Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S13 Ep 10: LA Special - Tony Hawk

Episode Date: April 27, 2022

Rosé at the ready! In this first LA special, we were joined poolside by a sporting legend & probably the most influential skateboarders of all time, Tony Hawk.Tony talks to us about growing up in San Diego & food as fuel whilst skating as a kid, the best bourbon whiskey, multi-use of Skateboard grip tape and expensive sushi, all whilst eating mum's delicious homage to River Café’s chicken with tomatoes and olives, followed by delicious crystalized chocolate oranges!Tony’s brand new documentary ‘Until The Wheels Fall Off’ now on Now TV. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners in Los Angeles. I'm sitting by a pool, the sun is setting, there are cactuses everywhere. We thought that was a lemon tree but we've later found out that it's an orange. We're not really sure what it is. That's an orange. But it doesn't make lemon curd. But I've made curd. And you've got a glass of rosé, so all is right in the world, Mum. Yeah, I've got a glass of rosé. I think there is a lemon tree just round the corner, but I missed it.

This is the start of a little series of soirees with different people in Los Angeles. So just for a bit of context, we're staying at my friend Benny's. Now, Benny has been on the podcast twice before. One of the podcasts I did with him in his place, where we're staying at my friend Benny's. Now, Benny has been on the podcast twice before,

and one of the podcasts I did with him in his place, where we're staying. And Benny isn't a fan of tables and chairs, so we've had to borrow a trestle table. From your sister. From my sister. I'm sitting on a piano stool. Mum's on a weird 70s kind of revolving chair.

But we're making it work, and we're not not complaining it's kind of brilliant and it looks beautiful um tablecloth we've got a tablecloth we've got flowers and i've cooked darling and you've yeah you've cooked and there will probably be a helicopter coming over in a minute so today we went for a lovely brunch with Emma Freud and Richard Curtis, who've been on the podcast. And I couldn't get in. So I was standing outside and this fella turned up with his wife. And I said, of course I knew him. And I said, oh, hi, how are you? But of course I didn't know him because I've never met him before.

But it was Gary Barlow. But tell them what happened after that. And then we couldn't get in. So we're waiting outside to try and raise someone. And then a car stopped and out stepped this vision of beauty, which was Nicole Scherzinger. Who also has been on the podcast. Did Nicole say hi to you, Mum? No, darling, I wasn't near enough.

And I don't know that she'd remember me. But she did say hi to Gary. Yes. It was all kisses and everything. I mean, LA, eh? I know, it was fabulous. I just want to Gary. Yes. It was all kisses and everything. I mean, LA, eh? I know. It was fabulous. I just want to move here now.

So do I, darling. Maybe we'll move here. Maybe we'll do a stint in LA. I do think it's... Well, first of all, we stayed in Malibu. Yep. That was fantastic. That was beyond belief.

We stayed on the beach. We saw dolphins every day. Pelicans flying in formation. Are they pelicans? They are pelicans. I've confirmed that today with people who know more about nature than I do. They fly in formation and they almost look like prehistoric, kind of almost like dinosaur birds.

But they flew just like the red arrows,oped up and down but always in a perfect v looking for fish um speaking of fish i went to sushi park and i don't think i'll ever be able to go there again because i forgot unless you remortgage your house yeah um yeah that's all i'll say on the matter it was deliciously expensive right we went to went to the Real Inn. The Real Inn. In Malibu, which is what you call cheap and cheerful. It's like an upmarket fish and chip. The only place that's cheap and cheerful in Los Angeles. Yeah, upmarket fish and chips.

We have eaten at... Greekman's. Greekman's. We finally went, we've talked about this. We finally met Hannah's boyfriend. Who is... Hannah, my sister. Absolutely adorable.

Runs a fabulous restaurant. Now, it could have been really awkward. We went to go and eat at the place. Hannah, my sister. Absolutely adorable. Runs a fabulous restaurant. Now, it could have been really awkward. We went to go and eat at the place. It was terrible food. It was absolutely... Oh, God, this is so... It was delicious. It was delicious.

It was so delicious that Jessie went back the next night. I did. I brought Sam, my husband, back. The best lamb chops I think I've ever eaten in my whole life. Do you want to know what I've cooked? What are you making? Yeah, what are you making? I've done the good old River Cafe chicken with tomatoes and olives.

Hasn't been done since Stacey Dooley in what, series three? Yeah, and people missed out on it when you had COVID because I was going to do it then, but I thought it was a nice summery evening. We'll have that. And then I found these crystallised oranges and I've dipped them in chocolate and I've done strawberries in chocolate. Why did you do that? Where did you get the idea from? So there's a very nice shop near where I live called McFarlane's. It's like a cheese shop, Deli. Cheese shop at Deli and they do fantastic chocolate.

But I have to tell you, the chocolate I bought was like chocolate I'd never tasted. So kind of strong, I had to put some sugar in it to try and kind of, it was just too much. Now, on to the guests that we've got. Oh my God. We have Tony Hawk on the podcast today. Probably the second athlete we've had. Yeah.

After Tom Daley. Whenever you mention his name, people go, wow, you've got him because he's so enormous. I want to know, because I bought my granddaughter a skateboard. After watching the girl's sky. Watching the girl's sky on the Olympics. I want to know how old you have to be to start to become a skateboard champion. And of course, he didn't compete in the Olympics.

I don't think skateboarding was one of the accepted games then. But he clearly had been the champion of all champions. He's also a philanthropist. He's got the Skate Park Project, which is a non-profit organisation. Children love skateboarding. That wants to get more access to outdoor recreation and free play. He's got this documentary, so he's coming on, I think, because he's doing a bit of a promo for his documentary,

which is called Until the Wheels Fall Off, which is all about his life. And from the trailer, because I haven't seen it yet, the trailer kind of implies that it's quite a lonely existence, I can imagine being a skateboarder. But I thought there was a whole community of skateboarders. Like, when you go to a skateboard park, everybody knows what they're doing. I wonder if it's tough when you're the best. I don't know. And it's isolating. I don't know. But where do you compete? Is there a competition? How do you when you're the best. I don't know. And it's isolating. I don't know.

