Tony Hawk Biography - Skateboard Calmed Him Down, An Outsider In Both Worlds, Masters The Mctwist, Chronology, Awards And Accomplishments - SELECTED WRITINGS BY HAWK:
skateboarder parents california board
1968-
American skateboarder
Tony Hawk is considered one of the greatest skateboarders in the history of the sport. From his first turns on a board at age nine, Hawk has consistently challenged physics, gravity, and his own body by accomplishing astonishing acts on a piece of wood attached to four wheels. The California native was instrumental in the evolution of skateboarding from the preppy recreation of the 1960s to the daring and extreme test of physical limits and mental creativity it has become. In seventeen years as a professional skateboarder, Hawk has invented more than eighty tricks and competed in an estimated 103 contests, winning seventy-three and placing second in nineteen. He quit competing in 1999 after landing the first-ever "900"—which is two-and-a-half mid-air spins on the board.
Hawk was an accident; his parents were both in their mid-forties when he came into the world on May 12, 1968, in San Diego, California. Hawk's two sisters were already in college when he was born and his brother was a teenager. Frank Hawk was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, and Nancy Hawk took classes at night, eventually earning her doctorate. While Hawk's parents had aged into a relaxed style of childrearing, their youngest child was a self-described, high-strung "demon boy." He also was a gifted child who was pathologically determined and hard on himself when he could not achieve what he set out to do. He once had to be coaxed out of a forest by his father after striking out in baseball.
SELECTED WRITINGS BY HAWK:
(With Sean Mortimer) Hawk—Occupation: Skateboarder, HarperCollins, 2000.
Additional Topics
Hawk found an outlet for his hyperactivity in a skateboard that his brother gave him when he was nine years old. He became obsessed with his narrow Bahne board, and quickly became proficient riding it. Finding something he was good at calmed him down, which his mother appreciated. Still, his perfectionist nature plagued him once he started competing in 1980. Even if he won, he would banish himself…
Small and underweight and dressed in worn, skatepunk clothes, Hawk was not popular in school and did what he could to remain unnoticed there. The fact that he was a professional skateboarder meant nothing to the bullies and jocks who harassed him. He got good grades, but school was just what he had to do when he wasn't riding his skateboard. His parents often excused him from class to trave…
The McTwist is one-and-a-half rotations on a skateboard with a flip in the middle. A skater rides up a vert ramp, grabs his board, launches into the air, spins and flips around until he is headed facing back down the ramp. Hawk admitted it was one of the toughest to learn, but mastered the McTwist in 1983. He used the stunt to take first place at the St. Petersburg Pro Am that year. At the end of …
The skateboard industry plummeted in the early 1990s. Sponsors faded, prize money dried up, and Hawk's own income dwindled. Facing bankruptcy, Hawk raised enough money to start his own skate company, Birdhouse, with fellow Powell pro Per Welinder. The business was draining, and Hawk budgeted his meager contest winnings obsessively to support his family. The industry got a shot in the arm in…
Address: Tony Hawk, c/o Tony Hawk Inc., 132 31878 Del Obispo, Ste. 118-602, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675. Email: tony@clubtonyhawk.com. The 2001 documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys captures the development of skateboarding from surfing and rogue street culture in California in the 1970s to its pervasive presence in American pop culture. The legendary Z-Boys skateboarding team hailed from a run-down be…
The 2001 documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys captures the development of skateboarding from surfing and rogue street culture in California in the 1970s to its pervasive presence in American pop culture. The legendary Z-Boys skateboarding team hailed from a run-down beachside section of Los Angeles, and was made up of ten boys and one girl, most from broken homes. The crew ignored the traditional uprigh…
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User Comments
over 4 years ago
was it hard at the X Games.can you sign my bord.
over 4 years ago
so does rodney mullen and bam margera
about 1 month ago
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over 1 year ago
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hey that'so good.d
almost 5 years ago
so does chad muska
about 5 years ago
Tony Hawk RULES!!!!!!