Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh - Tony Hawk Gets Flagrant

Episode Date: November 2, 2021

Join Andew, Akaash, AlexxMedia and Mark as they talk with the GOAT: Tony Hawk 0:00 - start 2:08 - how Tony Hawk handles fame 5:20 - Did Tony Hawk invent streetwear? 9:30 - Tony Hawk was offered a buy out on pro skater 26:09 - tony talks about being bullied for skateboarding 35:33 - what ruined rollerblading 45:30 - what people don’t know about Tony’s 900 1:10:11 - the next generation of skaters 1:20:34 - tony and the 2020 olympics Flagrant 2 is a comedy podcast that delivers unfiltered, unapologetic, and unruly hot takes directly to your dome piece. In an era dictated by political correctness, hosts Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh, along with AlexxMedia and Mark Gagnon, could care less about sensitivities. If it’s funny and flagrant it flies. If you are sensitive this podcast is not for you. But if you miss the days of comedians actually being funny instead of preaching to a quire then welcome to The Flagrancy. Join the Patreon Asshole Army: http://bit.ly/2xQwHYf #Flagrant2 #AndrewSchulz #AkaashSingh #AlexxMedia

What's up, everybody? Welcome to Flaker 2. It's your boy, Schultz. I'm here at Akash Singh, Alex Media, Mark Gagnon. We got the truffle, and we have a very special guest. Very special. Very, very special guest. Let's just start it.

Give it up for Tony Hawk, everybody. Hey! Motherfucking goat. A goat is in the building. I appreciate it. I hope I can live up to it. Yes, you can. I think you already did.

Yeah, you're good. You have a video game. I've been trying to think how many humans in history have had a video game. Do you know? No. I mean, there are guys who have been on it. You mean like with their signature on it? Yeah.

Yeah, not many. Tom Brady doesn't have a video game. He sometimes is on the cover. Michael Jordan had one. With Bird. Yeah, yeah. He didn't have his own. He didn't share it. Yeah. I think there's only a handful of people. It's a pretty crazy thing. It was a huge honor. Yeah. I mean, I want to talk about,

I have so many different things, but the reason why I really wanted to talk to you was I only understand from an outside perspective. So you could be, you know, like a PR genius and you could be knowing how to handle yourself perfectly. But from the outside perspective, I've always thought that you've handled fame, immense fame incredibly well. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Like, I don't know. You just seem humble. You seem like really nice when everybody meets you. I haven't heard of any like crazy stories about you. Oh, Tony Hawk's a jerk. It's like tony hawk's the nicest guy or did i meet tony huh like oh yeah you have a fun like trolling thing that you're doing people and and i'm just curious like you see people get like broken by fame i think what happened was i had fame very early in my life well a modicum of fame yeah in my late teens and lost it lost my career lost everything just to skateboard and took a

downturn yeah and so maybe there were parts of that time frame where i was taking advantage of fame or where i was kind of living it up and and then when it was all stripped away i was so thankful to still have skating and then I never lost that, uh, that love for it. So when it, when skating came back around, that is the core of what I do and what I'm thankful for. And so everything else is more incidental.

So in other words, like you kind of need it to be stripped away so you can appreciate it. Absolutely. There's a humbling. Yeah. Yeah. And, um,

but also I, and I had, I had enough rushes with other people I considered, I looked up to and it didn't go well. And it was so impactful that I remember that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm dying to know who. Who's the worst? No, there were just a couple pro skaters back in the day where one was famously spit on my skateboard when I was just trying to sort of buddy up. And so, but also I saw that. Do you have a name? Was he a dog town in Z-Boy?

Yeah, I mean, no, but everyone knows the story. And I don't like throwing him under the bus. Okay. Because you're so much more famous than him, why give him a shout? You're not in the video game, buddy. We made a man. But it was more that I saw

people that didn't appreciate that you were respected. Yeah. And that you aspired to be them. Well, hopefully. At some point, you aspired to be them and then realized, no, I don't want to be like that. Yeah. And that you aspire to be that. Well, hopefully, you know, at some point aspire to be them and then realize like, no, I don't want to be like that.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, and, and I'm just, I just love it. Like, I can't believe how far skateboarding has come.

I can't believe that I still get to do it for a living, that anyone even cares that I do it or like who I am. And so everything, everything's just like a nice surprise. It's just so, it's just so unique that like, you don't start believing it because you've been famous for decades for skateboarding. And when you say you can't believe how far it's come,

it's mainly because of you that it came that far. Yeah. You played a big part in it. Well, thank you. Yeah, but at the same time, I just love being part of it. Because I represent a very small faction of skating in terms of, like, I'm a half-pipe skater yeah skater that's not the that's not the go-to choice for kids to go skating they want to just go street they want

to go jump down the stairs they want to be niger houston and paul rodriguez and and um so what i'm doing is sort of this this antiquated version of what skateboarding is. But at the same time, I have a voice and I'm able to represent it. So I want to represent all aspects of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I think I've learned to be cognizant of that and to try to spread awareness better than just saying like, we need more vert ramps. Yeah, you don't want to be like the old person going,

they shoot too many threes in the NBA, right? You want to make sure that you're appreciating and uplifting the new wave of skateboarding. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And for sure, you could come at it from a bitter perspective where it's like, there was one skate park when I was growing up and we had to drive it yeah you know through rainstorms now there's a uh a super hot take that mark brought up earlier because we were

discussing we're like okay we gotta talk to tony and we're talking about like impact and we we come in here like i don't know if you've listened to pockets board but like we'll have some wild takes and then we try to justify it and one of the wildest takes that might be justifiable is you started street wear. Yeah. Yeah. I believe that. Oh,

wow. I believe that. No, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this is feelings, no facts on this podcast. Now, how did Tony Hawk start streetwear? We're talking about streetwear.

This is like hip-hop inspired clothing that everybody's wearing right now. Now, Mark, get to how Tony Hawk skateboarded from San Diego. Yeah. 54 years old. Am I supposed to? I'm 53. Am I supposed to defend this position? Am I supposed to dispute it?

You're going to defend it and you're gonna dispute it yeah yeah he's already on board he's like yeah i did whatever you want me to say no okay so but he had a good argument okay so go so i played the games growing up and i loved them and i always noticed that on all the games there was like the soundtrack was instrumental so to back up a little bit streetwear in my opinion is basically the merging of hip-hop culture and skateboard. So you have like brands like Supreme and stuff that, you know, Palace, things like that, that skateboarding, hip hop come together. So basically once black dudes start skateboarding, streetwear is born. And in my opinion, I think most black kids started skateboarding because of the video game.

Now, Mark grew up with no black people in his life. Yeah, I know one. So this is a guess. Yeah. Now, you have that one friend yeah exactly imaginary uh that but al could probably confirm yes that that is true now i grew up in the city skateboarding right i had a fucking division skateboard that just had the little baby lip on the front i didn't think you're that old i'm old right 37 i'm out here so but and i remember i it becoming popular, and I remember the video game, and I remember my

friends like Dominican, Puerto Rican, black dudes were all playing this game, right? It was also popular when like snowboard video games were coming out as well, and that was going on. But I remember an interesting thing happening because later on in life, I would play FIFA, the soccer game, and I knew nothing about soccer. And I had friends of mine that were black were like, bro, this was us with skateboarding. I only knew these guys from the video game. I didn't know them as actual athletes until after I started playing it.

Right. So these worlds collide. This fashion that becomes the predominant fashion for people now i guess maybe under 30 right everybody is going crazy because of you oh well you need to cut uh you need to cut i'm doing okay um i i think more that when i when i was working on a game, I set out to bring the skate culture with that. And that involved the skaters, the tricks, the look, the music, the culture. And so I was really proud of how it was represented in the game. I really thought that the game was only going to be popular among skaters.

I thought it was going to be like, I inspired some skaters to buy PlayStation. And to me, that was it that was the mark of success because it's because then that they that means they appreciated it for being authentic right and what i didn't what i didn't anticipate was that it was going to resonate far beyond skateboarding and to gamers um and so i wanted i definitely wanted to be inclusive i think there's you know part of me regrets not being more inclusive with with the roster of skaters but because you know we only had we had one person we had one female skater in but but a lot of people point to that there was a there was a female skater in it yeah i was a steamer i didn't know that yeah in the first one in the first one yeah wow

um and you could also just had you and everybody would have been like yeah yeah i play that game all the time i didn't know there's anyone else yeah we just used you but it was also it was also a sign of the time it was also a sign of times in that the the general layout of skating was more white um and so but but i'm thankful that if that's what inspired people to start doing it especially in uh different cultures then that that was awesome like that that's exactly what i would have hoped for but i just didn't imagine it would be that dude it was crazy it was like i was reading some statistic where like they thought that it was going to sell a quarter million games and it sold five million. I have a funny story about that.

