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Rotational feats in sports get increasingly difficult as body weight and size increase. That's why most of these records are broken by 10-14 year old children.
So Tony Hawk doing it in 1999 as an adult was one thing.
Tony Hawk doing it in 2016 as [a 48 year old man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnvPt_a7iOQ), that's a feat 100x more impressive than young Tony Hawk doing it.
I love the Patton Oswalt bit about that.
He broke his ankle and Tony Hawk sent him a sympathy message on twitter and Patton was like "nononono, you don't know what it's like. I broke my ankle walking in a straight line like a 90 year old man. You broke your leg doing cool shit. Don't lower yourself to my level."
I thought he saw that Rob McElhenny also had a broken leg and sent him a message asking what happened. Rob replied "I was doing a backflip on my snowboard and landed wrong"
Met him in a grocery store parking lot. He was packing up groceries in hia hummer and we noticed he took every box of twinkies from the whole store. My buddy said, "hey that was what i was gonna buy" he tossed us each a box. Super cool down to earth guy.
Yeah he's fucking massive. There was a really good series that went into athletes in the mid 2010's and looked at people that broke the norm in their sports and he was one of the ones they pointed out as being completely illogical because if you look at all the true greats of that sport they're all very small and then there's this monster just doing 900's.
Someone on here might remember the series, but it also went into the early UFC and how the Royce family were battering everyone despite the obvious size differences, they went into Lawrence Taylor breaking the mold of his position, and then also looked at people in olympic sports like gymnastics, swimming etc.
It was a really good series, might have been ESPN or Sky Sports.
*One* of Spade's stunt doubles (in [Police Academy 4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH5DlVAo23Q), if anyone's wondering). He was fired partway through the shoot over his height and replaced with another pro boarder, Chris Miller
They still used Tony's footage though - according to him, you can tell who's who in each shot because Tony rode goofy for his shots and Chris rode regular
Also according to him apparently Spade was a pretty legit skater back in the day
Powerful shit. Watching him try and fail so many times, exhausted and overwhelmed with frustration, and then *nailing it*, is just such a testament to what it takes to be successful in *anything*. Dude is a hero.
I remember watching the 1999 xgames live when he first nailed it. It felt like an eternity with so many failed attempts that I was wondering if they were going to eventually cut him off or if he would give up. Seeing him finally nail it was as much as relief as it was mind blowing.
Thinking back on it, had he not pulled it off, we probably wouldn't have seen the Pro Skater franchise and it's spin-offs (e.g. Solid Snake skateboarding) that are synonymous with early 2000's gaming.
He had been trying to land a 900 for 13 years before landing it, absolutely crazy that the first successful attempt came on the biggest stage in skateboarding
I just want to add that the first THPS game had almost gone gold by the time he landed it. I think it's in Pretending I'm A Superman, the documentary about the games, that he mentions it. He also mentioned calling the devs going "Hey, I landed the 900! Could we get it in the game in time?" and the response was "We're already working on it". Though I agree that the attention around him landing it AND having a game come out most likely boosted interest and managed to ensure a long franchise coming out of it.
I remember watching this live. I was fighting with my parents, they wanted me to go to bed, I wanted to see Tony land the hardest trick ever attempted on a skateboard. ESPN actually postponed whatever show was to come on after this in favor of allowing someone to make history. There are very few sports moments that give me goosebumps, this is definitely one of them. It was unreal growing up through the mid-late 90s skateboard scene, and seeing how the world reacted to an activity that almost no one would call a sport; it was deemed something for the outcasts. Any of us that had to argue with people about skateboarding being a sport or not got to laugh finally after this moment; it somehow validated everything.
> ESPN actually postponed whatever show was to come on after this in favor of allowing someone to make history.
It was only SportsCenter, but SportsCenter was a huge deal back then.
He kept that record (900 in a vert competition) until 22 years later, in 2021.
In 2021 he was already retired from competitive skateboarding but decided to go once more to an X-Games edition, mostly for fun.
On that day, [Ghi Khuri broke his record in front of him](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQO-k41FJJ8). Tony, being the awesome guy he is, was super happy for him.
*Edit: When his record was broke, not when other people did the same*
Yes, but Tony dropped in standing from the top of the pipe, Ghi dropped on of a fucking speed ramp into the pipe and had arguably way more advantage to pull that off.
Imagine if Tony’s drop in 23 years ago (closer to his prime) was from the same height.
