Whiskey Ginger with Andrew Santino - Tony Hawk

Episode Date: March 22, 2019

Santino sits down with the G.O.A.T. Tony Hawk to chat about going broke at the height of his career, teaching his daughter to drop in and building skateparks across the country. Please visit www.tonyhawkfoundation.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, there just weren't that many skaters. Really? So there were two other skaters in my high school. But the skate park was never occupied? Was it like always kind of an empty thing? No, I mean, there weren't many skate parks. So the one that we had was where everyone would converge. So there were a handful, maybe a dozen people there at a time, but nothing major, no.

But for the most part, it was like you in the neighborhood and maybe like one of the dude did you catch a lot of flack for it for skating yeah oh yeah like the whole like it was so funny because it was i think people don't people don't really realize that that it's such a part of our pop culture now but when you were one of the pioneers of your world it was kind of like you were a man on your own island it was a weird time are we just going yeah we're rolling yeah uh it was a weird time. Are we just going? Yeah, we're rolling. Yeah. It was a weird time because skating wasn't popular. And so, but I was starting to have success in skating. So it was this really kind of niche industry and interest. And so I would go to school and literally people would drive by in the parking lot and

yell out skater fag. Skater fag. Yeah. Skater fag. You should have adopted that. out skater fag. Skater fag. Yeah, skater fag. You should have adopted that. That was like the thing. Skater fag. And then I would go to say Florida for the weekend

and go to some big championships and have fans. Yeah. And like sign autographs and win money and then go back to school, skater fag. Like it was just a weird, it was a very weird. You were a championship skater fag. Paradox, what's that? You're a championship skater fag, yeah. That's champion skater fag to it was just a weird it was a very weird championship skater fag paradox what's that

your championship yeah that's champion skater fag yeah correct yourself in here we pour The ginger gene is a curse. Gingers are beautiful. You owe me $5 for the whiskey and $75 for the horse. Gingers are hell no. This whiskey is excellent. Ginger. I like gingers. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Whiskey Ginger. My guest today is one of my favorite people on earth. I say that for all my guests, but I mean it yet again today.

Mr. Tony Hawk. Tony, thank you so much for being here. Cheers to you. Cheers. Having a little whiskey. We've had the fans ask. It's Knob knob Creek 100 that's what we're drinking right now and it's delicious because so many people are just like you have to tell people what the fuck you're drink I'm like okay dude haha the people get so the fans get so agitated at nothing you see like down

here there's like a this light switch I mean this outlet yes for a while it cracked so the panel was cracked we how many people for real we had so many here there's like a um this uh light switch i mean this uh outlet yes for a while it cracked so the panel was cracked we how many people for real we had so many people right in to be like the panel's cracked man what the fuck yeah i just had this conversation with someone i did this interview it's like a half hour interview and um i was wearing a hoodie and one of the the whatever drawstrings was kind of like flipped up by accident. I don't know. Why would you, that's all people talk about. Yeah. I mean, there is genuinely good content in this interview, right? That's all they can obsess. It doesn't matter. Like I can't watch

this with that Tony string, dude. Tony string is so annoying. Yeah. It's a problem. So, uh, before we jump back, we were talking about, you know, uh, San diego and and growing up in that life and you kind of being the only one of your crew when did you feel like people started to culturally catch on around you and skating became much thicker and more popular uh it was around my senior year of high school because then i mean like that was that was the wave in the 80s though so it's hard to it's hard to compare it now or to the wave in the early 2000s because it was on a whole different level right at that time but in the 80s suddenly i you know i was making pretty good money people would know my name they wouldn't necessarily be able to

pick me up pick me out of a crowd but they knew who i you know that there's the skater tony hawk that's successful and uh i bought a house while I was still a senior in high school. Holy shit. Where'd you buy it? Where was it? Down in San Diego? In Carlsbad. Oh, in Carlsbad, yeah.

And so that was a challenge to show up to school on time or at all in my senior year. Yeah, how could you? Because, you know, everyone's waiting for, whose parents are out of town? My parents were never home.

They weren't there. Did your parents fight you on that when you wanted to buy a house or were they like, no? No, it was my dad's idea okay because he wanted you to financially set yourself yeah yeah because he he he thought um and i was you know i was oblivious or blissfully oblivious in the sense that i thought i was just gonna keep going and he saw that maybe this will be short-lived and you better put your money away, which was way smarter, obviously. But turns out.

Well, he was right though, because I had a few good years and then everything just dropped. How long was the gap that you feel about kind of falling, dropping off or whatever? Before it dropped? Yeah. I would say about four years until it started to really decline.

And then suddenly my paychecks were, because my paychecks were all royalties. Right. And so they started dropping by half every month. Wow. And suddenly I was with two mortgages, a kid on the way, and my income was just dwindling.

Do you think it was, do you think like pop, socially, pop culturally, skateboarding started to kind of die off? What was this thing that kicked it back into full gear, you think like socially, pop culturally, skateboarding started to kind of die off? What was this thing that kicked it back into full gear, you think? Well, it definitely took a while. So I would say in the years 1991 to 1996, 97-ish, skating was underground. It was all street i mean the mid 90s kind of kind of captured that where everyone that skated

was considered an outlaw because there were no designated facilities right so if you wanted to go skate you had to go out on the streets and be a nuisance to people right you had to be an annoying like i like i taught i'm an 80s baby and i talked we had i had uh p rod on the show and we talked extensively about kind of my generation of when I started skateboarding when I was a kid. And by the way, I will make comparisons. We're very similar skill level of skateboarding, Tony and I. Pretty parallel, right? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I'm right there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially now. Yeah, now. Yeah. No, when I started, it was kind of still this, you know, negatively viewed thing. Everyone had a problem with it.

It wasn't so promoted it wasn't such a common thing you were still parents didn't want their kids no yeah my parents hate fucking hated the fact yeah that i would go hang out all day long at a board shop that was so annoying they thought it was such a waste of time yeah i was like you don't get it that's like our community and to them it was just it was socially such a waste of space and time and i i guess i'm curious from your perspective what do you think is the energy shift that kind of kicked it back into being okay again or i mean i don't know uh i think it had a lot to do with the x games yeah initially uh in that was the

first one was 95 it was still kind of an experimental and and still viewed as i don't know like a test circus right type of thing and then when once they started weeding once they started weeding out all this sort of stranger sports that they added in there at the beginning right because they did have some weird rock climbing bungee jumping sky surfing eco challenge if red bull existed they would have been all over that shit that would have been red bull presents x games presents and then it was everything was extreme so you know you're a skater you're like you're extreme athlete no i'm a skater just a skater man yeah rock climbing i always hated that term when they say extreme athlete was so weird it's such a strange well it just they just want to because they don't understand it so they want to just sort of pigeonhole you into

if they can categorize you it makes it easier for them right yeah but but as that progressed and and as the as the more refined sports in popular sports started to rise in that movement in the x games um things started to take off i mean i really i would say after like 1997 in the x games that was that was the thing kids are watching yeah it became it became the thing yeah um and then combined that with our video game release in 1999 that was that was sort of the the perfect storm and the tipping point of popularity like that's that's when skating was just in the mainstream and that's when parents that was when parents embraced it.