All right, guys. Big announcement. Infamous tour. We have added shows. OK, they are on sale. Portland, Seattle. They sold out in a fucking day. Thank you so much.

That Portland show is going to be a bloodbath. So I think it's time we added another show in each of those places. We also got Sacramento, New Orleans, Chicagoago we have that late show in chicago make sure you check that thing out san francisco we're coming i think there's only single seats left for that but maybe try to snag those before that's done um make sure you check it out and then we have atlantic city as well atlantic city new jersey is also on sale if you couldn't get tickets to that philly show we were just down there make sure you pop over to Atlantic City. More dates.

We added Boston the day before New Year's Eve, so that's the 30th of December. We added another show at the Wilbur there. We got Jacksonville, Fargo, theandrewshoals.com. Go check those out. Get those tickets early, because I don't want you to be missing out on a show. Akash, what you got?

Yo, first of all, thank you so much to everybody who came out through Stress Factory for the last special. Last taping of the special was amazing. We almost sold out every show, so thank you guys so much. Now, I am coming very soon to Atlanta, November 6th. Two shows. Tickets are

selling out, so hurry up and buy them. November 13th, we just added this date. I'm going to be at Fairfield Comedy Club in Connecticut. Come the fuck through, you nutmeggers. January 26th and 27th, I'm going to be at Zfield Comedy Club in Connecticut. Come the fuck through, you nutmeggers. January 26th and 27th, I'm going to be at Zany's in Nashville right after Thanksgiving. Come through December 9th through 11th. D.C., I'm at the Comedy Loft. And January 7th and 8th, I'm coming home to Dallas at Hyena's.

Buy your tickets at akashsingh.com. Alex, hit it. And guys, you know what it is. If you're in the tri-state area, you have a podcast you're looking to record or a photo shoot you want to do, head over to WTFMediaStudios.com. It's located in Soho, New York. If you're trying to get your home studio or podcast started from home, I do consulting as well.

So head over to WTFMediaStudios.com. And now let's get back to the show. All right, guys, we're going to take a break for a second because I've got to make sure you guys have got the hardest d back to the show. it out and busting it open with the chew okay and you know what you're gonna do you're gonna get it for free the best dick of your life for free you're gonna get all you gotta do is go to blue chew.com make sure you use the promo code flagrant and they're gonna send it to you for free you just pay five dollars shipping what an amazing deal best dick of your life delivered to your door for nothing god bless go get it now let's get back to the show i have a funny story about that actually as as the uh as the game was getting released they could sense the buzz of it i was just going a million miles an hour because i was still doing next games and i was yeah i was just like like i was working on

the game i was proud of it but i just didn't imagine it was gonna be big and they called me right before the release and they said um we want to offer you a buyout. This piece is a shit. This piece is a shit. Oh God. Did the red flag go off right there? Did you realize? No.

Are you kidding me? I'd like, they said, we would, we want to buy you off for half a million dollars. And I was like, at that time in my life, someone saying a half a million dollars sounded like a gazillion billion.

And, uh, and I had just, I had just moved into a new house. I was getting pretty good royalties. I was starting to make good money just from being a pro skater. And I told him, I go, you know what? I think I'll take a chance and go for it. If I hadn't bought that house right then, I probably would have taken it. But I had just, like I said, bought a new house and was able to pay the mortgage, which is something that was new to me, being able to afford the mortgage on my house. And so I took a chance and it was definitely the best financial decision of my life.

So were you, I mean, I don't want to get in your pockets too much here, but I do want to. So did they give you like a piece of the game? How does it work with royalties? Yeah, royalties. So you just get a percentage of every game purchase and all the money that comes with the game, et cetera. If they sell merch or they sell... Yes. A lot of stuff happened based on the success of the game.

I got all kinds of different endorsements and things and licensing deals and i i definitely attribute that to success the thing that that was the real silver lining to all of it was that all of the skaters had a deal that if it reaches these certain marks of sales they get a piece they get more they get almost what they signed up for and that original crew of skaters did really well that's great okay now this makes a little more sense i always wondered how the fuck you were so at least appeared so liked by these people, you would just body in every competition, like every competition you're destroyed.

And then I see them on the side of half pipe. They're hitting the half pipe. They're like, they're rooting for this person. That is, there's only one person in their way of gold. Right. How did they like you? But okay.

That is, but that's just not just me. That is skateboard. Okay. In a nutshell. Okay. It's an individual pursuit, but everyone's pulling not just me. That is skateboarding in a nutshell. It's an individual pursuit, but everyone's pulling for each other. So that's part of the community. If you go to a skate park and you see someone that's trying to nail something, you see everyone rally around them.

And maybe later on you'll compete against them. But at some point it's more like you want to see them succeed and and absolutely there was some cutthroat competition through the years and and people had uh issues with scores and all that kind of thing but but that was never the that was never the narrative did they thought you got favorable score or vice versa what it was it was more was it jordan rules for tony hawk was that the actually i i think that through my years especially in the um in late 80s and then afterwards in the late 90s i i know this definitely happened i started getting judged for what they thought i was capable of as opposed to what was against everyone else interesting so if you and that gets really yeah that gets that gets weird when you're you want to be seen as a peer to all your competitors

but the judges see you as well this is what we saw him do last time you're chasing your own ghost yeah and even if that even if what you did last time could be the best performance of the event, they're still like, well, he's got to step it up. So we're going to mark him down for that. Wow. Same thing happened to Rodney Mullen. Yeah, of course. I heard Simone Biles was saying that in the Olympics,

that they're judging her based off the other competitions and not, I can smoke everybody else here. Yeah, and that gets isolating because then all your competitors are just like yeah you know they they don't even really identify with you right wait what do you mean by that um well let's put it this way when i was competing especially in the 80s i would get i would the people who i love skating with and respected they'd be like oh man i'm just hoping to get second really yeah so you were that far above did you have like a kelly slater-esque run would you see that as your competition like the way that kelly was just on a different level with surfing um with surfing i definitely had a run of success like that yeah it But in terms of the discrepancy between you and the other people doing,

not always, it wasn't always like that. And no, I mean, I saw there were plenty of skaters that would come in. It was just more that I had, I think I had a more consistent run. Right.

So they pop in the longevity. So, so other skaters would come in and out and they would do well. And yeah, sometimes beat me. Absolutely. Like, I'm curious, like, do you sit down with like a like a tom brady or like do you sit down with like a michael jordan or like like are you all part of a group tech or something like i'm really i have never met michael jordan um i would love to uh i am um i'm working with tom brady on his autograph

i owe the digital collectibles oh okay um so i have a connection i haven't actually met him but we are working together but when you see somebody like that is there like a an understanding that you guys have your kindred spirits in a way you know like presidents like can all yes i don't know i we come from such different worlds i don't know if it would be like that i mean i haven't sat down and but there's you always hear about like roger fetter and tiger woods being really good friends and michael jordan being good friends with tiger because there's a level of greatness that they understand maybe a level of fame too but greatness for sure and uh you especially brady because you guys are both doing it at advanced ages where it's like you know this is supposed to be a young man's thing and then

even when you were doing the 900 you were like older than most of the competition, if I remember correctly, and you're dominating doing historic shit that's never been done. There's something that very, very, very few people do except you guys. And there has to be some kind of connection there. Um, I would think so. I, my, I just come from such a different world of skateboarding that just wasn't popular, wasn't cool. We were doing it against all odds. So it's a different sort of journey. That's the fascinating thing for me.

Like when I was just doing some research, like I think that most people's perception is you do is like you have long floppy hair and you're wearing like tiny little knee pads skating in the pools. This is the chronology i think most of you do a 900 a video game happens yeah and then you're on the mcdonald's commercial like they don't realize there's any dips changes oh absolutely yeah and i got a lot of that but but like you said what i was yeah i was 31 when i when I hit 900. And I had been competing literally for 20 years. Yeah. Wow. And so the odd thing about that is I had decided that year,

that was 99, I decided that year was going to be my last competing year because I had chased it for so long and I had a young family and I was just gone chasing the points all the time and it became too much. And so in my head, I didn't, it wasn't some formal announcement in my head. I was like, all right, this is the last year we do it. And then when the X Games 99 happened, I had no plans of doing 900.

It just sort of unfolded that night. And it took a lot of tries, if I remember correctly. It didn't necessarily have any competition. Up to that point, it took 10 years of tries. Yeah. But like, it was after the competition, right? People were like, end competition. Up to that point, it took 10 years of tries. Yeah. But like, it was after the competition, right? People were like, who's the first to go for it? It was after the competition, yeah.