But where do you compete? Is there a competition? How do you know you're the best? You can ask all these things to Tony Hawk, who's coming up on the Table Manners, the Los Angeles Affair. So we are outside and we have Tony Hawk and we've just closed the door on my wonderful children

who seem to think that every person they now meet is like mummy's new best friend, which potentially we could be new best friends in an hour, Tony, but it is a pleasure to have you do this podcast. Oh, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I can't tell you, whenever we've mentioned that you were coming on the podcast, everyone's gone, wow, you've coming on the podcast everyone's gone wow you've

got tony hawks it's just amazing he's most sensational oh thank you yes i'm excited to be here so i do i have heard that you've just eaten though um yeah but i'm i hear that that is one of the reasons that i've been able to stay relatively skinny my whole life is I have a very fast metabolism so I'll join you guys you I well it has slowed down a bit into my 40s and 50s okay to be fair okay well I just want to ask how do you get a fast metabolism do I have to skateboard to achieve that I think skating you know six to seven hours a day probably helps that along yes and well mom no time I don't yeah I don't know if I'm giving advice in that respect I'm just telling my experience are you very tall for a skateboarder um yes and no I grew up very short I grew up as a runt and I didn't get tall until I was about 16 and 17. Really? So I learned to adapt my style into that.

There are some advantages to being tall, but then there are some advantages to being like more lower center of gravity and with speed. So I can't say that there's an atypical skater anymore. I mean, it didn't seem to hinder your success. Okay, so by the way, cheers. We're drinking rosé. We're not going to rub it in. Thank you.

But what did you say about rosé? Oh, well, my wife gets migraines from white wines, so I completely avoid them at home or when we're out. Champagne. Champagne is the thing that really is hard for her. Do you like champagne? I like it. She likes it a lot.

So out of solidarity, I choose not to have it. But hey, I'm in LA and she's at home and she's not listening. So here's cheers. Cheers. Thank you for doing this. I don't know if she might be listening, but it'll be after the fact. But you're not here. And if you are listening, he loves you so much and he does support you.

I do. He's so supportive. He's only going to have a glass. She misses Rosé a lot too. So where is home? I live in San Diego, Encinitas, North County, San Diego. So not too far from... No, no.

Have you driven from there today? I have, yeah. Oh, it's a schlep. It's a long way. I'm used to it. Everything happens in LA, and I choose to still stay in San Diego, so that's the burden, I guess, is the drive. Is that where you grew up?

Yeah. In proper San Diego. All right. So I've got to ask the first question. How old were you when you first started skateboarding? I was about 10. Oh, you see, I watched the skateboarder on, because it wasn't an Olympic sport then, was it?

No, it wasn't an Olympic sport until last year. Yeah, until last year. Yeah. So then everyone was enchanted by that girl that was, how old was she? 14? Was her name Skye? Yeah. Yeah, Skye was enchanted because she was.

So young. Well, also she's from the UK, so. Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, and we don't really have. There might be a little bit of favoritism there that you were so enchanted with her. Well, you know I was enchanted. No, no, no. She is a phenomenal talent.

She is absolutely. She's 14. Yeah, yeah. And it was a lot of drama there near the end. So, you know, she had to make a last run. And she's amazing. Is she? Yes.

And she started when she was three, she said. Yeah. I think that when I was three, skateboarding wasn't really even invented for all intents and purposes. And nor was it available or were there resources so i think it's really cool that sky grew up in an era where it's it's available to her at almost any age yeah i feel like you should have an honorary honorary few olympic gold medals just i feel like you should be you should be allowed them just because you are the pioneering. You are. I'll tell you what.

I got to go to Tokyo, which was a big thing in itself. Oh, you went? Yeah, because their family's going to... I mean, literally, Sky's family couldn't be there with her. Do you know her? Actually know her? I do, yeah. I've skated with her quite a bit.

Oh, wow. And so I felt lucky that I got to be there. And then when I did go, I got there early to the course. And I brought my skateboard, of course, and realized that I was the only one there on the freshly made Olympic venue course. And so I skated it. I was the first one to skate it. And do you still do this upside down?

I try. What are they called when you do it? There's flips and spins. Oh, half pipes. Half pipes. Yeah. Sorry. But the Olympic course was more like a hybrid.

There was some half pipe stuff, but there was some bowl stuff as well. So it was sort of this, they call it a park or a flow park. But this podcast is mainly about food and food memories. So can we take it back to San Diego? Yes. As you said, proper San Diego. And what fueled the skateboarder? Yeah, what fueled the skateboarder? Nothing nutritious.

Really? Well, it was the 70s. And my parents weren't well off. So it was a lot of fast food. A lot of fast food. Really? Yeah, Jack in the Box, Carl's parents went well off. So it was a lot of fast food, a lot of fast food. Really? Yeah, Jack in the Box, Carl's Jr., McDonald's.

What was your order at McDonald's? Oh, you know what? Carl's Jr. was actually on the way home from elementary school. Have you not seen it? It's up on, you see all the signs. Yeah, it's on the East Coast. I think it's called Hardee's. I mean, it's a lot of the same. But I remember going to Carl's Jr.

I would get a cheeseburger with pickles and ketchup only, small fries, and a small Coke for a dollar. Wow. And so my dad would give me a dollar on the way home, and I'd skip lunch at school and go straight to Carl's Jr. Christ, it didn't do you any harm. Look how tall and healthy you are. You're an athlete

but my dad didn't he had he wasn't really interested in nutrition either so he was always everything was prime rib and um a lot of grease and a lot of fast food and uh that's just how i grew up and i didn't know any better but you so you have six children and how has kind of, how has your eating around the table? I know that not all of them are at home now. They're a bit older, but you know what, like you still, do you still have a penchant for fast food? Like how do you guys eat? Do you eat quite healthily?

