, with their arms folds. It's a good shirt. I ordered a shirt for my wife. It was about house shirt from this very specific, you know, sort of vintage place, and they sent me a Betty boot shirt. Oh alright, I'm not mad at that, so

that was pretty cool. You must have a good T shirt collection, no good vintage shirt over the years of skating. I do, but they're in those team seal bags like you see on the infomercials. Yes, yeah, you have a storage war situation going on, all right. Secondly, it has been reported that during quarantine this term was searched more which is tons And it's not Andrew Cuomo shirtless, it's a food one. It is. This is the exact term.

And I swear homemade noodle recipes. Um. I can honestly say that I would never search for that in quarantine or out of quarantine, or even if I was on Iron Chef, right, it seems out of my league. But people are doing it to make their own noodles. Obviously, they've been really into making their own bread, so this is just even more carbs. The l A Times wrote about it a few days ago and said it's only

two ingredients, which is something. Also, I just don't even think I knew, uh, flour and eggs and some patients obviously all technically made by hand. So I guess you could maybe commit some time and open like an Italian Hawk restaurant. Maybe I don't know. My homemade noodles are top two minutes with you, sir. I'm a top Ramen fanatic,

all right. Lastly, the entire world, including myself, is so excited for the return of Tony Hawks pro Skater obviously remastered, reworked standards and technologies, and my idea involves bringing another one of your masterpieces back and suiting it up for its return. I want to see the remaking and remastering

of Police Academy for Citizens on Patrol. Well, you know what, I was only a stunt double in that movie, so you're gonna have to see if David Ska will agree to be in it, and then I can double him again. Well that was the thing, by the way, young David Spade and Citizens on Patrol, which is technically Tony Hawkwall skating is a pretty good portrayal of a skater. He was a skater, yeah, he I mean he got hired for that, not only because he was a comedian, because

he was genuinely skater. He yeah, he was alright, like he could he could scape pools and things like that. So, um, he walked to walk for sure. But I don't know if you know this, but the backstory of that is that from the time I got hired to do the police Academy to the time we shot I went through a Grosbert And so when I finally got to Toronto where we shot at, I was already much taller than David. And so after a week of filming they fired me.

No way, because he's shorter than me. He's probably what like five five six? You are, how tall? Well, I'm six three now, But I was just starting to grow then. But you had already been in like thrashing and gleaming

the Cube. You were already in a bunch of stuff. Sure, But but I was I was doing hire as a stunt dubble, And so at some point they were watching the dailies and I remember the director he didn't know I was in the room director yelling like, Okay, that guy is a good skater, he's a terrible stunt double. This is also they hired. It's like it's like putting Michael Jordan's in his teen Wolf during the basketball scenes.

It's like they really, they really went all out. They did, but they ended up hiring Chris Miller, who was a prominent skater then and looked a lot more like David to replace. But the funny thing is is that if you watch the movie, Chris is regular footage. I'm goofy footage, So David's stance changes sometimes in John That's really funny. Who knew citizens on Patrol? I'm now gonna have to

watch for continuity. Yeah, that's your East. Well, I'm so happy I got to speak to you, Tony and all the great work you're doing, and stay safe and healthy and excited to get you back out to those skate events. Thank you very much, it's my pleasure. The No Sports Report is produced and distributed by tree Ford Media. The show was executive produced by Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, Matthew Coogler,

and me Jensen Carr. Tom Monahan is our senior audio engineer and sound supervisor, with production and editing by Jasper Leek. Additional production help from Tim Shower, June Rosen, and Hayley Mandelberg. Our theme music is composed by Spilkis. If you've enjoyed what you've heard, please subscribe, rate us and review us on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and please visit Feeding America dot

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