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Lemonada.

1:30

Okay,

1:31

actually, can you just pretend that you're listening

1:33

to a fully complete theme song here? I got

1:36

really in my head, and I tried to make it perfect,

1:38

and I couldn't. So this is going

1:40

to be the theme song right here.

1:48

Hello and welcome to another episode of Funny Cause

1:50

It's True. I'm Elise Meyers. Today I'm

1:52

joined by skateboarding pioneer, entrepreneur,

1:55

and total badass, Tony Hawk. Tony

1:57

has been doing some of the biggest and toughest tricks

1:59

in skateboarding. skateboarding since 1979 and now he's here with us today.

2:04

And I just call him Tony as if we're on like a first

2:06

name basis. Did you know that his first

2:08

ever skateboard is actually in the Smithsonian?

2:11

He is like inside of history now, which

2:13

is wild. So two things that are funny

2:16

because they're true. Number one, did you know that

2:18

when Tony Hawk first started skating, skating

2:20

was so uncool that it would be like one

2:22

of your friends coming to you and being like, I

2:24

have this new hobby, it's jumping

2:27

on a pogo stick. And number

2:29

two,

2:29

after listening to this episode, I

2:32

realized that I've asked every parent

2:34

that I've interviewed if their kids think that they're cool because

2:36

of their job. Tony Hawk is the only

2:38

person that's ever said yes to me. So

2:40

let's get into it.

2:45

Yay, okay, Anthony Frank

2:47

Hawk. I just learned your full

2:49

name and it made me really happy. I

2:52

think I've only ever been called out by

2:54

doctors and teachers on the first day of school.

2:57

Perfect.

2:57

I immediately regretted saying his

3:00

full government name as soon as

3:02

it left my mouth, but here we are. I

3:05

know that kind of looking at your history, just

3:07

as the timeline of your life and like stuff you've put out, you

3:10

talked about yourself as like a very competitive

3:13

child, but also like very hyper.

3:16

And is that like an accurate representation of kind

3:18

of how you were as a kid? Did you always know you

3:20

wanted to be competing against yourself, other people with

3:22

the sport of skateboarding?

3:24

I think I always knew that I wanted to

3:27

set my own challenges and compete

3:29

against myself, yes. Okay. I

3:31

never was content

3:34

or satisfied with the performance. I always thought

3:36

like, oh, there's something I could have done better or I

3:39

know I was more capable of this and I

3:41

didn't do that. And so I was always sort of beating

3:43

myself up over that. And I think

3:46

in hindsight, it drove me

3:48

to continue progressing even after

3:50

I was the number one competitor.

3:53

Did that come from your family? Was there anybody

3:55

in your family that you got that from or that kind of was

3:57

started with you? I don't think

3:59

so.

3:59

I think it well I was the youngest of 4 and my

4:02

older brother

4:05

is the closest to me in age and he's 13 years

4:07

older than me so I kind of grew up like an only child

4:10

and maybe I was trying

4:12

to stand out or use my voice or something

4:15

because by the time I was born my parents were much

4:17

older and they're kind of over it. Did

4:20

you find that you had a totally different childhood

4:23

as your older siblings since you came

4:25

so much later. I remember is really

4:27

different. Um yeah,

4:29

but I think only in that they were

4:31

a little more I want to transient

4:34

but my dad was in the Navy and so they had

4:36

to move around a few times. Oh wow. And

4:38

so when they finally let it ended up in San Diego

4:41

that was their first time they felt like they had

4:43

permanence.

4:44

I'm really curious if the the

4:46

way in which your family moved around and then

4:49

you got the kind of staying in

4:51

one place if that affected.

4:54

You're like success with your skateboarding.

4:56

I think it was more a case that I

4:59

got very lucky. That's

5:03

San Diego had one of the last remaining skate parks

5:06

in the early 80's. Oh wow. So

5:08

to answer your question, yes, but but more

5:10

so because it was the home

5:13

of a skate facility. And

5:15

I was able to go there and home my skills and

5:18

little did I know that as

5:20

I dove in head first skating it

5:22

was sort of dying as an industry and

5:24

as a as a trend or a fad

5:28

all I knew is that there's

5:30

a skate park in my town and I could go there

5:32

every day after school and that's all that mattered

5:34

to me.

