73 Questions With Tony Hawk | Vogue

do a kickflip out of my board so neo how are you man so happy to be doing 73 questions with you well thanks for including me thanks for thanks for doing it um so the first question just to get out of the way because the Internet is dying to know how many times this week have you been semi recognized or miss recognized Tony Hawk maybe three or four okay and who have you been most recently mistaken for let's see Kelly Slater Lance Armstrong and the guy from the movie Ghost Patrick Swayze no they got to be Trey's him yeah you do kind of look like him what's the most common misconception about skaters uh I think that they're lazy stoners and I can tell you it's the exact opposite to be a pro skater you have to be disciplined you have to be determined and you have to work at it mm-hmm how much you skate in these days I escaped almost every day and you been skating for how many years full 41 years now Wow and do you still have any early boards I do I have a couple special ones in here he want to see I want to see him yes so how easily the skateboarding come to you I was not a natural it was actually something had to work out very much and do you remember what motivated you to start yeah my older brother was a surfer and he was skating in the 70s and some of my friends in my neighborhood were skating so I just picked it up with them what is your first memory of riding on a skateboard I remember riding down the alley and running into the fence and getting splinters in my hands Oh God and those are the board's right there yeah here are my boards this is my very first professional skateboard model with my name on it yeah and it's the actual one that I rode I gifted it to a friend of mine who was an amateur skater back then and recently he gifted it back to me so I'm very thankful to have it this board was actually an auction item for our foundation I sent this board to surviving members of the clash and they decorated it and they signed it they wrote lyrics to the London Calling on it and when it went up for auction I I was high as bitter because I couldn't let this go yeah and then this is actually a replica of my very first skateboard look at which I happen to hold on to and now sits in the Smithsonian that is so cool Smithsonian yeah all right now back to your childhood though how do your parents feel as you started spending more and more time in the skate park uh they were surprisingly supportive most of my friends parents did not want them skating so I felt very lucky right then do you have to be young to be a skater uh it helps with resilience and balance in the beginning but I don't think so I feel like you can start as slow as you want there are plenty of facilities around his try if you're older right what would you say is the moment your career completely changed uh when our first video game was released things changed dramatically I got a lot more opportunity I didn't have to compete to make a living at skating the recognition factor was was immense and it really tipped the scales for skating in terms of general popularity it did and you're being interviewed by a huge fan of these games oh thanks alright but I have to ask you who do you choose yourself as your avatar when you're playing your games are you asking if I play with myself no no yes I play as my character in thps series because inevitably I know all my special moves and that's how I get the highest scores because if you have your own video game people want to challenge you at it right and so playing as your own character is more appropriate no cheat mode a little bit what's a trick that video game Tony can do that real-life tony cannot do let's see 900 to revert to manual to kickflip McTwist on the next wall gonna be trying that anytime never who's the most exciting person that you've gained with I play video games with Bruce Willis at a charity event a while back and he and I went head-to-head I came from which game but I won now on a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate your video game skills uh I'm about an 8 on my game series and maybe on any Mario game that I've played with my daughter any of the new games I'm not you know the shooters forget it right I heard that you gave up violin to become a skater's this is true I was playing violin at the same time when I first started skating and my music teacher at school wanted me to do all these school concerts on the weekends but I was off in Florida at skate events and so he told me that had to choose one or the other well I think I made the right choice do you want to go outside yeah but love it so Tony what is your biggest pet peeve oh wow I travel extensively and when people crowd the baggage carousel for their bags it drives me crazy it's like let's all stand back and wait until we see our bags hate that - what's the best birthday party you've ever had my 50th was a treat my wife surprised me we had Mark Mothersbaugh saying happy birthday to me on stage John Doe and Exene from the band X played a few songs and the band popped oh and also played now when you fly do you check your boards or do you carry them on I carry them on if possible but there are a few key international airports where you cannot carry skateboards including London Heathrow and Sydney so I have to check them in unfortunately and who do we have here oh here's my daughter hey she also likes to spin so best skate park in the United States what is it whoo I really like the Linda Vista skate park here in San Diego it's brand new it has a little bit of everything and it's got a lot of variety and terrain right and you're a trainee skater is that correct I am a transition skater yes what what does that mean it means my expertise is in ramps with a radius yeah because I grew up skating backyard pools and that's what pools were you know there's emulate waves and I just learned how to skate half pipes much better than anything else now skate feels like its own language obviously you got laser flips eggplant hit Bob Ariel's jealous husband it sounds so cool sending all these words but where do all these names come from the general rule was if you created the trick you get to name it and anything goes and there's no rules in skateboarding so we have some ridiculous names all right now can you tell me something in skate language and see if I can decipher it whoa okay uh the other day I tried to do switch kickflip to frontside hurricane down a six stair and ended up landing darkseid and credit card on the bottom right okay so that means that you were rolling you broke a bone and then you found out you have a bad credit score right yeah I'm not really broke a bone let's just say that my skateboard landed in the uncomfortable place okay what what is the craziest thing that you've ever done on a skateboard I jump between two seven storey buildings in downtown Los Angeles for an MTV show Tony I'm still here what's the hardest part of any trick the hardest part of any trick is committing to the landing it's it's there are all kinds of elements to a trick and you can have all those pieces but that when the time comes the moment of truth is if you're really gonna make it what tricks have you invented a few I'd say the most popular ones are stale fish Madonna 720 all day 540 kickflip McTwist the ingenuity in this name design I'm blown away so how long did it take you to train to land the 900 I tried 900 on and off for about 10 years before I finally made one incredible and have you seen anyone land a 1080 I have I've seen two people land 1080s they're much younger than me and they did it on a much bigger ramp but it's very impressive what's the trick that you're trying to master today the most recent trick I've been trying is an alley-oop frontside lipslide into a backside Smith grind I still have no idea with it I don't expect you to do you have any pre competition superstitions I don't really have superstitions I have more of an OCD the way that I put my gear on it's always left first but I've just been doing that since I was a kid and why stop now what's most memorable injury that you've ever had I broke my pelvis I fractured my skull and broke my thumb all in one fell swoop how do you talk yourself back onto the board after going through something like that that was the hardest thing to come back from a lot of things I took for granted I would come back to we're actually very daunting and scary to me my balance changed it took me about a year to really to really get back to where I was comfortable