And I mean, there was a lot of elements to that. But when I finally did make it, I didn't think it would counter for the competition. It was just more that I was, it was like a skate. You saw an example of skate determination. Right. That's what it takes to be to learn a trick and even from the most basic like a kid learning a kickflip they finally make it it's all that so what that's what i went through i didn't think it was going to be for the competition or even on air um but i knew that i was going to either going to make this check or get taken away in ambulance. And then when it finally happened, um, and, and all, it was, it was, you know, made a lot of noise and news. I thought, oh, that's my out.

That's my, you know, I end on a good note. Yeah. That's like the Jordan, you know, shot over. Was it Byron Russell? Yeah. Game six game winner. Okay. But then you came back for more uh i i competed through the rest of the year and then every once in a while would come back

for special events but but in terms of being a non-stop competitor uh that was the and it allowed me to to do all kinds of different different projects that yeah to me were more fun because uh like we started the boom boom hutcham tour two years later and that was an arena tour with skateboarding motocross pmx live music and we were the stars of the show yeah yeah yeah and i couldn't have done that on on a competition uh Yeah, if you're on the circuit. Yeah, and also when people come to our shows, they saw the best skating because we had the freedom to try something,

miss it, try it again. So I did a bunch of 900s on that tour. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's interesting because when you watch, I grew up surfing, so I'd watch all these surf videos.

I'm like, wow, whenever I'm watching a competition,'s not as cool as these like surf videos that i'm watching and i'm realizing they have that freedom i guess to just yeah to go to just try the craziest stuff because when you compete there's a certain conservative approach where it's like i gotta do this stuff i i know i can do yeah if i if make that, then I might be able to step up a little bit. You're not going all out. Yeah. Cause that risk could mean that you might not move. And then it's over. I just don't understand how you can have like the maniacal approach that you

need, like the fucking Kobe Jordan shit that you need to be the greatest at it, but also just be cool. Like, I'll be honest, like people tell stories, like I don't want to talk about the dead, right. But you know, but like even about Jordan, like people didn't like Jordan. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, and most people. Ask a millionaire. But you know what I saw? I watched the documentary. The Last Dance. Yeah. The Last Dance.

Yes. I have a, I, I have a level of fame and people recognize me and I get to do, I get crazy opportunities because of that. Yeah. But what they were dealing with is on a whole different level. Everyone was into basketball. I don't think you know how famous you are. I'm starting to believe this. But I just mean in terms of

the competition. I understand that he might rub people the wrong way because that would require fierceness all the time. Right? Where everyone is relying on them to win or

to carry this legacy and i'm just going to skate park like i guess a whole city cares about what jordan does he's carrying the whole city you're carrying yeah tony hawk and you could go to the skate park and just a public seat like now you have your own obviously but like you would feel comfortable just going to the skate park and like skating with people i was i was just here like a couple months ago at the skate park down the street yeah yeah and it's never been an issue for you you're never like oh my god the crowds are gonna come swarm they're gonna shut down the mall or no it's fun it's hard to do up yeah because i was gonna ask you when did you start to realize you were a celebrity because skateboarding my cousin used to skate and then i would pretend

but i was too pussy to do anything. So we knew of you. But then there was a moment in my mind, again, after the 900, where you became like a mainstream celebrity. Did you feel that shift happen? Yeah. Well, after that, especially after the launch of our first video game, before that, I would only get recognized by skaters. Yeah. That was it. Right.

Because the only people who liked skating were skating right yeah and then after that especially after the the rise of the x games in our video game um there became a fan base for skating that didn't necessarily escape right and that's when everything changed yeah so i would get recognized in in airports and i remember um would get recognized in in airports and i remember um i was at i was in vegas uh at a bar and this woman said you're tony hawk yes my son thinks that they named a video game after you oh no my son thinks they named you after the video game my son like he thinks that that that your parents named you this because it's a prophecy yeah and and that's when it got to be like that where the the name was sort of beyond me as a person how did that feel was that like an ego blow at all or was that no it's hilarious i love it how do you how do you balance like uh the time requirement for your you know for your chosen profession like

like you know you got to skate a certain amount of times and i ask this selfishly because i'm trying to balance it now like i got fiance this guy's time management's crazy yeah like i'm literally picking your brain for like my hopeful future but like you know like you you know you have to be skating x amount of hours in order to keep your shit, to learn new tricks, to keep all these other motherfuckers nipping at your heels at bay. But at the same time, you got a family, you got kids. I don't feel that pressure anymore.

With the family or with the family? No, no, no. With the family. No, but we have. That's the trick. Why don't you try that? No, that's still, hey, I'm, well, me, my my wife and i we have six kids and five are out of the house okay so three are in college two are just grown-ass men and um and so but but to answer

your question that that pressure never ends really we're still helping our kids just be adults you know to navigate life like that that that never really is to keep, to stay a parent, even if they're not in the house. But, um, I don't feel the pressure to be so on point skating because I, it, why? What about early on? Like when you were in the midst of competition? Um, yeah, I did, but, but I, but I just loved it. So that I, I was doing it by default. I wasn training interesting you know i just i just loved i love creating new tricks i loved in fact when i was competing i felt like i was stifled because i i couldn't go out and try crazy new stuff because i might get hurt or i um might do something

like i might learn a trick and then want to do it the next time at the contest and probably too risky at that point yeah yeah yeah yeah so the fun part of skating was taking it's kind of similar to stand up like i don't want to give seinfeld credit for this because he's annoying but like uh mark was saying that like seinfeld said that uh that he likes skateboarders because they're like comics and and what was the exact thing it was like they just keep trying something and it fails almost every time and eventually it works and then it's a great feeling when it works but i felt that way when i was preparing for for uh for the special that we just did i was just like sometimes i just want to go up and say something maybe a fucking bomb something maybe it's good and then i'll find some new little

portal into something else but when you're trying to lock down every single word for a special exactly yeah same thing it's like you can't take that exact risk. Yeah, yeah. It ruins the freedom a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. But even with like family and that kind of stuff, there was never an issue. You're like, yeah, I got to go skate.

There was never like, oh, we need to have some time together. I probably through the early 2000s, the heydays of my video game, I might have chosen skating or events uh over being a parent that didn't bode well um relationships either but um yeah i definitely i i got caught up in it did you develop like a good excuse that you might want to yeah we need it well you letterman what ah so get on Letterman yeah yeah yeah

exactly just tell your girl that be like sorry man I'm a skateboarder I'm a skateboarder I've learned to prioritize since then you ever just walk her outside

turn around look at the house and be like you want me to stay home or you want me to no never ran that my girl and I

got a big fight last night and during the whole fight she didn't know that you're coming on today and I was like oh she don't even fucking know what I'm about to drop on her she don't even fucking know what I'm about to drop on her.

She don't even fucking know. I was a little bit late because I'm preparing and I'm working and she's upset that I'm late without knowing why I'm late and I just suddenly

threw it out there. I was like, yeah, listen, I'm sorry. I'm preparing. Tony Hawk's coming on tomorrow and I just saw her eyes light up in the middle of the fight and I was like,

yeah, you're done. You got nothing on me now all right guys we're gonna take a break for a second because i need to save y'all some money on your student loans okay if you want to pay off your student loans faster you got to listen up to me right now earnest was voted best student loan refinancing overall by NerdWallet. Them nerds know what's going on and know how to keep more money in your wallet. Ernest has some of the lowest rates, flexible payments, and in-house team is ready to go to support your ass. With Ernest, you could change your interest rate, get a lower monthly payment, and you never pay fees,

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Yeah, I don't know. I'm always curious about that. Like people have went through, I don't know. I think you're very humble about it, but I think that what you've experienced. I came from a world that was largely shunned and you were made fun of. Explain that because I don't think even my generation understood the idea that like you were bullied for skateboarding. That didn't exist.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. By whom? By anyone my age. Really? Yeah, because in the late 70s, early 80s, skating had been through a fad phase. So it was like a toy. It was like a Frisbee.

Yeah, like a yo-yo. That was it. Really? A yo-yo? Yo-yo, Frisbee. Whatever, yeah. Yeah, that was it was like a toy it was like a frisbee like a yeah yeah like a yo-yo that was it yo-yo frisbee yeah yeah that was it you skateboards and then and then i saw something else in skateboarding because i i went i got to go to the skate park when i was young and i saw people flying around and i was like i want to do that yeah when i dove into it head, like that, literally at first, the fad was over. And so when I was walking through high school, especially early, like junior high and high, high school, skating is like still skate. Oh, it was antiquated. Yeah. It was just like, well, aren't you too old for that?