We do. Yeah. We definitely lean more towards plant-based and um trying not to do too much carbohydrates and greasy food and cheese and i mean we we're not i can't say that we're all together and there's definitely pizza nights and um luckily most of our kids are they're eclectic with their tastes so i can order indian food and they'll almost all eat it. Is it good Indian food in San Diego? Yes, yes. Really? Why?

I can't answer why. No, because... Is there a big population? I mean, it's... LA, everyone says it's crap, Indian food. It's not as good as London. Let's put it that way. I know the difference.

But it's good enough. Yeah. Have you skated in London? Oh, yeah, several times, yeah. So, because I know so little about skateboarding, except I just see people and I think, God, how can you do that? Do people compete? Are there competitions?

Is there a league? Are you in a – yeah, just explain to me. And when there was noise and there was momentum going for skating to be included in the Olympics, the sanctioning organizations got a lot more serious and a lot more organized because they had to. They had to meet these markers in order to be accepted as an Olympic sport. Yeah. So they had a much more international organization. So they had a much more international organization.

The competitions were very much structured, and you had to be competing from certain continents. And so there have been competitions all through the years, but they were more scattered different series or different events and sponsors and things like that. But like I said, once they were Olympic qualifiers, they were much more structured. Okay. And how long have you been a professional skateboarder for uh since I was 14 and you were sponsored coming up on 40 years 40 years yeah but I can't get over you still skateboard I'm taking a little break right now because I broke my leg five weeks ago. And is this your first break?

No, I broke my elbow in 1998. I broke my pelvis in 2003. Is this a skateboarding accident? This was, yeah. And we've got Kevin in the garden. My good friend Kevin Stobb. He and I have been skating together since we were 12. Now he looks more like a skater.

He fits the profile. He looks a bit more, yeah. He's keeping the... You look like you're a lecturer. He's keeping the punk alive. Yeah. So he's a punk skateboarder. But like Kevin, how many times have you broken a lot of stuff? Yes. Yes. Two shoulder surgeries stuff yes yes oh two shoulders in the last three years yeah he broke he broke his shoulder really good three years ago and had to get it fixed again because the first the first repair didn't take what color is your skateboard i think he's probably got a few like what what's the what's the picture underneath let's see the board the last board i was writing when i got hurt yeah was uh yellow so that's in the bin now the trash it's it's in my chunk actually um it's uh i burned that one it bloody hurt you i kind of want to get back at it oh my god like taming that wild yeah i want to yeah exactly um i want to break it uh so i'm keeping it was it a new one?

relatively I do have a funny story about it though I don't remember exactly what the graphics generally the picture on the bottom of the board is some sort of hawk or hawk he's the brand mother computer games have been made it might get a little redundant

but we do different versions of hawks That have been made of, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it might get a little redundant, but we do different versions of Hawks, a lot of them. But, so that skateboard, I don't know if you guys are familiar with skateboards, but on the top of it you have grip tape, which is like sandpaper. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I got invited to present at the Oscars,

just this last one. You didn't get smacked. I didn't. You were lucky. I was way far away. Um, but my wife, uh, and Gucci offered to dress us for the occasion.

So they gave my wife this beautiful dress. Um, and these, these high heel shoes that were very slippery. So I actually peeled off my grip tape, put it on the bottom of her shoes. So that board has a storied past that's amazing who did you present the award to uh we presented um the celebration of 60 years of bond oh wow

that's fabulous it's very cool do you find it's i mean look you're a performer and you're an athlete and you do it in this huge this huge arena where there's all eyes on you and it's you know the stakes are high and you're high in the air I mean it's you know it's pressure but like how does that compare to when you go and do the Oscars is it I mean that kind of pressure of live TV is it quite very different to you or is it do you get nervous I mean I think I well I luckily have had enough experience with television to overcome that but for sure in the beginning I felt very out of place. I felt like panic. Um, and honestly, when I got the call to present the, the, the package, um, I was just off

my broken leg. Like I was, I had only been a week or two. Right. Yeah. And so I, there was a part of me that thought maybe they don't know that this happened right and so I'm gonna keep it that way and I'm gonna make my goal to walk on stage that night so it was basically three weeks after I got hurt was the actual Oscars um and I was able to walk to the stage without a cane so I felt like

that was that was gave me incentive. Yeah. Do you feel like you need incentives all the time with different things, whether it's sport or? I suppose. I like to keep challenging myself, maybe to a fault. But I'm always thinking of what is the next challenge. And when you ring up and you say to your wife, I've just, I'm in the emergency room.

Yeah, that was a hard day. That was a hard day. She must be fed up with you. She's not fed up. We've been married eight years, but it's not that she's fed up. She understands.

I think it's more that on the surface, if you see what I do, you think that guy's crazy, he's trying to kill himself and whatnot. She knows that when I'm skating, I'm mostly just skating with friends like Kevin and we're just kind of goofing around where, you know, we're, we're setting funny challenges to ourselves. We're playing music. We're laughing. It's very much like, it's like we're getting together for poker. Yeah. Okay.

It's not like high level Olympic performing. Do you skateboard to music, then? We play music, yeah. What's on the playlist at the moment? Okay, no, I understand. What's on the playlist at the moment? Oh, well, we're children of the 80s, so a lot of old punk stuff.

The Clash, Black Flag, Descendants, Buzzcocks, Circle Jerks. I mean... So it's more punk? Yeah, I mean... It Buzzcocks, Circle Jerks. I mean... It's more punk. Yeah, I mean... It's not Earth, Wind & Fire. Have you ever skated to disco, actually? I feel like Andy would put on Earth, Wind & Fire.