5:35

I'm curious what the difference between

5:37

that

5:38

the skate culture in the 80's when you first

5:40

got into it versus now how different

5:42

is it which is funny because you've kind of created a lot of the difference

5:45

but like how is it different

5:47

when

5:47

you started. Well from one is just

5:49

it wasn't cool. Okay, you know

5:52

if you were if you were labeled

5:54

as a skater it was more like

5:56

you were

5:57

stuck in your

5:59

in you were a kid.

6:02

It was more like having

6:04

grown out of that yet. And

6:06

also they were the outcasts. Like

6:08

they were really the ones who were kind

6:12

of pushed aside, not considered.

6:15

I would say if there was some

6:17

sort of totem pole

6:20

of cool, we were the furthest down

6:22

sort of under the nerds. Really? So

6:25

if you chose to skate, then you had to

6:28

have a lot of self-confidence

6:30

because you had to push through all this naysaying

6:33

and ridicule. But it did foster

6:36

a very unique identity in that there

6:38

was a whole culture to skating that included

6:40

music, fashion, art,

6:43

and an attitude that

6:45

was like, we're not going with

6:47

the grain. We're not falling into

6:51

mainstream categories. We live

6:53

outside of that.

6:54

Do you think that you found a lot of confidence

6:57

when you started skating or you were so

6:59

confident that you got into skating because of your

7:01

confidence?

7:01

No, I found it through skating.

7:04

Really? I definitely developed

7:06

it through my skate

7:08

career, yeah.

7:09

I guess I never considered how much of a

7:11

culture comes with skating because

7:14

when I think of skating, I think of you. And

7:16

so when you first started, did you have

7:19

a you that

7:20

you looked up to? There were

7:22

definitely a few key skaters,

7:25

which is funny because to me, they

7:28

were so much older and

7:31

they were so much more

7:33

experienced and crazy. And

7:36

they were

7:37

maybe four to five years older than me. Wow.

7:40

But they were the ones that

7:42

were in the magazines. They're the ones that were doing

7:44

the tricks. And

7:47

I gravitated towards all of that. If I

7:49

had a mentor, it would have been Stacey Peralta

7:51

because he was the first one that put

7:53

me on a legitimate skate team that

7:56

believed in my skills enough,

7:59

even though My tricks and my

8:01

style were largely ridiculed

8:03

and not fully developed, but

8:06

he put me on one of the most prominent

8:08

teams. And then if I

8:11

had another, the other inspiration

8:14

I had at the time was a skater named Eddie Algara

8:16

because he was the one that was doing

8:18

tricks and no one was focusing

8:21

on tricks at the time. Everything was about style

8:24

and air and grace. And

8:27

I didn't have those things. I was too scrawny.

8:29

I was too

8:30

weak. So when

8:33

I saw Eddie Algara doing these tricks, I

8:35

said, I want to learn those tricks because I know I

8:39

can at least figure out some of them.

8:41

I can't figure out how to do these big aerial things.

8:44

The idea of like 12 year old Tony Hawk

8:47

going out and like hanging out with people older than

8:49

him, like learning these tricks. It's honestly

8:51

so cool that like you had

8:53

a mentor that did these tricks that weren't

8:55

cool at the time. And it kind of instilled this like

8:57

fire in you to learn how to do that.

9:00

And then you're like, you go on to create

9:02

tricks like 900. Okay,

9:05

before you get too impressed with my skate knowledge,

9:07

this was 100% information

9:09

given to me ahead of time. So I sounded

9:11

cool in front of Tony Hawk. And it turns

9:14

out, I didn't even say it right. It's supposed to be the 900 or

9:16

a 900, not just 900.

