How One Man Found a Way to Put Skateboarding on the Map

 

By: Dan Gilbert

 

 

If you were to ask the average person on the street to name the first athlete that comes to mind when they think of skateboarding, the universal answer would undoubtedly be Tony Hawk.

Born May 12th, 1968 in Carlsbad, California, Hawk was destined to do big things. By the time he reached nine, he was gifted with his first skateboard, and after taking his first crack at the four-wheeler, he never looked back. Hawk was obsessed with skateboarding, and his love for the sport stood out any time he was out riding. So much so that it wasn't long before he began participating in amateur contests not far from home. After winning several of them and dazzling crowds in the process, he managed to earn professional status at only 14 years of age.  

Within a couple of years after turning pro, Hawk was already considered the cream of the crop. By the time the 1980's rolled around, he was showing off his talents around the globe through a variety of competitions and demonstrations. He even had the privilege of starring in a number of motion pictures, the most notable of which featured him as a skateboarding teen in the 1989 film "Gleaming the Cube".

Unfortunately for Hawk, by the time 1991 had arrived, skateboarding as a whole was beginning to experience a sizable decline in popularity, and that translated to financial difficulties for the savvy veteran. With his sport's future hanging in the balance, Hawk decided to launch his own skateboard company, "Birdhouse Projects", in 1992.
 

Over the next few years, Hawk was a victim of bad luck. That was until 1995, when he competed in the first ever X-Games, now an annual "extreme" sporting event broadcast by media giant ESPN. At this point, Hawk had not only become the most recognizable face in all of skateboarding, but also one of the more prominent athletes in his country. With his company now profitable, Hawk decided that he was going to venture into fashion, resulting in the creation of his own clothing line geared towards youth.

But it didn't stop there. With the help of well-known developer Activision, Hawk was also able to launch his own video game series. Highly successful, the series spawned over ten different titles and a number of spin-offs.

Though fans and pundits may point to different years in which Hawk stood his tallest, 1999 may have perhaps been the most memorable. After all, that was the year he defied gravity and did the improbable. In front of a raucous crowd of over 250,000 people, and millions watching on national television, Tony Hawk landed a 900, an outrageous trick which required him to spin 900 degrees, or precisely two-and-a-half times in mid air. Though it took close to a dozen attempts, he was the first ever skateboarder to successfully perform this trick in competition.
 

In the wake of the X-Games, Hawk was credited for having pushed skateboarding to the mainstream. That meant loads of endorsements, and a chance for him to give back to the community. With the money he amassed, Hawk was able to donate thousands of skate parks to inner-city areas across his country. His generosity was and still remains one of numerous reasons why skateboarding remains popular today.

 

Hawk can be described in many ways, but those closest to him will often use terms such as driven, persistent and original in order to describe him best. These are fitting qualities as they were always visible in his skating sessions.

 

It's no secret that he was vital to the prosperity of what was once a waning sport; based on his awe-inspiring aerial displays, and the mere fact that he re-wrote the record book on a multitude of occasions throughout his career, it comes with no surprise that he's widely regarded as the legendary Tony Hawk, and the world's all-time greatest skateboarder.