with all my tricks and just little by little what would you say is the biggest life lesson we've learned in skateboarder biggest life lesson is the value of perseverance just trying something over and over and keeping at it and not giving up wise words from Tony Hawk huh sounds like we got some skating in the distance going on oh those are my kids skating in the backyard naturally they would be and that is a hawk on your gate it's a recurring theme to have Hawks know we don't have an abundance of them but this is actually a silhouette of my first skateboard graphic like that white board that you saw in there this is the only gate exclusive to it it's really cool very apropos what is also a propeller is bird house so where did bird house come from bird house is the skateboard company I started because I thought that my career as a skate as a pro skater was coming to an end and I wanted to stay in the industry I wanted to create my own brand and have my own team and little did I know that was sort of the beginning of my second wave of a career in skating right now when did you start the Tony Hawk foundation in 2002 and was it always just about skate parks mostly about skate parks but also about empowering communities and youth to to do something for themselves and to give them the resources and the funding to actually get parks built right and it's it's the proudest work that I've done so cool how many skate parks have you opened we've helped to fund over 900 facilities very inspiring now when it comes to designing them how much have a say do you get I help in the design on some of them I get all the designs across my desk but I'd say in the last 10 years they really improved I just try to mark them up and make sure that it caters to all skill levels and all styles and you also recently designed a fashion line and launched it in Paris right yes I helped to design the Tony Hawk signature line so cool what's your favorite place to skate in Paris the new vans skate park that was built for the Vans Park series most recently how would you describe your personal style Tony I would say it's subdued clean um relatively cool for 51 year old and do you have a favorite shoe for skating I do my new Lakai Pro toes in the new colorway with all the achievements and the endorsements you've received over the years what's been the attitude toward you in the skate community at first there was a pretty heavy backlash for having sponsors that were non-endemic more corporate but nowadays I think that people know I have the best interest of skating at heart and that I keep skating is integrity at the priority and even with the young generation having sponsors that aren't skate companies is very commonplace now if you could redo any moment in your career what would it be um Wow if I could redo any moment it would be not doing a loop in a full gorilla suit remember that one now know what you know now what's something that you would go back and tell 14-year old Tony I would say you're not gonna believe what you're in for and if anyone asks you to do a loop in a gorilla suit please decline now your earliest signature hairstyles were copied by so many skaters how did you land on those hairstyles really my friend Kevin's Tom and I were just trying to grow her bangs out and I just kept sort of trimming up the rest of my hair until I had a pretty big flop and then that became known as the flop in fact some barbers we're offering Tony Hawk haircuts and their signs outside yeah I'm pretty familiar with the flop this is it right here right uh yeah this is prime flop days right there in fact it was so I guess iconic the Thrasher Magazine dubbed it the mix cwiebe are you gonna go back to that I don't think I have the fullness to go back to that but I would love to Tony as a father what do you hope your kids learn from you I hope I have taught them the value of perseverance of believing in yourself and creating your own path in life and they're really good skaters they all skate yeah and by the way I love that video of you teaching your daughter how to drop in on the vertical ramp so thank you yeah I didn't think that would go so viral it went so bowels everywhere but do you get nervous about them getting hurt I do but I feel like they have all have a pretty good sense of their limitations some are more daring than others but at this point they're all almost full-grown adults and they have a better sense of their limitations than I do now what is Riley Hawk done that Tony Hawk can never do you name it I think firstly to make a career as a pro skater without having to compete just doing video coverage and photos being a male model having a being a rock star having his own signature shoe in his 20s I mean the list goes on so Joe is that right uh no I'm just really proud of him cool do your kids that offer any input on what you post online or put on social media only if it includes a picture of them then I will I run it by them and get their approval so Tony San Diego how long have you been living in this beautiful beautiful city for my whole life and besides San Diego where else would you call home I would say my personal vert ramp yep yeah my that's sort of my home away from home that's my happy place very very cool now growing up here did you surf - yeah I got she started surfing before I started skating now I would imagine that you as a skater makes for a good surfer right uh I'm not great at surfing I I'm actually scared of big waves because if I fall on a big ramp it doesn't come crashing after me and and try to drown me and also I just don't get time to chase the swells these days all right let's check out some skating so Tony what do you think has brought the biggest change in your sport I would say the advent of social media it's really leveled the playing field in terms of how to get recognized and you know kids can make their own scene in their own region and really become a pro skater without having to chase the magazines and the coverage and the video and everything it's amazing and what's the most exciting change you've seen in skating over the past decade ah the rise of female skaters there's some rippers out there right now at 20 in 2020 it's being introduced as an Olympic sport which is incredible were you involved in making that a reality yeah I was in some of the early meanings of organization actually went to the IOC in Lausanne and I campaign for it for a bid and then once I realized it was actually going to be a reality I stepped back from all the political process and I'm just there to watch as a fan no that's so cool is it harder to skate in front of a camera or an audience I would say it's hard to stay in front of audience camera does not make funny if you fall and it gives you a second chance it's crazy now which excited you more visiting the White House or being featured on The Simpsons Oh being featured on The Simpsons was by far one of the coolest thing that's ever happened to me thank you Sarah Hall I really the idea that they created an episode around me it was just unbelievable is it safe to say that you may be the only person in history to have skated the White House well Annie McDonald was there introducing Bill Clinton and he claims that he stepped on a skateboard but Annie pictures or it didn't happen true now skating is a solitary sport but it creates such a community how do you explain our um I think it's more that there's a camaraderie especially if you go to the skate parks people really love to see put each other pushing their limits and overcoming their fears and as much as it is an individual pursuit there's so much teamwork and right it's really more like a party and what is your relationship with the Bones Brigade like right now I still keep in touch with the Bones Brigade Tommy my Lance Rodney and cab you know we're all like still hanging out we still skate together right now you gonna show me some moves uh yeah sure let's do it traffic alert I don't want to stake my kids oh no you definitely don't want to do that and there is Tony Hawk making it look easy for question number 73 did you ever find animal chin no why do you think I built this why do you think I'm still out here doing it do you want to come join me in the search like me skate with you yeah come skate with me I don't even what the hell is this there you go I've no idea what I'm doing but okay you ready you just got it get a lean forward drop in okay and believe in yourself all right one two hey kickflip Tony I think I just did a 900 yeah you wish

