Tony Hawk, whose crash landing during a Quiksilver demo on Saturday resulted in a painful pelvis injury that will require lots of rest and rehab, did not break any fingers so he’s as busy as ever on Twitter. The legendary skateboarder, who fell hard to the ramp’s bottom platform but eventually rose to thank the crowd and excuse himself from the event, Tweeted about the failed 540 attempt the same day: “Did a tailbone 5 & my foot was a little off, sent me into b/s revert (chicken-neck) to flat. Hit my back & head HARD. Waiting for CT results.”
On Sunday he Tweeted his understanding of the diagnosis:
Then this plug for the hospital: “My deepest gratitude to the staff at UC Irvine Trauma Center. If you are going to get seriously hurt, I recommend being near there.” It’s good to see that Hawk, one of the all-time great athletes and a master at making his point in 140 characters or less, has not lost his sense of humor. Hope he’s feeling better soon.
Via [Pete Thomas]
Tony Hawk is probably the most famous skateboarder out there and he has all sorts of credits to his name from clothes to skateboards, bikes and more. Hawk has a new iPhone app that is available for skateboard fans now called Tony Hawk: Trick Tips. Tony Hawk’s entrance into the app sector is in step with the company’s tech-savvy reputation for bringing his skateboarding tips, advice and knowledge to as many of his fan base as possible.
The new app launched last week and is already the top paid sports app on the App Store. The app provides fans with tips, advice, and knowledge on tricks and skateboarding to fans.
The app offers text, video, and photos of Hawk doing the tricks along with step-by-step instructions for performing some of the tricks. The app also offers news from Tony Hawk, entry to win a Tony Hawk Skateboard, and videos from ShredorDie.com. The app is available now for $0.99.
When asked about Tony’s new Iphone application, he said “I’ve been wanting to do an iPhone app for the last couple years, but didn’t want to do something quick and easy. I have had success in skating instructional videos in the past, and I knew it could translate well to the iPhone platform. We updated every trick and shot everything in HD in order to use frame grabs. If you don’t have an iPhone, an iPod Touch works, too. Or you can watch our previous Trick Tips videos at shredordie.com. We’re working on getting the app on other smart phones.”
On Wednesday, Tony Hawk the 41-year-old king of skateboarding became the first action sports star to get a paraffin replica of himself in Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Here is a picture of Tony next to his wax figure likeness.
Tony Hawk Skates The Halls Of The White House / courtesy twitpic
We were following the twitter stream of @tonyhawk today and came across this twitpic of Tony doing a manual down the halls of the white house. It appears that Tony was at the White House today for Cnn’s First Fathers event. Apparantly Ashtun Kutcher sent this tweet to Tony which basically called him out to skateboard in the white house.
With the permission of the White House officials, Tony Hawk skated the grand foyer and the nearby Old Executive Office Building. Hawk also sent out a few other tweets from today like “The Prez addressing all of us fathers before we split up to visit DC charities,” and “D Wade & Etan T make me feel short.”
Ashton Kutcher dares Tony Hawk To Skateboard in the White House
Thrashin‘ is the title of a film about two rival skateboard gangs in Los Angeles directed by David Winters and written by Paul Brown and Alan Sacks. When the film was released in 1986 it was not well received by the critics, saying that the film was just a poor skateboard version of West Side Story or Romeo and Juliet. However, Thrashin’ gained somewhat of a cult status among the kids of the 80′s – it had all the right ingredients: gang rivalty, forbidden love, break dancing, and most important, some really cool skateboarding (of all types: ramp, street, freestyle, pool, downhill…) performed by some of the best skaters of the 80′s, including Tony Hawk, Tony Alva, Per Welinder and Christian Hosoi.
Okay, if you haven’t witnessed the fantastic glory that is Thrashin’, I’ll fill you in on what it’s all about.
There’s this guy, Corey, played by Josh Brolin. He’s your average choad skater dude. He hangs out with his fellow dudes, the Ramp Locals, they all live in the valley and they thrash. Then there’s the Daggers, the rival skate gang of the Ramp Locals. Monk the Punk is the leader, but Hook is the one you want to watch for. They’re all a bunch of punks from LA, they like to thrash as well, but they also like to destroy.
