"Tony Hawk"

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Hey guys, we're about to do an episode of Smart List.

Are you guys ready?

Are you ready?

Coming in hot.

My brain thinks too fast before my mouth.

Are you just sliding us in here?

I'm sliding us in here because I like the energy.

I like the energy of my voice right now.

I like how fast I'm talking.

I'm really excited for the episode.

Are you guys on board to listen or what?

Sean, sit down.

Sorry. Just take a second.
Sit back down. Buckle up.
Here comes some smartness. Smart.
Light us. Smart.
Light us. Smart.
Light us. I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but can I ask you a question? Is that the part I'm going to take the wrong way? Or is it the question that's coming? Here's the question.
In the last 12 hours, have you been chugging soy sauce? Boy, that's a pretty shiny glass house. Did you just clean those windows? You fucking...
But there's a lot of sodium in those hot dogs at the Diner Stadium. And especially the veggie dogs, which, you know, my soft Hollywood ass eats.
Of course you do. Do you ask them to cut the dog into a salad form and you just eat it.

By the way, we've all seen your hot saggy ass in Ozark.

It's a nice ass.

It's not 20.

And then I had four bags

of peanuts. Those come salted.

But you know what?

Did you really have four bags of peanuts?

Yeah, but they're smaller this year.

So it's really two. Oh, okay.

That's a good story you tell yourself.

I love a

Thank you. Did you really have four bags of peanuts? Yeah, but they're smaller this year.
So it's really two. Oh, okay.
That's a good story you tell yourself. I love, I love, I love a, I was going to do a, I was going to do a nut joke.
Bag of nuts. You say it.
You love chugging nuts. Yeah, you know, and my mouth and a nice bag of nuts.
But it's cheap. This is a cheap joke.
It is cheap. You know what I was going to, you know what was driving me crazy? I was thinking about you driving to the thing was like driving.
We had never talked about driving on the show. I had a guy yesterday park his car half in a parking spot.
And so that his right bumper was almost an inch from my door. So I couldn't get back into my car.
And I was like, hey, man. And I see this woman.
I go, look at this parking job. And this woman's on the other side of me going to get her in her car and she goes, oh, I thought you were talking about mine because my parking's not great because she had, in fairness, she'd attempted a parallel parking with no other cars around her and bailed because it wasn't great.
But. I love watching somebody bail from a parking.
With all that extra space. She actually looked over at me when he was, and I was sitting there with the kids.
We were waiting for food, sitting outside this restaurant. She looks at me and I kind of went, just kind of like that, non-judgment, like as much as I could.
Just nodding. So anyway, so then I go to look, find the guy, and he's picking up like five pizzas.
And I go, hey man, is this your car? You've parked in front of my door. So again, he goes, one second.
And I go, no, no, no, no, you're waiting for me. He goes, just one second.
The other people parked here. No, I'm just picking up my phone one second.
I'm like, oh, am I on your time now? Did you say that? So I wait for this guy. You didn't say it.
He comes back with shit. I didn't say that.
I did not say that. It's something I would do, but you think it.
I say it, and it's a problem. I know.
And I'm the pizza guy. And you're the pizza guy.
So as he comes back and I'm like, unbelievable. And I go, this guy is so inconsiderate.
And this woman goes, she goes, I love Smartless. I listen to Smartless every day.
And I go, well, this is going to make it into the show. So you're going to hear.
So you're out there, whoever you are. She's a very nice lady.
So the guy comes back with the pizzas. And he's like, these other people parked on the other side of me.

And he was like Italian or something.

Because you kept going, they parked on the other side.

And I couldn't get it in anyway. That's not Italian.

And I'm like, oh, okay.

So anyway, so you're good?

Are you good now?

Are you all loaded up?

Can I load my car now?

Yeah.

With myself?

You know what it is?

You know what it is?

It's when people do shit and they have zero consideration for the world around them. Which is a lot.
It's like people with their driving again. It's like blinkers.
Yeah. It's like put your fucking blinker on, man.
I know. That just happened to me yesterday.
But our guest, I bet you he wishes people would use their blinkers because this would impact him directly because of what he does. Because he rides motorcycles? Well, let's just say this.

He's a real-life action hero in that his job—

You've got Arnold Schwarzenegger?

I said real life.

I said real life.

Oh, wait, I can pick it off the laugh right there.

This is a guy who turned pro in what he does at the age of 14, I'm pretty sure.

He dominated for about a dozen years of being the number one at what he does.