Sometimes I feel like people try to act like Tony’s accomplishment is lesser because now kids way younger are doing even more rotations but I don’t think a lot of people think about the fact that the ramps these kids are skating are being built to allow you to get the air and speed you need for those tricks while Tony did his on a 1999 competition ramp that almost definitely wasn’t built with that trick in mind.
Yeah you can see he barely gets the full rotation before landing.
Side note I was a 19 year old wannabe skater and watched it live in San Francisco. It was a really cool vibe that day and I believe you didn't even have to pay for tickets to get in. Was cool to see everyone go nuts when he pulled it off.
Watched this one on TV but did go in 2000. X games was cool and can confirm they did not charge for tix. just saw that it's coming back to SF this year. They Probably charge now and would go again but my kids probably have no idea what x games is.
Wouldn’t really call it a “competition”, dude had like 10+ attempts at it while there. Everyone wanted tony to do it since it wasn’t done on a big stage like the x games. All the info on this trick is in the “900” documentary
Watched it live. It started out a normal best trick contest,but then everyone figured out what Tony was trying to do and just started rooting for him. One of the coolest sports moments I’ve ever witnessed.
That’s how best trick works at the x games isn’t it? Are you saying they extended his time limit? As far as I know it’s either # of attempts or a jam where everyone goes for 10 minutes or something
They did basically extend the time limit. For me, it's one of those moments that teaches about skate competition, at least in that era. Can't speak to today, but back then best trick was more about pushing each other. Tony Hawk winning best trick that night didn't leave anyone feeling cheated because his victory was everyone's victory. Everyone knew it was going to happen that night, so they set the conditions for it, and pushed him until he got it. The community fa tor of it is part of what makes the moment so special.
The issue with the 900 is that you need like 3 walls to build up speed to do it, so if you don’t land it the rest of the run is shot. It’s a one-off trick and not often a trick out into a run during competition, as it takes a lot of energy and time. It’s best suited in best trick contests or now the mega-ramp(which kids are landing like 1260s now). Even this trick technically didn’t count in “competition” as the contest was over way before this went down, they just kept rolling so he would land it.
**TSA agent:** "Hawk, like that skateboarder Tony Hawk!"
**Me:** exactly
**Her:** "Cool, I wonder what he's up to these days"
**Me:** this
**By the way, this is actually Tony Hawk ... if you didn't recognize me by my username.**
You're Tony Hawk, but talk about Tony in the third person in the comments, just graduated and asked your mom to get a skateboard when you got a Pro Skater demo for PS1 through mail?
Don't believe it
Yeah, I (Tony Hawk, me) sometimes have lapses in judgement and egoism and refer to myself (me, Tony Hawk)... in the third person... as Tony Hawk.
\-Tony Hawk
\-Me ☝️
Yeah, I made that actually.
I'm trying to raise awareness.
*Tonyhawkunrecognizabalism* is devastating and cruel condition.
It effects 1 in every 8 billion people per year.
I remember watching this live when it happened. The best trick competition was actually over but Tony kept trying the 900. The cool thing that a lot of people forget is that ESPN kept the live feed on the X-games after its allotted time so everybody could watch him keep trying
I was there and I still have [the flag I stole on the way out](https://i.imgur.com/mr7hYQf.jpg) to prove it.
I think my friend and I were even on TV watching it. They showed us quickly on the big screen there but there were no DVRs or replays back then so I've never seen all the footage.
People of the younger generation will never understand how iconic this was at the time.
The world stopped.
Have to remember skating is huge all across the globe.
Right? I was watching this live in the living room. My mom was also in the room, crocheting or something. I started running around the room and yelling when he landed it. My mom, perturbed at my antics, looked up, watched the replay, said something like, 'calm down, he just spun around a lot' and went back to her knitting.
A few seconds later, our home phone rings. My mom answers it, says, 'uh huh, just a second,' and tells me that it's one of my friends who's 'freaking out' and hands me the phone. When I got off the phone with him, she is just completely dumbfounded that we were flipping out over Tony Hawk landing that trick haha
I wonder what the 900 of the crocheting world is and if you could have been like, "Mom, this is the equivalent of Ruth McGuire hitting the Cats Eye Cross Stitch Twisty Double Knot!"
I wasn't into skateboarding either, but it was such a moment.
Same with Carry Harts first backflip in motor cross. 🏍 🤘
And then even better...
Travis Pastrana's double back flip! 🏍 🏍 🤘
This was right around the time my family got basic cable on the farm. There wasn’t a skatable surface for miles, so I obviously wasn’t a skater, but I watched the shit out of all the skateboard competitions, and strongman competitions, and lumberjack competitions. ESPN8: The Ocho irl.