Am I right? Who's Andy? Andy McDonald. Yeah, he's a little younger than us. And he gets a little loose with the playlist sometimes. Let's put it this way. If he gets to the ramp and he has control over the audio, there's a lot of controversy.

This is another world, Jesse. Now let's take it back to San Diego growing up. When you weren't getting a $1 meal, who was cooking at your house? My mom. Was she a good cook um i thought so what did you love my siblings my siblings like to remember it differently but um she would make spaghetti bolognese and i liked it a lot yeah yeah what was her special ingredient

or was it just i have no idea i i was too young i was not and i was not offering to help so it wasn't like i was seeing what was going into it. Did you treat food like fuel? Yes. Right. Yes, absolutely. It was more of an obligation. But you're... I used to go to the skate park.

Because you just wanted to be skated. I do remember there were days I'd go to the skate park and I would just forget to eat. And then at some point feel like a rush of true hunger. And then I would just go buy a candy bar um which was awful and i remember getting sick a couple times and somehow making that correlation later on oh it's because you didn't eat and then you chose to eat candy yeah but you're you you were tall from about the age of 14 you're 18 16 16 you need a lot of food i did yeah um well the skate park it was it was let's see the closest thing to the skate park because my dad would just drop me off there and i was there

half the day at least what about school well yeah i mean i would go straight from school to the skate park okay um and be there till it closed like nine or ten at night so we were we only have what was around the skate park which was uh mcdonald's and denny's but we didn't always have money for denny's denny's was a little higher end yeah yeah so every once in a while we'd scrape together five dollars and go get a like a i think my go-to at denny's was chicken fried steak have you ever had that nobody sounds great it was pretty good but so so and what do your parents do what were they working on they were retired I was I was they were older when I was born so my dad was 45 my mom was 43 and so by the time I was that age it

was almost like I was raised by grandparents and all my siblings had moved out by the time I was four or five. Um, and my dad was retired Naval officer. He did odd jobs after he got out of the Navy. My mom was an educator, so she would, um, work at the night school. Um, so they were kind of not around. So how did they, but, but my dad was very supportive so yeah so you at 14 become professional right right and i can imagine that sounds fabulous but it really wasn't but i can imagine i mean okay so this i know it's a very it's a different sport um uh but watching king richard um and seeing how the girls and sponsor deals and about all that kind of

discussion you know you became a brand quite like early on in your career right or i can't say i became a brand i had so when i turned pro um there was no money in skateboarding literally the first first place prize money was a hundred dollars at a pro event okay so when i turned pro that just meant that i was competing against older skaters for the hundred dollars when did you get the first hundred dollars good question um i was out of the prize money there was they topped they they placed it was hundred dollars for 75 for second 50 for third my first pro contest i got fourth well that was your first that. That's pretty good.

So by the end of my first year of competing, I had $600 in the bank, which I thought was huge. And I bought a moped so that I could get myself to the skate park. So I didn't have to wait for my dad for a ride. But to say like, even when things started to pick up

when I was 17-h and the board world, like we had skateboard, signature skateboards, the royalties were starting to do well. Um, even then it was still considered like an underground sport. So it wasn't, you know,

to say we had big sponsors, Nike was not knocking on the door. Right. Yeah. You know, neither was Pepsi or Coke. It wasn't like that. Who are the skateboard sponsors?

Skateboarding companies. Okay, like who? Exclusively. Well, Palo Alto was my sponsor. Tracker Trucks, Independent Trucks. The big companies then were Santa Cruz, G&S, Vision. Was there ever a conversation that you had with your parents where they were just like,

Tony, like, should we think about doing something else or the navy yeah no my my parent my actually my dad saw of a serious lack of organization in the skate industry so he helped to organize some of the skate events oh right um and he actually got a lot of the companies to sort of band together to put on these events so he was instrumental in that um the only time it ever became an issue in terms of me together to put on these events so he was instrumental in that the only time it ever became an issue in terms of me choosing to skate was when I was getting out of high school and my dad my mom was obviously she worked at a college they were very strong in education all my siblings had gone to college and so they wanted me to at least take some either night classes or something at a back a full back

yeah at a community college yeah um and I managed to convince them that you know right now I have all the opportunities to do things and travel and and I can't because I'm in school so I feel like if I don't have school when I finally, I will be able to chase these opportunities. And they reluctantly said yes to that. And when I did graduate high school, things really took off. And I was literally traveling the world for three or four months out of the year doing skate exhibitions, doing commercials. I got a movie part right out of high school. What was the movie part?

Gleaming the Cube. Did you have to say things? Yeah, I had a part, yeah. And skating. Did you enjoy it? I enjoyed it just because I was out of high school. I was kind of a sheltered kid before skating. And you were in showbiz.

I was living in L.A. in a movie yeah it was wild yeah it was crazy and people are always catering to everything and i had never had that experience so it was fun and christian slater that was his first movie wow um our first big role and so we had to teach him how to skate so that he would look comfortable on a skateboard was he any good uh he was it wasn, he was pretty good. No, he wasn't. No, no, it wasn't that. Kevin's looking at me and laughing.

No, no, no, it was more. His head up. I don't wanna say he was bad. What I wanna say is he was very receptive to it. And since then I've had to teach other Hollywood people to skate and they were not receptive to it. But Christian was amazing

because he really tried and we would go skate with him. Like one of our, like a day for us that would be on set that we would generally be paid for was devoted to just teaching him how to skate so we would go ski to schoolyard for a full day and teach Christian how to look comfortable and and that was fun oh there are some big skateboarding films I'd are like the kind of... I'd say the closest thing would be that movie.

Obviously it was heavily skating in it. Martin McFly was skating. And Back to the Future inspired a lot of people to start skating. Really? How old were you when that happened?

I was I think I was in my 20s, maybe 1920. So potentially Marty McFly was inspired by Tony Hawk. Yeah, I don't know. Have you ever had this conversation with Michael J. Fox about this? I have not. I feel like maybe that's an exclusive. I know his stunt doubles were close friends of mine. So I know who was skating, doing his skating.

