Hawk - Softcover

Hawk, Tony

3.96

904 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007336985 ISBN 13: 9780007336982

Publisher: Unknown, 2015

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Book by Tony Hawk

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About the Author:

Tony Hawk, now retired from competition, continues to skateboard regularly, performs in exhibitions, and is a commentator for ESPN. He lives in California with his wife and two sons. Sean Mortimer has written for Transworld Skateboarding magazine and was the editor of Skateboarding magazine. He is currently the editor of bigskate.com

"I felt the cold wind that blew in from the San Francisco Bay whip across the top of the vert ramp and onto the deck as I walked around waiting my turn. It was June 27, and I was competing in the best-trick contest at the 1999 Summer X Games with four of the best vert skaters in the world: Bucky Lasek, Colin McKay, Bob Burnquist, and Andy Macdonald. We'd been skating for fifteen minutes - it was midway through the half-hour designated for tricks - when I landed the varial 720. It's a difficult trick to do because I have to go up the ramp and spin two rotations with my body, while I hold my board and turn it 180 degrees so that I come down the ramp facing forward and my board is backward. I didn't know if I could win with it, but it was all I had planned.

The crowd was huge (the X Games claim fifty thousand people), and I'd never seen this many people in such a frenzy over skateboarding. But they definitely had something to cheer about. The level of skateboarding was so high, it was ridiculous. Colin did five different tricks and each could hav won on its own. Bob Burnquist landed a fakie 5-0 to kickflip and Bucky Lasek was throwing down tricks like heelflip frontside Cabs. I had fifteen minutes to kill, so why not let the clock run out with a few 900 attempts? Show off a bit for the excited crowd.

I wasn't that serious, I just thought I'd crank a few, but they felt different from the get go; the spin was consistent on most of my attempts. I knew the only way the night would end was with me stomping one down or knocking myself out in the process. I had no excuses. For thirteen years I'd been spinning the trick, only to wreck myself or wimp out.

Everything blanked out except for the 9. The announcer's voice occasionally drifted into my head, telling me time was up, that this was my last try, but there was no way I was about to stop when the 9s felt that good. They'd need every security guard on site to pull me off the ramp. I'd keep attempting the trick after everyone had left and the lights were turned off if I had to. It was like Cake's song 'He's going the Distance."

I don't recall walking up the ramp after each attempt. All I thought about was getting a good look in the middle of the spin so I could spot a landing. I'd just drop in, spin, fall, get up, and walk up the ramp over and over again. Everyone else had stopped skating. I remember thinking since the time limit was way up I wasn't going to win the best trick with a 9, but it wasn't about the contest.On my twelfth try the spin was fast and I had enough height, so I shifted my weight and threw it back, but it still felt like all the others. Then I realized, a little after the fact, that I was rolling across the flat bottom and up the other side of the ramp. After thirteen years of trying unsuccessfully to land the 9, all I could think was, Finally!

I freaked out as a mob of friends jumped on the ramp and tackled me. They hoisted me on their shoulders and carried me around. I was about to explode, I was so happy. I'm usually a stoic guy, and more than a few people (my wife included) have commented that I'm hard to read, but that night I let it go. I couldn't keep anything in. I thanked the crowd and announced that this was 'the best day of my life'."

--Introduction

On Skateboarding Being Subjective
"Skating is such a subjective form that judging seems almost ridiculous when you think about it. It's like having a paint-off between Van Gogh and Picasso and declaring a winner at the end. That's always been one of the problems with skateboarding contests - they're not exactly a true reflection of who's the best. Skating is not like gymnastics or figure skating, with predetermined points for tricks. How you do a trick can be just as important as the trick itself."--p. 108, Tony Hawk, Occupation: Skateboarder

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