He's the first person ever in competition to pull off a 900, what they call a 900, at the 1999 X Games. He is one of the most recognizable people in the world.
He's got all sorts of foundations. He's now got a new podcast that is going out to the whole world.
He's an incredible athlete. Call Tony Hawk Talks About Shit? And his name is Anthony Hawk.
Tony Hawk. Oh, Tony Hawk.
Come on. There he is.
Hello there. Tony, welcome to the podcast, man.
So excited to have you here, man. I'm such such a huge fan of what you do you're one of those people i watch what you do and i go every single time i could never do that i could never do that nothing you do could i do is that the name of your new podcast tony hawk talks about shit no that's not the name of your new podcast what is the name of your new podcast it is called hawk versus wolf and it is with is with my friend Jason Ellis, who had a very good run of success on SiriusXM.
And he and I started actually on SiriusXM together about 15 years ago and both left there eventually and decided to come back together and tell our stories. And it's fun.
He is hilarious and has been in some of the craziest situations and I have my share of stories too. Wow.
First of all, Sean is champing at the bit. He loves people's crazy scenario situation stories more than probably anything and he's hoping that it involves you being hurt.
But let me just ask you this, Tony, and you've been asked this a million times and I'm sure you're bored, but take us back. You started as a pro skater when you were a teenager.
What was that? What was that moment of like, you're a kid who skates, you know, grew up in Southern California and all of a sudden what you're, you're doing it professionally. What was that? Which is kind of in quotes, right? Because there wasn't a bunch of money in the, in that business at the time, right? Right.
Yeah. It's, it's, it's more along those lines.
It was, it was kind of like being deemed a professional hula hooper. It wasn't, it wasn't some, there were, there were no contracts being offered to me.
Um, I basically entered a, uh, I filled out an entry form to a competition and instead of checking amateur, I checked professional and that was it. it i was pro i moved up a class in competition and i was competing for a hundred dollars first place prize but i was 14 and 100 bucks you know i was on my way to buying a moped so um it felt awesome because it was you know in terms of like where i what i was doing in the world I was in, that was the, that was the top of the line.
Um, but, uh, I never imagined it'd be a career, not at all. And so you, maybe turning pro wasn't a huge deal in terms of the purses and stuff initially, but you are like going to competitions with that just Southern California where you instantly kind of around the country, around the world.
At that moment in skating, it was almost exclusively in Southern California. Okay.
Yeah. The Dogtown Z-Wise era had kind of ended and skating was starting to sort of implode.
And so the only skate parks around were in Southern California. And so I was, my dad was driving me to all of them.
So was there a sort of, was there a moment in that industry where stuff blew up?

And I'll bet you were either a part of that or solely responsible for that or certainly in attendance at whatever event that was where things went, oh, my God, this is now.

You could definitely sense it was the start of sort of the X Games or what helped out with snowboarding.

And did a bunch of things coalesce at a certain moment and the industry became white hot? Yeah, I think that the perfect storm was, the X Games was on the rise in popularity in the late 90s. Our first video game was released in 1999.
And all of those things happened at the right time. And skating blew up in the early 2000s and got to a point where I never imagined.
I never dreamed that, you know, we would be on television or be doing arena tours and it was wild. And it kind of, I mean, it has wavered a bit in popularity, but the foundation is set.
And I feel like it's always going to sort of be there as a choice for kids to be doing it as readily as baseball or basketball. How much time do you spend thinking about pushing the sport forward in developing not only just new tricks? Because, I mean, I think gravity will probably present the ceiling against that.
But thinking about incorporating, you know, those frigging little – those scooters like blades or those motorized skateboards or like are you – do you feel a burden to think about, okay, what's next? And I've got to stamp this. I've got to drive it.
I've got to keep the sport growing so it doesn't plateau out. Do you feel a responsibility for that at all? I guess I do in a sense, but I think of it just more along the lines of fun and how do we continue to keep the awareness of skating or to broaden the reach of skating.
But I can tell you the olympics are going to do that by default next month uh skateboarding is making its debut in tokyo 2021 olympics that's incredible that's so exciting that's amazing i i i would assume you're going to be there you're going to be a part of of that in some capacity i am going to be there nbc has me doing um interviews and-ups and things, but they haven't actually given me my exact job description yet. So I'm just excited to be invited because it's not easy to get to Tokyo to even be there at all.
Yeah, maybe your job description is just go over there and be rad and be Tony Hawk. By the way, speaking of rad, it's a word I still use, and I imagine you use it too.
I've gotten a lot of flack for using it. It's still okay to use rad, right? I feel like it's come full circle.
Yeah. Like, it wasn't cool, and now we're back in it.
We're so back in it. You know what, I would like to put...
Tony Hawk and I are back in it with the rad. Hang on, Jason, I'm still basking in the glow of.
He has validated that. How do you feel? I feel like the clothing version of that is overalls.
I would like to offer that as maybe something. I would love to.
I really miss wearing overalls. Wore that a lot back when rad was invented, which is short for radical, Tracy.
And I would like overalls back in. So if you can maybe put that into, into, into the culture, I'd appreciate that.
I don't know if I have that much pull. We can bring back rad.
We can make it cool. Overalls would be hard.
Wait, Tony, what are you doing in New York? I'm here for our anniversary. My wife and I, we actually escaped the kids for the weekend.
You know what? By the way, Tony, you don't have to answer that. What is this stuff kind of grilling about his personal life, what he's doing with his wife? He's having a nice weekend alone.
He wants to know what shows you're going to go see. And I'll bet you're a big musical fan, right? Yeah.
Are you? Do you have any great Broadway stories, Tony? Do you have any Broadway mishaps? I am working on a Broadway project. Of course you are.
Are you being sick? Oh, my gosh. Yes, I am.
Starlight Express comes back. Not Starlight Express.