I'm 14. It's like a pogo stick or something. Absolutely. Like a high school playing with pogs i used to hide my skateboard in the bushes no before school because if i carried around school then i was just marked and i would get hassled and so through those years and and then at some point it started to come back around back to the future app back to the future happened and the skating started to get back in

the fold and then by then i was sort of in my later years of high school and so people knew that a pro skater went to their high school but they couldn't pick me up wow so here so you're already professional you're already very successful yeah i was making it goes i i owned a house when i was a senior in high school that's crazy and none of them knew that that's what you were doing. You had to hide it from them. Well, at that point, back in the day, I'd be like, Hey mom, I skate. Mom, I ride wood. I used to get, uh, if I, so I do remember carrying my skateboard through the parking

lot and a dude yelling skater fag. No, like repeatedly just like okay dude I get it it's a long parking lot yeah and he's driving through skater fag skater fag dude okay but no I'm not going to I'm not going to liken my experience

to that of course of course of course but it's the same but no facts it's literally this it's the same but but yeah no facts no facts literally this is feelings no facts yeah but okay so then there's this turn right i remember rollerblading got popular all of a sudden do you remember that and then like okay that was more mid 90s so this is already after so when rollerblade yeah so so skateboarding came and went like late 80s okay again more as a fad but but a little more established yeah and so people were it i think that people held on to it longer and and that it sort of they love the attitude of skating they love the sort of diy and that it

was different and catalyst music and stuff like that yeah so so there's a lot of people especially now who skated in those days and they they credit skating for their approach to life my cousin doctor he would 100 say the same thing but then when it died when it died like in popularity again because all the skate parks were closing they couldn't afford insurance people started taking to the streets but but it just was less popular. Rollerblading was on the rise. And I credit rollerblading for supplementing my income because I got invited as the special guest to a bunch of rollerblade shows. Hilarious.

Oh, shit. Yeah, I remember that. So there'd be, you know, there'd be like, for instance, there were some demos happening, skate exhibitions in the parking lot of Six Flags. And it was because of Rollerblade. And so there was all these pro Rollerbladers and they would invite me like, hey, special guest, skateboarder, Tony Hawk.

And then Matt Hoffman, special guest bmx rider so he and i were like the the outliers yeah yeah but getting paid so we're like okay to ride ramps yeah sign me up now i think some people credit this one almost like dad joke for rollerblading dying do you believe that it's true it's like what's the hardest part about what is it what is the joke what's the heart oh yeah what's the hardest part about, what is it? What is the joke? What's the, Oh yeah. What's the hardest part about rollerblading? Telling your dad you're gay. I truly do believe that joke killed rollerblading.

Dude, like I, cause I had rollerblades and I heard that joke once and I looked at him. I was like, I don't want to have to tell my dad yet. Do you think that that joke had anything to do with it? Or why did it just go away? Why did it disappear?

It was a fad. It was, that was it. So it was just a fad. Yeah, absolutely. And then rollerblading was long haul. Skateboarding was long haul. Sorry, sorry. Skateboarding was long haul.

Yeah, I think that when you look at, especially with the X Games, they were throwing everything against the wall so they had they had rollerblading they had rock climbing they had sky surfing i remember bungee jumping the snowboard in the sky where they're doing yeah that was weird and so then but those are different than rollerblade rollerblading is like a pretty you're on the ground sky surfing is a a different thing. The irony is that rollerblading was more close to what we were doing because you used the same ramps. I saw them as kind of kindred things. Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of parallels.

I think that the funny part is that when I started skating, there were a couple of roller skaters that skated quads, and they really did the kind of tricks we did because they would skate in this um side i don't know what it's called where they're not they're not going forward like this right you know like this oh yeah yeah yeah yeah and and so they would do

mcchwiss in hand plans oh shit and we're talking about like mid 80s they were on the vert pipe yeah vert ramp yeah On roller skates? Yeah. Yeah. And so they paved the way, I believe, for the roller inline. Roller blading is a great idea. Oh, you can't say that? No. You want to be PC, it's inline skating.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We have another word that you can call it. But I never had that beef or that attitude because i was just like we're all just do our thing we're all in the half pipe i remember i got caught up in the fat of the inline skating as well and then it just became too much of a commitment when you go to do it because that's what i was thinking sneakers with you it's like a all day it's all day that's it was just convenient. And they stunk. The pads smelled so bad.

You gotta take them off and put on shoes. Skateboarding is like, if I'm going somewhere, take the skateboard, hold the skateboard, I'm done. I still wear pads. It's hard to get that stink out. Dude, I went to Woodward. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And got a huge concussion. You went as a kid? Yeah. Yeah. Of course. For a horse line. Yeah. Right? And got a huge concussion. What, you went as a kid? Yeah. To Pennsylvania? Yeah, Pennsylvania. That was the only one back then. Right?

Yep. And I remember I got a big concussion, like, to the point where, like, I woke up and I was looking at people looking at me and I was like, yo, what's up with y'all? Like, I'm sure you've had a few. How many do you think you've had? I don't like to talk about it. Why don't y'all get CTE? What's that?

Why is it just the football players that are shooting people and that kind of stuff? I've had probably around 30. 30? Let's go! Somewhere between 20 and 30. Wow. But of varying degrees.

Right. Oh, so you can have the... If his mood changes on this podcast, I'm getting the fuck out of here. Don't reach for the gun behind you. We're tempting you. Really? Like 30.

And are you worried about CT stuff at all? Yeah, I've studied it and taken tests and stuff. And are you all... I'm doing okay. I have... Now, I'm way out of my element um but i know that there is a gene they test for um for getting alzheimer's oh dementia yeah and whatever you either don't have the gene or you do have it i i am if you have that gene then you're more likely to develop CTE from concussion because your brain

doesn't heal. I know there's probably so many armchair doctors out there. No neurologist. He doesn't always talk about it, but I did study it enough to know that I have the gene that allows my brain to heal. It's got you. Okay.

Okay. And then just some people don't, they end up getting that. I don't know if it's as easy as that, but's true that's that's what was presented to me okay fair enough um and so i feel pretty good about it but but i take precautions like i i i have helmets since even since you got hurt yeah i've come along really yeah what was the brand there was one brand everybody protech i knew yes protech and is that still the brand protech is still a brand um i uh i'm on triple a and you play in my seat cool as low yeah dude yeah you know and i that definitely that helmet saved my life like i don't i'm not just on some pitch that without question really i've hit hard enough where i knew and and

i've hit hard enough to save me from a concussion so i've hit hard enough where I knew. And I've hit hard enough to save me from a concussion. So I've hit hard enough in that helmet where I'm like, oh, it's clear. Whoa. When you said earlier, I'm either landing this trick or I'm going home in a hospital, hyperbole or truly felt that way. Oh, for sure. That's the commitment every single time. Yeah, absolutely. Really?

And how do you gear yourself up for that like you just get so in the mode and so committed i think what it is when you taste that it's possible there's no turning back ah once you feel like you almost got like oh yeah there was i mean i know people have seen that video if you watch that video there's a couple of of attempts that i got where i was like oh this is it i, I'm way closer than I've ever been. It's going to happen. And you never landed it prior, not even close.

I got close. Yeah. Like stuck it. And then when I landed and, uh, I landed on the wall and then fell into the flat bottom. Uh, Oh,

um, and I thought that going back to the x games i thought that i was going to do that because i i thought the only time i've ever really almost made this that's what happened and so i'll take that and then when i did fall forward i didn't get hurt and so i had this epiphany that maybe i need to shift my weight mid-spin so that I'm leaning backwards. So then on another attempt, I landed and it fell backwards. And that was it. That was the moment.

Because I remember when you landed it, you landed it deep in the pipe, but you also like squatted low on the land. It was more that when I let go of my board, the weight distribution, that was the key. So when I, yeah, I definitely had to save myself a little bit because it was still a little bit in the backseat, but it was enough to stay on. I mean, that was just, that was crazy that you were able to stay on. Like at that point. I've had years of, we call it the squat. I've learned to squat in desperate situations. And not a lot of skaters can do that.

Because also you're 6'4"? 6'3", yeah. 6'3"? Okay, so it's like, it's not like, there's certain guys who are like, they're like 5'4", whatever like that. And doing a squat is nothing. It's more in the legs. I know there's a handful of skaters that have the squat and they are all shapes inside interesting

and if you can't do it it's more that you can't get your knees to bend that far yeah and a lot of skaters would be like if i'd squatted like i'm definitely tearing my acl or i'm shooting out and so um it's it's a gift and a curse though because sometimes you do it when it's not necessary and it's so ugly. All right, guys. We're going to take a break for a second because I got to tell you how you can score one of these fucking dope waifus with the badass anime bitch on the front. Super heavies, right? With the fat coochie and the fat bubble.

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No. You know what I mean? I think the misconception is that there's definitely a there are um there's a lot of folklore about that but what is the craziest thing you've heard that is just not true oh well there's this whole narrative someone i planned the whole thing i kept other skaters out of it it was you know everything was leading towards that moment and and if you really look at the history of skating, in that year, there were best trick events in other events. And I was trying 900s. Other skaters were trying 900s.

