"Are you Tony Hawk?" I Wish!

I’m not a skater. Sure, I had a skateboard once when I was about 12, but I didn’t take to it; it was more a mode of transportation than anything else and as modes of transport go, skateboards fall pretty low on the list, just above walking. So my skating days were few. No, my knowledge and respect for Tony Hawk doesn’t come from a passion for skateboarding, it comes from the undeniable fact, learned over the past 20 years, that Tony Hawk is a pretty amazing person. As he has now achieved pop-icon status, just about every American under 40 knows who Tony Hawk is, but not all that many can tell you why.

Tony Hawk grew up in San Diego, California in the 70s and 80s. He was a goofy, lanky kid who was obsessed with competition and performing at his best. Once, after striking out in a baseball game, Tony exiled himself to a nearby ravine and remained there until his father removed him forcibly. Tony Hawk’s life changed when his brother gave him a skateboard at age 12.

With the support of his parents and his natural desire for victory, Tony began entering and winning skateboard competitions…just as the skate craze took over Southern California and then the nation in the 80s. By age 14, Tony was a professional skateboarder with sponsors and earnings. When Tony Hawk was 16, he was widely considered the best skateboarder in the world.

By his senior year in high school, Tony owned his own house and made enough money to fly his friends with him to competitions. By 21, Tony had bought his second house, a 4-acre mansion complete with a skate park and a fleet of Lexi (or Lexuses if you prefer). However, one day in 1991 Tony suffered an aneurysm- just as the popularity of skating was freefalling. Tony’s health, combined with the market downswing for skateboarding ruined Tony Hawk’s livelihood. Over the next several years, Tony Hawk went from prodigal success to a man with a five dollar a day Taco Bell budget. He lost his house, his wife, his cars and his career.

But Tony Hawk didn’t feel sorry for himself. Tony Hawk didn’t develop a debilitating drug habit or leech on his family and friends. Instead, Tony formed a skateboard company with a friend and kept doing what he loved, even without the fortune and glory. After several years, skateboarding in America took another upswing and Tony was back in business. His skateboard company soon became one of the top in the world. Tony also launched a children’s skate clothing company which was bought by the Quicksilver corporation… all while Hawk continued to skate. Over the course of 17 years, Tony Hawk entered an estimated 103 skate contests, winning 73 of them and placing second in 19. These numbers are really ridiculous if you think about it. When the X-Games brought skateboarding competitions to television, the rest of America could now watch Tony Hawk continue to dominate a sport filled with young, fearless Hawk-clones who still could not beat their idol.

Tony has appeared in twelve motion pictures and his is now a household name. But Tony Hawk’s biggest success, and the one that he is probably most proud of, is the Tony Hawk ProSkater video game series. Always a technophile, Tony eagerly accepted Activision’s proposal to create a skateboarding video game in 1997. Unlike other video game namesakes, Tony involved himself heavily in the creation and marketing of the video game, with an emphasis on actual game play instead of hype and gimmicks. Tony didn’t just lend his name to a video game, he, like always, did everything he could to ensure that his name and likeness were associated with a top-quality product. The Tony Hawk video game series is one of the highest selling video games of all time, and has brought Tony and his family (remarried in 1996 with three children) financial success beyond what he may have imagined in 1997.

I think the coolest thing about Tony Hawk is simply that… he is cool. As he is a reasonably well-known celebrity over the last 15 or so years, I have never heard anything but good about Tony Hawk. In interviews he is a chill, mature but fun-loving, all-American guy. He appears on television frequently and always has a smile; I have never heard anyone say they didn’t like Tony Hawk. He donates his time generously to charity and the Tony Hawk Foundation is very active in bringing skating and other outdoor recreation to inner-cities and other low income areas.

I was on a cruise about two years ago and there was a group of kids, probably 13 or 14 years old that I observed were looking at me beyond a mere glance. It was noticeable; not just a coincidence and it continued. I mentioned to Erin, my girlfriend at the time and companion on the cruise, that these kids were looking at me. We laughed it off- but it happened again and again over the next day or so. Finally, the next night at the late night buffet, one of them approached me. I was eager to find out the nature of their curiosity, so I smiled and said “hey man, how’s it going?” He said “…um…are you Tony Hawk??” I laughed and said “I wish.”

Well, so convinced that I was Tony Hawk the kid didn’t believe me. I guess he thought if I was Hawk, I wouldn’t admit it… trying to be incognito on this bargain Carnival Line cruise. Riiiggghhttt. But the kid eventually accepted it and walked away. The last day of the cruise, he came back and asked if he could take a picture with me. Of course, I had no problem with it and his friend actually took several snapshots; But hey, who wouldn’t want to be Tony Hawk for a day or two?