At the risk of dating myself, I'll admit that I was introduced to Tony Hawk via my first Transworld Skateboarding Mags and Thrasher Magazines back in 86'. Even back then I think his image was a bit too polished for some in the ads of the magazines, but there was no denying that every kid aspired to be as good as him and his Bones Brigade teammates at the time.
Tony Hawk by Brittain from my Transworld collection August 86'.
Fast forward twenty six years and Tony Hawk releases his 2012 footage earlier today. We encourage you to watch it and while you do, keep in mind that he's forty three years old!
Despite who you look up to in skateboarding, who inspires you or who your personal hero may be there will always be one name that is always synonymous with skateboarding and that is Tony Hawk.
He's usually not even on my own radar except for occasions like when Grandma buys Tony Hawk shirts for number one son, because she's under the impression that if you like skateboarding, you like Tony Hawk. This isn't such a bad thing to me. Maybe it's better if an eight year old looks up to Tony Hawk instead of the Deathwish Team and other similar options.
Hawk popped up on our radar last year when he showed up at the 7th Annual Vans Pro-tec Pool Party to skate in the Masters Finals category in the Combi Bowl while we watched the contest stream live. He's no Chris Miller, Lance Mountain or Steve Caballero when it comes to bowl riding as he's always been more of a vert ramp skater, but he threw down with the rest of them and still managed to grab fourth place.
Today after school I showed the above footage to number one son. He appeared semi-impressed at first and then spoke up and said "Shaun White can do better than that". I was quick to add "maybe so, but Shaun White is almost 20 years younger". That was the end of that conversation and he continued watching and then he started expressing how impressed he really was.
By coincidence, he just happened to be wearing one of his Tony Hawk shirts all day. Maybe some day he'll look back and shake his head for wearing the clothes that grandma bought. In the meantime he cared more about taking his inspiration for the day and throwing down himself with a clean front side disaster off of the extension at The Angry Ramp.
First try, first and last photo of the day!
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