Tag: Tony Hawk

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’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 is the sweet trip down memory lane we all need

Tony Hawk is back, fam.

2020  has been an absolutely awful year. It’s been filled with tragedy after tragedy.

First, we lose Kobe and Gigi Bryant. Then, coronavirus. Now, we’re trying our best to eradicate all of the social ills that come with our society. It’s just all so much to deal with all the time.

That’s why it felt so good to finally get my hands on a demo of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 set to release next month.

It turned out this game was the exact decompresser I needed to just…zone out with for a second. The thing was I had no idea it was going to be that. But almost immediately upon turning the game on, I felt it.

As a kid growing up, the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series was the thing to play. I remember being so hype to just get the demo disc from Pizza Hut to play this game over and over again for just minutes at a time.

When I opened the demo on my PlayStation 4, some 21 years later, I felt that same feeling.

The music was the first thing that took me there. Immediately, in the game’s opening sequence, Light’s Out by Guerrilla Radio starts playing and I’m instantly taken back to the year 2000.

But, immediately, you can tell it’s not just a reproduction of the game. It’s a complete remaster. Graphically, it’s clearly a current generation game. But, internally, it’s a time capsule one finds themselves spending hours digging through.

The demo was set on the warehouse level from the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game. The demo allows you to run a quick two minute skate session as Tony Hawk shredding through the level. There are no real goals. Just rack up as many points as you can.

As in love with this game as I was immediately, I was also terrible at it — just like I was back in 2000 at just 8 years old.

My first run was only 8,117 points. A far cry from the 100,000 marks I used to hit back in the day, but whatever.

There was lots of wrecking. LOTS of it.

As time went by and memories came back, I got the hang of the controls and remembered some of the old tricks I used to do to rack up points. Lots of rail grinding, lots of nose planting, a bunch of constant 360’s and high air. There were multiple attempts to land the 900, but they were all failures. It’s all good though. The effort was what counted.

Eventually, I finally eclipsed the 30,000 point mark. Not great, but totally good enough to be satisfied as an old and washed Pro Skater vet in his mid-20’s.

The thing was, as terrible as I was at it, putting the controller down felt impossible. This game took me back to a much simpler time. Nostalgia is the best seller of all and this game was chock full of it. To go back in time, even for a just a few minutes, was such a treat.

We’ll see what the full game is hitting on when it drops in September. But, until then, the satisfaction of knowing that Tony Hawk is back in video game form just as good as he used to be is more than enough for me.

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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You can play Tony Hawk’s new video game early just by eating his burrito at Chipotle

This reminds me of those Pizza Hut demo disc days

Eating burritos is always an awesome time, no matter what way you cut it. They’re amazing. But eating burritos and playing video games? That’s an undefeated combination that has proven to be tried and true for decades now.

Let’s take it one step further, though. Eating burritos to play a new video game!?!? Come on. Talk about cutting the burrito and eating it, too. That sounds too good to be true. But it’s for real.

Chipotle released a new Tony Hawk burrito on Monday. And the first 2,000 customers to order the burrito through Chipotle’s app or through their website get a code to play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2.

It’s too good to be true, but it’s really happening.

All you have to do to get it done is order the Tony Hawk Burrito via the Chipotle mobile app or the website. If you’re one of the first 2,000 people to get it, they’ll send you an e-mail with a code to access the demo versions of Pro Skater 1 and 2.

It’s really that simple. Chipotle has more details on the website, but that’s the gist of it.

Man, this is taking it all the way back in the day to the days when Playstation demo discs came with the weekend Pizza Hut orders.

Pro Skater 1 and 2 are both classic games. Certified classics. You’d stay up into the wee hours of the morning just grinding on these games trying to make it to the next level.

And not only are they back, but gamers also get to experience them in this classic way through the demo. It’s awesome.

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LeBron James announces more names involved with ‘More Than A Vote’

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James announced more big names involved with his organization fighting for voter rights for Black people.

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and his business partner Maverick Carter organized a group of star athletes and provided the start-up cash for a non-profit geared towards fighting voter suppression and getting out the Black vote in the United States, entitled “More Than A Vote.” A week after the news broke of LeBron’s plans to start an organization dedicated to fighting voter suppression, James announced more big-name athletes, including Tony Hawk, Allyson Felix, WNBA stars A’Ja Wilson and Arike Ogunbowale and retired NBA star Caron Butler, who is part of the Vera Institute for Justice, as well as ESPN’s Maria Taylor.

In the announcement, James ended it with a quote from his mother, “Don’t talk about it, be about it.”

It remains to be seen what else the organization will do in the future, but seeing as they are two weeks old, this is only the beginning.

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