9:17

So

9:19

that's good. And these great just

9:21

aerial like acrobatic flips. Like how

9:24

does one even begin to make something

9:27

like that? Where does that inspiration

9:30

come from besides your role models? It

9:33

was always different. I think that when

9:35

I finally started to get strength

9:38

and experience and confidence in my

9:41

skating, then suddenly I

9:43

was doing these tricks at bigger

9:45

heights. And that all happened

9:47

very suddenly. I would say that happened around

9:50

age 16 or so when I started

9:52

to get taller, stronger. And

9:54

then it was like, oh, now I have this

9:57

aerial time.

9:58

I can do a

10:00

lot more with these tricks in terms

10:02

of

10:03

pushing them, doing

10:06

different variations of them. I think that

10:08

through those years it was more, how do I combine

10:10

existing tricks? Right. So it was

10:12

like, for instance, I

10:15

had created a trick called a backside

10:17

varial, which is you take your

10:19

board and you spin it a 180

10:21

under your feet. Your feet stay in the same place

10:24

and you spin the board 180. I

10:26

cannot even imagine being brave enough

10:29

to try anything like that. It takes

10:31

so much courage to be like, I'm

10:33

going to probably hurt myself and fail the first few

10:35

times.

10:36

Well, I think that

10:38

the aspect

10:41

of fearlessness

10:43

is not really what it was. It was more that I

10:47

wasn't afraid to get

10:49

hurt because I did get hurt early on.

10:52

Right. That was a turning point where

10:55

I just went right back to it.

10:56

Plenty of my friends got hurt

10:59

doing skating or whatever else and

11:01

they quit.

11:02

That was the end of that activity

11:05

because they didn't want to go through it

11:07

again. I really didn't mind. It wasn't

11:09

that I loved it. It was just more

11:11

that I will push

11:14

through this pain and this

11:16

healing process because I love doing this

11:18

too much. I mean, that still goes today

11:20

and maybe to a fault

11:23

from my perspective.

11:24

Do you see that not, I guess, fearlessness,

11:27

but that dedication to just going

11:29

for it manifests itself in other areas of

11:31

your life?

11:31

Oh, yeah, I think

11:34

it's opened me up to being

11:36

much more adventurous and

11:39

not being afraid to fail at other things because

11:44

that'll keep you from trying so

11:46

much in life is the idea that

11:48

I might fail at that. Well, you got to fail at it

11:50

to get good at it. Right. You got you got it over

11:53

and over and over. And

11:56

I'm OK with that.

12:00

Okay, we have to take a quick break, but when we come

12:03

back, Tony tells us about his acting career.

12:13

This episode of Funny Cause It's True is brought to

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14:26

When you go into your

14:28

skating session,

14:30

whether it's now or when you were making tricks when

14:32

you were younger, and you're still making

14:35

tricks now all the time, I'm sure, do you

14:37

go into this flow state? Are

14:39

you hyper fixated? What

14:41

does your brain do

14:44

when you

14:45

are in that flow of skating?

14:49

It's different when I'm in the learning process.

14:52

If I'm just skating for fun, that's

14:54

more of the flow state where I

14:57

feel like, oh, this

14:59

move can lead to this move and this

15:01

will keep up my speed and everything

15:04

works

15:06

the way that I hoped it would. But

15:08

when I'm in a mode of trying to learn something

15:10

new, that's a different state of mind. I

15:13

usually approach it with the

15:16

attitude that I have all the

15:18

pieces to this puzzle.

15:20

I've done every part of it in some form.

15:22

If I can just put it all together, it will

15:25

work. And I never consider

15:27

that it won't work. I think that it's

15:29

more like stubbornness or obsession than

15:32

anything.

15:34

Because when I'm trying something, I've always imagined

15:36

that I can't do it and I will be able to do it.

15:39

And sometimes I pay the price for that, for

15:41

having that overconfidence.

15:44

You've said a few times

15:47

obsession, the obsession of skating.