Right. Because they saw these guys, they saw people on TV. They saw a genuine career that could be had. Right. And I think also they saw the attitude, like the skaters that were shown on TV then, including guys like Paul Rodriguez, were all, they were all approachable.

They were all real. They were doing it because they loved it. They weren't doing it for million dollar contracts they weren't right they weren't at arm's length from the fans they were they were right there they did it because they loved it and and i feel like kids could identify with that right i think well they they were they were uh that was kind of the the revolution of really like connecting with your fans. And, and I, cause I remember going to watch team tours, you know, and team board signings or whatever at,

at, at board shops. And I always thought that was incredible because as a kid, you can't imagine all these, these, your favorite team coming to town that you're going to like get to meet them at this before they go to the park and go skate. I think that was kind of this thing that helped the culture

become so unified and so large because i was i was i remember you know meeting guys and being like fucking jamie thomas and freaking out we go get to skate with them yeah it was incredible you got to literally just go yeah that was that that fourth wall was broken this like you know you couldn't touch them type of thing now that they were like no come come fuck with us and whoever is the best can also come you know come skate with us i thought that was that to me was you know that was i can't think the term for my childhood of when it became so popular and so big i mean that whole you know the the kids that rollerbladed in my high school it was like such a strong division of like rollerblading kids oh yeah fruit booters or whatever they want yeah yeah yeah and skateboarders

and it rollerblading dissipated because of it in fact you know nate harmony pro skater nate harmony yeah his brother uh was a rollerblader and they both lived where they're both from where i'm from and i remember hearing about him that he was so good and when he not josh harmony josh i'm sorry josh nate's his brother my bad josh harmony i'm sorry josh harmony yeah josh is the skater my brain but um but i remember hearing about him and how good he was and then then like seeing him in video parts and i was like oh my god he was he was better than good i mean i remember him like leaving our suburb of chicago and coming out here and becoming i mean bigger than big and his brother who was actually really good at rollerblading that just all went away i mean it just like quit

rollerblading got like squashed but for a long time it was such a like a it was becoming its own thing yeah and espn was putting it on i mean like they were yeah that was that was on the forefront but also that was that just was more dictated by the sales too yeah so many more people were riding rollerblades because that was the, that was like the exercise and the transportation back then.

Right. And I didn't have a problem with it because, because I was, in those slow years, skating was hard to make a living at. You know,

the X Games were coming on, sure, but that wasn't necessarily a steady income. Right. And so I got invited as a special guest to rollerblade shows. So you'd be the only skater? I'd be the token skateboarder in the rollerblade shows.

And I honestly, I cruised for at least two different summers, you know, like actually being able to pay my mortgage through doing these. Through rollerblading tours? Yeah, not rollerblading tours yeah not rollerblading tours or it would be one of them was um they did extreme wheels live in santa rosa the name is so annoying yeah extreme wheels so they they had matt hoffman as a special guest being here and they had me as a special guest skateboarder and then we would come out in the middle of the show while they're doing all their dance routines and whatever right and skate a vert ramp did you ever catch any flack when you

were there with those things like no because this the skateboarders were hyped like the skateboarders were they were the they were the minority back then like the hardcore skaters so skaters would come to the show like holy shit tony hawk and matt hoffman are here right this is awesome and rollerblading was so prolific that it wasn't like they could ignore it or anything and so so, um, it was interesting. And then, and then I got invited to do these demos at six flags parking lots. So did you travel and doing six flags demos? Well, we would be, we would be out of six flags for a week, right. Doing three demos a day, you know, with like four rollerbladers one bmxer wow and me and a hundred bucks a day who who was

the uh who was the rollerbladers do you remember who the names were uh there were these three australian dudes um because i was gonna say like i said i have a vague memory of like they weren't they weren't the big names because the big names those guys were they could command a lot of money they were making way more money yeah and so these guys were solid dudes you know from from australia and they they were super cool like i i still keep in touch with a couple of them but what do they they don't rollerblade anymore do adults is there no no one of them one of them was an actor um one was a snowboarder who ended up being like the burton rep of all of aust. That's wild. Yeah. But I mean, that's so funny to think like,

because I'm sure everyone thinks- Because they could do like basic vert tricks. Right. They got jobs. Yeah. Right, right, right. And you toured for how long on a Six Flag parking lot? I did a couple stints, St. Louis for like two weeks and I think Dallas for a couple weeks.

I mean, it wasn't like, it wasn't the biggest thing I ever did, but, but it, it is what I needed to, to survive at the time. Totally. Well, we do the same things, you know, like comics. I did this with P-Rod too. I said, these make all these parallels of kind of like a standup comedy and, and, and professional athletes at this level. Like we both have to kind of pay your dues and do these weird tours and i can't tell you the number of shit shows i've done in the middle of nowhere and stayed in motels and made no money and you just have to grind it out but i will say those are the best that's the that's sort of the line of demarcation where are you a professional or not you want to be a pro skater it's not all on your terms right it's not just

wake up late skate when you want people expect you to perform and you're going to go places that are not the most ideal terrain like you feel sick you know the crowd maybe isn't the nicest right but you got to step up yeah you have to do it yeah you you gotta do it and and just push through and do your best you know right uh present yourself with integrity and do it and you know it's it's not i'm not saying like it's a the whole thing is a strain but it can be hard right i think people do that thing where they go your life is so easy you've done the thing that you love your whole life oh you guys just smoke weed and wake up late and skate shoot video like no that's like some people maybe but some do yeah i'm sure it don't last long right that's the thing right the same thing in our world it's like doing comedy how hard is your lifestyle it's like what do you mean it's i have to work every single day of my life on your

craft yes work on it but for them it's like they do there are examples of people who just kind of have waned their way through and so so they go, this shit is easy. You don't have to do anything. And also, if you're good, you make something look very easy, right? Right. Like, what do you find? This is a question I wanted to ask you. People will say these things.

They'll do backhanded compliments, and they're trying to be nice, but I want to know what your least favorite thing that someone compliments you on that's actually backhanded or annoying. Like what's the one for you? Like for us, someone will go, you're really funny. Oh, thank you so much and they'll go,

do you know Bill Burr? And they'll bring up and I'll go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and it's like, yeah, I love him. It's like, okay, okay. Why couldn't you just have said

I'm funny? It's like when you were on your come up, was there ever that thing where people were like, man, I love you but you know who I really love? Well it's christian ossoy without question yeah you got that all the time yeah in the 80s well it was very the styles of skating was very

divided yeah and it was it was you either i mean this was this was very much in the sort of mid to late 80s people they loved christian ossoi because of his style or because he went high. Or they liked me because I did tricks. Because you were smooth. And you had to choose sides. I mean, it was very much like that. And so I used to get booed at contests. Like I used to get shit thrown at me when I was skating.