Right. But I wasn't invited to the party. I just don't realize people carried on skating when they got older. I know it sounds terrible. I mean, I'm just wondering. I'm so alien to you there, Mom. I've missed a chance. But that was for sure.

When we were young. If you got to an age of responsibility, if you were out of high school, you couldn't because there was no money in it. And so you couldn't devote yourself to it. So that was absolutely the idea that you can't do this into your adult life and then I think our generation was the first one to start to actually improve our skills and start thriving when we were into our 30s and 40s so your children are any of them into skateboard they all skate oh was that just like absolutely going to be a thing no uh actually it's very much on their own terms because a lot of their friends skate and it's if anything it's I mean there are certain things that we get to do together because of my success and so we get to go to you know we get to go to

skate parks before they open or we get to go to places and and the whole lot drive and they want to go to the skate park like I took them on a Hawaiian vacation last year our first stop was the local skate park not because i wanted to go there because that's what they wanted to do um so it'd be so proud it's super fun yeah but but also in some respects i'm i am also the annoying dad so it's like i'll you know my wife and i will be in our room i'll come downstairs you get something out of the kitchen and i and and one of our kids is there with his friends, and they're arguing about the origin of a skate trick or the name of a certain trick.

And I don't exist. And I, at some point, I'm like, you guys. Hi. Hi. I know the answer because I was there when it was invented. Oh, it's like, I am a skater. It's like being a grandparent, Tony, let me tell you. Oh, please. No, I feel like grandparents am a scapegoat. It's like being a grandparent, Tony, let me tell you. Oh, please.

No, I feel like grandparents are more embraced. Yes. Do you think? You're adored because you give them sweets. But to them, it's just like, whatever. Are there new tricks coming up? Yeah, always. Oh, so there are things that you've never done that someone invents.

Yeah, yes, yes. So what's the latest new trick that you've seen and that you admire? Is this how you break down? That's a tricky one. No, the trick I, the trick that I fell on was something that I've done literally thousands of times.

That's so annoying. Go and tell us what it was. I did a McTwist. I just didn't have enough speed. A Mac Twist? Yeah. It's a one and a half somersault. So, okay,

the last trick I saw was Frenchie. I i saw was frenchie frenchie did a tail grab front side front side 540 yeah so um there's this guy they call him frenchie i didn't he's from france but i'm not being derogatory he he he calls himself that yeah um his name is eduardo but uh he did a he did a spinning maneuver that's the opposite direction of what i got hurt on and he grabbed the tail of his board which is really hard to keep your feet on when you grab just the tail it's hard to explain yeah no no yeah but he did a 540 the opposite direction only grabbing his tail and that was really impressive that was just like a month ago and what's that called that one uh well i would just call it frontside tail grab 540?

He doesn't have a special name for it. I'm gonna call it the Frenchie. The Frenchie. You should call it the Frenchie. Yeah, it's up to him. It's not up to us. Eduardo, come on. Just tell him Eduardo.

Lenny's your, Lenny's my- Edward, sorry. Edward. Edward, yeah, Lenny is your new publicist. The Frenchie. So they all skate. Any of them wanna be professional? My oldest son is a professional. Okay. So they all skate. Any of them want to be professional? My oldest son is a professional.

Okay. His name is Riley. He's 29, and he's actually, he's made a pretty good career for himself. And he good? Yes, very good. He's a legitimate professional, not because of me.

He kind of carved his own path. The other kids, they're all good at skating skating but they didn't choose to focus in on it so have you traveled around the world skating yes and where's your favorite cuisine from traveling japan really what do you like about um i just love the it sounds pretentious but the presentation it's beautiful kind of ceremony yeah the ceremony the ceremony and how much care goes into everything. Even at a street noodles place, they take great care in putting it together. And I love the flavors and the fish, and it's amazing. San Diego has great Mexican, right?

Yes. It's quite famous for that. It is, yeah. Is there any spot that you love in San Diego that you would go to? It doesn't have to be Mexico. There's a couple places near my house. Rico's, I think, is among one of the best. And Rudy's.

And are you quite a foodie now? Yeah, yeah. And is your wife? Basically, once I had the means to afford that kind of food, I became a foodie, yes. So some of your favorite restaurants in Los Angeles, do you go out? Matsuhisa. Oh, okay.

So you like Japanese. That's Chef Nobu's. Yeah. Yeah. It's like down the road. Down the road, yeah. But Matsuhisa Omikase, I can't recommend it enough. In fact, Kevin and I just came up here a couple weeks ago

just for lunch to have it there. Now, have you been to Sushi Park? Sushi Park? I haven't been there. Okay. Jessie's going to tell you about it. I mean, listen, like, it's delicious. Just tell him how much it costs, darling.

And maybe you're like, I know Amakasi, like, it's a bit more. So. There were four of them. There were four of us. And I was like, I I was like I'm getting this You're letting me stay at your place Thank you so much $1,400

For sushi He's not even surprised You're not even surprised Well you're not You're just nodding You're not surprised are you I live in this area I know what's going on

It's mad No it's obscene I'll tell you The most expensive meal I ever had That was a per-person meal, and I'm not trying to trump you on this. No, but please do trump. Tell us.

Do you guys know about the story about the hump? No. So there was a restaurant at Santa Monica Airport called The Hump. They're the ones that got shut down during the whole Blackfish controversy. Blackfish being the fill? Yeah, because they were serving whale, but they were only serving it to that's why it's called locals no all right okay um i don't really even know i i just know i just know they got shut down but but i did good i went there once with my nephew and i was sort of celebrating this big deal that i got and i said you know let's let's go

crazy and we said okay we'll have the omakase there and the bill came and I remember my nephew John said, what's the most expensive meal you've ever had? And I looked at the bill and I said, this one. And it was $1,200 for two people. Did it make it taste less good after you got that bill? It was really good. It was really good.

