An Afternoon With Tony Hawk...Sort Of

How many chances in your life will you get up close and personal with an athlete who played a major role in transcending and globalizing his or her sport? Not many, unless you have unlimited funds and can pay your way through the cracks.

I have never had the chance, and that is precisely why I dropped everything last Monday and drove down to the Lewiston skate park to watch Tony Hawk tear up the concrete with some of his Birdhouse Tour home-boys and local Lewiston kids. I would have been better off making some serious progress on my thesis chapter (sorry Creighton), but I figured that it could sit on the back burner while I took in an afternoon of something completely out of my comfort zone – skate culture.

I am not a skateboarder, cannot ollie for the life of me and definitely cannot ride in a half pipe, but I am a sports fan and thus know that Tony Hawk is one of the most influential athletes of the last ten years for singlehandedly globalizing the sport of skateboarding. Think I am crazy for saying that? Think twice and buckle up to find out why.

After some short research, I learned that skateboarding was invented in the 1950s when California surfers as chill as Nate Johnson ’10 needed something to fill their craving for tasty waves when the water was flat. It began as sidewalk surfing and became a popular fad in the 1960s. Popularity declined at the end of the decade but picked up in the early 1970s when a group of skaters started shredding empty swimming pools (those empty bowls in which you scored hundreds of thousands of points when you used to play Tony Hawk Pro Skate 1, 2, 5, or 9 like it was your job).

Simply put, skateboarding was a lost sport from its conception in the ’50s until Tony Hawk burst onto the scene in the early ’90s. Throughout its history, the sport has battled with its identity. It has been a long standing debate between different types of aesthetics.

’80s skaters lived in a transition period where no one knew what was cool. Marked by florescent colors and tight jeans, skaters were lost.

Then came the ‘90s and skateboarding finally found its identity.

Tight jeans faded out and baggy clothes made their way to the forefront of skate culture (though that has switched again over the last five years). After the ’80s, your clothes, style and hair did not matter as much because skateboarding became about Tony Hawk. Whatever Tony wore was in, whatever Tony did was cool, and whatever Tony said was right.

Skateboarding fluttered on the line of popular and unpopular sports for over forty years, but as soon as Tony Hawk won his first Summer X-Games gold in 1995, the future was made. He became noticed and quickly became the face of a sport in desperate need of a role model.

When I think of skateboarding, I instinctively think of Tony Hawk. How many other modern-day athletes have impacted his or her sport in the same way? I can think of four more with ease, as Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods and Kelly Slater are all synonymous with their sports. After that, it becomes ambiguous. Throw in the Williams sisters, Shaun White, Usain Bolt, Wayne Gretzky and Michael Phelps and there you have my list of athletes who have played the biggest role in globalizing sports over the last two decades.

He may not be the best athlete on the list, but in terms of his worldwide influence on skateboarding, Hawk earns his place in the top-ten among the likes of those big-name athletes.

Who cares if he cannot run a sub-10 second 100 meter dash, win seven Tour de France titles or rule the NBA for the rest of time? Not me, because Tony Hawk has solidified his place as a phenomenal athlete and instrumental piece of the history of sport in the United States.

What was his recipe to greatness? For starters, he won nine X-Games gold medals, three silvers and two bronzes between 1995 and 2002, completed the first ever 900 (that’s two and a half rotations) and he started a video game title that produced 15 different games.

If that is not enough, he has taken on the role as an ambassador for The Truth’s tobacco education campaign as it tries to spread awareness for the dangers of cigarettes, smoking and other tobacco products.

The Truth brought its campaign to the Northeast last week and teamed up with Hawk’s Birdhouse Tour to add some flair to their message. While there were speakers and other entertainers on-site at Kennedy Park, it was Hawk who naturally attracted the most attention.

He is older and, based on a history of serious crashes, probably more frail. But that did not stop him from pleasing the crowd as he gapped a six-foot channel from one side of the hollow bowl to the other (really sick, bro).

Like a true competitor, Hawk tried the trick close to a dozen times before he successfully landed to a loud applause from the crowd of Lewistonians and a few Bobcats. A few small tricks later, and Hawk made his way through the crowds and into the plush Quicksilver RV.

To my surprise, there was little advertising for this event. I did not read about it online, see it on the news or even catch wind of the event until I called one of my friends to see if he wanted to take part in a sport almost as chill as skateboarding – rollerblading.

He declined and told me to hustle down to Kennedy Park to watch greatness take place.

Thankfully I listened, and although I am not that chill, cannot do cool tricks and definitely do not have skater style; I soaked in the afternoon as if I had nothing else to do.

Like a true journalist, I had thoughts of exactly how I was going to approach Tony or anyone else in his posse for a quick interview. I planned the whole conversation out in my head, and was ready to pounce as soon as I saw him finish his session.

I would like to say that I was brave and approached Tony for an interview, but I did not. On my way to intercept him before he made it back to the RV, I froze and beelined it straight to my car and back to campus.

That was probably my only chance to ever talk with Tony Hawk, and I dropped the ball. If that was any indication of my life as a journalist beyond The Bates Student, it was a bad omen.

On my way to watch his greatness, I called my mom to tell her that I was going to try to get an interview.

I jumped the gun. On my way back to campus, I dejectedly called her and explained that I was a wimp.

Tony Hawk scared the daylight out of me, but for some reason it was entirely OK. I witnessed one of my top-ten most influential athletes right here in Lewiston, ME. I can bet you my diploma that that will not happen again before I graduate in May.

I am sure he could have made a lengthy list of places he would choose to skate and Lewiston would not make the cut. He could have simply told The Truth “no,” and they would not have asked again and he could have just as easily shown up, skated for ten minutes and blown out of town quicker than a Nate Winebaum ’10 juke move, but he did not.

Much like his competitive drive that gave him countless bruises and cuts when he tried to gap the channel at Kennedy Park, he will continue to skate and spread his love for the sport and his message about drug use.

Why? Because he is Tony Hawk and he knows full well that everyone will listen.