We couldn't do it, but I never relied on that. So I always had a strategy where I would have a trick in mind that I knew would probably place well that I haven't done or that I've only done a couple of times. And that was my strategy for the best tricks so when we went to the x games they they chose the people who had done well in all the best trick events so anyone that didn't place maybe it was just trying 900 didn't make it they weren't chosen oh because they weren't placing well. You've got to land something. You've got to land something. Right. But also in the, when it came to the X Games,

the best trick events, I think that's the misperception is that they were just afterthoughts. It was like, we're going to have the contest and the contest happened and that was the big event. Now let's go for it.

You guys got 20 minutes, try stuff. Yeah. And it was just a bail fast and people weren't even sticking around for it because maybe you saw one or two tricks landed, but it was only for the hardcore skaters.

So when they did X Games, our attitude was the same. It was like, oh, they're not even going to air it because we're just going to be falling. And so going into it, I had one trick in mind, which was a very old 720. So it's a 720 spin with my body. And then I turned my board an extra 180. So basically my board is a 900 and my body is a 720. That was literally my best trick. I had done it once before and I didn't know if I could even make it in that time. I made

it like 10 minutes in and then that was it like so you had one in the bag that was my best trick now it's time to have fun well i didn't even have a plan yeah and uh the announcer uh dave duncan who i love still is announcing uh skate events he's he's like oh okay maybe we're going to see that 900. What an asshole. And so I thought, all right, I'll try one for the crowd. It was more like, oh, here's what it looks like. Here's an attempt. And then after I think my second or third attempt, it was really consistent and I was spotting the landing

and I thought, well, just try to land it and break a rib again. So what? That was it that was the craziest mindset to me if i break a rib again so what there's like i mean if you're ever gonna you're gonna land something or try something it's in that moment yeah it's it's the most widely the biggest the biggest venue we've ever had the biggest viewership and not in viewership just more like the most excitement right yeah yeah and no one had built i mean i heard my friend say recently like yeah i was always bummed that the espn got that and it wasn't like in a skate skate only event

and i said well at that time no one could have afforded to build a ramp like that was the best ramp we ever had yeah and that's i credit that as much as anything yeah and what was so specific about it was just built really well it was really soft they had the money and the means and so the when you back then when you skate uh wooden ramps homemade ramps there was a lot of flaws there were you know one wall was this oh really yeah or the coping was bad or you know so you had to find the pockets of the ramp that were good and that was more what you spent your time doing um was making the ramp work for you and then this ramp was like perfection yeah it's as perfect as it could be back then hmm yeah that's interesting like you hear that

with a basketball like that there's dead spots in the boston garden yeah the old garden oh yeah it could be back then. Yeah, that's interesting. Like you hear that with basketball, like there's dead spots in the Boston Garden. Yeah, the old garden. Oh yeah. Yeah, and they would force, like Celtics defenders would force players there to get steals. Yeah, there's just like old wood or stuff that they would put down.

And like, you don't even think about that, a billion dollar business that that could exist like in these days. But I guess, especially if you're doing these like local events back in the day, they just got to hire somebody. Everything was terrible so we we just made it work yeah and now i now i have what i consider a perfect which is which actually makes it hard because when i go out and skate other stuff oh man everything is a struggle and i was just used to

trash before right and then you became awesome because you were working on the worst shit exactly yeah yeah yeah yeah why do you have that gap in your ramp uh because it was originally for um that ramp was for the hutching and so what the hutching was my tour that's what that ramp was built for that okay and so we had a big ramp it was i think about 30 feet high that would go through that gap and then we would jump the whole length oh shit so that's what that's what okay and then you just kept the gap yeah i mean it poses its function i mean it looks crazy on video yeah it looks terrifying it uh it can go horribly wrong have you seen somebody yeah yeah have you ever yeah

no i i know exactly where to be where to like there's there's a certain there's a certain angle to getting over it if you're on that angle even if you're gonna fall you're gonna make it the other side yeah yeah it's more than that people who don't skate the ramp that much and they don't realize the opposing wall what they're doing i've seen people just go through it like where you know they come up oh there's there's a uh do you remember the the skier his name was bode miller yeah he said something once and it kind of like blew my mind a little bit and he was like um i'm not better than these guys skill-wise but i'm willing to take more risk and the guy kind of like pushed him on it he goes like

i'm gonna take a harder line and i'm gonna put my life on the line more than the average person will. And, uh, I always wonder like how much of that, like is how much of that lends itself to the success of somebody who's doing these, these extreme sports. Like, do you know certain guys that are more skilled, but they just don't have the balls? You don't have to say their names, but like, do you ever look at certain guys? Man, if he would really throw it, he could be. Yeah, sure. You see it a lot. And it's hard to be on the sidelines wanting to push them into it. Like, you can't be more excited for someone's career than they are. But often, I'll see something and sort of help someone unlock it.

Because I can see that they would be capable of this. And they're just not really pushing it or haven't even thought, oh, maybe I could take it this other way. And I've definitely helped a few people get to a certain trick or a certain technique because they just didn't see it in themselves. But other times I've seen like the most raw talent go to waste. Just because they didn't have the, they just don't have the drive. Yeah, man.

It's yeah. It's just, it's kind of crazy. You need to be able to risk it. It's a, it's just something you can't see. Like I, I,

I have often used example of Lizzie Armato on our team. She's awesome. She's's awesome bowl skater or skates birds sometimes but she did she did our full yeah so and that her approach and the way that way that she ended up doing it she tried I mean usually when we do it it's this whole production. We've got all these pads. We learn in the pads. And then we start removing pads as you get closer. When she finally was ready for it and there were no pads,

she ended up falling four or five times. But managed to get out. Yeah. There's a photo of her knee sliding at 12 o'clock. Wow. So upside down fully. Fully off her board and then sliding around and any one of her falls would have would have driven someone away like i'm not doing this this is too gnarly she just kept and and yes we're giving her pointers along the way those of us who've done it

but at some point it's on her yeah and and i try to tell people that like you cannot teach that kind of grit or so well yeah yeah yeah that's just she just has that yeah and i feel like there's a certain faction of skaters they just have that it doesn't matter what it doesn't matter what how they were guided through it doesn't matter what, how they were guided through. It just came with it. Yeah. Yeah. There is that, like, I don't want to call it like a insanity, but like that drive that the greats have, it exists in the same way, but you really need it. Like you can get by with like good fundamentals in a sport that's not as

dangerous. Sure. You know what I mean? Like a guy with really good fundamentals and enough size can exist in the NBA and and he can have some mid-level contracts for a while like they can just six nine you're gonna be in the nba but if you actually want to be one of the greats you have to have that fucking killer thing that's crazy have you seen the video of nigel houston doing the grind on the freeway or like yeah yeah grind on like. Yeah. Like overlooking like a 30-story drop. Oh, yeah. And he'll just like ollie, pop up 50-50, then jump off. Yeah, I mean, that's the least of his skills.

Yeah, right. But being able to overcome the fear of like looking out at a freeway. Yeah, it's like the free climbing guy. What's his name? Alex Honnold. Oh, yeah, Alex Honnold. Yeah. You know, just do you think you have some of that maybe? Yeah, I jumped between two

seven-story buildings downtown la and wow i never i never imagined that it wasn't gonna work you know i think that's what it is when you when you're in when you're in that kind of mode and you're and you're presented with that sort of stunt or or challenge you never think like oh this could all be terrible because terrible. Because that's what's going to happen. That's the only thing I think. What about that? What does that say about me? That's why you were there that day, jumping in with me.

There you go. 100%. I'll be on the elevator. But do you think about that when you're on stage? On stage? Beforehand, I definitely think about it. When you're up there, you can't really think about too much. Yeah, you're just so locked in in that moment. Yeah. It's like when they say, if you're driving a race car, wherever your eyes go, that's

where you're going to go. Yeah. When you're skating, you think, oh my God, what if I sketch out? What if I don't grab it? That's what happens. It's almost liberating for me before I get on stage to be like, ah, my bum. Let's hope I don't bum or something just to like acknowledge the thing. And then it's like, all right, well, it happens.

It happens. You keep going. But that's it. Like I'll say to people, they're like, hey, great. I'm looking forward. I hope I don't bomb. And then I just say it to everybody like, hey, this could happen. Let's just go do it.

Interesting. It's weird. It makes me, it takes it. I think it's more of people go down the rabbit hole of visualizing what does that look like? Oh, yeah, yeah. The bombing and the embarrassment. The heat. Yeah, me saying it just like, okay, acknowledge it.