Were you happy to part with that money? Jesse, I have to say... Well, like I said, I was celebrating this thing. Had it been just a regular Wednesday. There's an obscenity when people are sleeping on the streets, Jesse. Yeah, it definitely feels. You're paying $1,400 for bloody sushi. Absolutely.

And it's successive. I agree. And like I said, successive. And this is 15, 20 years ago or so. Wow, imagine what it would be like now. It would be like $3,000. Right, right. Yeah, imagine what it would be like now. It would be like 3,000. Right, right. Yeah, so I...

What was so spectacular about it? They did some pretty special things. I can't really... There was so many dishes. And I hope he skateboarded a double pipe and then served it to you. I think it's weird, though, because they have such a sordid history now

because they were caught serving whale. And it was very good though. They didn't give us. Apparently you had to sort of. You had to sort of. Ask for it. Well, you had to be known to them. Would you like some food?

Would you eat something? Yes, absolutely. Can I ask you, whilst mum's in the kitchen just preparing, we ask every guest what their last supper would be. It can be your last supper before, I don't know, you're about to do the biggest tournament of your life. Actually, maybe not, because maybe you wouldn't be thinking about too much food.

You're going to a desert island. You're not going to have this food. It's a starter, an appetiser, a main, a dessert, and a drink of choice. Oh my goodness, that's way too hard jeez i mean okay so what's like it can be dishes from certain restaurants it could be your mother's spaghetti bolognese um okay there's a restaurant near my area called urban sea and their gem salad is i think is the best salad what's so great about it um it's just really fresh and it's not it's

different kinds of lettuce but it's not, it's different kinds of lettuce but it's a really, it's also a sort of a light dressing. So you'd have that as an appetizer? Sure, yeah. As a salad.

Have it on the side. Are we having it on the side? Sure, yeah. Because I feel like you're not going to a desert island and you're going to have a fucking salad.

Right. Right, so carry on. That's like an extra bit. Yes. Are you going to go on Makassi? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Where think so where from well i you know i really enjoy matsuhisa omakase so um okay so that's the main if i had to look for like what what would

their dishes be um they have a pretty insane uh kompachi appetizer. What's Kampachi? Kampachi is... I don't know that one. I don't know what kind of fish it is, actually. I forgot what kind of fish it is. Okay, and it's delicious? And does it come with like a yuzu?

Yeah, it's a yuzu and yeah, very sweet. Not too sweet, but sweet enough. Almost like a ceviche. Oh, lovely. So is that... Are we going omakase for the starter?

Are we going for, because I know you've got a big appetite and you've got a fast metabolism. Right. Yeah, I just, well, it's weird to, I think it's weird to mix cuisines. Oh, don't worry. It's, you know, you're not going to have this. It's going all the way.

Yeah, don't worry. I mean, so we had Anthony from Queer Eye on and he did a whole day of food. So don't worry. There are no rules. There are no rules. Okay. Okay. Wow.

There's a restaurant in New York, Blue Ribbon. Oh, yeah, I've been there. Blue Ribbon Brasserie. Yeah. And they have a oxtail bone marrow marmalade. Oh, wow. That's unreal. But I thought Blue blue ribbons like a kind of sushi

place most they have they have blue ribbon sushi as well it's same same company but this one is just their blue ribbon brasserie uh it's notorious i don't really know if it's i don't know if it's survived covid but um it's notorious for staying up staying open very late and that's where chefs go in new york to go eat after work. So you know it's good. You know it's good, yeah. And they also have a great catfish dish, so it might be one of those.

So how do they serve the marmalade? Do you have it with toast or bread? Toast, yeah. So there's oxtail marmalade, and then they give you half a bone, and you scrape the marrow out. That sounds kind of amazing. You are the first, Tony, to do that.

That is, you know, lots of people just say cacio e pepe. So yeah, this is... Oh, yeah, yeah. That's amazing. Okay. Dessert, you were sweet. Oh, you know what?

Go on. Come on. No, now we're cooking. Grandma's ravioli at Greenwich Hotel. Oh, is it amazing? Yeah. Yes. Is that where you stay when you're there?

Or you just go to the ravioli? We try it in their rooms yeah and then dessert are you a sweet kind of man um i am i'm gonna have to go back to masahisa for dessert why what's because they have a puffed rice bread pudding oh with ice cream so it comes in it comes in a hot pot yeah and it's it's it's like big puffed rice, but they sort of make it taste like bread pudding. And then they put ice cream in it, so you've got to eat it fast before the ice cream melts. That sounds really nice. Yeah.

That sounds really good. And then drink of choice? You're a big drinker? I really enjoy whiskey and bourbon. What's your bourbon of choice? That's a good question. i kind of have a collection i'm a bit of a freak about it so if i were to dig into my collection i'd go for a hakushu 18 okay or i have a bottle of a.h hirsch which is the sort of legendary um uh bourbon from the 70s and and it's got a lot of folklore around it.

It's very expensive, but it is actually that good. How much are we talking about? If you can get a bottle for $4,000, you're lucky. But then, like, how does that experience of tasting the sippy, you're like, well, that was $500. I've had enough, and not that I bought them. I've had enough just trying them. Is it on, like, your rider? Are you like, I want that? No, and not that I bought them. I've had enough just trying them. Is it on your rider?

Are you like, I want that? No, nothing like that. I don't even have a rider. But I've been able to taste very rare riskies through friends. Yeah, yeah. And some just aren't great. But the folklore makes you think that they are. But this one, I tried it sort of without prejudice and it really is that good

so at the beginning of this conversation you were talking about how you always set yourself these intentions and these so there's a documentary that's come out all about you right you've made yes yes was that something that was was there a quiet period where you're like what should i do next i'm going to do a documentary i mean it was not my idea that was sam jones sam jones is the director and he he came to me and and said i'd like to do a documentary on your life and career and were you kind of like i'm not sure I want to do it? Or you were like, yeah, sure, let's do this. I had been approached by other studios.

