Category: Skateboarding

It’s 2022 and people are still somehow hilariously not recognizing Tony Hawk when they see him

HOW DO PEOPLE NOT KNOW WHO TONY HAWK IS?!?

Tony Hawk might be the least famous famous person there is in the world.

Now, if you’re like me, you probably think that’s ridiculous. I mean, how many other people in the world have had actual video games named after them, right? Everyone from the 90s has played at least 3 Tony Hawk Pro Skater games.

Plus, this dude is an actual skateboarding legend. You don’t even have to know anything about skating to know who Tony Hawk is — which, again, is why he has video games named after him.

Tony Hawk is the face of an entire sport, still. Even at 53 years old well outside of his prime. This dude should be recognizable everywhere.

But, apparently, even people who see the man in elevators don’t know who he is.

This week, Hawk shared this story on Twitter about being told that he looked like Tony Hawk by a guy in an elevator.

HOW DO PEOPLE NOT KNOW WHO TONY HAWK IS??? This is just incredible to me. Tony Hawk is that dude, man. He deserves better than this.

The wild part is it’s not just these elevator folks. People legitimately just don’t know who he is. There are more stories out there like this and Hawk has shared them over the years.

Let’s take a quick look back.

Stop assuming the person who looks like Tony Hawk isn’t Tony Hawk

If you think you saw Tony Hawk in public, you probably did.

It’s truly unfathomable that in 2021, after years of this story repeating itself to the point of cliche, there are still people who know what Tony Hawk looks like, but are unable to point him out in public.

How large is the overlap in the Venn diagram of those who are definitely aware of the world’s most famous skateboarder and those who couldn’t pick him out if they were literally talking to him.

Imagine having the gumption to ask someone, a stranger (in this economy, no less!), if they’ve been told they look like Tony Hawk instead of outright asking if they are, indeed, Tony Hawk.

How in the world does this keep happening?

From the looks of the replies, this occurs more than Hawk himself tweets about, even multiple times in the same day.

Now, Tony Hawk may be some omnipresent celebrity much like how Maury Povich is everywhere all the time in New York, but that’s not the issue here.

The issue is confidence.

People need to believe in themselves when they think they see Tony Hawk. People need to believe in themselves more, in general, but let’s start small.

Don’t be afraid to ask someone if they happen to be Tony Hawk. Especially if you’re already are planning to talk to them, anyways. In fact, let’s make a new rule.

From now on, let’s just assume that every person we see who slightly resembles Tony Hawk is really him. Let’s err on the side of spotting a celebrity rather than coming across a lookalike.

Let’s make that Venn diagram a bit smaller.

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Gui Khury just made skate boarding history at 12-years-old that even Tony Hawk couldn’t touch

Guy Khury just made skateboarding history by landing a 1080. He’s 12-years-old.

Tony Hawk is universally thought of as the greatest skateboarder of all time. He’s still out here hitting 720’s after all of these years of skating. So when you’re in the same sentence as him when it comes to shredding, you know you’re doing something right.

But when you’re out here shattering his records? You’re doing something extremely right. Because that means you’ve probably done something that no one else has done before.

That’s what happened with Guy Khury — a young skater from Brazil who absolutely destroyed the X Games.

Khury became the first skateboard to ever land  a1080 on a vert. He also became the youngest gold medalist in X Games history.

Oh, and he did it all at 12-years-old. While competing in the same contest as Tony Hawk. Look at how incredible this kid is.

And, of course, Tony Hawk was there to congratulate him after landing it.

Hawk made similar history in 1999 as the world’s first skater to land a 900 on a vert ramp at the X Games. But the thing about that was he was 31-years-old when he did it.

Again, Khury is 12.

This is just wild. Congrats to Khury and good on Hawk for being there to witness this. It’s just awesome stuff all-around.

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Tony Hawk tweeted about his cameo in ‘Rocket Power’ and the nostalgia is real

Where are the Rocket Power fans at?

