May 12, 1968 • San Diego, California
Skateboarder, businessman
Hawk, Tony.
AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission.
According to Newsweek magazine, Tony Hawk is the "most famous
skateboarder, like, ever." A big claim, but with a lot to support it.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Hawk almost single-handedly transformed
skateboarding from a kids' parking-lot pastime into a respected sport.
He won virtually every skateboarding competition he entered, and before
he was twenty, he was considered to be the number one vertical
skateboarder in the world.
Hawk was equally talented off the ramp. His business ventures and
product endorsements have made him a very wealthy man, and have also
kept him in the spotlight. As skateboarding icon Stacy Peralta told Sports Illustrated,
"Tony is the first skateboarder who has given the world a face to put
on the sport. He has become a part of American pop culture."
Skateboarding to the rescue
When Anthony Frank Hawk was born on May 12, 1968, his parents could
not have realized that skateboarding was eventually going to become
such an integral part of their lives. As Hawk readily admitted in his
autobiography, he was a "hyperactive demon child" who regularly
terrorized his babysitters, his teachers, and his parents. He was very
bright, with an IQ of 144, but he was also frustrated and unfocused,
and would frequently fly into rages. His father, Frank, a retired U.S.
Navy officer and small appliance salesman, and his mother, Nancy, a
homemaker and part-time business teacher, were equally frustrated about
what to do with their youngest child. When Hawk was eight, his older
brother Steve bought him, on a whim, a blue fiberglass hand-me-down
skateboard, and his father built a skating ramp in the backyard. They
hoped that skateboarding might be the outlet that young Tony needed.
Hawk was instantly hooked, and soon the young boy with the behavior
problems was practicing up to six hours a day, every day. He especially
enjoyed the freedom that came with the sport. As he explained to
Charlie Rose of CBS News, skateboarding was not like baseball
or basketball, which required teamwork and regular practice schedules.
"I liked that no one was telling me how to do it," he remarked. When
Hawk outgrew his backyard ramp, he began practicing at skateparks near
his home in San Diego, California. The scrawny kid with the wild blonde
hair stood out among the other skaters. He was so skinny that he had to
wear elbow pads on his knees, but the young skateboarder was already
experimenting with daredevil moves.
"I feel like if I'm not out there getting banged up, then I'm not getting better."
Frank Hawk, realizing that the sport had virtually saved his son,
became the ultimate skateboard supporter and Tony Hawk's numberone fan.
He began by driving Hawk to and from competitions all over the state of
California, and soon became even more involved. In 1980,
dissatisfied by the quality of the competitions and the lack of
sponsoring organizations, Frank Hawk founded the California Amateur
Skateboard League (CASL). Three years later, in 1983, he established
the National Skateboarding Association (NSA), the first professional
skateboarding organization of its kind. Ultimately the high-profile
events put on by the NSA were credited with boosting the popularity of
skateboarding in the 1980s.
Street versus Vert
Inside the world of skateboarding there is a very real rivalry
between two camps: street skaters and vertical skaters. Street skating
is done on any surface or any structure found in the urban landscape,
including parking lots, handrails, benches, or curbs. Vertical skating
is performed on vertical ramps or other structures built specifically
for the sport. Street skating came first, coming to light in the late
1970s in California with surfers executing dangerous stunts on the
curved walls of empty swimming pools. There were no competitions with
prize money, and skaters did not wear expensive designer duds. Street
skaters considered themselves to be hip rebels, outside the mainstream.
Street-style skaters are still very much present in the 2000s. According to skateboarding insiders, as reported in Sports Illustrated,
there are between 350 and 400 street skaters who are considered to be
professionals, some of them as young as sixteen. They earn their
reputations the old-fashioned way, performing outrageous tricks,
without safety gear, in out-of-the-way, illegal places. Although they
consider themselves to be "outlaws," many of them make a living from
skateboarding. Just like Hawk, they get contracts from skateboard
apparel and accessory companies, and they can bring home anywhere from
$1,000 to $5,000 a month.
However, diehard street skaters do not appreciate the spotlight that
Tony Hawk has turned on skateboarding. Many accuse him of selling out
to corporate America and watering down what was once an edgy sport.
Darrell Stanton, a teenage pro street skater who spoke with Sports Illustrated,
echoed that sentiment: "I hope the whole skateboarding popularity thing
stops before it gets too mainstream. I'd like for it to stay a raw
sport." But statistics suggest that Stanton is unlikely to get his
wish. According to the polling company American Sports Data, Inc., in
2003 more kids under the age of eighteen were skating than playing
baseball.