Starlight Express.

What is it?

Well, it will incorporate skateboarding, live skateboarding,

and music from Mark Mothersbaugh, some of the Devo library.

Wow, that's cool.

Kind of the story of outcasts.

Oh, all of a sudden, Jason and Will are excited.

Okay, keep going.

You know, that's really cool.

What a cool idea.

How far along are you guys on that?

Yeah, and can Sean be part of it?

Sorry.

I'm sorry. Okay, keep going.
You know, that's really cool. What a cool idea.
How far along are you guys on that? Yeah, and can Sean be part of it? Sorry. We, as far as we can get through COVID, but, you know, we have a book and we are working on music and everything.
It's awesome. I mean, and Mark Mothersbaugh is a genius.
So it's been so fun listening or watching him come up with this stuff. Hey, Tony, how many kids do you have? How old are they? And do they skateboard? Between my wife and I, we have six kids.
Five boys, all adult age now, all in college or graduated college. And they all skate.
I have a 12 year old daughter that, um, she dabbles in skating, but none of her friends really do it. So she's not hooked on it the way they are.
And, uh, uh, do they feel any pressure to, to try to be as good as the greatest skateboarder of all time? I mean, how are they comfortable with that? Um, my oldest son, Riley, he's a 28 actually, and he is a pro skater, um, and is far better than I am in many ways. And the other ones, they don't, they don't take it as seriously.
They enjoy it very much and they're all very good in their own right, but they're not trying to make a career out of it. They, I think they just enjoy the sort of auxiliary opportunities that we get, especially if we're traveling.
One of the first stops always is whatever skate park is in the area. Right.
Now, whenever I've seen you over the years, you always, you know, because of your line of work, you always get to dress however you want. Like right now, and you're in a hoodie, you're skating, you're in shorts or whatever.
It's always just super cash. Have you ever had a job where you actually had to wear like a suit or some kind of- Anything with buttons? Any kind of uniform? Have you ever learned how to use a button? I don't know how to tie a tie, if that's what you're getting at.
Is that true? That is true. Wow.
I have one tie in my closet. It's pre-tied and I loosen it and then i tighten it that is okay and if anybody ever unties it you're screwed right oh it's bad yeah it's a bummer i didn't really know how to tie a tie until i uh started doing arrested development and then i had to i had to tie a tie every single morning for uh what a few years and is that true that is true yeah what about you sean about you, Sean? You any good with a tie? Yeah, look at me.
Yeah. Of course you are.
This is the first time Sean hasn't been wearing a baseball hat in 19 years. I know.
My hair is so gross. To answer your question, the only real job I had was being a paperboy as a kid.
That's a bike and a front basket and long tosses? Yeah. I did it on a skateboard.
Oh, did you really? You did it on a skateboard. Did you really? That's hilarious.
It is. Yeah.
Now, I'm sorry to digress for a second, but I'm a goofy foot. That means I'm a lefty Tracy.
Same. Now, when I'm kicking, getting speed up, the kicking foot needs to go to the back of the board when you're done kicking, right? Not the front of the board.
I think I'm doing it wrong and I think I'm teaching my daughter to do it wrong. Yeah, so what you're describing is what we call Mongo and you are pushing with your front foot, correct? Yeah, you're so Mongo, dude.
And Mongo is not rad. No, it's not rad, dude.
It's not rad at all, dude. You're so Mongo and so unmad.
That's so gross. Mongo's rongo? And if you want to get into the weeds, it's because you are pushing with your front foot.
And then when you put your front foot on the board, you have to readjust your back foot as well. Yeah.
Yeah. And there's a lot of adjusting happening.
So a lot of things that can go wrong in that transition. Yes.
And it's because you're insecure, right? Is that where you're going to – it's because you're insecure and you have a lot of issues that you should deal with and you haven't dealt with because you're too Mongo in the head. Mongo is a state of mind, right? Exactly, yes.
I'm going to fucking kick your ass, Arnett. Mongo.
Guys, I can't make it to – I can't do the podcast today. I'm feeling a little Mongo.
I'm too Mongo. I'm too Mongo to do this.

Oh, my God.

Now, what do you have to say to the kids out there about elbow pads, knee pads, and helmet?

All the time or just when you're doing something that's carrying a lot of speed or you're dealing with the ramps, the half pipes, things like that?

I mean, if you're just going down the street, you're getting from place A to place B,

what kind of pads are we talking about? Any at all? well I recommend pads for beginners absolutely you know helmet can save your life and especially when you're skating the bigger ramps and things I mean that's just pure survival yeah and now a word from their community. In a society that glorifies hyper-independence, it's easy to forget that we're all better when we have a support system behind us.
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I want to talk about, Tony, the guys know I love to talk about this. What's the worst injury?

