At the age of 48 you’d think legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk would be getting gradually less capable of launching himself into the air on a piece of wood with four wheels.
Surely a lifetime of skateboarding would begin to take its toll eventually, especially as a big part of the sport is falling flat on your arse.
But no: exactly 17 years after Hawk first pulled off the iconic trick at the X Games in San Francisco, he decided to have one last go. These days the skateboarder is best known for his ridiculously successful (at least in the early days) video games series, but in terms of his career, the original 900 – a trick that consists of two and a half rotations whilst airborne -was a landmark.
In a video with RIDE’s YouTube channel, Hawk reflects on how the 900 shaped his competitive standing and the years that followed. It clearly holds symbolic importance.
But if the 900 is Tony Hawk’s friend, it’s a turbulent friendship. As you can see in the clip, he bailed several times before finally landing the trick and rolling away.
When you consider the fact that many professional footballers sustain injuries that make it difficult to play much after their careers finish, it’s pretty remarkable that the world’s most famous skateboarder is still going at it just shy of his 50th birthday. He told RIDE that it even surprised him:
“I never thought I’d be doing this at my age when I was young. I really didn’t think that was a possibility. But I’m still going. Keep going until the wheels fall off I guess.”