15:49

So the way I love things and I'm

15:52

creative and I have hobbies, I don't

15:54

ever just have a hobby. It's like

15:56

I am obsessed with it. It is my whole life

15:58

to the detriment of everything else. around me. Did

16:01

you ever have a season of your life where you

16:03

felt either embarrassed for how much

16:05

you loved skating or that

16:07

you wanted to like learn how to like it less

16:10

or have you always been confident in your level

16:12

of like obsession with this incredible

16:15

sport?

16:15

Um not

16:17

so much embarrassed I would say but more

16:20

frustrated. I understand this

16:23

so deeply this is the perfect word for

16:25

it. Like in the early 90s

16:28

I had just experienced

16:32

of almost I would

16:34

say like five to ten years of

16:36

success in skating where I

16:39

was doing well I was making a living at it.

16:42

Um I had

16:44

two houses um and

16:47

I had my own ramp facility and

16:49

things were you know it was it was like living truly

16:51

living the dream and the dream that

16:54

what I never realized was possible because

16:56

no one else had had done it before. Um

16:59

and suddenly skating took a dive

17:01

in popularity. My income

17:04

was based on royalties from from

17:06

products sold with my name on it and

17:09

it started

17:10

it my it started shrinking by literally

17:12

by half every month and skating was just not

17:15

cool. My style of skating was considered

17:18

um

17:19

more prehistoric because I was

17:21

skating the ramps and everything was going to street.

17:24

Yeah. So it was more like it

17:26

was frustrating to be

17:28

an adult. I had started a family

17:31

and it was like

17:32

what am I doing? I can't provide and

17:34

I still want to do this. Like I'm not quitting

17:36

this um and I had

17:39

to do everything I could to make ends meet.

17:41

I mean I took the weirdest jobs

17:45

in terms of being like the

17:47

token skater at a rollerblading

17:49

event in a Six Flags parking lot.

17:51

Yeah. Were you pretty young when you became

17:54

famous? Like when you became the Tony

17:56

Hawk? Well I graduated high school

17:58

in 86. My mom and dad

18:00

were both very big on education and

18:03

they wanted me to apply to colleges, even

18:05

though I was truly making a good living

18:08

already. But they didn't know if it

18:10

would last. And I just said, if

18:13

I chase this

18:14

full time, I

18:16

can make more of it. What happened

18:18

in the end was that right out of high school,

18:21

I got hired to be an

18:23

actor in a movie, a skate

18:25

movie, gleaming the cube. So I was

18:27

from high school, living

18:29

in LA, renting an apartment in North Hollywood

18:32

at 19 and

18:35

working on a movie full time, movie set for

18:37

months. And

18:39

I think that was the moment for

18:41

me that was like, okay, this is my career

18:44

and I don't need to go to school.

18:45

How did you get scouted for a movie? Stacey

18:49

Peralta was our team manager

18:51

and coach and he

18:54

was the go-to

18:56

for anyone in Hollywood

18:58

to get

19:02

skaters for projects.

19:04

And obviously he's going to favor

19:07

his team. So Tommy

19:10

Guerrero, was another skater and I

19:12

both got

19:13

picked for acting

19:16

and stunt work, which was, for

19:18

us, huge. Wow.

19:21

That was such an early age

19:23

for all this to happen to you.

19:25

Was that hard to,

19:29

I guess, cope with that so young?

19:31

Or did you feel like this was... No, it was awesome.

19:33

No, it was awesome. Okay, great. No, it was unreal.

19:35

Are you kidding me? You're like, this is the dream. We're

19:39

thrust in it. Yeah. And through a route

19:41

that we never imagined would take us there. People

19:44

that

19:44

want to get into acting

19:47

or music or whatever, they do have

19:49

these huge aspirations because they're

19:52

looking at these giant success stories. We

19:54

had no mentors like that. We

19:57

had no giant success stories. And then we're

19:59

coming in through the side of it.

19:59

door to do Hollywood

20:02

stuff. Like it was unbelievable. And

20:05

then after that, we were on tour

20:07

for two to three months at a time,

20:10

skating 2000, skating for thousands

20:12

of people every single day in different

20:16

cities, different countries, you know, it

20:18

was very whirlwind, but you definitely

20:20

get a false sense

20:22

of security

20:25

and longevity when you're that young

20:28

and it just keeps coming at you.