I know you're probably sick of talking about it,

but I'm fascinated with stuff like that.

Worst injury and how long did it take to get over?

I broke my pelvis, and it took me about six weeks to walk with a severe limp.

How old were you?

I think I was 37 or 38.

How many times have you been to the emergency room? Over or under 15 times? Over. Oh, God.
Oh, my God. Sean, you broke your pelvis when the Macarena came out, didn't you? Because you just went so nuts.
You were so taken with the Macarena. I was so excited.
And then what's the thing the kids do with the fists? Shake them back and forth behind them and in front of them and behind them and in front of them. You re-snapped it on that, I think, trying to learn that, right? Oh, that one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's that one called? Oh, flossing, yeah.
Flossing. Jason, did you just get an email from 2017? What happened? So, Tony, so you've been to the hospital dozens of years.
You broke your pelvis. And I like the way you had to think about it you're like i guess when i broke my pelvis did you ever have like a big injury when you were a kid and your your folks were like dude you got to stop skateboarding they they never told me to stop but they were concerned because i i got a pretty bad concussion early on knocked knocked out my front teeth.
And I remember I had a string of injuries all in within a year when I started getting serious about skateboarding. And then they started sending me insurance forms in the mail as if I were an elderly, high risk patient.
So, and my, my parents said, oh, this is because you've been to the hospital so many times. But I was lucky in that they knew I was going to keep doing it.
What happened for you when the moment when you're like, oh, this, I'm going to march right up in front of my parents and say, basically, how do you like me now? I told you it was going to work out and things are working out for me and start getting on board because look what just happened. Was it a check? Was it a contract? Was it an award? Honestly, I got really lucky.
My parents were always supportive of it, even when the outlook was bleak. And so they were as excited and surprised as I was when I was making money.
And I literally bought a house while I was a senior in high school. Wow.
You bought a house while you were in high school? Yeah, in my senior year. My dad co-signed for it because I was not 18 yet, because he was encouraging me to obviously put my money away

because he could see that it kept coming and I was not really concerned with saving it.

That is officially rad.

Yeah, and I know I've read things about you that you're an entrepreneur.

You have a bunch of different businesses.

Like, what are they?

Well, mostly my skate brand, Birdhouse Skateboards.

Yeah, we have one here at the house. Oh, thank you.
My 12-year-old has one. You're the reason we've been going for almost 30 years now.
God, that's amazing. And then we have a foundation, the Skate Park Project, for public skate parks and underserved areas.
Hawk Clothing is a clothing brand that my siblings and I started for, well, it's basically supposed to be like skate and surf clothing for kids. That's so cool.
But turned into something bigger than that. Do you have like a lifelong battle with security guards? Like when you see a security guard, because they're the people who are trying to keep you from skating everywhere.
Do you see a security guard? Does your back arch up a little bit and you're like, here goes my enemy. I endured them through the years, obviously.
I'm more of a skate park or ramp skater, so I'm more about skating in designated spots. But you would be surprised at the anomaly of the stuff that I can get away with sometimes when I get recognized.
Of course. Wow, I'm sure.
Yeah, like you could just jump into somebody's backyard and start skating and they came out and then they see it's Tony Hawk and then they're like, oh, yeah, it's cool. Not a problem.
Yeah, just keep at it. Do you need me to take the water out of this pool? Just give me a few minutes.
Do you want someone to drink? Can we film you? We went to an apartment complex where they had an empty swimming pool that we heard about. And we got there and they were very eager to kick us out.
And then one of the guys recognized me and then they welcomed us and made barbecue for us. That's awesome.
That's true. That is awesome.
I want to know, how old were you and what was the moment where you kind of looked around and said, wait a minute, I can blow this thing out into a corporation much bigger than just skating into all of these businesses that you started. Was there a person that, that caught your ear and was like, Hey, you know, if you were smart, you would be kind of like branch out and do all that stuff? Or was there something that inspired you that happened?

You're like, wait a minute. I think now's the opportunity to hit while the iron is hot.
I think it was in the early 2000s when suddenly my name was synonymous with video games. And people started saying my name as more of a company or a brand than me personally.
that was when I realized that it had a broader reach and that I could probably do a lot more, like have a lot more opportunity and maybe create other direction or other businesses through skateboarding. And that's when I started the Boom Boom Huck Jam, which was an arena tour that featured skateboarding, BMX, and motocross.

And it was all stemmed just from that sort of recognition factor that I had.

Yeah, it's really cool.

Does your skateboarding talent translate similarly to a snowboarding talent or a surfing talent?

A little.