Because they loved him. Yeah, by like the Christian fans. That's so weird. You know, the know the Hoi fans it was hilarious because he and I knew each other and we would actually skate together like we appreciated each other's styles and we both learned techniques from each other but there was this these divided mentalities

and you either with him or with me and so what fueled that though really like what could that have been really for him? It was a bit of both like style versus technique, but also it was... The irony is that there was NorCal versus SoCal and everyone was for Christian that was NorCal,

but he lived in LA. Right, right, right. But he skated for all the NorCal companies. So he skated for Indy and he skated for all the NorCal companies. Sure. Skated for Indy and, you know, he skated for all these Santa Cruz brands. And sure. And so and it was like I was like I was Palo Peralta and I was Tracker. And right.

You know, I was that SoCal demon. So they just had to they just tagged you as this Southern California. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it's funny in hindsight. It felt like everything back then. It felt like it felt like i had this army against me right um and christian and i you know we laugh about it now uh but it was it was at the same time

i had i had super passionate fans right that were hyped on the way i skated and so i you know i wasn't i didn't think i could win everyone right Well, I mean, that's the thing, right? They always say, like, if everybody likes you, you're probably not that good. Yeah. Like, if everyone loves you, it's like you're going to have,

you know, you're going to have that backlash. It's the same thing with us. It's like not every fan is going to like your shit or like what you're putting out. You just have to kind of keep going and find the ones that you do love. You know, you mentioned something

that I want to say. Like you said, kind of like the receivability of, of what happened with skating. Do you think it's because vert guys kind of come off a little bit more? There's something about vert guys versus street guys. If vert guys kind of come off more like clean and well-to-do and it's, it's, there's something, there's the edges a little bit softer on vert guys than sometimes you see, you know, these videos and street guys that they're, they're so raw and they show just like filthy sides of them in these videos. And I think vert guys always got pushed to at least my generation as like, just, I mean,

like very clean cut kind of, I think that's just more generational because the, the vert crew that you were watching were kind of on their their tail end of their careers for the most part right and their only way to make a living was by competing right you couldn't be of what we know now as a video skater as if you skate a vert yeah you had to go compete or you had to do these demos you had you had to play the game and it was really difficult to make a living that way and so they didn't get the same type of recognition or respect or um or coverage that street guys did who were out and about and pushing limits and skating on everything and anything sure because vert just wasn't that accessible so i understand how you saw it yeah um but but i think that you're probably seeing these guys who were on the tail end of trying to make a career at it and you couldn't be some punk kid right

you just didn't work that way yeah yeah uh flipping people off and and smoking cigarettes up on the deck because it's no one's gonna hire you well it's fun but that's funny though right because then that kind of became the norm of street teams was the more raucous they were, the more well they were received. Kind of. I think that was just a symbol of where street skating came from.

And it came from people doing it themselves and creating, making the urban landscape their skate park. And through that, being considered outlaws because they're skating handrails and they're skating right picnic benches and they're and they're skating in public spaces and and um that's you know that that was definitely the vibe of skating through the 90s yeah of of what

people considered skating and then it wasn't until i i think the late 90s early 2000s when suddenly skating was everywhere and parents were encouraging the kids to do it and it was on tv and it was it was celebrated and there were skate parks like the skate parks really changed everything yeah they're and now they're everywhere i mean we just talked about um i I had rented a Tesla to go to mammoth, uh, and we, yeah. And Lone Pine has a skate park right by the charging station. Yeah. We, our foundation helped with that one. That's incredible.

Like I'm, I was literally, I'm charging up and I was like, I'm just going to take a walk or get something to eat or drink. And I'm on the, I was on the phone with someone. I was like, you won't believe this. There is a skate park right here in this little tiny. And Bishop and Mammoth. Bishop. Yeah.

There's one in Bishop too. Yeah. So you, did you help with all those? With Mammoth and with Lone Pine. Yeah. That's awesome. Your foundation is the one that kind of. Yeah.

Our foundation helps with public skate parks in low income areas. That's incredible. Yeah. Because I saw it. I was like, this is so, it's because I guess when I was a kid, there was a couple of skate parks around, but man, they were really shit. And I see them today and they're so nice and they're so well done and a lot of concrete. And, you know, they used to be kind of those old...

Well, what happened was, and it's a big reason why I started the foundation, was that if a city decided they were going to do a skate park, it was usually a more affluent city who had the budget for it. Sure. And thought that they were being hip and cool for the kids. Yeah. and thought that they were being hip and cool for the kids. And then they would get bids from sidewalk contractors who claimed they knew how to build skate parks, but didn't.

They just knew how to pour concrete. And they would design these parks based on, I don't know, 720 video game? I don't know where they got their ideas. I skated a park in the early 2000s right outside of Chicago, Illinois. I got invited to the grand opening. I got paid to go there, which should have been my first warning sign. Right. And they said, do you want to see the park?

I got there the night before we were supposed to do the grand opening. They said, do you want to skate the park? Before no one's actually been able to skate it yet. I said, yeah, sure. So I went with all these city council members you know all these old white dudes yeah and they're who've never skateboarded in their life yeah and they're all on the fence watching me and they have they literally have headlights of the cars to get give me light show you light yeah and everything was designed wrong i mean the the ledges were this high so you couldn't even really board sliding without hitting your wheels there was there was a set of stairs that went to a wall it ended at a wall

yeah like a wall just genius you know eight feet up front of it i don't know perfect that's exactly what you thought the stairs were literally just for walking up yeah um and uh and i tried to skate it and then i came out and they're all very excited, and they said, what do you think? What do you think? And I said, it's terrible. It has no flow. It's probably not as good as a local street spot.

And they said, yeah, that's what all the kids were saying when we were building it, but we told them, wait till Tony Hawk gets here, and he'll show you how to ride it. Yeah, wait till Tony Hawk. Tony Hawk is going to come shit on us. Not you kids. he'll come shit on us yeah and they feel it did they understand that that it was not it was kind of a bummer they kind of didn't they were still thought they they really were doing something cool totally and progressive but but that was the moment when i realized that i had a voice and i could affect change if I, if I really pushed at it and tried to bridge that gap between the city council people that, that I can talk to and the kids that actually want, need

these spaces. And so I didn't know what I was doing, but I knew I had to do something. And that's when I started the foundation. That's awesome. Um, but, but more so I wanted to, more so I wanted to direct the funds to more low income areas, not just the upper, right. The upper, the suburbs of Chicago. I was looking for something that, that would be where kids really are challenged. Um, and we've been doing it 17 years now. Wow. How many have you built? We've helped to fund over 600. 600 parks. Is there like a link on your website or something like that?

Or a website that you can find all the parks that you guys have done? Oh, yeah. TonyHawkFoundation.org, yeah. TonyHawkFoundation.org. We've done them in every state. And we have a partnership with Ralph C. Wilson Foundation to do specific projects in the Midwest, mostly in Michigan.

My wife's from Detroit, so that is close to our heart too. God, that makes me, I just watched that Flint documentary, Flinttown. Did you watch that? No, I remember the Michael Moore one. No, no, no, no.