If you were a kid growing up in the 1990s, Nickelodeon cartoons were probably a big piece of your childhood. Sports fans, especially, likely have very fond memories of the show Rocket Power, the animated series revolving around four friends from California and their adventures involving extreme sports like surfing and skateboarding.

Though the show only ran from 1999 to 2004, it still has staying power in the minds of many to this day, including Tony Hawk! Hawk famously had a cameo as himself during the 2001 episode “Enter the Hawk-Trix” where the four friends investigate rumors that the famous skater was retiring by breaking into his secret skate park.

It’s a great episode, probably Rocket Power‘s most memorable one in its run, and Hawk gave us all a wonderful rush of nostalgia after tweeting a clip of his cameo on Monday.

In the episode, the friends find that Hawk’s secret “Hawk’s Nest” is a labyrinthine skate park, with double grinding rails, halfpipes galore, secret passageways, and light up skateboards! It’s as early-2000s as it gets in that clip.

Hawks’ tweet also states that he’s attempting to build some sort of recreation of his “Hawk’s Nest” in his house, an ambitious but incredibly cool project that’ll sure to have Rocket Power fans excited.

After Hawks’ tweet on Monday, the nostalgia was more than real for fans of Rocket Power.

This isn’t the first time Hawk has tweeted about his cameo in Rocket Power over the years, but it’s so cool to see him memorializing his one-off cameo in such a unique way.

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Tony Hawk is really still pulling off 720s at 52 years old

Wow, man. What?

Tony Hawk, back in 1999, shocked the world by pulling off the first ever 900 at the X Games. Just an absolutely incredible feat.

Now, here we are 21 years later and he’s still out here shredding half-pipes. Wait, quick correction. Not only is he out here shredding half-pipes. He’s still pulling off 720s at 52 years old. The man just does not stop.

The skateboarding legend posted a video of himself on Twitter pulling the trick out of his bag again. He said it was a battle and that it had been three years since he last pulled one off.

He hits this one and, honestly, it’s just so unreal. Take a look.

Warning: There is some NSFW language included in this video

Like, look man. We know LeBron James is a cyborg. But is Tony Hawk, too? Because you should not be able to get this much air at 52 years old. It just shouldn’t be possible.

Of course, he used to pull this one off in his sleep. Now, he has to get a little bit higher and his spin is slower. But still, this is nonetheless impressive. And it’s also all the proof we need to prove that Tony Hawk is a cyborg.

The downside is that Hawk doesn’t know how many more of these he has left in the tank. But the upside is he donating his board to charity to raise money for public skate parks.

Just truly the GOAT in every sense of the word.

Tony Hawk shares another hilarious story of someone asking if he knows Tony Hawk

Tony Hawk might be the most unrecognizable sports legend.

Tony Hawk is one of the most well-known and influential skateboarders of all time, and with a monumentally popular video game series that peaked in the late 90s, Hawk was a household name and a cultural icon in league with the biggest sports stars of the era.

But would you recognize Hawk if he passed you at the grocery store? As it turns out, many people still remember the name “Tony Hawk,” but can’t quite pick him out of a lineup, as evidenced by Hawk’s long list of hilarious interactions with the public that he often shares on Twitter.

Hawk’s latest story is amazing. While going to get a COVID-19 test with his family, Hawk confirmed to a curious worker that yes, he is indeed related to Tony Hawk.

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Tony Hawk explains why he’s renaming an iconic skateboarding trick

Say hello to the “Weddle grab.”

For fans of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series — Nos. 1 and 2 will be remade for PS4, Xbox One and PC this fall — who are used to seeing the name of a move as the “mute grab,” it’ll be entirely different moniker.

And there’s a really, really good reason for that, which Hawk explained on Instagram this week.

He said that back in 1981, a skater named Chris Weddle who was deaf was the first to do a certain trick, an Indy air with the front hand. Skaters thought Weddle should have been given the credit.

“They referred to him as the ‘quiet, mute guy.’ So it became known as the mute air, and we all went along with it in our naive youth,” Hawk wrote.