I have been surfing almost as long as I've been skating, but I don't like big waves. I don't like being held underwater by the sheer force of them.
And snowboarding is maybe a little bit closer for me. I've been doing that since, well, since actually it was invented.
I wonder if, like, does Kelly Slater skate as well as you surf, or does Sean White skate as well as you snowboard? I'd love to see that smack down between the three of you guys oh yeah that's a good idea i'll tell you sean white is an excellent skateboarder yeah he is a pro skateboarder as well as a pro snowboarder kelly on skateboards not so much yeah but he can play golf my god can he yeah oh yeah he's a great dude we should play with him play golf? No. Okay, well, we're going to start you real soon.
The other thing is my son just finished. My 12-year-old, 12-and-a-half-year-old, he just did his first – he just did a week of surf camp, and he did really great, and he had the same thing, though.
He was just like – there were a couple days where there was a pretty big swell. Now I gonna i'm gonna start using verbiage that tony and i know because we're both kind of rad yeah kind of talk slow for me and sean yeah so there's a pretty sweet swell anyway he got after the first week he got they gave him the word for best wipe out because he took a board to the nose sorry he he what he was cleaning something you said wipe out no no he took a board to the nose he was not a wipe out i know uh jason's such an inside cat he was cleaning something? You said wipeout? No, no, he took a board to the nose.
He was not a wipeout. I know.
Jason's such an inside cat. He was cleaning something.
Something fell on him, so he swelled. No, we were out.
They were kind of barreling. Well, okay, so here's the deal.
So we're, anyway, the point is he's surfing and he took the thing to the nose. And I understand that thing about surfing.
I didn't surf my first time until my 30s. And sometimes when those waves get big, I'm like, yeah, I'm scared of being held down by a huge wave.
That kind of bums me out. I like a lot of the other stuff, but that thing really freaks me out.
And also the water tastes like shit. Yeah, there's that.
You know, maybe we can put a little stevia in it

to cut the salt.

Have you guys,

Jason and Sean,

have you guys ever served?

Yeah, man.

No.

Are you kidding me, bro?

When?

Pokey board.

Pokey board.

Oh, jeez.

I mean,

I'm bored of it now.

A lot.

No, I do.

I know you skateboarded.

I once stood up on a board

just long enough

and it's just been the one time but long enough to go, oh, wait a second. The waves get smaller once you stand up.
I did a lot of boogie boarding when I was a kid, and of course the waves are at their max height because you're always on your belly. But once you stand up on something, you're like, oh, I'm already six feet.
So a six-foot wave is, you know, I'm looking it right in the eye, so it's fine now. But that just happened the once.
I'm remembering Jason, you talking about, um, and correct me if I'm wrong, but hearing Tony talk about skating as a kid is reminding you of you with your skateboard on the bus in Woodland Hills. Is that ringing a bell? Yeah, I, I did, I did skate quite a bit when I was a kid living in the Valley.
And, uh, when I had to get myself to auditions, um, I would jump on the bus and ride it into downtown, and then I'd have to skate a bunch of blocks to my audition.

So I'd have my little skateboard and my headshot and my resume in a manila envelope just skating down Hollywood Boulevard at 12 years old and, you know, just trying to make a living, man, while you were, you know, figuring out how to flick boogers in elementary school, punk.

So you're OG.

Jason, you are OG.

Oh, he's OG.

Yeah, man.

Back when they were plastic boards with big, dumb, ugly wheels, you know, and only one

tail on that thing.

I don't believe you wrote a plastic board.

I don't believe you're that one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It bent in the middle.

It was well before wood was invented.

Oh, those skinny ones, those real skinny ones?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sean, have you ever skated?

Did you ever skate at all?

I did.

I had a skateboard when I was little,

but I tried it once or twice and wiped out,

and I was like, well, that doesn't feel good,

so why do it?

Yeah, why put yourself through it?

Why put myself in that position

to just wipe out again and hurt myself? I didn't understand. And then back in the red wagon, right? Yeah, and then back through it? Why put myself in that position to just wipe out again and hurt myself?