This just came out on Netflix. It's about the Flint Police Department. If anybody hasn't seen this, oh my God, it's about uh the flint police department if anybody hasn't seen this oh my god it's it's the most tragic i mean flint is in such dire straits and they show what the police department has to go through in a town where there's so much job opportunity there's nothing there's such a lack of everything i remember uh on a birdhouse tour in the in the 90s when we were literally skating in parking lots of skate shops of six flags and for skates no no like skating in parking lots of skate shops begging them for money for

food and a hotel so we get to the next city damn um but we stopped in flint on our way up to um chicago would flint be on the way to chicago i don't know down down down down yeah but we were going we were heading up so from chicago up to fl, Flint's up north, Michigan's up north. Oh, then we were going to Detroit. Okay. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. Sorry. Everyone from the Midwest. We're not people anymore. I don't, I just, I was just driving. I didn't have a, I didn't have a phone now. I had, I had a Thomas map. I was going to say Thomas guys. So anyway, I remember we stopped in Flint to get some street footage and it was the only place that we went to or we didn't kick out of anywhere yeah they didn't care they were like go ahead they did not care actually i think they were more concerned for our safety

from the locals like why are you here like what are you guys doing that was like i'll never forget i was running that just reminded me i was running in tampa one day when i was doing shows and i was just running and running and i put on headphones and i run i kind of just disappear and i you know whatever i don't know where i figured all out and this woman is waving me down and I like take off my headphones she looks really concerned yeah and she like waves me over and I run across the street I'm like are you okay and she goes are you okay and I was like I'm I'm totally fine I'm like looking at myself she goes what the fuck are you doing in this neighborhood and I was like oh am I not and she's like get out of here now i was like in like the worst part of tampa and so of course i start running back and

she's like go get gone but i could tell you know you could tell the look on someone's face when you're in a neighborhood you're not supposed to be in when they're like why are you what are you so basically in the early 90s all the skate parks were in those neighborhoods the worst neighborhoods including tampa right right right well i mean tampa's an interesting place there's a lot of some tampa people that are watching me like what's your problem no no but but tampa skate park like it was it was notorious for they had all kinds of problems just from locals or from crime around the area just crime ridden yeah so it just makes it i remember i had the same i had a similar experience like that in in the late 80s we went went through New York on tour,

but we didn't actually have a demo in New York in Manhattan. Right. And we just wanted to go into the city and buy CBGB shirts. Like that was the goal. And so we parked our tour van, which was a piece of shit anyway. Like people written graffiti on it and stuff. Parked the van and we're walking to CBGBs and these cops stop and they're like, what are you guys doing?

Get out of town. Everyone knows you're here. We weren't, we're recognizable. They just knew that we were like these white dudes. Yeah, these young white skater bros. Yeah, like they're like, get in your van and get out of here. And so I think we ended up parking somewhere else,

ran to CBGBs, got sure it's in bail. And then ran home. Yeah. I mean, that was, New York is a different city now. Oh my God. Manhattan now, I don't, it's so nice. Times Square was frightening back then. Well, for the longest time,

from what I've heard in the past of Manhattan, you hear all these like terrible, terrible stories of like, you know, the Lower East Side being so dangerous and the East Village. Now, anybody goes to Manhattan, you can visit any part of Manhattan and feel so safe. And it's like unbelievable. Yeah, for sure. Well, I mean, it's funny, though, that Lower East Side, I mean, I just interviewed Mike D actually for my series show. And hearing his stories about Lower East Side and the 80s are fantastic.

Yeah. Because he was in it and he was part of the movement. And so if you could have been on that side of the coin, it would have been amazing. Sure. Yeah. Because he watched the revolution kind of go down.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But now you just go down there and you're like, look at this nice $8 million building. Here's a new gastropub. Yeah.

I want to ask you, we don't have to stick to skate stuff although i'm i'm super i'm super interested in all that world but like you you have a plethora of children who who many of them skate obviously you have all of them yeah professional your sons are professional one of them is yeah yeah and uh a buddy and i were talking that you threw up a video teaching your daughter oh Oh, yeah. That was a couple weeks ago, yeah. And people went nuts on the internet for it. It was crazy, yeah. I didn't realize how much that would resonate.

Because you're active online. You're super active online. I see you post a ton of stuff about skating or with the family and all that stuff. And it's awesome to see the window into that world of what that's like. Because I think people kind of dehumanize pro athletes at some point that you're like they're not people like well also because they're so they're they're so structured with what they put out it's all very controlled totally yeah the machine yeah and there's a machine and i've always done my own social media and i've always tried to keep it interesting and real.

And, you know, this is this is what we're dealing with here, you know. Right. Right. And you and you putting up your daughter, was it did she like is it something you consciously thought about before you threw it up? So the way that that unfolded, it's funny because I actually talked about this to her the other day. The way that unfolded was I promised her she'd go get her favorite food if she dropped in like it wasn't that i was trying to bribe her it was just that she was hesitant for so long i was like i was like well you know what what would you want to do katie she said i want i want to go to panera and get chicken noodle soup all right let's do it right after you right after you do it and then she was hesitant and finally i said i said katie i know that you want to do it

and i know how disappointed you're gonna be if you don't right if we leave here and you don't do it and that was what shifted her triggered her mind yeah i heard it but so so that was it when she did it and then we went to panera so she could get her chicken noodle soup and while we were waiting for the soup i just took the last minute of the footage and was like oh this would be cool like people get to see it you know because it feels like she really overcame that sure um and then the next morning it's on news sites it's exploded yeah 14 million views on twitter and it was i was like what it happened yeah and also had I I mean of course I would never have known that that would have happened but had I known I would have I would have put a little edit together

of her first attempts because sure she fell once like significantly and overcame it and then the other time she like jumped off right as she was going in right and like all that building up to would have been a better video segment but then at the same time it would have been more structured and it would have been right i think the rawness of it was why yeah it was just it is what it is that's why people liked it yeah but but i you know i don't want to go on about it but it was unexpected yeah and um katie actually voiced some concern the other day because she's like, I don't know if you should be putting up all my footage. And I said, Katie, I'll do whatever you're comfortable with.

I'm just, you know, I really put that up there for our friends and family and people know you because I know how excited they'd be to see you do that. Right. And she's like, yeah, yeah. And then it was more her concern was like creeps. Yeah, well, the internet is creeps. And I said, Katie, don't worry. We're not ever, I'm never telling where you are.

Right. Like where you go to school. No. You know, where we live. None of those things are out there. All those details are hidden. All they know is that you were in the warehouse dropping in. Sure.

Yeah. And so that eased her fears. But she's right though. That is funny though. You don't, I mean like, look. Yeah. But that's probably on me. I've instilled that in her a few times. what that be careful of just yeah just that's a

pretty good thing to instill in your children but you know what i mean like you can't you can't go into the gory details of why but at the same time it's like katie just don't don't give your you know your instagram name out right things like that people are gross yeah it turns out people are pretty gross there's some gross people. There's bad intentions. That's what I tell. There are people with bad intentions and we can avoid them.