20:30

And then I'm sure that when that kind of crisis

20:32

hit for you in your twenties,

20:34

when you saw the royalties kind of dip,

20:36

you probably were like, I did not consider

20:39

this a possibility. Not

20:40

at all. Not at all. No.

20:42

And my dad, I

20:44

was lucky that my dad was proactive

20:48

in trying to get me to save my money. He actually

20:50

co-signed a mortgage

20:52

for me because I was 17. Wow.

20:55

And then when I turned 18,

20:57

it was mine, but

20:59

I paid for it obviously. And

21:02

then when I found myself with two mortgages and

21:05

a child on the way, and I was, I

21:07

mean, at that moment in time, I was unable

21:10

to pay my water bill. That's

21:13

when things got real.

21:14

Okay, wait. So you

21:17

were in like a normal high school making

21:19

like good money. Yeah. Were

21:21

your friends just like, what is happening? I

21:24

said skating was still

21:25

more underground. So

21:27

even though I was making money and

21:30

traveling, say to the East Coast on the weekends

21:33

to go to a skate event and sign autographs,

21:35

I would come back

21:36

to school and be a ghost. I mean, I'd like-

21:39

Really? No one was like- Skating just wasn't that

21:41

cool. At some

21:43

point, they knew that a pro skater

21:45

went to their school, but no one could have picked me out of a lineup.

21:48

Did you like that or did you wish people like

21:50

fond over you more? I mean, it

21:52

was definitely a weird paradox, but I

21:54

didn't really care because I wasn't looking for their acceptance.

21:57

I found my community. I found

21:59

my- my sense of

22:01

purpose and my passion. So

22:04

I didn't really, you know, it wasn't like I

22:06

was, I was hoping that all the people in high school would like

22:08

me because I wasn't hanging out with them anyway. Yeah.

22:10

When I

22:11

did have my own place as

22:13

a senior,

22:14

that got challenging because, you

22:17

know, when you're in high school and your friends'

22:19

parents are out of town, that's the house where everyone

22:21

parties up. Well, my parents were always

22:23

out of town. So everyone's

22:26

always in my house. So it got tricky.

22:28

Did you like that or was that? My

22:30

neighbors were not very happy. Let's put it that way. My

22:32

neighbors were not too excited

22:34

to have a bunch of 17 year

22:36

olds living next to them.

22:39

Okay, time for another break. When we come back,

22:41

Tony tells us about the last time that he ever skated

22:44

at Delmar Skate Park.

22:45

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you find that like when you found success and the finances

25:17

were set for you and you kind of started setting up foundations, was

25:19

that one

25:21

of your goals? Was to like, you know, create foundations

25:23

and partner with people that kind of made skating more accessible and more

25:25

safe and, you know, more accessible to people and young kids?

25:29

Yeah,

25:31

when I first started, I was like, I'm going

25:33

to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. And

25:35

I don't know a lot of that now, but it's

25:37

somewhere between practice in the classroom

25:40

and

25:41

practice in the office. Yeah,

25:43

I would say that for learning, for me it's totally practical. It's like,

25:45

Oh, I would love to be an athletes trainer. Like,

25:48

you know, and do stuff.

25:49

I think now I'm into yoga. You know, with running workouts

25:51

and like, workout organizations and

25:54

that kind of stuff.

25:59

a foundation for public skate parks because

26:04

like I told you, I got very lucky that

26:06

I lived near one of the last parks that was

26:08

open at the time and it was never

26:10

lost on me how

26:12

much that shaped

26:14

me and how I found

26:16

a sense of belonging, a sense of community

26:18

in that place. Not just a place

26:21

to train and learn but really a

26:23

place to be accepted and

26:25

to feel that I

26:26

had a purpose.