I didn't understand. And then back in the red wagon, right? Yeah, and then back.
Screw this skateboard. And I had Tracy pull me all around the neighborhood.
Tony, what's your least favorite thing, sort of thing that's out there about skating, like some sort of cliche or something that's always bummed you out or just feels really inorganic? You're like, ah, that's not. Well, I think there were a lot of stereotypes about skating or skaters that they were just stoners or outcasts or problematic.
And I think that it was just more that they were looking for something else. You know, they were not, they didn't fit into team sports.
Like that's how I discovered it. I didn't really feel like I fit in team sports.
And, and I found this, this tribe of misfits that were very artistic, very creative. Um, and the whole idea that skaters are, are just trying to be, uh, punks is more because they didn't have any place to skate.
So they skated on public property and hence the whole security guard issue and um and and i feel like when you look deeper into it you see that skaters are disciplined they're creative they're responsible i mean most of my friends are dads and they skate when they can and you know they pay mortgage and just have regular lives. Given that skating is so sort of simplistic, the physics of it, just a board and some wheels under it, it could have started like literally back when the wheel was invented.
Is there an agreed upon start of skateboarding? Like who invented the skateboard? Do we know? Marty McFly in 1957, right? 1957. I'll tell you what, that was, that movie was a huge boost for skating in the 80s.
For sure. Yeah, I'm sure.
Massive. I'm sure.
Yeah. No, it's always hotly debated of how it started.
The general consensus is that someone took a 2xfour and nailed roller skate trucks and wheels to it. What year that was or where that was is undetermined.
Wow. That would be, I smell a movie in that.
You mentioned like a bunch of your friends that are dads that still skate. At what point and what age do you look at them and go, oh, maybe it's time to hop on that thing.
Yeah, what is the cutoff there? Is it osteoporosis? When, you know, if you just catch a small rock and you jump off the board, everything snaps, that's probably the age, right? And what is that, 70? I'll let you know when I get there. Yeah, that's great.
I think I'm the one testing the waters the most. Yeah, I mean, you don't see a lot.
When you see those big pharmaceutical ads for like, you know, heart-thinning stuff and whatever, you never see them skateboarding, right? Like they're on walks and stuff. I guess when you're, right? Yeah, exactly.
Tony, is there another sport that you look up to that either you've always wanted to try and you're like, gosh, you know, that is just, that is the ultimate, you know, you have the ultimate respect for that. And is there one specific one? I do have a huge respect for the people who ride giant waves.
I mean, that just seems so terrifying in terms of survival. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Laird Hamilton's got nards for all of us, probably. Okay.
Yeah, I mean, it's just, you know, when you see. But also, I feel like the technology has come a long ways.
So, obviously, they have, they're better equipped for emergencies. But it just, to go out there and to know that, like, I'll skate a ramp any day, any size ramp.
But I know that that ramp is not going to crash down on top of me once I fall. Right, right, right, right.
Yeah, like, Laird Hamilton, he he's kind of he's kind of an outlier

too like you like he kind of did his own like he's created his own thing in big wave surfing right and he he kind of pioneered a lot of that am i wrong about that or am i right about that no absolutely he and he lives in a different realm of safety than anyone else i've ever met So cool.

Tony, what kind of music do you listen to?

Do you have, like, favorite bands or a certain type of music that you would listen to? Oh, and then tell us your favorite color and your fucking astrological sign. Hey, man, why don't you fucking dig a little bit deep? This is your guest, for Christ's sake.
I'm trying to put him in a box. I want to see if he's, like, into, like, I want to into like Southern California, kind of like that sort of pop punk bands like the Blink-182s, if that's his deal or if he's more old school indie like me.
Skater related. Yeah, because we're the same age.
We're roughly the same age. Got it.
Okay. Go ahead, Tony.
I would say more older punk, you know, like The Clash, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, that kind of stuff because... Sex Pistols.
Sex Pistols, yeah. I mean, that was the soundtrack to the skate parks when I grew up.
And that's what I knew and loved. And Devo is heavily on rotation.
Yeah, Murk Murth of the Spa. There we go.
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Thank you to Paramount Plus for sponsoring today's episode of SmartLess. Paramount Plus is the home of the UEFA Champions League.
The UEFA Champions League has reached the knockout stage where the best of the best in European club soccer And now, back to the show. What is the thing like Tony Hawk, Tony Hawk skating and the video games and everything about your life is out there in the world of sporting? What is the thing that people are like, I don't know, like the Broadway musical? People are like, wait, you're working on a Broadway musical.
That's pretty cool. Is there anything else like that, that people would be like, wait a minute, what? I used to play violin when I was a kid.
Oh, that's amazing. I literally gave it up for skating.
Wow. Because my music teacher told me that I had to choose one or the other.
Wow. And do you miss it? I do miss it.
Yes. And at the time, it was really kind of a toss-up.
What had the best income potential between the two careers, right? I don't think either one was choosing glory. Were you mad at your violin teacher for making you give up the violin a little bit? I sense some resentment.
A little bit, yeah. I feel like I should have just kept playing for fun, but I listened to him.
You know what you could do and this is a good way to maybe it might be cathartic and good way to kind of get over that is find out where they are your violin teacher go and buy their house and then as soon as it closes tear down the house and berate them and say this is your this is on you you made me do this you know if you picked it up again, could you play right away or no? I tried. No, it was not easy.
And do you like classical music? Do you listen to that stuff? Not really, but I think that if I were to pick it up again, I would try to just cover old songs like Clash and Sex Pistols. Yeah.
Sure. But if you rolled up to a stoplight and you're on your skateboard and you're pretty cool and you're very rad and all of a sudden you pulled up and there's some dude in a family car and he's playing classical music by himself, would you be like, what a nerd? And I'm talking about Jason.
Not at all. No, my, my wife is a huge fan of classical.
And so sometimes when I get in her car, that's what's blasting. Hey, have you had any embarrassing design sessions with any of these video game animators about hammering them that, no, dude, I don't skate like that? Or my face doesn't look like that? Or do you really grind them on sort of on your style? Do you care about the accuracy of your likeness in any of these? you you a stickler about a certain part of your technique that you like them to get right? I think that that's probably my biggest job through doing video games now is keeping it authentic because they've already figured out how skateboarding works, motion graphics, locations and things.
So really, I just need to step in there and say, no, this grind should look like this. You should be catching the board like this on this trick.
And yeah, I get into the weeds on it. Do you ever wear any of those motion capture suits? Oh, he's probably done it a million times, right? Yeah, many times.
Oh, wow, that's so cool. I imagine it has evolved so much in the time since the first Tony Hawk game in over 20 years that you quite literally probably know a lot about motion capture and the evolution of it, right? Yeah, I did it early on where you had to wear all the ping pong balls and have a million cameras set up that took forever.
And I do remember getting in the suit that is is so it's it's already embarrassing um you're feeling very vulnerable in the skin tight suit with all these balls and then and it was like okay go do your hardest tricks and go jason you never had to turn tricks with balls right no not well only not a bunch of balls all over me, but cameras, cameras were always on and there was, there was a maximum of two balls. Um, uh, but so Tony, are you the best at those games? Like, uh, I imagine there's some competitions that, how would you place in those, the video game competitions? I can hold my own.
I, I, I've learned through the years that if you have a game with your name on it, you should be able to play it and at least know how to complete it without cheating. But there are people that have a lot more time to spend on it and they get scores that are 10 times what I can do, a hundred times what I can do sometimes.
I've played it many times. I've owned a few versions of your games, just FYI.
I didn't want to lead with that, but I'm a bit of a gamer. Oh, thank you.
Excellent game. Excellent game.
Well, we remastered, if I may, we remastered the first two. And so they're out on all the new systems, including Switch, which was just released yesterday.
Wow. No way.
Nice. I'm on it.
Sean, I guess we just figured out

