Tony Hawk
Tony Hawk (Anthony Frank Hawk) was born on May 12th of 1968 to Frank and Nancy Hawk in San Diego, California. Tony has two sisters and one brother (Lenore, Patricia and Steve).
Today, Tony Hawk is considered to be one of the greatest skaters of all-time, with his dominance of the vert. There is no doubt Tony Hawk is the most successful skateboarder ever. He has been the hero to many young kids over the years.
Ever since his early childhood, Tony Hawk has shown fierce determination. This determination showed even before he started skateboarding. When he was six years old, his mother took him to an Olympic sized swimming pool, and Tony made a goal of swimming the entire length of the pool underwater without coming up for air. He wasn't able to do it and was very disappointed in himself. There is another story of him striking out in a little league baseball game, and being so upset about it that he went and chilled out by hiding in a ravine until his dad "physically coaxed him out." Physically? LOL. I think that mean's his dad might have put a boot to his ass to get him out of the ravine. Regardless, it just goes to show that Tony Hawk does not accept failure well. That's why he's been such a successful skater, he doesn't give up (plus, he just has crazy raw skater talent). Hell, three strikes weren't enough for him, he wanted to keep swinging until he knocked the crap out of that ball. If he doesn't land a skateboarding trick, he's going to keep trying until he does. He has the scars on his legs to prove it.
Tony's dad, Frank, was always supportive of Tony's passion for skating, and is the founder of both the California Amateur Skateboard League and the National Skateboarding Association. Sadly, Frank Hawk died in 1995.
Tony Hawk is the inventor of tons of cool aerial skate tricks like the McHawk, Stalefish, Madonna, and something like 80 more, but he is definitely most famous for being the first skater to successfully land a 900, which he did on TV at the June 27 1999 X Games. In case you don't know what a 900 is, it's turning two and a half rotations (900°) in the air and then landing back on the pipe. This was awesome, nobody had seen anything like it before. Tony received great attention for landing the 900 and he soon became a household name. I think everybody under 40 years old knows who Tony Hawk is today. He retired from competitive skateboarding soon after the 1999 X games, but he still skates and performs and shows and demos across the world.
After the skateboarding industry slowed down a bit around 1992 and the popularity of vert skating slacked off and street skating became more popular, Tony Hawk started Birdhouse Projects along with Per Welinder, another ex-Powell Peralta pro skater. The company is now known as Birdhouse Skateboards. Tony also owns a film and television production company called 900 Films. Also, Hawk Clothing company was started by Tony and his family, but later was sold to Quiksilver. Hawk Clothing and Hawk Shoes are now sold only at Kohl's department stores in the United States.
The Boom Boom HuckJam tour is a Tony Hawk creation and is the most successful action sports tour that combines skateboarding, BMX, and Freestyle Motocross. The tour travelled to arenas throughout the United States in 2003, 2004, and 2005. In 2006, the tour hit Six Flags parks across the country and is doing the same thing in the summer of 2007.
Tony Hawk has had huge success in the video game industry also, teaming up with Activision to release a series of popular skateboarding video games, starting with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater in 1999. In 2000, Tony wrote an autobiography with Sean Mortimer that was entitled HAWK: Occupation: Skateboarder. The book made it to #18 on to the New York Times bestseller list. He later wrote a second book, which is a road-trip journal called Between Boardslides and Burnout.
In March 2007, Six Flags Fiesta Texas unveiled Tony Hawk's Big Spin, their latest roller coaster addition to the park. The coaster is a skatepark themed ride that spins while cruising around the track.
The Tony Hawk Foundation is a non-profit organization whose goal is to provide assistance to low-income communities for the creation of well-designed skate parks. In April of 2007, Tony Hawk, along with eleven other athletes (Andre Agassi, Muhammad Ali, Lance Armstrong, Warrick Dunn, Jeff Gordon, Mia Hamm, Andrea Jaeger, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Mario Lemieux, Alonzo Mourning, and Cal Ripken, Jr.), founded "Athletes for Hope", a public charity that connects, athletes, individuals, and businesses with charitable and community causes. This charity was publicly launched on national TV during an episode of ABC's Good Morning America and on ESPN.
Tony got married in 1990 to Cindy Dunbar, and in 1992 they welcomed their first son, Hudson Riley Hawk into the world. He goes by the name Riley, and skating definitely runs in the family because Riley is himself an amateur skateboarder for his father's Birdhouse Skateboards company. Tony Hawk and Cindy Dunbar divorced in 1995, and in 1996 Tony married Erin Lee in 1996, and the marriage produced two more sons and future skater dudes, Spencer Hawk was born in 1999, and Keegan Hawk in 2001. Tony and Erin divorced in 2004. Tony Hawk was married again on January 12, 2006 to Lhotse Merriam.