Well, we just moved and, you know, of course, like the first thing we, you know, my wife gets on Megan's Law or whatever, you know,

and all that stuff. Oh, yeah. And it's, and my suggestion is don't ever do it. Ever, ever, ever. Please, my God. Because every time

you're going to be like, You're in the orbit. Oh, dude. It's like four blocks away blocks away it's like a pant it's like a full-on panic but you just you have to like get that stuff out of your head but you just i mean that's a part of the that's i guess that's part of parenting in the modern world of social media yeah it's super weird because you know maybe you haven't told them the facts of life yet but at the same time you got to be like watch out for weirdos it's a balance it's a balance and for you I guess that's a great next

well that's the other thing is so I told her I said look I'm only doing it if you're comfortable with it I'm not you know you're not like you're not my meal ticket I'm not trying to put you out there like a stage mom yeah like I do it if you're if you like it if you want me to share it I i do it if you're if you like it if you

want me to share it i'll do it if you don't want to share it right right and now you but but it was which is funny because like you did you always secretly hope that your kids would skate like riley like riley being you know i guess it's just because riley grew up at a time when i was struggling to make a living skating and so I was doing it every chance I could get at every opportunity. Yeah. And we didn't have money for childcare. And so he would just come with me. So he was just surrounded by it.

He was just like immersed in it. Right. To the point where it wasn't even really a choice. He just picked up a skateboard. Like he was just around it and it was available to him and he skated. It became like just the normal thing to to do it was absolutely the normal thing and then at some point as things as he got older and and better and then people started having these expectations or putting expectations on him that's when he sort of realized oh and do i do this seriously

right you know is this a thing and and he has a really good take on it. All my other kids skate for fun, but none of them were trying to make a career out of it. Sure. Um, but they're all accomplished. Like they all can do pretty sick tricks, but it's super fun. So we asked me if, if I hope absolutely, I hoped it. And, and I never pushed any of them into it. The cool thing about this generation is that all the kids dabble in skating at the very least yeah or they have tried it right my generation like you either skated and that's all you did or you didn't understand it and didn't want to do it at all right it was like when like when i'm a kid when i was a kid i basketball was my the other thing i i like loved and beating my dad at basketball that moment was like like, Oh, it's like, that was like

the greatest. Was there, was there a moment? Oh yeah. Riley. Yeah. I remember, I remember we were, uh, we were skating this little, this little sort of bank to ledge and he said, dad, can you do, um, front side kickflip to tail slide? And I was like, I am honored you would ask me that. There's no fucking way I could do that. Not a chance. No. And he's like, really? I go, yeah, I can barely do front leg kickflips. And then, of course, the next day he learns it.

Because he knows that you can't do it. No, he was asking for advice on it. Oh, right, right, right. He wanted to learn it. Right. But he was like, how do I do it? I was like, I don't know. Dude, you probably got all the parts of it.

Right. Go for it. So do you think those are those are those moments that you think also in his mind that he's like oh shit i'm i'm legit i you know like that i can also i think i think those that validation came from his peers not for me right that validation came when that validation for him came when andrew reynolds asked him to be on baker right that's when huge everything changed for him where it was like, oh, I'm not just here because of nepotism. I'm here because someone recognized my skill

and Andrew doesn't want any part of some kid just riding on his name. Did he feel like there was a, this kind of, did he feel like there was talk of it being like, oh, you're only making it because Tony's your dad? I think that he heard that. He just did a big interview on nine club about this very subject.

But, um, I think he heard people saying that, but he never really took it to heart. Yeah. Because you can't, he already had his friends. He had his crew,

you know, people and, and people knew he was really good for his age. Well, the cream rises. That's my only opinion. Like whenever someone says they got in only because X, Y,

Z, it's like, sure. And then at some point it just won't work if it in only because X, Y, Z, it's like, sure. And then at some point it just won't work if it doesn't work, right? Yeah. You can say whatever you want. Just because someone got free gear and had access to some skate facilities, that doesn't make them great.

Of course not. Or give them the motivation or to have them persevere. Right. And that's a symptom in our business too. Like we hear it all the time of like, oh, you know who his uncle is or you know who the, it's like, let me tell you something, regardless of those facts. He might've got his foot in the door. Sure. But you gotta, you gotta walk the walk. But you have to deliver at some point. And we've seen it. I'm not going to mention names, but like, I know people that get into things and you're

like, yeah, they suck. And that's why they're not around anymore. Like they got something, but they just weren't, they couldn't complete the thing. So, but no, I, but I was always curious about that dynamic because I imagine that's, you know, it is kind of a little weird to follow in your dad's footsteps, but to make your own brand and to be your own thing, I think that's a, that's even harder, right? That's even harder than way harder, way harder, right? That's because to be your own path your own path yeah and to get out from what would be my shadow um is something that i i can't imagine i can't imagine having done that as a kid right i was just trying to have anyone recognize me as a skater i would have copied anyone if i thought it would have worked right if it was gonna work but i couldn't like i didn't have i didn't have

the chops yeah let me i want to ask you one thing that's on my mind that makes me laugh every time i i think of tony hawk pro skater i can't not hear that goldfinger song it dude i it i can't not hear it it's so embedded in my brain for the rest of my life you didn't have any you didn't have any fingers on on picking those songs did you absolutely yeah you did not not the the newer bands which i would sure they're not new now but but in for instance goldfinger or mill and colin right that was all sort of the music department reaching out to try to get newer punk type of music but for the old school stuff primus dead kennedys right um ramones you know all that stuff that was definitely my that was all you yeah because i would just give them i would just give them a list of of songs and bands that i grew up listening to at skate parks or that i heard at

skate parks right um x black flag you know all that stuff circle jerks like that so that was my input and and i always thought oh it's going to be super cool that we get to have the soundtrack of skating. I never imagined that people would appreciate it. Oh, my God. It's almost like the way that movie soundtracks used to be bought on CD. Like people would be like, oh, my God, I love that soundtrack of that film. That was the soundtracks to those games were just as dominant. That went so big at the time that we actually got to do a soundtrack CD.

Yeah, it's incredible. So we had new bands cover old punk songs and it was like a bestseller. I went on a CD release tour. And you didn't make any of the music. That's the best part. Yeah, it was crazy. You curated.

Well, you're a curator. It's funny you say that. So when does this air anyway? In a week. Well, you're a curator. It's funny you say that. So when does this air anyway? In a week. Oh, okay. So I'm working on a big concert fundraiser for our foundation. Okay. Because as of this year, it's been 20 years since the release of the first video game.

Yes. And so my idea was to have this fundraiser and invite a bunch of bands that are associated with the game. That got to be much more complicated than I imagined it to be. But I did get a confirmation from Bad Religion to play. So Bad Religion is headlining. We have this band from Australia who kept hitting me up on Twitter. They're a cover band of only songs from our game.

What's the band name? They're called Birdman THPS. That's amazing. And they kept like every time they'd have a concert, they'd be tagging me and stuff, you know? Sure. And so I actually went and listened to a couple of tracks. I was like, these guys have it. Like they play the hits.

Right. You know, they play Ace of Spades and they play gorilla radio and they, they play, um, Superman, Goldfinger and, um, Mill and Colin,

no cigar and, and all those, you know, Primus and everything. And, and then I started thinking like, you know what? I should just invite those guys to open up for bad religion.