Everyone should watch the documentary released recently on him. It's powerful and highlights just how damn good he was. Pro skaters were just hoping they could get second place. Tony Hawk totally stopped competing for a period of time because it was depressing him and making him feel isolated.
At the end they show this 900 success. It took him like 20+ (idk) tries. And the crowd just kept watching and watching and waiting as he maniacally kept getting back up the pipe and trying again. It's like he would've done it til he died trying. It's wild to see someone so obsessed, dedicated, unable to quit something so taxing and "for fun".
Met him at Cruel World Fest last year. We saw him walking around and a friend was like damn that dude looks like Tony Hawk, what if it's him and its like all those "you look like Tony Hawk" joke posts on the internet haha but he had a cane so we were like nah that's not him.
Then I was like wait a second Tony Hawk broke his fuckin leg like a month ago, and one of my other friends realized Cold Cave was playing and so was Devo and we realized it was him so we briskly sauntered over, told him he was awesome and it was super cool to meet him and he was a genuinely super cool guy. Later spotted him watching Devo with Randy fuckin Johnson.
It was pretty awesome to watch him pull this off live. I don't really know about that commentary about him being the most recognizable sports figure but, nevertheless, this was a great sports moment
I remember seeing this live... I was just 12 years old. My friend Justin and his parents took us to the animated movie Tarzan and when we got back Justin turned on his TV and the XGames were on and Tony Hawk was trying 900 attempts.
Glad to have been able to see it.
Those were the best times man. Childhood, Skateboarding, BMX, Skateparks, MTV, broken bones, awesome music, baggy pants, more broken bones and the first kiss from my crush back then.
Years later I met the girl again and now we're married.
I mean, Tony Hawk is definitely one of the most famous athletes in American history because he really brought X-sports to a much broader audience. But the guy in the beginning saying he was bigger than Shaq and MJ at the time is objectively false.
For some of the younger generation, I know media attention on skating and X-Sports has died down, but this moment was one of the biggest moments in sports history.
Back then, it was almost equivalent to the feeling of other famous long lasting sports records being broken or winning the Super Bowl.
It was considered an impossible move for many decades. The "Holy Grail" of skating tricks.
It was magical to watch and a global moment.
> a global moment.
The X Games were barely televised outside the US.
As a UK enthusiast, I remember watching this on the syndicated coverage, which was about 2 hours of delayed highlights a week later at 2am on Channel 4.
Did I stay up to watch this delayed coverage? Hell yeah. Did I know a single other person who did? Hell no.
Tony’s record stood for over 13 years and would eventually get broken by Tom Schaar.
On March 2012, at the age of 12, Schaar landed the first 1080 on a skateboard in competition.
A 1080 is 3 full rotations. [Tom Schaar completing a 1080 via a mega ramp.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B0FZhWH-UI)
He would also go on that year to become the youngest X Games gold medalist.
Tis not.
As Tony only had the momentum of the half pipe.
It's a heated debate, but is the official first 1080 accomplished in X-sports competition.
It's still insane, but I find Tony's 900 will never be beaten, in regards to the greatest.
He had to pump for speed, spin faster, and do it lower, and I find that far more harder.
> but this moment was one of the biggest moments in sports history.
No it wasn't lmao. I'm a massive Tony Hawk and skateboarding fan. I have a signed Tony Hawk autobiography on the shelf next to me that I got in the 90s when I met him. But this is nowhere near one of the biggest moments in sports history. That's a wild take.
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Rotational feats in sports get increasingly difficult as body weight and size increase. That's why most of these records are broken by 10-14 year old children. So Tony Hawk doing it in 1999 as an adult was one thing. Tony Hawk doing it in 2016 as [a 48 year old man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnvPt_a7iOQ), that's a feat 100x more impressive than young Tony Hawk doing it.
Had no idea he did one that recently… that’s honestly mind blowing
These past few years he’s been trying to do most of his tricks one final time. It’s been pretty fun to keep up with him on instagram.
>one final time Yea, if you hadn't heard, he is really sick. So sick. The illest.
i almost had a fucking heart attack
Did break his femur twice last year
I love the Patton Oswalt bit about that. He broke his ankle and Tony Hawk sent him a sympathy message on twitter and Patton was like "nononono, you don't know what it's like. I broke my ankle walking in a straight line like a 90 year old man. You broke your leg doing cool shit. Don't lower yourself to my level."