Yeah. And the pitch or the sort of arc that they were looking at seemed a little too formulaic. And I had done Sam's interview show off camera, which was very popular and come to find out he was a hardcore skater at the time when I started, which there weren't many people skating then. So I knew he had a better sense of, of what it took and what it was like in the early days.

And so when he asked me, I immediately signed on and I said, yes, absolutely. And that was about four years ago. Can I get you to eat some salad? I think I'm okay. I'm just going to have those. Thanks. So it took four years? Well, he kept trying to get it funded

and didn't get a lot of support. And then he got the Duplass brothers involved, pitched it to a few. The Duplass brothers, the actors? Yes. Oh, I love them love them yeah they're great and so he was in the morning show right duplass yeah and so um they pitched a few studios one bit briefly and then pulled out and then the duplass brothers said we'll just fund it ourselves and so we shot it all through COVID. All the interviews. And was it funny looking back?

Because I presume you were looking at archive material. It was just an interview. So he went looking for all the archival footage later and found stuff I didn't know existed. Through your conversations? Yeah. Interesting. And found people.

We're talking about skateboarding in 1981 through 87, where there were hardly any video cameras. And somehow you managed to find people that did have video cameras in the audience. Because so much of what you did potentially could have been missed from people not recording it, right? Oh, sure. Absolutely, yeah. And everything's so documented like now now yeah i mean it must have been amazing seeing some of that footage it was pretty cool and my dad he used to have um super eight camera so amazing so we had that footage too which is so romantic yeah beautiful this is delicious by the way thank you

romantic yeah beautiful this is delicious by the way thank you how does it feel having the documentary it's out now isn't it we're streaming now it's streaming now yeah in fact i'm i'm getting tagged all over social media um and i think it's now on sky oh in uk in the uk yeah like as of today oh wow we can watch it here on what channel? HBO Max. Okay. Yeah, it's weird because it's very personal and there are definitely things I shared there that I've never shared before. And so it's strange for me. It's uncomfortable, but I'm proud that it's authentic

and that it represents skateboarding well and what it takes to be a skateboarder and what it takes to succeed in skateboarding. so i'm proud of those elements for sure and i feel like it is not just a story about me but a story about skating's arc um and i think that there are a lot of people that are near my age that appreciate that when does skateboarding actually start um that's debatable but by accounts, somewhere in the 60s. And do you think it emanated from surfing? A lot of people think it did.

But if you look back at early, early footage, people were dismantling roller skates. Yeah. And nailing them onto wood, two by fours. And it wasn't until people started doing that here in california and skating empty swimming pools because of the drought in the 70s that they were really emulating surfing okay now but i'm not i can't say i'm i'm a historian with that can you surf and do you like surfing um i can surf i do like it i'm not great at it um but my brother was a surfer and he started skating because that's when surfing and skating were very intertwined

and that's why i skate because he taught me how is and has he seen the documentary yeah he's in it yeah and is he i mean how was it for your family to see that documentary if you were touching on tough stuff. They like it. Yeah? Yeah. I think, and they have good voices in it. Because they were there for all of my ups and downs.

Our parents both passed away, but yeah, they like it. Being such an icon and being this pioneer and this like having a level of responsibility with a sport you know did it come with some negative i don't know was it was it quite pressure pressurized i think at some point i realized that because of the success of of our video game series because of my success as a competitive skater that my name the success of our video game series and because of my success as a competitive skater, that my name was one of the only ones that people knew and that I had a responsibility to represent skateboarding well

because I was asked to speak on behalf of skateboarding in general. So I think it was something that I slowly figured out it wasn't it wasn't something that was imposed on me or or sent sent to me that you are the one that must speak for us but it but it became evident that i was the only link to the skateboarding world or the skateboarding mindset so um i was happy to do so and uh i still am and and so i think that um is it a pressure it doesn't feel like a pressure anymore it feels more welcoming it feels like i i would rather explain the nuances of skating and the reasons we do it and welcome more people into it have Have you talked about the philanthropy? Yeah, you have a non-profit organization.

The Skate Park Project, yeah. Yeah, and is that worldwide? It isn't worldwide. We're only established in the U.S. as a non-profit, but we give technical assistance to other countries that are trying to either campaign or fundraise or petition their city. And so we're very effective with that. But we don't get the funding to create entire skate parks in the U.S. as it is.

So for us to try to establish ourselves in other countries would just be spread too thin. Are skate parks expensive to build? Not really. other countries would just be spread too thin are skate parks expensive to build not really um not compared to other sporting facilities or other fields and and i think that when especially in the u.s if there's ever any pushback for getting a skate park when they finally do approve one they realize how much use it gets and they end up building more in the same area. Because if you go to a skate park now,

it's used sun up to sun down. Yeah. And it's all ages. Children are there all day. But it's all ages, all genders, all races, you know,

it's the true melting pot. But that's the thing, I don't know, and I don't know enough about this, so maybe you'll be like, no, there's pretty good skate parks in London,

but they always kind of seem to be a bit out of sight, out of mind. Like they're either on the side of a road that it feels like... There's a South Bank. South Bank isn't a skate park. It's a place. It's an iconic place that kind of... It's not exactly a massive skate park. It ended up basically what we call DIY,

where people started to build skate... Exactly. They're using the bloody side of the curb. Yeah, they started to build skate elements in it. But they were, you know, they actually did pour concrete. And to this day, it's one of the most iconic spots.