what you're doing tonight.

Yeah.

Yeah, for my birthday.

I'm just going to go.

Oh, yeah.

Happy birthday, Sean.

Oh, happy birthday.

Thanks.

Thanks so much.

Thanks.

My brother texted me a picture

of my mom's glass eye

and said,

Mom and I wish you a happy birthday.

His mom's been dead for a few years, Tony, just so in case you didn't know. Just FYI.
Well, Sean, listen. Sean, happy birthday.
His mom's been dead for a few years, Tony,

just so in case you didn't know.

Just FYI.

Well, Sean, listen,

Sean, happy birthday.

Your dad and I are,

I'm having drinks

with your dad tonight

because it's Father's Day

and he reached out to me to hang.

That's cool.

That makes sense.

Anyway, Tony, sorry.

Sorry, Tony.

Sidetrack.

Sorry, Tony, we digress.

But yes, your video game.

I'm going to get it.

I'm going to buy it. I'm going to win it and then I'll text it to you.
I appreciate it. I'm getting it for you for your birthday.
Thank you. Yeah.
So, Tony, and so you have this foundation where you create all this, you know, space for kids to use, blah, blah, blah. Like, you know, by the way, I say blah, blah, blah, like a complete jerk.
But what I mean is this is something that's important. That's our mission statement, actually.
Blah, blah, blah. Skate parks, blah, blah, blah.
I just mean that it's a lot. It was hard for me to encapsulate.
You guys do a lot of stuff. I know, Angel.
Yeah. I know.
How long, what do you, do you see as sort of a breakthrough? Has there been a tipping point in terms of, okay. Just sound it out.

Are you bored?

Are you bored by what Tony's doing?

I mean, Jesus Christ, Jason.

Land the plane, bro.

Check your notes.

I'm asking, what is the goal?

Is it everybody skateboarding by 2050?

Like, that's what I mean.

Like, are we all a skateboard nation?

No, the goal is more to have public skate parks in underserved areas, but also just so that anyone can go find a skate park in their area. We've been doing it 20 years, and we've helped to fund over 500 parks that are completed now, and we're coming into 900 that have been funded.
And that's the work I'm most proud of. I think if I had to choose a legacy of some sort, that would be it.
If that nut job Elon Musk said, hey, why don't you hop on my jet and we'll go to the skateboard on the moon, would you do it? Yeah, sure. Sure he would.
Wow. Yeah, who wouldn't? I would love to see.
As long as it doesn't cost me anything. Yeah.
By the way, I said Elon Musk is a nut job. I mean nut job in a great way.
This guy's done incredible things. No, we all took it that way, yeah.
Okay, good. Now, skate parks seem like a real easy thing to put into a city budget, right? I mean, it's just basically we need a bit of land, dig a hole, and then shape it, pour some cement.
I mean, it's about the cheapest thing you can do with civic engineering, I would imagine, right? Yeah, you would think it would be that easy. It's more the stigma in skateboarding, and they think that the skate parks are somehow going to attract a bad crowd and be a bad influence, and that's usually the biggest barrier for getting skate parks approved.
Once we approve projects or give them funding, that's usually the endorsement they need to get it sort of pushed through all the red tape. You know, it's funny, like you spend all your time, you talked about the stereotypes of like, you know, it's a bunch of stoners and whatever.
But now given the environment we live in, can you imagine if you finally, if you announced that you were releasing a line of weed, all your critics would be like, see, see? He's just been waiting. We knew it.
We knew it. We knew it all along.
And you're like, various types of weed, like this is really good for ollies. This type of weed is really good for doing tricks.
You know what I mean? This is like skate park weed. This is just like parking lot weed.
After the skate park wind down weed. They all just have trick names.
I'll bet you'd have a real decision to make

if somebody approached you with just licensing just a weed brand.

