'my Philosophy Has Been That No Matter How Far You Get There's Still Something New To Learn'

Sun Herald

Sunday December 26, 2004

Rosemarie Milsom

Millionaire skateboarding guru Tony Hawk, 36, talks to Rosemarie Milsom about fear, scars and the little Aussie film that captured his attention.

You must see similarities between Australia and your home state of California?

Yeah, we share the same beach culture and both places are very accepting of skateboarding. In the past, Australia was one of the first places to have public skate parks that thrived.

Is that what grabbed you about the film Deck Dogz [which opens January 6]? That it is supportive of skate culture?

I related to these kids in the film being outcasts because in my day at school, skating was the furthest thing from cool that you could do. In this movie, while skating is cool, these kids still aren't accepted. They have difficult backgrounds and their teachers and parents don't really understand what they're about. I love the message in the film; that it's about the journey rather than the destination. It's an edgy film and it's more true to skating than any other film [script] I've read. There's only been a few mainstream movies made about skating and you can't say that people are very proud of them (laughs). They've been terrible scripts with dialogue by some guy who saw MTV or a skate video and ran it from there.

What does it take to be a good skater?

It takes a lot of determination and also you have to want to come up with new challenges for yourself. A lot of guys will say they want to be a pro skater and when they finally reach that goal they don't have any motivation left. To be a good skater with longevity you've got to stay fresh and keep trying something new.

You've ridden the highs and lows of skating. Before the extreme games put it back on the radar in the mid-1990s, you must have had moments where you wondered if it was worth pursuing as a career.

It was lucky for me in that things got really big for me in my teenage years and at that point I wasn't even thinking about a career. Suddenly one fell into my lap. By the time I graduated I was making really good money more than my teachers and I bought a house straight out of high school. I felt like I had it all and then about five years later the bottom fell out and I had a huge mortgage and a family. It was like uh-oh. I never quit skating but I had to reorganise what I was doing. I edited videos for a while because I had those skills and equipment. I would travel wherever and whenever for a skating exhibition for almost no money. I can remember spending a week living near an amusement park in Texas because they were paying me some nominal amount to do three shows a day, but I got to keep skating for a living so I can't complain.

Lots of guys take up skating, but what set you apart?

I think early on I got noticed because I did some really different moves, stuff that no one had tried yet. My style was not considered cool, it wasn't the hardcore rough guy, but I was doing different things on my board anyway. In the first wave of skating's popularity I was learning new tricks and creating a new technique. My philosophy has been that no matter how far you get there's still something new to learn.

You're talking about a bit of wood on wheels. Is there ultimately a limit to what you can do?

I don't know. The stuff that kids are learning these days, tricks that are considered the basics, weren't even invented 10 years ago. Through watching videos, there's a whole new generation of kids who are way ahead of where we were at that age, killing ourselves. I don't see the progression slowing down and now there's this whole thing about mega ramps 50- to 70-foot jumps and 30-foot ramps that are giving us new height and new ideas. We just started learning this stuff so where do we go from here? Who knows? But I haven't seen anyone hit the ceiling yet.

Do you feel fear?

Yeah, I get scared, but that's what keeps you in check. I have a bad habit of presenting worse-case scenarios when I'm thinking of a new trick and I ask myself, 'Can I live through that? OK, let's go'. When I play it out in my head, rarely does it come to fruition (laughs).

Show me some scars.

(Lifts jeans to expose a battered and heavily scarred left shin). That's one of them.

What happened?

Oh, it's just years of damage. There were stitches here (points to lower shin) and stitches there (points to left side of shin).

Have you broken many bones?

I've broken my elbow, fractured a rib and thumb, and then I fractured my pelvis last year. That was the hardest injury to bounce back from because I couldn't walk. Little by little I finally got all my movement back.

You were the first skater to earn $1 million in a year and have gone on to make many more dollars with your video games and clothing. How have you converted a successful skating career into big business?

When I choose to get involved with business projects, it's only with things that I really believe in and that will benefit skateboarding. Making video games came about because I was approached and I could see that there hadn't really been any decent games about skating. I had a lot of control over the project and I didn't really care if it was successful or not. I enjoyed the process so much and then I knew when we got close to completion that it was going to be so much bigger than I'd imagined. The clothing line came about because my sister and I both have kids and we were having a hard time finding clothes for kids that were cool. We felt there was a niche for skate clothes that were youth-oriented and it went really well and then Quiksilver bought the label and now it's huge. I've learned through the years that people only call you a sell-out when your stuff actually starts to sell. I've had signature products since I was 14 years old, they just weren't selling big then.

Your 12-year-old son Riley is a really good skater. How does he relate to your success?

Riley is sponsored [as a skater] in his own right and he definitely knows about my contribution to skating, but at the same time, I don't want him to feel any added pressure. I don't want him thinking he's living in my shadow. I just want him to enjoy himself and he does. He's got a good head on his shoulders. My other two boys are still pretty young but I guess they're just happy that what I do allows us opportunities to go to movie premieres and get cool stuff in the mail from Nickelodeon.

How does fame sit with you?

Fame is strange. It can be a lot of fun and sometimes it can be intrusive, but I'm not going to sit here and whine about having amazing opportunities like travelling to Sydney first class to talk about a movie I enjoyed working on. I can still lead a normal life and take the kids to McDonald's down the street. I didn't grow up in a sport in which there were rock stars, it wasn't something I aspired to.

I've read different reports about the 900 [2 1/2 revolutions on a skateboard while airborne] that it took you five years to land, then nine years. How long was it?

From the first time I ever tried it, it was probably five years but I had the idea long before that. I was doing 720s in 1985 and when I learnt that trick I thought, OK, what will be the next spin? And it was the 900. It took five years from the time I actually got the nerve to spin it, until I pulled it off. It's still hard. It doesn't come any easier now, it's just that knowing that I have made it in the past gives me a little more confidence.

What happens to old skateboarders?

Old skateboarders don't quit, I can tell you that. If you look at skate parks in the United States, they skate with their sons.

© 2004 Sun Herald

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