CONTENTS Introduction CHAPTER ONE A History of Ups and Downs CHAPTER TWO Boards and Bruises CHAPTER THREE Innovation The Ollie and Beyond CHAPTER FOUR Free Skate Glossary For More Information For Further Reading Bibliography Index 4 6 13 23 31 40 41 44 45 46
introduction tony tony Hawk had already failed seven times when he stood on top of the vert at the fifth annual X Games in 1999 He was trying to land a 900 a two and-a-half rotation spin in the Vert Best Trick contest He’d fallen off his board time and again each attempt could have led to a career-ending injury But on the eighth attempt his last Hawk skated up each side of the ramp once before spinning into action and landing on his board with a deep knee bend at the end of the trick Jono Schwan another pro skateboarder described the feat to ESPN com in 2014 The reason Tony’s 900 was so incredible was that most thought it was impossible to do like getting a man to the moon Perhaps the most influential trick in modern skateboarding Hawk’s 900 inspired a generation of skateboarders Pro skate boarder Tom Schaar was born the year Hawk landed the 900 In 2011 Schaar became the youngest skater ever to land the trick He saw Hawk’s trick on a video and told ESPN com It inspired me to skate vert instead of street It kind of launched my whole skat ing career In 2012 at age twelve Schaar became the first skateboarder to land a 1080 4
INTRODUCTION Tony Hawk is one of the best-known skaters in the world for a reason He’s mastered innovative tricks There’s no keeping up with the progress of skateboarding tricks today because they can happen anywhere While pros are competing for big purses a kid with a hand-me-down skate board can be trying a daring new trick at a local skate park That’s one of the most extreme parts of skateboarding it’s possible for anyone to try And that means anyone can try for the impossible too It’s this outlook that led Hawk to the top of the sport in 1999 and what will take others there in years to come