Cause those are the songs people want to hear. Totally. So that's what's happening. So they're going to open up. They're going to open up for bad religion. And when is this? Uh, it's June 9th. Uh, it'd be in San Diego. It hasn't been announced so that's what's happening so they're gonna open up they're gonna open up for bad religion and when is this uh it's june 9th uh it'll be in san diego it hasn't been announced yet but it's happening that's awesome dude yeah bad religion bad so bad religion is gonna play a full set of bad religion play their own set okay their own and then this

other band will play all the hits from thps series wow that's fucking awesome it's pretty cool that is so cool i'm really excited about it's so cool to see that kind of come together after all this time is kind of one of those things where like well we have this window of opportunity with the 20-year release sure i'm no longer with activision but i feel like they're probably um you know they probably have enough reverence for the for the series that i hope they want to support it i would imagine that conversation either so do they exist? I'm so ignorant. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Are you kidding? Yeah. I don't even know anymore. I don't know who makes games. Call of Duty. Well, see, all I know is the names of games. I don't, like,

I feel like Activision was such a, when I was playing video games when I was younger, I heard it all the time and saw it all the time. But now, everything that I know

about video games is just the name of them. Like, all I know is that. But Activision was kind of synonymous with everything. Every game I heard of, I heard Activision as the company. They kind of promoted themselves heavily. For video games, there's only a few titles that really continue on. Yeah, that really keep going.

Did you feel like that was going to be influential or no? Our game? Yeah. I thought that our game would influence skaters to buy playstations really i mean that for me that was the mark of success right if i got some some kid that loves skating to buy a playstation to to see it and recognize the authenticity of it and and the fun aspects like oh i'm gonna go play that then i was like oh that's my job is done that's and then what happened was it inspired this whole new generation of people to try skating yeah that

was to understand it i think it taught i think it helped a lot of people that i knew that wanted to skate more because of it you know like because you were like yeah it just got you in this this this no well there's sort of these there's there's been a few uh milestones in skating that that started people skating and and for instance in my day um shoot in my day i don't i can't even think of what the the inspiration was it was it was actually just seeing my brother because he was a surfer right and and like surfing down the street and that's what inspired me to want to try it but uh back to the future right that was a whole generation of kids in the 80s i mean there are veteran pros these days that started skating because of that movie oh yeah that's so funny

um and then because he rips off that pole off that kid's scooter yeah yeah and then um our video game yeah um and some for some people it's the's the X Games. I think the video game was super influential. I think it just made people feel like they could skate. It also probably broke a lot of kids' ankles, by the way.

People were like, could I do five tricks in a row like this? You know what's weird is they can now. Yeah, I mean, that's what's even more insane. The more I watch,

there's a few people that I follow on Instagram. Yeah, you watch like Shane O'Neal. Shane O'Neal. Do you know Ellis Frost? Do you know who that is? I think that's his name. Ellis Frost.

Is that his name? He's a young guy. I have to look him up. I'll show you. I'll correct it if it's wrong. But he does stuff that I just can't wrap my head around. Like it's absurd. It's a lot of late flips, a ton of late flips.

Okay, yeah. You know? Yeah. Coming off of stuff where you're like, it's not just ground tricks. All that stuff was like the combos that we would do on the game that we were like ah this is not this isn't even real no one could do this no one could do this yeah and now that's that's what's happening yeah that that's up blows my mind yes i watch shannon o'neill in his backyard at his yeah his

little whatever he's got set up at his house and i watch he also does a lot of thps stuff is uh anthony anderson i don't know who that is. You'll look it up. Anthony Anderson. Yeah. I was gonna say there's an actor named Anthony Anderson. The black dude from Black-ish. The big, the bleak. Oh, okay.

Yeah. I think that's who they do. But this guy does like, he does. You just made me think if he's doing tricks like that. Lip slide, lip slide, lip slide. Smith grind. All impossible out. Like, it's crazy.

That, see, that kind of stuff. It's, it becomes a new level of, of of like where well where does this go next like that's that's the creepiest part is like what is next because i remember thinking everything in that game was such a hyperbole it was like you can't this is this will never be but like i guess the continuation of it things are getting bigger the more stuff i watch and i i still love the skating world because it's just something i've always i just have always loved it i've never gotten away from it. I was terrible at skateboarding.

I just loved it. And then I've just kept up with it. Cause I, I just always, I know a few people like that, that, that they still, they still appreciate it.

They still, they still look for new stuff all the time, but they don't do it. Um, no, I mean, I could, I couldn't anymore.

It's just, I mean, transportation maybe, but no, I just, I just enjoy appreciating the world from afar because it's just like anything else pro sports that you watch it's like the fat guy on his couch he can't play fucking football but he loves football but right skateboarding just did this thing for my childhood that was like so important that now when i find new guys doing

shit like that where i'm like i get obsessed and i get wormholes i watch them for hours and hours and hours because i can't believe that that that, you know, the dedication and the, you know. Yeah. So on the flip side of that, especially when you were talking about like Shane O'Neill is, you know, probably headed to the Olympics and representing Australia and,

you know, could definitely be the world champion and has been. So when, when I talk about vert skating, which is, you know, more of my wheelhouse obviously

and there are a few guys skating vert now that are just like pushing it to limits we never imagined that skate

you know they skate like they're naturals they do stuff that looks magical right and they can't make any money

because there's no no market no there's no there's no vert events. No one's even sponsoring vert skaters, let alone giving them models. And it's so crazy. I did a demo. So I have obviously this.

I'm lucky because I live in a different sort of world of promotion. Right. In a lot of ways. I do a lot of speaking gigs. And so sometimes when I do a speaking gig, I can upsell them with a vert demo. Yes. Like if it's a really big budget type of thing.

You're like, and? Yeah, we did a couple weeks ago in Salt Lake City at the Qualtrics event. They had Obama speaking. They had Oprah speaking. Did Obama do vert? No, but they hired me to be one of the speakers. Right.

And then I was like, hey, by the way, I have a whole turnkey demo ramp set up. And they said, great, we'll put that at our party at the end of the weekend. Oh, that's cool. And so we got to do that. And so I hired a crew of skaters, Bucky Lastic, Andy McDonald, Lizzie Armato, all people who have been doing it. But there's this one guy, Paul Luke Ronchetti. And I tell the story just because I think he's one of the best vert skaters out there. And he does some tricks that I never imagined were possible on vert.

And he does them eight feet out. And he's amazing to watch. And I asked him if he would do the demo, and he had to go ask for time off his 9-to-5 job. Just to come do the demo? To come do the demo for about 4 000 people that are you know amazed by him and want his autograph and want photos and then the next day go back to his line nine to five it's such a weird paradox to live in what would

be what in your opinion would be the thing that might help get vert back into the skate world do you it's not dead forever i mean i don't think anything's dead right no i think that the the it's weird the the the whole park movement the park series even the park event like the park discipline is going to be in the olympics but like the vans park series that combines vert with a little bit of street element but the thing is is that it's a relatively small vert and so it's pretty limiting to what kind of tricks and spins you can do on it because you just can't get the air time. So I feel like that's a good springboard for people to understand how truly difficult vert skating is

and to appreciate what the newer vert skaters can do. So I think there's still hope for them, but right now in this window it's just really hard it's like my best example is we see

you know these these competitions like Vans Park Bondi Bowl whatever right and no one does 720s

like 720 is is an upper echelon vertical trick and only a handful of guys can do it, maybe a dozen. And that's something that you need to be competitive as a vert skater. And there's no skater or there's no thing big enough in these park series to even do that trick.