You could make a hand over fist now that it's all legal.

Who cares? You're 53.

Come on, man.

We're not going to judge you, dude.

We're totally, I will defend you.

I will defend you.

Or just gummies, you know, not any flour, bro.

Oh, does somebody like gummies around here? No, I hear that they're fantastic, though. Skateboard-shaped gummies.
Yes. Oh, there you go.
See? This guy's got so many good ideas, it's unbelievable. There you go, that's it.
Where do you stand on the skateboards with the motors on them? Does it make you cringe? No. No, I don't.
It's fine with me. That's the one I'll take.
And people say, you know, there are all these purists that say, well, longboards is not skateboarding because they're just transportation. And I say, hey, whatever gets you out there and on a skateboard and active is fine with me.
Amen. Yeah.
Yeah. A lot of people out there with complaints these days with stuff like that, you know, and everybody's taking positions.
And you know what my position is? Shut up. Yeah.
Well, Tony, we've taken up way too much of your time, especially considering it's your anniversary weekend. Yeah.
What an absolute honor to have you on the show, man. So nice to meet you.
Incredible. Very nice of you to spend some time with us.
Hey, I appreciate you guys having me on. I'm a huge fan.
I listen to your show and all your other work as well. Thanks man.
We're going to listen to yours. Thank you.
Good luck with your, with your podcast that's out now. And, uh, and maybe I'll see you over there this week.
Yeah, let's go. We'll be here.
All right. All right, pal.
Thanks, Tony. See you guys.
Bye, Tony. Bye.
Bye, Tony. Thank you.
So that guy, Tony Hawk is a super nice fella.. Yeah, he's really nice.
He always seems nice in the interviews that I've seen him on. I'm so glad that I wasn't wrong with that.
Yeah, he's great. He's always looked 15.
And then when he said he had a 28-year-old kid, how old a fella is Tony Hawk? I think he's 53. And he's still skating.
That's what I'm talking about.

Yeah, he's still skating.

He looks terrific, doesn't he?

Doesn't he look incredible?

By the way,

for me,

one of the funniest lines

from today's show.

Oh, we're going to do highlights?

Yeah, it's when Jason said,

oh, I wasn't sitting,

hey, Will,

I wasn't sitting in class

learning how to flick boogers.

By the way,

and you know what I resent about that? I was sitting in class, I was teaching how to flick boogers. You know what I mean? I apologize.
I apologize. Sean, I'm just...
I moved out of the house at age 12, by the way. That's a true story.
Moved or dismissed. I was moved out of the house and sent to all boys boarding school age 12.
Sean, I cannot believe you're sharing some of your birthday with us. Why don't you just say listen saturday doesn't work for me because it sounds like sean you and the hawks need to coordinate next year and start doing your birth your birthday and their anniversary together together like you and scotty and the hawks yeah in new york yeah just catching shows by the way how cool is it how cool is it tony hawk is his real name i know that's one of the cool yeah that most people have to change their name to sound i'm very excited about his his skateboard broadway show sounds very yeah that sounds i love that when you said what did you say starlight express is coming back starlight express i i hate to age myself here um but that was like a real eye-opener right when they all those because everybody was on skates.
Roller skates. Roller skates, live.
The stage that they built for that, it was just a bunch of half pipes and tubes. I never saw it.
I don't think it was a big hit, but I never saw it. Was it not? It was one of the biggest flops of all time.
Is that true? It was, really? Yeah, it was a huge flop, yeah, because they spent so much money on all the stuff you just described. Sean, how excited will you be to go and see the Tony Hawk Broadway show? Yeah, who wouldn't be? I'd see that.
By the way, that's what's cool is seeing skateboarding live on stage every night. I can only imagine the set they're building must be massive.
You see, now I could like Broadway. Now I could like a Broadway show.
If there's always the chance that they could crash and shut up, you know what I mean? Well, what about Cirque du Soleil? You ever go in there and wait for some tragedy? Well, that's not Broadway. Well, but it sounds like you like to sit there and wait for something terrible to happen.
I do like some Broadway. It should be noted.
I say that in jest. There have been many shows that I've gone to that were great.

Cats, you've been to a half dozen times, haven't you?

I've never seen Cats.

Really?

I never saw Cats.

Never.

Les Mis, never.

But you know, if you really want to go see that Tony Hawk show,

you should be first in line to...

Buy a ticket.

Buy a ticket.

Bye.

Happy birthday, Shawnee. Thank you.
Happy birthday, Sean. Smart.
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