So one night, Corey and the Ramp Locals go to this awesome club where everybody dances on skateboards and gets drunk. The Red Hot Chili Peppers make an appearance and play some rock. But soon enough Corey runs off with Chrissy, a hot blonde in a hot pink dress, who’s also Hook’s sister. They Hook up. This pisses Hook off, and he’s not going to let Corey off the Hook very easily. What ensues is a gang war. But not just any old gang war, that would be boring. This is a skater gang war. Much much better.
Anyways, the plot of this movie shouldn’t concern you too much. Even though it has a nice little Romeo and Juliet parallel, it’s not the star of the show. No, no, what really stands out is the acting. My friends, these actors exhibit nothing short of pure excellence. The timing of every line is executed with such delicacy, it’s quite an amazing and beautiful thing.
The Ramp Locals all have their share of cool quotes, and they all skate well, each one of them pulls a boneless every five seconds. But Hook, played to perfection by Robert Rusler, is the star of this movie. His every nuance is plastered with genius. Watch as he plays air guitar for all of his friends, marvel at his dramatic reaction to the news that his sister is dating somebody from….the Valley!
There are so many wonderful little quirks in this movie. There’s a skate joust in a ditch. The house that the Daggers live in is spray painted with the word DAGGERS all over the place, as well as some actual daggers drawn. There’s at least 8 skating montages, the soundtrack is pretty choice as Devo, the Circle Jerks, and many other make a contribution. Sherilyn Fenn even has a small part, as well as Tony Alva.
Okay two more things. One, during the scene when Hook and Corey get into a fight and Chrissy breaks it up, Hook challenges Corey to the skating joust. He then proclaims, “Be there!” Then, in what could be argued as one of the best editing jobs ever, they cut to a little kid that screams, “No you be there!” It’s hard to describe but the timing and inflection in the actors voices cannot be matched, it’s simply radical.
Two, during the climatic downhill race, the LA MASSACRE, put the movie on mute, there’s not a lot of dialogue and for some reason the music they play is not very climatic. Then put on Judas Priests’ “Heading out to the Highway” followed by “You’ve got Another Thing Comin’”, these two songs go together like that old Wizard of Oz, Dark Side of the Moon thing, for when Rob Halford sings, “Take a chance before, I FAAAAALLLL!” skater’s will fall, if you cue it up right, it’s uncanny. Then “Nother thing comin” will start when Corey and Hook are head to head, it’s fucking awesome! Do it! Do it now!
And here is the movie in all its glory in 10 parts thanks to a video tape and youtube. I doubt the people that hold the copyright holders on this one are going to go after the uploader:-)
Here are some pictures of the Tony Hawk Jeep Wrangler Rubicon At The LA Auto Show 2008. We caught up with the builder Eric Scott who was kind enough to explain the vehicle to us a little bit. The jeep was built as a marketing vehicle for the Tony Hawk tour primarily because Jeep is a sponsor of the tour and they wanted to do something different. Here are a few of the things Eric and his team did to customize the vehicle.
1) They sprayed the entire vehicle with the rhino liner which is very durable and has a black matte finish.
2) Custom Tires and Rims and a suspension system
3) Put a Mopar basket on the top and put Tony Hawk skateboards on the sides and they also put 7 green skateboard decks on the front with two helmets on the end to represent the jeep grill.
4) There are two Xbox 360′s on either side loaded up with Tony Hawk’s Proving ground so the kids can play the game while they are at the show.
Here are a few pictures of the vehicle and a video clip of Eric explaining what he did to the vehicle as well as how the people interacted with the vehicle.
Tony Hawk is the biggest name is skateboarding history and has won 74 professional skateboard contests of the past 20 years. Tony Hawk has invented 90 skateboard tricks and continues to bust through new boundaries with his million dollar vert ramp.