Now it's done. Yeah, yeah. Oh, boy. Sweat, boy. Sounds like Vietnam. Yeah, bombing is a physical experience. It really is. In terms of like your body.

Like I distinctly remember like drips of sweat rolling down my back. Yes. At Bad Bombs. Yes. And like it was so quiet. I was like, can they hear the sweat dripping down my back? When the bomb first starts and you feel it here. Yeah.

And then you're like, ah, shit, here it comes down the back. I know it's coming. I know it's coming. Dude, I've told this story before, but like my worst bombs, I remember the sound. I distinctly remember the fish restaurant. They were frying shrimp. Yep. And I knew shrimp because I heard the person order it.

I heard the person at the table order it. And I was like, man, I'm doing bad. I can hear the orders in this room. And then I literally heard the fish dropped into the fryer. No, the shrimp dropped into the fryer. I was like, what is happening right now? Like, does somebody make any sound? It was that. And then I would hear drinks blended. Oh, yes. Some clubs

have the blender like on the premises. Like, why would you even offer that? But I just remember hearing ice being crushed. And I'm like, hey, what do you guys think about this thing? And then nothing. And then did you hear them signing their check? Ballpoint pen? What is 20%?

How can we get out of here quicker? It feels dumb telling a bomb to Tony. You black out. Your ribs broken. I have three jokes. Definitely have off days of skating not performing to what i thought i was capable of and yeah that is it feels the same oh interesting ah why couldn't i just do that i usually have to i end up having to uh try to compensate

like what do you do i'll just like okay i'm gonna try something super hard and keep it that just so like they so that i perform something for them yes you give them some good shit yeah that reminds me of something i read when i was obviously researching for this interview you were like used to take failure really badly oh yeah how did you get over that um i read any failure like you struck out and they said you struck out in a baseball game as a kid and you had to like your dad had to like go get you in the canyon yeah yeah so how did you get over some guy just following you they're like skater fat i think it was more than because i found skating it was on my own terms

and that's that was the that was the advantage because i hated letting down the team right oh and i hated you down or or that i did well and the team sucked yeah and then we lost that i couldn't connect that and so when i found skating it was just on my terms in my own style and that and i was still part of the community and i could still compete and so i think that was that was the key but um definitely i i i think probably what i can only attribute to my longevity is that even when i did my best or even when i skated well and maybe even won the event i wasn't happy really because it wasn't my best and that that's what stacy perelta who oh yeah end up putting me on the bones brigade team that's what he said he

saw in me it's just like i saw this kid he's doing these incredible tricks and just walking out of the pool pissed right and that was it it was just more like i had i had this expectation of myself and that's all that mattered right but how do you find joy in that if you're always feeling disappointed i was why you move up to your expectation three days you had the 900 no that was unexpected i think at some point i just i I stopped being so, so harsh. And it was just, I learned to enjoy the ride. Right.

Was that before or after a hundred million dollars? I'm just curious. Wait, where's our hundred million dollars? Everything is before that. That's all I see now. Dude, we don't know what you made off that video game. We are living in the pre-hundred million dollar phase. I've looked up his net worth.

If they said that you made $500 million off the video game alone, I would believe it. I don't know what you made off that video game. I've looked up his net worth. If they said that you made $500 million off the video game alone, I would believe it. I don't know how much money video games make. He already said he got half a million dollars. You got half a million. You have to buy out for half a million. That's it. That's what I haven't told anyone. I took it and that was it.

If that's what really happened, if you can fly to New York just to see Neil Brennan, you got money. I love Neil. I'm going to York just to see Neil Brennan, you got money. I love Neil. I'm going to take an Uber to see Neil. Yo, that's true. All right, guys, we're going to take a break for a second because I got to make sure that you guys are making the most money possible when you're gambling. And the way that we do that is with MyBookie.ag.

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and, you know, concerned. But nowadays, it's more that it's not that they're trying to outdo you it's that they want you to notice because they want they want you to think they're cool yeah or to like that's their big break oh you could sponsor them yeah do this ah yeah yeah yeah that happens sometimes but for the most part it's just more camaraderie it's fun yeah um like last time i was here i was skating with locals uh at that park in brooklyn and um helping this one girl uh roll into the bird ramp like that that's kind of more the vibe now yeah i guess i'm just elder yo it's wild to see how many girls are skating that's great it's awesome when i was young girls did not skateboard. No, not at all. Like, none.

And now, I've seen girls do it as like a hobby. Absolutely. And they have crews. Yeah. It's pretty crazy. Yeah. There's a bunch of crews here, actually, in the city. Really?

Yeah. Now, did you see the movie Kids? Yeah. When they beat the shit out of that guy with the skateboards in that scene was there a little were you like okay finally did you picture that guy yelling at you in the parking lot yeah no that was rough because even as a skater that was that was rough it was rough but like that's what i imagine what would happen if you made fun of skaters so i never understood the bully thing. Cause I grew up on,

I grew up on Astor place in the city where all those guys would skate. Right. Like the guy Hunter, I think his name was, uh, Harold Hunter. Yeah. Harold Hunter. And like a bunch of those guys.

So I would see, it was really weird to like see them in that scene. Cause they were pretty friendly when I would see them outside of my apartment. And then, uh, when they just massacred that guy in the middle of like Washington square park.

For context, Andrew really loved Joker toooker too yeah i really like the movie vengeance yeah he hated the ending where he blamed it on mental health he's like no just kill people yeah yeah it's called payback yeah but i of course there's this is always gonna be bad scenes but i i don't see skaters like that at all yeah um i think that some have become hardened because they have to advocate for themselves because they're always getting kicked out of places so that's when they're just like not leaving you know and i don't imagine most of them starting fights like that but yeah it definitely can can be uh combative speak sorry speaking of getting kicked out of places,

my cousin was a big rollerblader, wanted me to ask you, what's your relationship with cops now and what was it then? Because it's tough for you guys, I assume, to do what you want to do. Yeah, but see, I'm more of a ramp skier. I'm usually skating in designated areas,

skate parks, ramps. So I had my share of that. Like I got ticketed. I've got – we got sent out of the station one time. Yeah. Just getting on the boardwalk. Wait, really? They arrested you? Yes.

This is the closest a white guy can be to being black. It is true. But I definitely had my share especially when I started Birdhouse and we were just out in the wild shooting video we had plenty of

time we got kicked out mostly security guards but every once in a while it's a cop but I live in a very strange realm now

where cops recognize me and they're hyped oh that's cool yeah man go for it. Do a kickflip.

Yeah. It's weird. And so I get a pass and it's weird to come to that. But also I know if he sees another skater, he's not going to encourage him.

Right. So. A little unfair treatment. Yes. I think it's okay. It's well-earned. Yeah. It's not white privilege. It's, I don't okay. It's well-earned. Yeah. It's not white privilege.

It's... I don't know. It's GOAT privilege. GOAT privilege. GOAT privilege. It's THPS privilege. What is that? Tony Hawk Pro Skater privilege?

Yeah. Yeah, that's wild. And when you came up, like, I know most... A lot of skaters probably look at you as like, yeah, that's the GOAT. But when you were coming up, what were the skaters that you...

Or who were the skaters that you really idolized? That you were like, oh, this guy's got it um when i first started it was uh well firstly eddie algera was i thought the most innovative skater at the time who created a bunch of tricks and those are the tricks i wanted to learn was he one of the guys featured in the documentary the dog town i i don't think he was in that but um no because his his era was right after okay so he started skating in that time frame but then when that like basically he was the he was in the right place at the wrong time he was the best skater when skating was just at a

low and i thought i was watching and i was like and we're in all this tricks. Eddie Algarra does. Um, and then Steve Cavallaro, because he was around my age and around my, I was super small and he was super small and he was blasting. I mean, he's the reason that I ever learned how to do it. It's because I saw a photo of him doing this giant aerial when he was probably 13 or 14 and he was super small.

He had, he had, uh, elbow pads on his knees. And I used to do that because I was that small. And I was like, that's it. If he can do that.

And this is when you're getting over the lip of these pools that you were skating. Well, he was, yeah, that's Eddie Algarra front side rock right there. Oh, wow.

Yeah. That was the first. So the first difficult trick I ever learned was that trick. And they moved me up a class competition because he could do that trick. I couldn't do any other tricks because I could do frontside rocks. They're like, that kid's not in 2A. He does frontside rocks. Put him in 3A.

And then getting outside of the pool. So he's the first person that starts to. No, I mean, that was like more the dog town. It was more that the aerials had already come into play. Yeah. But it was more that I saw Steve Cavallaro as this. Because all the guys would say they seem so much... They were maybe four years older than us.

Yeah. But that seems like a huge discrepancy. Yeah. And so when Cav was doing these aerials, I was like, I want to do what he's doing. Yeah. And so when cab was doing these areas, I was like, I want to do what he's doing. Yeah. Fly like that.