So yeah, the verts themselves aren't set up to even try it yeah so so people are winning these big events with basic vert tricks i guess that's my that's my curmudgeon gripe of it all that's the old man shaking the fish yeah it's like we used to 900 when i was like okay the guy did a mctwist a frontside blunt a smith grind do you know what i mean yeah and then he spent all this time getting from point A to point B and as I appreciate the difficulty of that, but at the same time, I'm like,

but if he just had a vert event, those tricks wouldn't even make the finals. Right. It wouldn't even, it would be nothing. Yeah, I mean,

it wouldn't be nothing, but it would be like, all right, well, those are, that's a good start. Right, what's next?

We need to move up. Yeah. So, like I said, it's just a strange time for that, but at the same time, like all right well those are that's that's a good start right what's next we need to move up yeah um so it's like i said it's just a strange time for that but at the same time i think that with those those park series and the accessibility of all the parks now and and with how prolific they are that people will start to maybe build more vert ramps or or bigger transitions right to see these more difficult moves being done. Well, I mean, imagine, like I think, you know.

But I mean, we're getting super nerdy into the skate. So what? That's what we're doing. Yeah. And if they don't like it, too bad. That's how I feel. And plenty of my friends have heard me talk about this. Yeah, but I mean, I feel like, you know,

like I think, you know, my range of fans is a lot of comedy nerds, a lot of, they just like intricate talks about something that's very specific. So I feel like the meta world is cool for people to listen because most people don't know about any of this stuff you know right and i feel like it's like this it's like we're not going to see a 900 in the olympics do you think but well it's not going to happen because the the transitions just

aren't big enough for that it just can't happen is what you're saying yeah i mean it would it would be very unlikely let's put it that way. Right, right. Highly unlikely. Yeah, and at a vert contest, maybe the top two or three guys could do it. Could do it, yeah. How many years did it take you to really get it down? Oh, it took like 10 years of attempts. God, that's insane.

Yeah. Is it fear as much as it is? In the beginning, for sure sure yeah because i didn't want to commit to spinning all the way around right and then once i started committing to the spin then i started committing to the landing and then when i started committing to the landing i broke my rib and got knocked out fun fun yeah yeah you know got i got a bunch of injuries and then when i finally figured out how to not lean so far forward as I was landing, that was it. Right. And I know you've been asked before about it, but every time I've ever watched the video of you doing that all the way pipe that you had to basically flip upside down the loop.

Yeah. That gives me the most anxiety of anything on the earth. It makes me like nauseous that is the the most it's funny because it is the most frightening one of the most dangerous but actually easiest things to do because you just have to keep going and you're good right you just that's it you have to because people approach it as a trick right and so they they go at it and they think they're going to do a backflip and they just don't position their body and and what it is is a carve right and you just have to keep pressure on your board through those transitions you never really know when you're completely upside down you don't really i mean you wouldn't know because there's so much momentum right if you're in the right

position your body's just holding strong all the way through and then you see the flat bottom come around and then you straighten out and that like that's all it takes right but but it's way more complex than that and you know people have myself included people have suffered the consequences so hard that it's just frightening you know people are just like there's no way i'm not doing it it's just the looking at it scares me if anybody hasn't seen it you should look it up but the thing about it is it's funny with the loop the people who have done it are those who have been obsessed by it right like it's something to conquer yeah like i i saw someone trying it in in a skate magazine in 1979 1980 and uh this guy duane peters and he fell from the top

and broke his collarbone and that stuck with me not because he got hurt but because i was like that it's got to be possible right and there were there were shots of him like coming around almost all the way around so you knew that that physically it could happen right um and so i always had that with me when i finally had the opportunity to have one built it was i was all in have you ever had a moment that like like say like when you when you land a 900 have you ever had a moment that like, like say like when you, when you land a 900, have you ever had a moment in your career when you think, I don't know if it gets higher than this, or if I don't know if it gets better than this? Um, like to give you time to think about it, I'll just say for me, like there's been a few things in my career where not like I'm saying,

this is the pinnacle, uh, because I feel like I, and I hope I have a long, long way to go, but there are these moments that I'm like, fuck, I don't know. I pinnacle because I feel like I, and I hope I have a long, long way to go, but there are these moments that I'm like, fuck, I don't know. I might, I hope I feel this again. And I don't know when it is that I'm going to feel that feeling again. But do you have that?

Or have you had that? Well, I definitely still have it in, in small ways with learning new tricks, even at my age. Like I, I still do create some new tricks. They're not high impact.

They're not anything that the general public is going to understand sure but i get that feeling of accomplishment and right and um self-empowerment doing it so that's the feeling i'm always kind of striving for right but for sure when in 1999 when i i really had already told myself that was going to be my last year of competition, I didn't really care what was going to come next, but I had competed for 20 years. I had a young family. I had to make a change. Something had to give, and I was just competing all the time.

And so to have that in the back of my mind, and then have that moment of of actually finally making a 900 in a public venue which you know every time i try 900 it was just me on a vert ramp with a dude with the camera right that was it right um there were a couple of best trick events where we were trying it but no one was really getting that close and so i kind of given up on it and then to to land it so unexpectedly i had no plans to try it that night, so when I finally did make it in front of that crowd, and then they made that such a highlight, like it made SportsCenter,

but that was it for sure. That was like, okay, I can stop competing. That was kind of, that's like the tip of the cap type of thing. That was it, yeah. For lack of a better term, that was my mic job. It was just like, like oh i can't do better than this in a contest nothing no other events gonna top this this experience did it feel the same did it feel

that good too or no it felt like a giant relief because sometimes no for me it was just like i finally did that thing like i've been trying it for so long it's over but it was less elation of happiness and more just like thank god it was both okay it was a relief and it was it was definitely happening and then i was like oh this is this would be a good out right it'd be a good exit right it wasn't until the following days and weeks where i realized how far that it resonated and people were stopping me everywhere i mean it culturally like, it was the only thing anybody talked about. And it was just, it was such a strange, it was a strange feeling too, because for instance,

I learned 720s on a backyard ramp in Sweden in 1985. Wow. What were you doing in Sweden? I was there for the skate camp, this European skate camp where, you know, maybe 20 people signed up to be there for the week. And I was skating with two other guys and I learned 720. Sorry.

I learned 720s to an audience of two. Wow. And it was kind of like, oh, that's cool. Way to go, man. Yeah. And then I land. I was like, yeah, right. 720. And then so for me, those accomplishments were never met with much validation or appreciation beyond the skate community.