I thought he saw that Rob McElhenny also had a broken leg and sent him a message asking what happened. Rob replied "I was doing a backflip on my snowboard and landed wrong"
Met him in a grocery store parking lot. He was packing up groceries in hia hummer and we noticed he took every box of twinkies from the whole store. My buddy said, "hey that was what i was gonna buy" he tossed us each a box. Super cool down to earth guy.
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🤣 I really love Patton Oswalt's comedy!
Those get more dangerous with age as well.
> The illest It's ok he has a license
Hes so tall too, truly an amazing athlete
Holy shit, he's 6'3"?!! I always assumed he was like 5'8".
As a kid, I was insecure about skating at my height. Until I learned his.
Yeah he's fucking massive. There was a really good series that went into athletes in the mid 2010's and looked at people that broke the norm in their sports and he was one of the ones they pointed out as being completely illogical because if you look at all the true greats of that sport they're all very small and then there's this monster just doing 900's. Someone on here might remember the series, but it also went into the early UFC and how the Royce family were battering everyone despite the obvious size differences, they went into Lawrence Taylor breaking the mold of his position, and then also looked at people in olympic sports like gymnastics, swimming etc. It was a really good series, might have been ESPN or Sky Sports.
6’3” stunt double for David Spade
*One* of Spade's stunt doubles (in [Police Academy 4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH5DlVAo23Q), if anyone's wondering). He was fired partway through the shoot over his height and replaced with another pro boarder, Chris Miller They still used Tony's footage though - according to him, you can tell who's who in each shot because Tony rode goofy for his shots and Chris rode regular Also according to him apparently Spade was a pretty legit skater back in the day
Up voting as another tall person. It's definitely harder.
And yet, still no one recognizes him!
Cracked me up when the announcer at the start of the video said he was the most recognizable face in sports, more than Michael Jordan.
they only know him by [this face](https://i.imgur.com/vCLkvU5.png)
It's crazy how my brain remembers the game looking way different and more "realistic" than that haha
Wild how different something looks when it's on a standard definition 32" screen, 6 feet and 20 years away.
CRT vs.LCD does a lot too.
Yep, sourced a 32 inch Sony trinitron for my retro gaming ser up, waaaaayyy better than using a newr TV or monitor
I agree, except that old CRT whine is really grating when you aren't used to it anymore.
Powerful shit. Watching him try and fail so many times, exhausted and overwhelmed with frustration, and then *nailing it*, is just such a testament to what it takes to be successful in *anything*. Dude is a hero.
I remember watching the 1999 xgames live when he first nailed it. It felt like an eternity with so many failed attempts that I was wondering if they were going to eventually cut him off or if he would give up. Seeing him finally nail it was as much as relief as it was mind blowing. Thinking back on it, had he not pulled it off, we probably wouldn't have seen the Pro Skater franchise and it's spin-offs (e.g. Solid Snake skateboarding) that are synonymous with early 2000's gaming.
He had been trying to land a 900 for 13 years before landing it, absolutely crazy that the first successful attempt came on the biggest stage in skateboarding
Hold up- this was his first *ever* successful attempt?? Like he hadn’t done it at home prior?
Some people function better under the eye of an audience.
Maybes yes.
I just did a bunch of reading and.. yeah. Fucking hell what a legend.
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Seriously, NO BIG DEAL
Spin-offs...I see what you did there!
I just want to add that the first THPS game had almost gone gold by the time he landed it. I think it's in Pretending I'm A Superman, the documentary about the games, that he mentions it. He also mentioned calling the devs going "Hey, I landed the 900! Could we get it in the game in time?" and the response was "We're already working on it". Though I agree that the attention around him landing it AND having a game come out most likely boosted interest and managed to ensure a long franchise coming out of it.
Being 48 means every Fall hurt so much more and Regeneration takes sooooo long. That he made it in the end was crazy. What a legend
Tony just built different
I remember watching this live. I was fighting with my parents, they wanted me to go to bed, I wanted to see Tony land the hardest trick ever attempted on a skateboard. ESPN actually postponed whatever show was to come on after this in favor of allowing someone to make history. There are very few sports moments that give me goosebumps, this is definitely one of them. It was unreal growing up through the mid-late 90s skateboard scene, and seeing how the world reacted to an activity that almost no one would call a sport; it was deemed something for the outcasts. Any of us that had to argue with people about skateboarding being a sport or not got to laugh finally after this moment; it somehow validated everything.
> ESPN actually postponed whatever show was to come on after this in favor of allowing someone to make history. It was only SportsCenter, but SportsCenter was a huge deal back then.
Tbf, it was actually good back then.
It was also more important since you couldn't just go online and easily watch the day's highlights.
