Tony Hawk
- This article is about the skateboarder. For the British comedian and author, see Tony Hawks. For the game series, see Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
Anthony Frank "Tony" Hawk (born May 12, 1968 in Carlsbad, CA) is widely regarded as the most famous skateboarder of all time, and is considered the pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding. Hawk's nickname is the "Birdman". He graduated from Torrey Pines High School near Del Mar in San Diego. He was the first person to perform many tricks, but is most famous for being the first to land the 900 (two and a half complete rotations in the air before landing back on the pipe).
History
Introduced to boarding by his brother, Hawk proved to be a prodigy. He turned pro at 14 as a member of Stacy Peralta's Bones Brigade. He was the third skateboarder to have a pro model shoe, produced by Airwalk.
Competitions and accomplishments
As of 2006, Tony has won 92 competitions and invented numerous tricks. In 1985, he invented the McHawk, also known as a"720" (a 720 degree, or 2 full revolution spin, riding into it backwards (fakie) and coming out forward), and in 1999, he became the first skater in the world to successfully complete the "900" - a 900 degree, 2.5 revolution spin, which some considered to be the 'holy grail' of skateboarding. It occurred at the 1999 X Games after 11 failed attempts, and easily won the Best Trick competition, despite completing it past regulation time. He has also invented many other tricks including the Madonna (a one-footed lein-to-tail), the Airwalk (nose grab scissor-kick air), and the Stalefish (an aerial where the trailing hand grabs the heel-side rail, around the rear foot).
Personal life
Hawk owned his own halfpipe, constructed by his father and some other skater friends at Fallbrook, where he lived with his first wife, Cindy, and their son, Riley Hawk. Hawk is a descendent of Henry Hudson, discoverer of the Hudson River. Although his son's full name is Hudson Riley Hawk, since his birth coincided with the release of the movie Hudson Hawk, they decided to start calling him Riley. The Hawks's home was considered a complete playland. Riley (born December 6, 1992) performed skateboarding stunts for the movie "Max Keeble's Big Move."
Hawk divorced Cindy in 1994 and married his second wife, Erin Lee, on September 28, 1996; they had 2 sons and divorced in 2004. Hawk entered his third marriage with his then girlfriend, Lhotse Merriam, on January 12, 2006 on the island of Fiji where the Fijian Chief of Tavarua, Druku, actually asked him to give a private skate demo where two onlookers held a piece of plywood as a makeshift wall to wall ride on a tennis court wall. Lhotse is the former Vice President of the International Free Skiers Association and retail store owner.
Entrepreneurial Pursuit
In 1992, after the skateboarding world took a downturn, Hawk started Birdhouse Projects with Per Welinder. Now commonly known as Birdhouse Skateboards, Birdhouse has grown to be one of the biggest skateboard companies in the world and has grown to include Blitz Distribution. He also owns his own film and TV production company, 900 Films, and, along with his family, started Hawk Clothing. Hawk Clothing was later sold to Quiksilver and is now sold exclusively in Kohl's department stores across the USA. Tony's Boom Boom HuckJam tour is the most successful action sports tour featuring skateboarding, BMX, and freestyle Moto-X. The tour went to arenas across the USA in 2002, 2003, and 2005 and is touring Six Flags parks across the country in the summer of 2006 and 2007.
Video games
In 1999, the video game publisher Activision released Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, which was received with critical and commercial acclaim. It has since spawned many sequels: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, Tony Hawk's Underground and Tony Hawk's Underground 2, and Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. The series has also seen numerous handheld games on the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, as well as Nokia's N-Gage game phone. Tony Hawk's American Sk8land for the Nintendo DS is the latest handheld release. Tony Hawk video games have sold over $1 billion in sales worldwide.
In 2002 Hawk extended his licensing deal with Activision until 2015. [1]
Tony Hawk's Project 8 is currently in development for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 [2] and Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam is in development the Nintendo Wii and DS. [3]
Books
In 2000 he wrote an autobiography entitled HAWK: Occupation: Skateboarder, which made it to number 18 on to the New York Times bestseller list. He later wrote three more books: a young adult autobiography called Hawk, a road journal called Between Boardslides and Burnout and Tony Hawk: Professional Skateboarder.
Television and Film
Hawk has starred in commercials for Apple Computer and Domino's Pizza. He has also cameoed in television shows such as Cyberchase, Rocket Power, Sex and the City, Viva La Bam, Action, Max Steel, Sifl and Olly, The Simpsons, CSI: Miami. In an episode of Punk'd he was tricked and believed that his son had lit an M-80 inside a bathroom, injuring an actress. Hawk appears, as himself and in character, in the following films: The End, Jackass: The Movie, The New Guy, Haggard: The Movie, Max Keeble's Big Move, xXx, Lords of Dogtown (in which he plays an astronaut who attempts to stand on a skateboard and fails horribly), and Dogtown and Z-Boys; worked as an extra in movies such as Gleaming the Cube and Police Academy 4. He hosted the documentary Video Game Invasion, which aired on GSN. Hawk and Tom Kenny (the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants) searched the world for Gary the snail. More recently, Hawk again played himself in the telemovie Drake & Josh Go Hollywood. A feature length CGI animation, Tony Hawk's Boom Boom Sabotage, has a planned direct to DVD release in the Fall of 2006.
Contest history
|- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;background-color:#eeeeee;color:inherit;" | Men's Skateboarding
Silver|1995|Street Gold|1995|Vert Singles Silver|1996|Vert Singles Bronze|1996|Vert Singles Gold|1997|Vert Singles Gold|1997|Vert Doubles Gold|1998|Vert Doubles Gold|1999|Vert Doubles Gold|1999|Vert Best Trick Bronze|1999|Vert Singles Gold|2000|Vert Doubles Gold|2001|Vert Doubles Silver|2001|Vert Best Trick Gold|2002|Vert Doubles Bronze|2002|Vert Best Trick Gold|2002|Tony Hawk's Boom Boom Huckjam Gold|2003|Vert Best Trick Gold|2003|Tony Hawk's Boom Boom Huckjam Gold|2006|Tony Hawk's Boom Boom Huckjam |}
- 1st in 2002 X Games: vert doubles (with Andy MacDonald)
- 3rd in 2002 X Games: vert best trick
- 2nd in 1988 Vision Skate Ecape: vert
- 1st in 1986 Transworld Skateboarding Championships (Vancouver, BC): vert
- 1st in 1984 NSA-Del Mar Skatepark (California): vert
- 1st in 1983 Del Mar Spring Nationals (California): vert
- 1st in 1982 Rusty Harris Series final contest: vert
- Placed in top 5 in 1980 Van's/Offshore Amateur State Finals (California) in boys 11-13 year old division