Funny because I took my other kids to London and the first place they wanted to go was South Bank. I mean, beyond anything else. Beyond Big Ben, beyond... I mean, it's not an impressive skate park. It's not like all bells and whistles. But it has a history

a rich history and But isn't it your sense of community? It's an international community skating. Yes. I think that it's easy to find friends. So you could turn up anywhere? Yes. Absolutely. And then you make friends. Yeah. And you speak the same language

in terms of tricks. So what happens now? What's your next next intention you've got the documentary out you um have your your well it's it's funny i'm actually i am going on tour uh through europe and the uk and uh ireland um and i'm doing speaking tour in late july early aug. Where are you talking? Where are you speaking? I forgot all the places. We'll get it in. I know I'm going to Dublin. I'm going to London.

To talk about the documentary and kind of. No, just to do. I do speaking gigs and I used to, I do them usually for corporate events. It's kind of like once you get your toe in the water of the speaking circuit, then suddenly you're in it and you get recommended toe in the water of the speaking circuit, then suddenly you're in it and you get recommended a lot.

So I do a lot of conferences and corporate gigs and stuff. This is the first time I'm doing it on my own where I won't have a theme that someone else has given me. This is just me being quite... Were you a confident child? Like socially confident? No, not at all. I developed all that through skating. Really?

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you're quite reserved, I feel. Yeah, but in terms of public speaking and things like that, that's just... You've got it. I've just learned that through skating and through kind of being thrust into the spotlight

and having microphones put in front of me and learning to navigate that um and and i've learned to i think i've learned to understand what it takes to to keep an audience engaged i mean i'm not a stand-up comedian but i can add some quips and things and um i enjoy it and so like i said, that's the first time I'm going to do that. And the irony is that this is the first summer that I have not been booked with nonstop skating events. Is this because of the injury? It wasn't. It just was sort of ironic that it happened like that.

But there is one big event in May 13th in Vegas. So that's like about five weeks. No. Yeah. Is it going to be better? I, I am banking on it. Um,

do you have physio? Optimistically? I am doing every single, uh, therapy, physical, um, hyperbaric chamber. Um,

I'm, uh, What else? I do laser treatment. I do acupuncture. I'm doing everything I can. What's that? No, I'm teasing. Botox.

Botox. If that helped, I would. I told my wife, she asked if I wanted to try this one treatment today. I said, I would go into orbit right now if I felt like it would speed up my healing. What do you feel like is the most helpful at the moment? What do you feel like you get the best just exercise really yeah um I just started swimming that's been really helpful I feel like my walking has improved with my swimming

um and riding the stationary bike so that's pretty old-fashioned. But at the same time, doing peptides and supplements and things like that, bone growth things, I mean, all that stuff, when I was young, it was just painkillers and exercise. Well, best of luck with that. Thank you. We've got a few more questions for you before you go do you have good table manners tony hawk i think i do um because i've had enough experience with fine dining i didn't when i was a kid what do you think is not good what were you doing when you

were a kid well this is i didn't even understand that I should be putting a napkin on my lap. Yeah, but sometimes they're slightly overrated. You can just lick your finger. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. I just didn't understand. I didn't understand the order of things. I didn't understand the layout of things.

I didn't care. And my parents were not instilling that to me because we were not going out to dinner quite a lot is it important for you to instill it is it important for you to instill it to your children um to an extent i'm not trying to be pretentious no no we've just got a little sweet thing before you go awesome so dig in mom how do you eat this orange with chocolate so it's i dip them in chocolate but do you eat the rind yeah it's a caramel like oh that's quite yummy oh that's great yeah i know that's yum because i found the oranges in trader joe's and i'd had something like this at home and i thought

they were so delicious you're like the macgyver of um what's a MacGyver? MacGyvers can make any tool out of whatever is in front of them. Okay, so... And there's some strawberries dipped in chocolate as well. Mum, this is really great. I know. MacGyvers is a... Sorry, it's more of a US reference. And there's strawberries.

Try a strawberry. That was very nice, Mum. Have a... Those are just normal strawberries with chocolate. What do you think? It's quite romantic that we've given Tony a little dipped strawberry chocolate. I did buy very 95% chocolate, which was quite strong. What do you think?

It's great. That's a thing here where people will order you chocolate chip strawberries. Yeah. Mail order. Yeah. But they're always kind of too packaged and too thick. Yeah. So what do you think of these?

These are very good. Okay. I would prefer these. Okay. These are delicious. Now I should take them to Skateboard Park and energize the boys. Energize the boys. And a base for the boys and girls.

Tony Hawk, thank you so much. Oh, thanks for having me. For being on Table Manners. It's a real pleasure to chat to you. Thank you. And learn from you and best of luck with your documentary. Oh, I appreciate it. Well, Mum, it was a pleasure to meet Tony Hawk.

It's a shame that he had eaten a chicken steak sandwich just before he came. But he tried to eat some of our delicious food. It was delicious, actually. What do you think of my little dessert? My petit fours? I really liked it. I really liked it. I made a big...

The orange. Do you think the orange is better than the strawberry? The orange is better than the strawberry. Kevin loved it. I'm going to get some more tomorrow. Kevin, his skateboard mate, said that he goes... He has dark chocolate with coffee beans all day. That's his snack.

Okay. So this was his kind of snack. I could have given him a few more bits of chocolate. We wish tony all the best for the skateboarding yeah and and his documentary until the wheels come off is on sky and hbo max now and um yeah mum he's quite a big deal i i realized that darling so what is skateboarding, Tony? He's got like a high-grossing computer game that we all used

to play in arcades and stuff. Was it arcades? I feel like it was in arcades. And did it look like him? Well, it was a while ago, because we've all got a bit old, Mum. But anyway, it was a delicious meal. He didn't look like a skateboarder I have to tell you

but his friend did episode one of Table Manners Does LA I thought he was the most fascinating guest hopefully the next guest

will not eat before maybe we should get them all to cook for us yeah I think we should thank you so much Tony Hawk and thank you for listening we'll see you next week

for another instalment of Tableon's The LA Affair. What's that bloody beeping?