Yeah. And then I learned, I learned how to do it, but I didn't have the weight to bring me up in the air. So I learned how to Ollie into my aerials. And that was not how people did it. So you're Ollieing at the end of the lip. I'm Ollieing at the end of the lip and then grabbing my board when I get to the peak. And no one did it then so you're ollieing at the end of the lip i'm only at the end lip and

then grabbing my board when i get to the peak and no one did that then and now i just did it because i was desperate to get in the air and that's the only way i could figure it out and i mean that became the standard of how to do aerials any when you see like if you see someone doing tricks over a gap or you see them on like they they all into there and then grab the board because that's how you get more air but when i started doing it it was considered a circus trick really yeah oh wow are you just bringing up photos of wow look up steve caballero winchester what's that that's the photo that i was trying to explain i wanted to be crazy and now do you look at the new school of skaters and are you just blown away by i'm blown i saw you working with a kid that just

busted out the 900 he was like how old like 10 or something 12 there's like yeah young young guys can can do the crazy tricks yeah i think it's because well they have the resources now but also there's an element to when you're trying to do something new if you know it's's possible, if you know it's been done, it's way easier to get. There's a phenomenon. I forget the name of it. What is it called? It's like the guy that ran the five minute, four minute mile. Four minute mile.

Yeah. Something like he actually it's it's I mean, not to get into the whole like visualize thing, but like literally his strategy was I'm going to visualize exactly how I'm going to do it. And then it becomes attainable. And then he fucking did it. But and then this happens throughout history. There's like one guy who ends up doing it or girl who ends up doing the thing. And then all of a sudden,

it doesn't seem like the most shocking thing. I think it happened four minute miles. Like one person broke it. And then immediately in the next year. So there had been this chase for 900s that had happened over the course of almost 10 years. And there were only a handful of us that were even really trying to get close.

And then after I made it, uh, Sandro deals did one a month later in Brazil, Georgia, so Tony did one in Italy, like two months after that, it just started. It just started.

Did you share with them what you learned? Were you like, Hey, you got to lean back a little bit. And then now they, they both had different techniques, but they'd both been trying it. It was more that,

that they saw that it could be done. Did you visualize, did you, were you doing any of this stuff or were you just like, yeah, I'll just keep trying. I was until I broke my rib. I was,

I was obsessed with it. That's all I would do. Go, go skate. Just try that. And then when I, when I finally did what I thought had all the elements to it and ended up falling and breaking my rib, I was like, maybe I can't do it. Hmm.

So you almost thought it might not happen. Yeah. I mean, even leading up to the X Games, I kind of gave up on it. I already gave them my all. Fucking Duncan. I gave them the prize. So that announcer yeah dave duncan yeah fucking duncan that's why where's his points on the video game that's exactly yeah you gotta add him now i know like you're funny actually he he was at there was this backyard skate event a couple months ago and christian osoi was there uh christian osoi is

is a legendary skater from the 80s okay he was basically my rival in the 80s okay okay he represented air and style and i represented tricks and people had to choose sides okay that was very much like the thread of our relationship yeah no i mean we were friends but but in terms of fan the pr and shit yeah yeah, yeah. You didn't like- Ronaldo and Messi. You did not like Christian Ossoi and Tony Hawk. You had one or the other.

Yeah. But we were skating and they had a Legends division. So Christian and I are skating in this Legends division and Dave Duncan is the announcer

and he's like, why don't we see some doubles from you guys? Both, you know, I looked at you and I was like, we've never done doubles before. Yeah, that's right. It was you and McDonald. Was it we've never done doubles before yeah that's right it was you and mcdonald with andy mcdonald's i mean he and i yeah you guys would do the doubles yeah but

even just for a like for a video or a photo or something and so he and i just whipped something up and ended up getting a photo of it and now we're selling that for charity you can get it right now where do they get it? Tonyhawk.com. There we go. This guy is your guardian angel, dude. I just remember that like, oh, and it's because he said, you guys should do doubles.

And now it's like, it became a fundraiser for the skateboard project. Wow. Gotta change the world. Double D. Was there ever a time where like, when you really started popping

on like McDonald's and like the big brands are coming, like the Fortune 500, was there ever a time where the community was, felt like you were leaving them uh no it was more not leaving them but just more there was a sellout yes absolutely yeah now I think that the that started with bagel bites I had a big promotion bagel bites in in 1998. Damn bagel bites. I still have my freezer.

You do? Okay, got it. Yeah, you know who else had them in the freezer? Everybody was hating on you for doing the fucking bagel bites. I'll eat the fucking bagel bites. Yeah. But that was the moment when people thought, okay, this is not skateboarding. Skaters don't eat bagels.

Yeah, like you're selling out. And somehow they thought that I didn't have a value system. What did they think sponsorship was? They're all sponsored. Every pro skater. To everyone else, it had to be endemic. So it had to be a skate brand. Skate shoes.

Thank you for defining that. We had no clue. You were way too smart for us on that one right there. Pandemic? I didn't understand what you were talking about. What's going on? Yeah, I don't understand what you were talking about. That's what's going on. Yeah, I don't want a pandemic sponsorship. Got enough of those.

And so when I did a big promotion, it was like, how could you? And I said, well, how could I? I've been skating professionally since I was 14. If I had gotten the opportunity to do that when I was 14 or 18, or when I had a kid, when I was 24, like sign me up. Yeah. I, I eat bagel bites.

I eat McDonald's. You know, I'm not changing how I view the world or my value system for money. It was just more like, yeah, now I, and now I get to use their marketing money to promote skateboarding. That's really how I saw it. And a lot of people think that that's like a cop-out, but that is absolutely the truth because I had, I had final control over how skateboarding was presented in those, in those, um, advertisements. Oh, really? And so I knew that we're going to reach a new audience. So you've always had this thing where like, you want to be an ambassador for the sport. I think that that's where it's, that's where it started.

Interesting. Because it was like, oh, this is, you know, with great, great power and great responsibility, but I,

this is an opportunity to really show skateboarding for what it is and not just what they see on X games or in movies. Yeah. Um, and I got to do that again and again. I got to do it with Eagle Bice and Donald's and car manufacturers. And also, now whenever I do any kind of promotion like that,

there's a caveat that they have to donate to the foundation, Skateboard Project. So I'm literally helping build, they're helping build more skateboards. This is interesting. I think a lot of times that when people reach, you know, high, high, high levels of success, and there isn't this feeling that they're like giving back to the thing that helped them reach the success. There is some animosity from those who don't have that success. Right. And because it feels like, oh, you're just using this thing so you can extract

as much resources as you possibly can from the world. And I think it's it's I mean, you're doing this because it's genuine. But I think those people who feel like a responsibility to continue, like spread the game, if it's basketball, fucking soccer, skateboarding, stand up, whatever it is, like if you feel responsibility to keep kind of pushing it, it's really hard to be critical. keep kind of pushing it it's really hard to be critical it's like you use this thing to gain well and now you're giving back to this thing so other people can hopefully use it to gain well um yeah and also but i guess it's more that i just i've come so far in it yeah and and i i hopefully have proved myself to still be committed to skateboarding yeah um and the good of skateboarding and but all i'm still to this day i mean no matter what i'm doing it's like oh my selling out really absolutely yeah maybe that's the only thing they have on you because they can't come for you right like they can't come for like there's certain dudes like like we always bring up like david beckham in this like david be Beckham was more famous than he was, uh, six.

He was more famous than he was good at the sport, even though he was amazing at the sport. He was like super high level, but there were better guys than him. Yeah. Right. You don't fall in the same category. Like you were the best at your thing and you were famous. Yeah. But I feel like anytime there's somebody who is really famous, but they're not the best,

there's this like hate from the community. It's like someone else should kind of be there but i don't understand oh yeah that's it well also but but in my case because i i have such a i skate this very specific discipline that is ramp or skating it's more like why do people that guy's the best he can't even oh because they're looking at like uh they're looking at some double set handrail or you know or or like most tech flip trick on the ground they're just like it's tony hawk can't do that and they're right did you ever think when you were younger were you like should i just stunt on these motherfuckers and just learn how to do skate better than all of them because you had the discipline um i did i did when i went through my street phase um but at some point started rolling my ankles frequently

and doing and rolling them on tricks that weren't groundbreaking and then i just thought if i'm really going to continue to skate i gotta somewhat stay in my lane over here because i i know how to skate ramps i know how to fall i'm still innovative in this in this realm yeah and i'm just gonna stay over there and that really was was the key to my longevity was just doing that yeah so you were able to remove yourself yeah yeah and also i just knew that yeah my street skating didn't look great it wasn't breaking ground it was just more like you're just doing it to say you can do it yeah yeah killing yourself yeah yeah it is interesting though like your size i feel like makes the tricks look so much cooler on the on the ramp like because i think shorter people the spins don't look as fantastic like for me i don't know like when i

see like a taller person that's like lanky spinning it just seems like a much bigger thing is happening yeah but also there's this historic element stork element to it. You can't fall. I mean, I don't know. Skating is so much about style. And so I think I have a more critical eye to all that stuff. I think my style has improved. Right. Where it's not as jerky and it's not as wild.