When Tony Hawk first started skateboarding back in the late 70′s and early 80′s, there was either vert skateboarding which was pools or freestyle skateboarding. There was no street skateboarding which dominates the industry today. Pools eventually evolved into half pipes and the very first half pipes where very hard to skate. The were made out of Plexiglas and had little or no flat bottom and no decks to stand on. You just kind of got in there and tried to hit the coping. Tony Hawk spent many a day skating the Del Mar Skate Ranch and once that closed down he ended up getting some land in Fallbrook and built a massive ramp.
His father Frank Hawk supported Tony very heavily and it must have been cool to have a dad like that. When you are a vert skateboarder pads are a necessary. You cannot bust out a 540 or even a 360 on a vert ramp for the first time with out relying on your pads to knee slide out on so you can get up and try again until you land it. Today vertical skateboarding is not very popular probably because it is so difficult. There are very few newcomers to the Vert Skateboarding scene but with the big boom of skate parks that where built over the last 10 years kids are learning to be more well rounded skateboarders and are able to hit vertical walls now in addition to hitting the rails and ledges that grace the pages of every skateboard magazine on the market. Long live vert skateboarding this is my favorite genre of skateboarding.
I have been writting skateboarding articles for awhile now and have been out with a back injury for about 6 months. The back is feeling better now so I decided to go down to the Costa Mesa Skatepark and see how my body was feeling. Damn I was like a kid in a candy store that little bowl at the Costa Mesa Skatepark is so damn fun!
Here is a clip of me rolling around, carving a few corners and doing a few lip tricks to top it off. I am no Tony Hawk but who is except for Tony Hawk. A very fun day and I actually got some exercise which is always a good thing.
Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, old and especially the young, and gaze upon the modern marvel of the world! The Birdman is both ringmaster and acrobatic wonder in a modern circus of extreme sport skill in an annual event that each summer blazes across the U.S. with a dazzling array of talent.
With his yen for long, clunky tour names and far-thinking ideas, the Boom-Boom Huck Jam is the brainchild of vert skating’s most visible rider, Tony Hawk. Combining the world’s most talented skateboard gymnasts with the nerviest BMX mavens and freestyle motocross maniacs that make Evol Knievel look tame, to create a choreographed symphony of flying daredevils that simply must be seen to be believed.
Tony Hawk has had a piece of nearly every major movement in extreme sports, redefining movement itself since the genesis of the original Bones Brigade nearly two decades ago. The inventor of over eighty original moves, the Birdman likes covering uncharted territory.
The first Huck Jam was a solo date in Sin City, Las Vegas, in 2002. Riding the lightening bikes, skateboards, and motorcycles all danced to the beats of The Offspring and Social Distortion. The rampage of riders was a huge success, and the Huck Jam has since grown to a national tour.
The portable ramp set is built like a rock-and-roll stage, featuring a long half-pipe with a motocross channel gap, so that motorcycles can jump over the skaters and bikers running tricks in perpendicular tandem. The result is a parade of launched grenades popping off in spectacular symmetry like a human fireworks show.
Tony Hawk’s Boom-Boom Huck Jam is an extravaganza of choreographed, multimedia challenges to gravity on every front. The Birdman and his elite team of riders are bound and determined to prove that Newton’s apple may have had to hit the dirt, but with a pair of wheels, an extreme rider doesn’t need to return to Earth until good and ready.
Today, the Huck Jam is a full-on concert/sports tour of the finest open-air venues, including amusement parks, sports stadiums, and expositions. The line-up includes some of the top names in wheeled leaping and landing, such as Jesse Fristch and Kevin Staab. In 2006, the Boom-Boom Huck Jam made an agreement with Six Flags Theme Parks to use their parks as venues for the cross-country tour.
Combining music with fast-paced vehicular mania is only natural, but bringing them together in a live extravaganza not only blurs the boundaries of spectator sport and arena concert, but represents a feat of engineering, booking and logistics as well as acrobatics.
The Birdman was born to take challenges head-on, however, and has assembled a star-studded team to do it with. This year’s Tony Hawk’s Boom-Boom Huck Jam’s roster includes Drake McElroy, Sergie Ventura, Kevin Robinson as well as celebrity MC services from Jason Ellis.
One thing is for sure-if you like excitement, hard-edged music, and the slickest freestyle artists in the game, the Boom-Boom Huck Jam is an event not to be missed.