The biggest boost, however, came in the form of Tony Hawk himself.
By age fourteen Hawk had turned professional, joining the Powell
Peralta skateboard team called the Bones Brigade. By age sixteen he was
dominating the sport. The road, however, was not an easy one. As Hawk
won competition after competition, some veteran skaters cried
favoritism, since his father was the NSA president. They also dismissed
his wild, crazy skating as showboating. But that same
creative skating gave birth to the Ollie, which became one of the most
important moves in vertical skating. It also helped Hawk win three NSA
championships and almost twenty additional pro events by the time he
was eighteen.
A skateboard slump
Before he graduated from Torrey Pines High School in 1986, Hawk was
earning $100,000 a year from skating in competitions, making public
appearances, and endorsing products such as Mountain Dew. Known as the
Birdman because of his high-flying acrobatics, he was also a featured
performer in Bones Brigade videos, which to this day are watched by
would-be skaters. Hawk bought his first house just before graduation,
and as he told the New York Times, "That was an inkling that [skateboarding] was already my career."
By the end of the 1980s skateboarding was a hot sport, and Hawk was
its king. But, like all things, popularity goes in cycles, and in the
1990s the public's interest in skateboarding had begun to wane. Part of
the problem was the high cost of insurance required to run competitions
and maintain skateparks. As a result, competitions were cancelled and
skateparks around the United States were closed. This signaled disaster
for Hawk, who now had very little money coming in, and a wife and child
to support. In 1990 he had married his first wife, Cindy; two years
later the couple had a son, Riley. His career sport was losing
popularity, and a worried Hawk considered getting a regular
nine-to-five job, possibly in computers, since he was a self-proclaimed
techno geek. "I did demos where I could count the spectators on two
hands," he recalled to Tim Layden of Sports Illustrated.
Instead, Hawk decided to throw himself into a new business venture.
In 1990 he and fellow skateboarder Per Welinder launched Birdhouse
Projects, a company to manufacture skateboards and skate accessories.
In 1992 Birdhouse was followed by Blitz, which distributed other
skateboard brands. Hawk mortgaged and eventually sold his home in order
to finance his businesses. The rocky start-up proved to be too much of
a strain on his family, however, and Tony and Cindy divorced. But just
when it seemed that things could not get any worse, skateboarding once
again came to the rescue.
Back in the game
In 1995 Hawk got a call from executives at the television sports
network ESPN, who asked him to skate in a new alternative competition
called X Games (Extreme Games). A more-than-interested Hawk flew to
Rhode Island, where the contest was being held, and took first place in
the vertical competition and second place in street skating. The
televised event was seen by millions of people, and almost overnight
the interest in skateboarding was re-ignited, as well as interest in
Hawk and his career. Soon he was again "hawking" products on
television, appearing in countless commercials for companies such as
Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Campbell's Soup. He also hosted a number of
sports specials, including MTV's Sports and Music Festival.
Of course, Hawk also pumped up his skateboarding. He traveled around
the world to skate in exhibitions, and year after year he swept the X
Games, taking home both singles and doubles titles. By 1999 the king
was back on his throne. During the 1999 X Games, Hawk made history
during the Best Trick event, when he introduced a move called the 900,
a move so spectacular and dangerous that no one has successfully landed
it since. The 900 is a two-and-a-half rotation midair flip above the
lip of the vertical ramp. Hawk had been working on the move for more
than a decade, and had been seriously injured along the way. Landing
the 900 was a personal triumph. As Hawk explained to Rose, "I just felt
this great sense of relief that I'd finally conquered this beast that
had plagued me for so long."
After the 900, it seemed that Hawk could do no wrong, especially in
business, where he became a one-man marketing phenomenon. Birdhouse and
Blitz took off, becoming two of the largest skate-boarding companies in
the world. In 1999, however, Hawk ventured into what would become his
most lucrative enterprise—video games. He had been trying to interest
companies in a skateboarding game since the mid-1990s, but executives
did not bite. "They just didn't get it," Hawk explained to Sports Illustrated.
Finally Activision, a California-based company, approached Hawk in
September of 1998 about developing a video game. Computer engineers
mocked up a working version and Hawk tinkered with it for months,
providing feedback and offering suggestions for improvement. When Tony
Hawk's Pro Skater was introduced in the fall of 1999, it created an
immediate buzz. By Christmas it had zoomed to the top of the video
sales charts.