26:35

And so when I found some

26:37

success and I saw that there

26:39

was all this interest in skating, a lot

26:41

of

26:42

kids were choosing to skate and

26:44

there were no facilities. It

26:46

was super hard to convince people that these were

26:48

necessary to communities

26:51

and that they would get used. But the

26:54

best thing about what we do is that we literally

26:56

have concrete proof of our work.

26:58

I'm so curious, is there anything that lives at

27:00

that original skate park in San Diego? Like have

27:02

you gone back? Oh, it is now a volleyball

27:05

training facility. No,

27:08

when did that get changed? Well,

27:12

it's funny. So the

27:14

park itself was buried

27:17

and there were lots of rumors that if

27:20

you just dig it up, it's all right there. So

27:22

about, it was almost 10 years ago,

27:25

like eight years ago,

27:27

there

27:29

was a bunch of noise on

27:31

Instagram actually of there

27:34

was a construction crew that was working

27:36

at that site because it was

27:38

a dirt lot.

27:40

And they were tagging

27:42

all these people that either worked

27:44

at that skate park or skated that park

27:47

and they go, look what we found. And they had

27:49

uncovered one of the bowls,

27:52

the construction crew that was tasked with

27:55

clearing this place out for the volleyball site.

27:57

But what happened was the. What

28:00

they uncovered was the deepest part

28:03

of the skate park

28:04

and it was

28:06

pretty damaged because what

28:08

we found out once they dug

28:10

up some other stuff is that the

28:12

construction crew that buried

28:14

the park actually destroyed all the bowls.

28:16

That makes me so sad. Yeah,

28:19

well, it was going to be gone regardless.

28:21

So it was just this one

28:24

section of a bowl that was like, it

28:26

was like six feet from

28:29

the bottom to the edge. And

28:33

we immediately as

28:35

the Del Mar skate park, Del

28:37

Mar skate ranch locals, we all

28:40

grabbed our skateboards, jumped in our car. I

28:42

picked up one of my kids from school and we drove there

28:45

and we skated it. Is it illegal that you did that? Absolutely. Okay,

28:48

great. Absolutely. And

28:50

then we skated it. We got

28:52

to skate it for like an hour. Security

28:57

told us we had to leave after that, which is weird because

28:59

the construction companies are the ones that were

29:02

showing us, but I don't think they realized what a frenzy they were

29:04

going to cause by doing so. Sure. It was more like

29:06

from them. It was like, hey, look, this

29:08

is cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We all just were straight

29:11

there. And then

29:14

the next day they hired a security guard to just

29:16

stand in front of the fence. And so

29:20

we got to skate Del Mar one last time and now it's

29:22

the way of volleyball

29:24

facility. You mentioned taking

29:25

your kid to the thing that was uncovered and skating.

29:28

Do your kids skate with you? Yeah,

29:30

yeah, yeah. All of them. Yeah. Okay.

29:34

Do they think that you're cool? Like,

29:36

are you a cool dad to them or you're just dad? Maybe

29:40

not in the ways that you think, but that's fair. I think

29:42

they do. They enjoy

29:44

the opportunities that come along with

29:46

my

29:47

career. So we get to

29:49

do cool stuff. Like,

29:52

in fact, yesterday we were all at the Kelly Slater surf

29:54

ranch. Oh, my gosh.

29:56

I think I asked this to every

29:58

paper.

29:59

because like deep down I hope

30:02

that my kids one day think I'm cool for my

30:04

job. And up until this point, I've

30:06

not really gotten that confirmation. So

30:09

I think I'm just trying to manage my expectations

30:11

accordingly, but also like my son's

30:13

two and a half. So I've got time. I

30:16

was gonna ask when you first started doing the video

30:18

game, did you feel like you had to have wiggle

30:20

room in terms of like what your final

30:22

say was? Like how did that come about?