Channel: Vogue

Views: 2,245,536

Rating: 4.9520783 out of 5

Keywords: 73 q, 73 qs, 73 questions, celeb style, celebrity, homes, style, tony hawk, tony hawk interview, tony hawk twitter, tony hawk 73, 73 questions with tony hawk, tony hawk 73 interview, 73 questions with vogue, tony hawk vogue interview, tony hawk skating, tony hawk skateboards, tony hawk vogue, vogue tony hawk, tony hawk answers 73 questions, tony hawk house, tony hawk skatepark, tony hawk home, inside tony hawk house, tony hawk tricks, vogue

Id: 7f4P9unmhdQ

Length: 16min 42sec (1002 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 22 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Big_Burg]

I hate the audio. It sounds so fake and manufactured.

[u/campoanywhere]

Lol this plays like Tony is trying to get away from the interviewer but he's under some kind of spell that requires him to answer every question he's asked.

[u/phyphor]

He's the fridge guy, right?

[u/FlipMaster67]

r/dontyouknowimtonyhawk

[u/zagbag]

This series is one of my guilty pleasures. Its awful. I love it.

[u/skarralynn]

Anyone notice how often he grabbed his right knee? I cant imagine how much his body hurts from old injuries.

[u/Spartz]

Nice try, Vogue

[u/aaron2933]

That guy who looks like Tony hawk should be the president of this sub

[u/NumLock_Enthusiast]

Sounds rehearsed