In 2004 Activison released the fourth version of Pro Skater and
added Tony Hawk's Underground to its catalog of games. Each game sold
better than the last, and the Hawk series became one of the bestselling
video lines of all time, with worldwide yearly sales in the hundreds of
millions of dollars. Eager to cash in on Hawk's obvious appeal, more
businesses lined up to strike deals. In 2000 the skate-boarder became
the spokesman for Hot Bites frozen snack foods. Hawk went on to lend
his name to a slew of products, including toys, shoes, clothing, and
DVDs. His most recent endorsement deals, which were reportedly worth
over $1 million each, included McDonald's, Hershey's chocolate milk,
and Frito Lay snacks. According to Jake Phelps, editor of Thrasher magazine (a skateboard magazine), who spoke with Layden, "Tony Hawk means ka-ching."
Boom Boom Huck Jam
Analysts have attributed Hawk's success to several factors. First,
even in his thirties he continues to be one of the most talented
skateboarders to ever hit the vertical ramp. Second, because of his
many personal appearances, he is accessible to his fans. For example,
every summer Hawk goes on a multi-city skateboarding tour with members
of his Birdhouse team. For those who cannot make it to see Hawk in
person, his tours are televised as ESPN specials. Third, according to
marketers, Hawk has a squeaky-clean image and is viewed as the perfect
family man, which makes him appealing not only to kids but to their
parents. In 1999 Hawk remarried; he and his second wife, Erin, have two
sons, Spencer and Keegan. All three of the Hawk boys seem to be
following in their father's footsteps, and Riley, the oldest, has been
skating since he was four.
Perhaps the biggest reason for Hawk's success, however, is that he
remains passionate about the sport he picked up when he was a child. He
still skates every day and, although he claims to be retired, he
continues to compete in the X Games. In addition, Hawk is determined to
grow the sport even further. One way to do that is through the Tony
Hawk brainchild, Boom Boom Huck Jam, an annual event that combines rock
music and extreme sports. As Hawk explained to Devin Gordon of Newsweek,
"'Hucking' refers to launching in the air. 'Jam' is a gathering of
talent. And 'boom boom' is just to give it some flavor." The
ninety-minute spectacle was unveiled in 2002 in Las
Tony Hawk skates at the Edwards Air Force Base skatepark in California, in 2004. AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission.
Vegas, Nevada, and featured the best skateboarders, BMX bikers,
and motocrossers in the world. Fans were also entertained by some of
the hottest new bands around, including The Offspring and Good
Charlotte. Following the Las Vegas unveiling, the whole ensemble took
off on a 24-city North America tour, performing to sellout crowds.
Boom Boom Huck Jam is introducing a whole new generation of kids to
skateboarding, but Hawk also wants to make sure that every kid who
wants to skate has a chance. In 2002 he established the Tony Hawk
Foundation, which provides money to help build and promote skateparks
in low-income urban centers throughout the United States.
Since its inception the foundation has given assistance to more than
125 skateparks across the country.
Favorite male athlete
Hawk has endured many on-the-job hazards, including a broken elbow,
cracked ribs, more sprains and scrapes than he can count, and multiple
lost teeth. On the other hand, he has become a multi-millionaire and a
living legend, all from riding on a board with wheels. A real pioneer
of skateboarding, Hawk invented nearly one hundred tricks and moves
that have been handed down to young skaters today. More important, he
continues to serve as a role model and inspiration for children who
consider him to be one of their all-time favorite sports stars. In
fact, in the early 2000s, Hawk consistently topped most teen polls. For
example, in 2003 and 2004 he was named Favorite Male Athlete at the
Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. All this, however, is just icing on
the cake for Hawk. As he explained to Sports Illustrated:
"Here's what skateboarding is to me. It's my form of exercise, my
sport, my means of expression since I was nine years old. It's what I
love. I never expected it to give me anything more than that."
For More Information
Books
Hawk, Tony, with Sean Mortimer. Hawk: Occupation: Skateboarder. New York, ReganBooks, 2002.
Periodicals
Ault, Susanne. "Hawk Splices Games, Music, Sports for HuckJam." Billboard (September 28, 2002): p. 16.
Givens, Ron. "Skateboarding's Best Seller." New York Times Upfront (December 11, 2000): p. 20.
Gordon, Devin. "Newsmakers: Tony Hawk." Newsweek (October 14, 2002): p. 71.
Layden, Tim. "What Is This 34-Year-Old Man Doing On A Skateboard? Making Millions." Sports Illustrated (June 10, 2002): pp. 80+.
|