Tony Hawkâs Greatest Trick? Becoming a Middle-Aged Skateboard Star
Talk By David Marchese For a long time, the skateboarding icon Tony Hawkâs career appeared to have followed the trajectory of one of his tricks: He built up momentum during the 1980s and early 1990s, launched into an airborne peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s (thanks to his success in the newly televised X Games competitions and the popularity of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater
video games) and then made a somewhat jarring return to Earth, pulled down by age and diminished cool. But improbably, Hawk has defied the laws of pop-culture gravity. Over the last few years, aided by his charmingly self-deprecating social media presence and inspiring ability to maintain his still-formidable vert-ramp skills, Hawk has attained near-folk-hero status by proving that itâs possible to have a viable career as a 53-year-old professional skateboarder. âIâm doing it against all odds, in t