It became “obvious” that the name should be changed since Weddle was hearing impaired and not non-verbal. So Hawk recently asked Weddle what he’d prefer, to which he said “deaf” or “Weddle.”

So “The Weddle Grab” will replace the original name in the upcoming Tony Hawk remakes. And Weddle was happy about it, as Hawk recounted:

View this post on Instagram

For nearly 40 years, we’ve shamelessly referred to this trick as the “mute” air/grab. Here is the backstory: around 1981, a deaf skater and Colton skatepark local named Chris Weddle was a prominent amateur on the competition circuit. The “Indy” air had just been created & named so somebody proposed that grabbing with the front hand should be known as the “Tracker” air. Others countered that Chris was the first to do, so it should be named after him. They referred to him as the “quiet, mute guy.” So it became known as the mute air, and we all went along with it in our naive youth. In recent years a few people have reached out to Chris (who still skates) about this trick and the name it was given. He has been very gracious in his response but it is obvious that a different name would have honored his legacy, as he is hearing impaired but not lacking speech. I asked him last year as I was diving into trick origins and he said he would have rather named it the “deaf” or “Weddle” grab if given the choice. His exact quote to me was “I am deaf, not mute.” So as we embark on the upcoming @tonyhawkthegame demo release, some of you might notice a trick name change: The Weddle Grab. It’s going to be challenging to break the habit of saying the old name but I think Chris deserves the recognition. Thanks to @darrick_delao for being a great advocate to the deaf community in action sports, and for being the catalyst in this renaming process. I told Chris tecently and his reply was “I’m so stoked!” And then he shot this photo in celebration yesterday. 📷: @yousta_storytellers_club

A post shared by Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) on

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EA announced a new ‘Skate’ game and people lost it on Twitter

A new Skate game is in the works at last.

There are few sports videogames that are as beloved as the defunct Skate series, which revolutionized skateboarding videogames back in the Xbox 360/PS3 era, and fans have been begging EA to make a sequel ever since Skate 3 released in 2010. The studio that made the Skate games, EA Black Box, was shut down in 2013, leaving little hope for a Skate 4 to ever materialize.

A full decade after the last game in the series was released, EA closed its EA Play event on Thursday with a stunning announcement. Crehttps://twitter.com/cantguardjulio/status/1273766877181939713ative director Cuz Parry and game director Deran Chung revealed that a new Skate game is in the works. Chung said that it’s “really early,” and no footage or teasers were shown, so it may be quite a while before we see what next-gen Skate can look like, but it’s happening, and gamers are ecstatic.

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No, it wasn’t THAT Tony Hawk that called in and roasted the LAPD

The skateboarding legend took to Twitter to clarify.

A public Zoom call with the Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday as protests continued over the death of George Floyd was inundated with furious callers and calls for police chief Michel Moore to resign after his statements on Monday that he eventually apologized for.

One of those callers was Tony Hawk. But it turns out it wasn’t THAT Tony Hawk, the skateboard legend who made headlines recently for an incredible good deed he did last month.

Although some people thought the caller sounded like Hawk, the one known for his skateboarding checked in on Twitter to inform the world that he wasn’t the one who had jumped on the meeting:

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Tony Hawk connects with a delivery driver through TikTok to give an amazing gift to a young fan

An awesome story of social media connection.

Occasionally, we get a reminder that the power of social media is unlike anything else, and that’s the case with this story involving legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk, a TikTok user and a kid.

Let’s start with TikTok: a FedEx driver who calls himself Mikail on his profile sent out a video in which he said a young fan of Hawk’s named Cooper chased him down to ask if he could mail a board to the skateboard star.

Mikail, of course, doesn’t have Hawk’s address, so the video was the next best thing.

Sure enough, Hawk responded with a TikTok of his own directed to Cooper: he said the skateboard was on its way … and that Hawk was sending one of his own back:

This is all amazing and wonderful, especially at a time like this.

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