Tony Hawk

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Image:Tony Hawk and Lhotse Merriam by David Shankbone.jpg
Tony Hawk and Lhotse Merriam
This article is about the American skateboarder. For the British comedian and author, see Tony Hawks. For the New Zealand basketball player, see Tony Hawke.

Tony Hawk (born May 12, 1968) is a professional skateboarder. He is considered the most influential skater in modern vertical skateboarding.[citation needed] He is credited with the invention of many aerial skateboard tricks including the Stalefish, Madonna, and McHawk, and over 80 others, but is most famous for being the first to land the 900 (two and a half rotations—900°—in the air before landing back on the pipe) during the televised June 27, 1999 X Games, for which he received an enormous amount of attention. He was also the second skateboarder to land a McTwist. It marked the next level of his rise to fame, solidifying his status as a household name. He retired from competitive skateboarding afterwards, but continues to skate and perform at demos.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Tony Hawk was born in Carlsbad, California, USA the son of Nancy (homemaker / college professor) and Frank Hawk (retired U.S. Navy officer/small appliance salesman). Tony Hawk is the youngest of 4 children; he has one brother, Steve, and two sisters, Lenore and Patricia. [1]

In his autobiography, Hawk described himself as a "hyperactive demon child" -- frustrated, unfocused, and prone to flying off into rages. Tony Hawk was nine years old when his brother changed his life by giving him a blue fiberglass banana board. [2] His father built a skating ramp in the backyard, in hopes that skateboarding would be an outlet for young Tony's energy.

[edit] Personal

Tony was married to Cindy Dunbar from April 1990 to 1995[citation needed]. They have a son, Hudson Riley Hawk (6 Dec 1992) who they named for Tony's ancestor Henry Hudson. Cindy was a manicurist [3] and skateboarder for Hawk's Element Skateboards][4].

Hawk was married to Erin Lee from 28 Sept 1996 - 2004. They have two sons, Spencer (26 March 1999) and Keegan (18 July 2001).

Just one year after they started dating, Hawk proposed to Lhotse Merriam. Merriam is the former Vice President of the International Free Skiers Association; the former President of Method Media & Marketing Inc. [5]; and the former owner of Clover Lingerie & Gifts LLC [6] [7]. Hawk married Lhotse Merriam on 12 Jan 06 on the heart shaped island of Tavarua, Fiji [8]. Merriam's favorite group Rancid played at their wedding. While there, Druke the Fijian Chief of Tavarua, requested Hawk give a private skate demo where two onlookers held a piece of plywood as a makeshift wall to wall ride on a tennis court wall [9].

[10].

[edit] Business interests

In 1994, after the skateboarding industry took a downturn and vertical skateboarding's popularity waned in the rise of street skating, Hawk started Birdhouse Projects along with ex-Powell Peralta pro Per Welinder, which is now known as Birdhouse Skateboards. Hawk also owns his own film and TV production company, 900 Films, and, along with his family, started Hawk Clothing, including an apparel and footwear line sold exclusively at Kohl's. Tony's Boom Boom HuckJam tour is the most successful action sports tour featuring skateboarding, BMX, and Freestyle Motocross. The tour went to arenas across the USA in 2003, 2004, and 2005 and is touring Six Flags parks across the country in the summer of 2006 and 2007.

Hawk also teamed with Activision to release a popular skateboarding video game series, beginning with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater/Tony Hawk's Skateboarding in 1999. Ten games with the Tony Hawk license have so far been released, with Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, in October 2007, being the latest.

In 2000, he wrote an autobiography with Sean Mortimer that was entitled HAWK: Occupation: Skateboarder, which made it to number 18 on to the New York Times bestseller list. He later wrote a second book, a road journal called Between Boardslides and Burnout. In March 2007, Six Flags Fiesta Texas unveiled their latest roller coaster creation, Tony Hawk's Big Spin, a skatepark themed coaster that spins while riding around the track.

In 2002, Tony created the Tony Hawk Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to assist low-income communities in the creation of well-designed skateboard parks. In four years, the Foundation gave away over a million dollars in grants and assistance. In April 2007, along with eleven other philanthropic 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.), Hawk is a founding member of Athletes for Hope, a public charity that was launched publicly on ABC's Good Morning America and ESPN. Athletes for Hope connects athletes, individuals, and businesses with charitable and community causes.

[edit] Tricks invented

  • Airwalk
  • Stale Fish
  • Gymnast Plant
  • Madonna
  • Frontside cab
  • Ollie 540
  • Frontside blunt
  • 720
  • Varial 720
  • 900

[edit] Miscellaneous

The British comedian and author Tony Hawks is frequently confused for the skateboarder and maintains a list of intended e-mails (and his mischievous responses to them) on his official website.[11] On January 2 2008, Tony Hawks chose Tony Hawk as his specialist subject on an edition of the BBC's quiz show Celebrity Mastermind, noting that his correspondents "might be able to do backside varials but they can't spell to save their lives."[12]

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Ge-La/Hawk-Tony.html
  2. ^ http://www.tonyhawk.com/bio.html
  3. ^ http://www.tonyhawk.com/bio.html in paragraph 10
  4. ^ http://www.birdhouseskateboards.com/team_am_riley_hawk.html
  5. ^ http://www.freezeonline.com/freeze/contributors/article/0,13991,76-589812,00.html
  6. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005000/bio Tony Hawk imdb bio lists all this for Lhotse's former jobs
  7. ^ http://www.skateamerica.com/sitemap/content/pages/Tony-Hawk-Bio-4351.html Says she is a retail store owner
  8. ^ http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1150363,00.html
  9. ^ http://www.skateamerica.com/sitemap/content/pages/Tony-Hawk-Bio-4351.html
  10. ^ http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/01/29/ol.hawk.0129.p1.php?section=oregonlife
  11. ^ Tonyhawks.com: Skateboarding e-mails
  12. ^ Celebrity Mastermind, BBC One, 2 January 2008

[edit] External links

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Tony Hawk's video games
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater · Pro Skater 2 · Pro Skater 3 · Pro Skater 4 · Underground · Underground 2 · American Wasteland · American Sk8land · Project 8 · Downhill Jam · Proving Ground
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