Because I just honed in on these tricks. Tried to do them in the best way I can. And make them look cute. Guys, any more questions for the GOAT? We're going to let you get out of here. You were the commentator for the Olympics. How was that? Any cool stories from that?

What's an Olympic village like? Is it a fuckfest? I heard a shit. I did not go to the village because of Basically, I had to only be in my hotel yeah or at the venue and there was an app you had to install the tracks You move. Yeah, that's called a wife. That's the app It was full-on but I but also I I felt very lucky to be there because The skaters, their families couldn't even go watch.

There's no spectators. Yeah. And I'm just free roaming. Yeah. I mean, I went, I went to the venue. I was pretty much the first one to skate the park course. No. Yeah.

Because the park skaters weren't there yet. They were coming in the next week. Cause everybody comes in for their event and then they go, they're not there for the whole Yeah. So I came in and the street, the street area is right next to the park and i roll in with my skateboard i'm like oh i'm kidding go in and start skating it was more about asking forgiveness and permission at that point yeah i did get kicked off the street course though no yeah somebody had to kick tony hawk yeah it was funny. The announcer came over because I was shooting the warm-up

and I was doing like... You could stand on the side and shoot video, but I was actually following people through the course with their permission, the skaters. But then at some point,

someone saw me on the camera. It went up to the tower. I'm like, what the fuck is he doing? So who's the guy that has the camera? The dude. It went up to the tower. What the fuck is he doing? Who's the guy? The dude. It was a French dude that was doing the announcing just for the venue. Tony Hawk, please get off the street.

I'm sorry. I didn't want to say that. I get kicked off stuff all the time. that's great mark well i'm curious two things one uh how was the experience of skating with your kids like once they were able to skate encourage them into all of our kids skate yeah in fact when we go travel the first order business is finding skate parks in the area not because i want right because they want to and then i just become their filmer yeah yeah yeah that is absolutely dynamic yeah of how we how we travel um even here like when when supreme built the ball in brooklyn as soon as we got to new york they're like can we just get the can we use it supreme like yes i'll find out who runs the place yeah and that's um and uh i think

the fun thing for me is that not everyone but so many people skate now that it's more common they do that they don't and so to see them living in an era where it's like all their friends skate or or they know skating or they're down with it is really fun to see and in fact i'm more like now non-skaters are the f**k we'll bleep it buddy don't but the funny thing about the kids is that like this happens a lot with most of them are out of the house now but when they were living there and their friends would come over who all skate too they'd all be downstairs like arguing about the origins of some trick you're right name and this and i'd come into the kitchen like to get a drink or something

and i was like do you guys want the answer i was there when it happened i named it that's who and they're just like i'm just the dad yeah that's wild don't give us your don't tell us about your old school stuff yeah okay you guys are you amongst yourselves i'll see you later do they play the games do they like them um yeah yeah for sure uh more like my son riley he's uh he's 28 now but he grew up in the era of 10 HPLs. Then eventually became a character in it because he's a pro skater. But he was more of that era. And then when the remaster came out last year,

the other kids came out. That's dope. I had one, but based on another one now off of what Mark said about skating with your kids. Is there an age where you're like, I think I need to stop skating. I have a number in my mind or anything. You're just going to skate.

I never made those ultimatums. So they just felt like a backfire. Okay. I feel like if I'm able to stand on my own two feet, I'll ride a skateboard. I might not be on the level that people expect. Right. And maybe I won't do it in public, but I can't stay on the skateboard. You can't not skate.

Yeah. I mean, at this this point i'm just enjoying because i i have found this sort of new um this new approach to skating where i can do new tricks and they're not high impact more technical and they're really more for the only people who appreciate them are skaters themselves yeah for the most part in your last video you posted i don't even know what happened it's like that. And so I really enjoy that creative process. Right. And that's what's keeping me fired up.

And if I can't, you know, if I don't feel like I'm being innovative or if I'm not really, if I'm not living up to the ideals of a pro skater, then I won't do it in public. Yeah. But for now, I'm still good at it. I have a question. i'm still good at it i have a i have a question we're uh well myself akash and mark are all stand ups uh we're very lucky we get to make a living doing something we love uh something we're trying to improve at constantly it's creative endeavor it's really fun it's exciting um i'm curious if if maybe you can give us some advice some things to make sure we don't miss out on because

right now we're in that heyday, right? Well, some of us are a different stage of our career. Mark is younger in the game. But like, what are the things that you look back on and you're like, oh, I really wish I kind of sat and appreciated that? For sure, the camaraderie, because I was so hyper-focused in competition

that I kind of missed what else was happening and the friendships that were made. And maybe I just ignored it for the most part because I was just, this is the goal. And I see how many people made these incredible friendships along the way and have these memories. And I was like, what? Where was that?

I don't remember that. But also the travel. For me, when I was young, I was just a kid from San Diego. I never traveled anywhere. And so when I would go places, it was just weird. Weird food and weird. And I didn't appreciate that this is something to revel in. I can't believe I have these experiences now.

I absolutely embrace it. But back then I didn't. And I feel like I would have had a deeper appreciation for my experience by it really embraced Europe or really embraced Japan. Yeah, I do now. But, but in those days it just felt awkward.

Oh, cool, man. I appreciate that. I don't know if that helps you guys. No, it does. It's like you're at the age where you're probably appreciating that it's doing that awesome. Well, cool, man. I appreciate that. I don't know if that helps you guys. No, it does. I feel like you're at the age

where you're probably appreciating that you get to do any of this stuff. I think that I'm the luckiest man on the planet. Yeah. But like, it is cool to look back and like even you saying that about the relationships.

Like I know for a fact, like I've, you know, I've sacrificed a lot to do this and like maybe I haven't maintained all the relationships from like comics that I started with. Like luckily Akash and I started together. So we have that, but there are relationships that I let go. And you know, maybe I, maybe I'd look back and go, man, I wish I'd put more time into that. But at the same time, it's like, it's not

like I was just jerking off with the rest of the time I was doing things to get here. Yeah. I think that's what it is. And, and, and maybe I was in a position that there was more expectations so i i tried to live up to it but but for sure that the camaraderie is everything yeah and the community like i said you see all these a lot of skaters or or just people my age that skating was the core of who they are yeah yeah um because of the friends they made. Yeah. Okay, we got to keep being friends, Huck. Yeah. Believe me, I know.

What about if you guys, like, one headlining was not? Come on, what are you talking about? I'm just saying, what happens if the tables turn? That's true. What happens, bro? Yeah, you can hope for me whenever you want to. I need some more sellouts. No, but that is a good question, man. And that's what, obviously, I mean, I want everybody's career here to flourish.

Yeah, that was one thing I know I worked on is like in this business, I knew I could be really insecure. But I was like, I can never let that get in the way of anything. That's for me to deal with. So however famous he gets, I've actually never felt jealous or anything. But like I have to to if i get insecure that has to be between me you're very unique in especially our business in that regard yeah like i think that i think it's very easy to get caught up in our business because you're dealing with probably the most insecure people in entertainment like stand-ups is yeah it's it's not a lot of

confidence for you to like walk in front of people and go, I'm the best or I should be listened to. You know what I mean? If something's off, you know? Yeah. Turn off that blender. Nobody has slushy drinks during my show. Yeah, man. It's, but yeah, but I think that you've always been amazing at that, man. Yeah.

Just being able to like check that. I never wanted to lose a friendship over my insecurity. Yeah. That's the thing I always tried to keep in mind. Even if I have it, I don't want to sacrifice. Like I should be happy for my friends. let me deal with my shit myself yeah yeah but dude thank you so much for coming by man yeah thanks tell them everything tell them where they can find like the foundations all the stuff anything going on i mean your podcast we don't

even get to talk about your podcast oh hawk for school man yeah jason ellis and me we've got to go it's actually we've gotten a really great response. We've gotten a good following so far, but go check it out. Even if you don't skate, I promise it'll be entertaining. Yeah. And it's funny. Yeah.

So wild guys. Hawk versus wolf. And yeah, we can say like and describe. That's our catchphrase. Like and describe. Like and describe. Like and describe.

We need people describing how much they like the show so other people see that uh dude you're the man thank you so much man really appreciate you it's an honor yeah take care man peace