30:24

And how did you feel nervous to put your

30:26

name to something that

30:27

when you were just starting out? No,

30:30

but that was more because the

30:33

group working on it, Neversoft was

30:37

all in on skateboarding. They were willing

30:39

to learn. They were very

30:41

receptive to my feedback. And

30:43

we had no,

30:45

there was no bar set for what we were doing. So

30:48

we didn't have great expectations. So we

30:51

could just go crazy. I mean, we were

30:54

pretty renegade with how the game

30:57

was put together with

30:59

the aesthetics, with the soundtrack, with the

31:02

skaters. You know, it was all like,

31:04

whatever you guys say, because no one's

31:06

done this before. And

31:10

they didn't even expect great success. Well, I

31:12

played it as a kid and I liked the playability

31:15

was so interesting to me, because it really

31:17

allowed me to learn. I didn't have to know anything

31:19

about skating to play it. And so

31:21

I always appreciated that.

31:23

Yeah, well, thank you. I mean, that was sort

31:25

of an unexpected bonus to the

31:27

whole thing is that it brought people in

31:29

who didn't skate, maybe never wanted

31:31

to skate, but enjoyed playing it. And

31:34

that created a fan base for skating that I

31:36

feel like is still solid.

31:39

Yeah, man, you've been doing

31:41

this for so long. It's so inspiring

31:43

to hear you talk about it. I'm curious, I

31:46

have got to find a different way to transition

31:48

into questions other than saying,

31:50

I'm so curious, I'm

31:53

so curious. How has your

31:55

relationship to skating changed

31:57

since you started to now?

31:59

That's

32:01

a good question. How has it changed? It

32:03

hasn't changed in terms of what

32:06

I glean from it and how much I enjoy

32:08

it. It's changed

32:11

in terms of my

32:15

risk assessment. I've

32:20

had plenty of injuries and had

32:23

probably my worst injury last year. I broke my

32:25

femur last March

32:27

and that taught me that

32:30

I don't have to go as hard as I used to, that

32:33

I can still

32:35

enjoy this on a much lower

32:37

level than what I was doing

32:40

even three

32:41

or four years ago. I

32:44

can do it casually and still

32:47

enjoy it just as much. I think that's my relationship.

32:49

Also, it's one of

32:52

the greatest things to share, especially

32:53

with my kids, with

32:56

new generation of skaters. The idea that

32:58

I'm still here and

33:01

considered relevant and that I can

33:03

still get in the mix with

33:05

the top modern

33:08

skaters is crazy. I

33:11

was in the X Games last week

33:13

in the best trick event. The

33:16

tricks that I was doing, they're

33:19

not moving the needle in terms of progression, but

33:22

they're good enough. I

33:27

was blown away with the amount of response

33:30

that I got from being there and the love that

33:34

I received. It

33:36

could have easily just been, oh, that poor

33:38

old guy just can't give it up.

33:39

I'm

33:42

glad that that's not the response though. It

33:45

wasn't. Of course, I worry about that too,

33:47

but it just taught me that I don't need to do this on

33:50

the crazy level that I once did

33:52

to be able to enjoy it and to

33:54

be able to still

33:56

be doing in public. Do

33:58

you think that over time you've... kind of found

34:00

a balance of not

34:02

obsessing as much, just enjoying.

34:05

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that I've

34:08

definitely breaking

34:10

my leg accelerated that. Yeah, definitely.

34:12

That realization. Yeah.

34:15

Tony, this has been so informative.

34:18

I feel like I want to learn how to skate now. I shouldn't

34:20

because I'm 33 weeks pregnant, so I won't, but I'll do it after

34:22

the baby comes. Like, you are so

34:24

inspiring. Thank you so much

34:26

for being here. This is so cool. Yeah,

34:28

thanks for having me.

34:33

All right, that's it for my conversation with Tony Hawk.

34:36

If you like listening to this show, make sure you give

34:38

us a little rating and a review. It helps more people

34:40

find us. Thank you. See you next week.

34:44

Funny because it's true is a lemonade media

34:46

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34:48

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34:50

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34:53

and our associate producer is Oja Lopez.

34:55

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34:57

content. And our VP of weekly production

35:00

is Steve Nelson. Executive producers

35:02

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35:04

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35:07

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35:10

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35:12

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35:15

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35:17

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