Right. And then fast forward to 14 years later, I do a 900 and it makes news. Yeah, it's so crazy. That was such a strange, you know, such a strange paradox for me. Sure. strange you know it's such a strange paradox for me sure when you say when you say the validation of of people around you too does your was your parents super supportive when you started to get when you got into skating like was your family i was lucky because i had older siblings and so my parents um but you always feel supported like in what you what you wanted to do by them sure well

that's a tough that's probably the toughest yeah because i was the youngest of four and by the time i came along they had they had survived my older sisters and my brother in the 70s and all their bullshit so then you were yeah and they were and they were all into other stuff my sister was a singer and my brother surfed my dad would drive him you know dawn patrol to events and to Santa Barbara and so by the time I came along I came along much later my dad was just like whatever keeps him busy I get him away from us go do it and so it was skating and it was like all right driving me the skate park and he dropped me off there and until they closed what do you feel what do you feel culturally that you're the most

impressed by in the world of skating now? Like what to you is the thing that you're like, wow, that's, is it like whether it's a person, a team, a movement that's happening in skating or like what is it to you now that you're like, wow, fuck, that's impressive. That was like kind of, that felt like what you were doing for your, when you were, when you had started versus what's going on now. I think it's the, it's the control that people have with their skateboard

on such an intricate level. I mean, it's beyond like Olympic precision. It's just so incredible and precise and technical. It's creepy almost to me. Like sometimes I see it and I'm like, this is creepy. Yeah, it doesn't seem real. And when I see people doing these crazy big flips or flip, you know, and, and, and it used to be like, how many times can you flip your board? There was a guy on our team that did a quadruple 360 flip. And to me, that

was the most incredible thing ever. And that was early nineties. Right. And now it's like, he's flipping, his board is spinning, he's spinning, and then he's landing on a rail. And then he's flipping out of it. Like that kind of stuff is so, it's not beyond my comprehension, but it is unreal to me that it's come that far and that people can literally flip their board from a handrail. Like all we tried to do in my generation was survive handrails. Right. They flip on and flip out. And flip out. That's the craziest thing I've ever seen.

And so to me, that's the movement that has stuck but has become so incredibly difficult and mind-blowing that I'm a fan. What can I say? Right. How could you not be, right? You'll never stop skating, right? I don't think so. I might stop doing it in public if I feel like I'm just the old guy out there

doing frontside grinds. But at your house, you'll always do it at your house or somewhere. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I can't, yeah, I can never quit. But I love, I still feel like I have the skills and I'm relevant enough and pushing it enough that I could do it, you know,

and be justified as a professional. Yeah. Um, but if there came, it comes a time when it's just like, he's just playing the hits, you know what I mean? Like, right. And, and it feels like I'm just kind of the sad old guy at the bar, then I'll probably not be doing my big demos or video parts, but you'll definitely be able to find me on my ramp or in my backyard any given day. Yeah, you'll still always be you. Yeah, you can't get rid of that.

Yeah. You can't get rid of it. I mean, I feel like whether or not you believe in destiny or fate, and I have a hard problem with the idea of that, but I got to know that aside from your talent and your hard work, I mean, aside from your hard work, you had to have been gifted something so unique to become you

that I just feel like that can't die. That doesn't die. Like that doesn't go away. I don't think so. Yeah. I just don't buy it. I definitely carved out this unique path to be a somewhat public figure,

but also have these skills and be able to sort of walk that walk and right and i i think that a lot of people say you know well how do you stay relevant i was like because i keep skating well because you love it too yeah but i mean that's really it it's not like i i stopped skating and then i just have this machine of licensing and products. And it's like, I'm just resting on previous accolades. I can never do that or feel right about it. Right. And people are like, how do you still do it? I was like, I just never quit.

Yeah, and you won't. Yeah, like I said, I won't, but maybe I won't be so public about it. More secretive. All right, so I'm going to tie a bow on this even though i want to talk to you for eight days straight but it or is there uh a site that you want to plug or for for where people want to go to get more information about what you're doing and what's going on tonyhawkfoundation.org is our foundation for public skate parks um tony hawk skate jam on

mobile on mobile baby that just came out that just came out in november it was last year right yeah now but there's a whole world tournament that happens on it that you can actually compete against people all across the world on iphone and android who organized who organizes that kind of shit that so that one came from a friend who had worked with this developer and they said hey these guys have a skate game and they would they would like to work with you and and honestly it wasn't a big financial deal right but i saw what they had and i knew that with my not with my influence but with my resources and my experience that we could make something that was more akin to our previous series on consoles right and so i dove in with

them probably for about a almost a year um work tweaking it and and now i feel like we have it so it's you know along the line as best we can with one full touch screen yeah not analog controls yeah but but everyone's mobile now i mean everything is on mobile yeah and also it's fun like you know two minute session waiting at starbucks yeah why not do a bunch of combos like that's what and it's free right so for me it was just it was a fun it was a fun project

to be involved in and I don't know if it's gonna go gangbusters but I don't really care like it was it doesn't matter it was cool to do yeah

if you enjoy it I think that's that's the whole part of it yeah I do yeah it's legit I'm on it I'm out there you're playing against me

you're playing against Tony yeah give him your username that's it I'm Tony Hawk find Tony Hawk on there. I was Tony Skates because someone took my name and then... Wouldn't they? Wouldn't someone take Tony Hawk?

Yeah. Wouldn't they? I mean like... And then Maple Media magically gave it back to me. Yeah. They emailed that guy. They were like, you're done. You're done.

He was squatting it. He wanted a large sum for it. Well, dude, I so appreciate you coming by. I think it's incredible. I didn't give any context to how we know each other. And you know what? I'm not going to tell anybody. But I do appreciate you coming.

I had lunch with Art. Actually, you know what's so funny? And it's his birthday today. Is it? Today? Okay. I should say this, actually. I want to tell this story fast.

After I did Tony's show on Sirius, we went to go get sushi. And I'm about'm pulling into the I'm about to pull into the sushi lot I tell that story all the time I'm about to pull into the sushi lot and there's this huge I think it's like a Mercedes SUV like the G-Wagon I think is what it was big obnoxious I mean huge wheels

and I'm like who is this fucking guy blocking the middle of the to get in. He was blocking La Cienega blocking La Cienega so Yeah, just blocking the street. So I'm like, dude, this is unbelievable. Like, of course, I pull over to get out of the way, because I'm getting, you know, fucked by traffic,

and I see him get out, and it's Kanye West, and you know, he gets out of his car, and I'm pulling in, pulling over, and he, of course, he sees you, and says, what's up to you? And then he's sitting, like, right next And he, of course, he sees you and says, what's up to you? And then he's sitting like right next to us eating lunch. And in my head, I'm like, if I could tell the Chicago kid in me that I'm going to eat lunch with Tony Hawk and have Kanye West nearby,

I'd be like, that's it. Kill yourself today. That's the best. That is the most odd, weird, funny day. The funny thing is I was approaching that SUV to tell the guy to get out. I know. I watched you get up there to tell the guy to get out of the way. I know. I watched you get up there to be like, dude.

I was like, dude, you're blocking traffic. And just right as I approached the car, the door opened. And I was like, oh, of course. It's Kanye. Kanye West. He's like, Tony Hawk. You're like, okay, I can't yell at you anymore, I guess. It's not going to do me any good.

Right? High five. Well, dude, I appreciate it. Go to the TonyHawkFoundation.org that's what it is check it out go to AndrewSantino.com

Birdhouse Skateboards Birdhouse Skateboards Birdhouse Skateboards Birdhouse Skateboards Birdhouse Skateboards say it three times and we'll show up in your living room

like we told you we'll put we'll put all that link in the description go to AndrewSantino.com next week I'm in Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix come on out come have some fun and say hi thank you Tony appreciate it yeah thanks for having me.