Speaking as someone in his mid-thirties, I feel like Tony Hawk has loomed over culture my entire life. The iconic skateboarder broke out as a teenage prodigy on the pro circuit with the Bones Brigade, the legendary Powell Peralta team in the early 1980s. By 1999, Hawk etched his name into the history books when he landed his first 900 — two and a half mid-air spins — at the X Games, a feat that had never been done before, let alone live on television. The moment vaulted the sport firmly into the mainstream, changing it forever. Just as pivotal was the launch of the video game franchise to which Hawk lent his name: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, a wildly influential video game franchise that left millions with an ingrained fondness for sore thumbs and its sick-as-hell soundtracks (yeahhhhh). A generational totem, the series was recently remastered for modern consoles.
Now Hawk is auctioning the board he used for that historic 900, along with other memorabilia, through Julien’s Auctions on September 23 in Los Angeles. The proceeds will benefit the Skatepark Project, formerly the Tony Hawk Foundation, which has funded more than 700 skateparks in underserved areas since its founding over two decades ago.
Nostalgia, though, isn’t really his thing. “I’m not personally much of a collector,” says the boyish-faced Hawk, a video call from San Diego. “I didn’t really covet a lot of stuff, but I found a bunch of items recently and realized I had enough that could be worthy of a collection.” It’s a surprising quality to me; I had always assumed skateboarders are, to some extent, gearhards. “Oh, it’s more that I’m just not a sentimental person,” he explains.” “To be honest, I’ve thrown away most of my trophies over the years. I try to keep it moving and go on to learning the next things. I guess I didn’t want to dwell on previous victories and be an Uncle Rico of sorts.”
As I also learned through our brief conversation, Hawk’s media diet is fairly old-school: not many podcasts, plenty of Instagram. Here’s what Hawk told us he's been listening to and enjoying lately.
Podcast: Stay Free: The Story of the Clash
I don’t really listen to many podcasts unless they come highly recommended, but one that really impressed me was this documentary about The Clash narrated by Chuck D. I’m a huge Clash fan, and there were things he uncovered even I didn’t know about. The Clash was one of the first punk bands I ever heard back in the early eighties, when they were just consistently putting out music. I followed Joe Strummer and Mick Jones through to their other careers — Big Audio Dynamite, the Mescaleros.
One of my great regrets is that I skipped a chance to see Strummer perform. I had an opportunity to go to a show, but I had an early flight the next morning so I chose not to, and not long after that, he died. That was tough. To me, The Clash were the Beatles of punk.
Punk music played a huge role in my life. It was the soundtrack to my youth, to skate parks and skateboarding. I was really young when I first got into it. I remember being at the Marina del Rey skate park once and the Circle Jerks showed up to do a concert. They shot the cover of Group Sex right there, while I was staking a bowl nearby.
Ed. note: Sadly, Stay Free: The Story of the Clash, which was a Spotify and BBC Studio co-production, is no longer available on Spotify or any podcast platform. You can still find it if you search around.
Instagram Accounts: Artifaxing, Foo’s Gone Wild, Unified Goods
I’m not much of a TikTok person. I would say I’m more active on Instagram. There are a few accounts I really like: Artifaxing, which I’m not sure I can explain but they’re an online community and have a cool vibe. I like some silly ones, like Foo’s Gone Wild, which is hard to describe in a way that does it justice. It’s a lot of Hispanic culture humor, pretty self-deprecating. I’ve lived in San Diego my whole life, which is obviously close to the border, so I appreciate their jokes and references. It’s really fun. I’ve actually been featured on there before.
Another account that comes in my feed all the time that I like: Unified Goods. They’re a store based in London, I believe, and everything they post — bands, culture stuff, design — it’s always right in my wheelhouse. A lot of it is aesthetic. I don’t really have much art around the house, unless it’s centered around skateboarding. I guess I have a lot of works by skater artists. I’ve got a big Thomas Campbell painting, a wood project by Shepard Fairey, things like that.
The one thing I really do collect is skateboards from films. I have a hoverboard from Back to the Future, for example, and the skateboard Robin Williams rode in the movie Hook. I also have a prop from CSI from when I did a cameo on the show. It’s the one I get hit in the face with. It looks real, but it’s actually a rubber skateboard.
Television: The Sixth Commandment
My wife and I watch a lot of TV at night, winding down before bed. We’re definitely consumers of all of the streaming shows. One show that impressed us most recently was The Sixth Commandment. It’s British, and it’s this fascinating true crime story. The title doesn’t really do it justice, but the story is about a kind of grifter and a murder in a small village. It’s awful and tragic, but really well done. I tend to like shows that are more reality-based like that. We also just finished The Agency, which was really cool.
Video Game: Mario Kart World (or Mario Karting with your kids more generally)
I’m not really a big gaming person, but I would say the closest I get to being one is how, throughout all of my kids’ youths, I play Mario Kart with them on whatever Nintendo system they had at the time. That was the consistent activity we all did together, even now with the new Switch and the new Mario Kart. But the unfortunate thing about playing with your kids so much is that, at some point, they end up beating you. They tend to have more time to practice, you know?
I usually play as Dry Bones, because — come on — Bones Brigade!