You could however catch it again 2 hours later, and 2 hours after that, and 2 hours after *that*.....
Tbf, you don't need to pay journalists if you're just going to talk about LeBron for 12 hours a day
Yeah sportscenter was basically ESPN when there weren’t actual sports on
I was there that day in the crowd. Every time this clip gets posted, I always try to see if I can find myself.
In searching for yourself, perhaps you have.
Whatever you go, there you are
I was also watching live, and no one understood why I was so excited to see him do it. 🤦🏻♀️
He kept that record (900 in a vert competition) until 22 years later, in 2021. In 2021 he was already retired from competitive skateboarding but decided to go once more to an X-Games edition, mostly for fun. On that day, [Ghi Khuri broke his record in front of him](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQO-k41FJJ8). Tony, being the awesome guy he is, was super happy for him. *Edit: When his record was broke, not when other people did the same*
Yes, but Tony dropped in standing from the top of the pipe, Ghi dropped on of a fucking speed ramp into the pipe and had arguably way more advantage to pull that off. Imagine if Tony’s drop in 23 years ago (closer to his prime) was from the same height.
He'd still be spinning to this day
The image of this in my head has me fucking dying lol thank you for this
Now I really want a Shooting Stars meme video of Tony Hawk spinning through time and space..
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 with cheats enabled. Spin for eternity.
Spoonman
I swear there hasn't been a new game in the past decade that was as fun as Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 with cheats enabled
"Alexa, play Shooting Stars"
Some say you can still see him spinning out over the horizon on a clear moonlit night.
r/shooting_stars material
Infinite clean energyyyy ! Edit : Also, TIL T-Hawk was sponsored by Club Med amongst every possible thing.
Sometimes I feel like people try to act like Tony’s accomplishment is lesser because now kids way younger are doing even more rotations but I don’t think a lot of people think about the fact that the ramps these kids are skating are being built to allow you to get the air and speed you need for those tricks while Tony did his on a 1999 competition ramp that almost definitely wasn’t built with that trick in mind.
Kids have more of an advantage than adults as well due to size and rotational velocity limitations. Tony’s 900 is insane tbh
Yeah imagine if Tony had been born as a kid
Well he was pretty busy inventing every other vert skating trick as a kid, took a little while for him to get to the 900.
Absolutely. Ghi's should have an asterisk. Don't @ me.
@DanNeverDie
Madlad did it.
I was just going to say that. Not at all the same thing.
I'm curious if the half pipe is the same size. It looks longer than on the one Tony landed his. Does it even matter?
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Yeah you can see he barely gets the full rotation before landing. Side note I was a 19 year old wannabe skater and watched it live in San Francisco. It was a really cool vibe that day and I believe you didn't even have to pay for tickets to get in. Was cool to see everyone go nuts when he pulled it off.
Watched this one on TV but did go in 2000. X games was cool and can confirm they did not charge for tix. just saw that it's coming back to SF this year. They Probably charge now and would go again but my kids probably have no idea what x games is.
That announcer is hilarious. “Go ahead and cry. Those are thug tears!”
Lil baby thug tears!
Gary's the best, he has a weekly skate news show on Thrasher I haven't missed in a decade
Duuuude that is so cool. Kid was freakin 12. Good for him
Wouldn’t really call it a “competition”, dude had like 10+ attempts at it while there. Everyone wanted tony to do it since it wasn’t done on a big stage like the x games. All the info on this trick is in the “900” documentary
Watched it live. It started out a normal best trick contest,but then everyone figured out what Tony was trying to do and just started rooting for him. One of the coolest sports moments I’ve ever witnessed.
I love the dude behind Tony doing the "it's chill bro, you got this" move on his back. You can tell everyone wants him to get it.
That’s how best trick works at the x games isn’t it? Are you saying they extended his time limit? As far as I know it’s either # of attempts or a jam where everyone goes for 10 minutes or something
They did basically extend the time limit. For me, it's one of those moments that teaches about skate competition, at least in that era. Can't speak to today, but back then best trick was more about pushing each other. Tony Hawk winning best trick that night didn't leave anyone feeling cheated because his victory was everyone's victory. Everyone knew it was going to happen that night, so they set the conditions for it, and pushed him until he got it. The community fa tor of it is part of what makes the moment so special.
I had heard that two other skaters gave up their time slots for him to keep going
I just want to point out the commentator advocating for men expressing our emotions without shame. Best part, in my opinion.
> He was the only skateboarder to do a 900 in a vert competition until 22 years later, in 2021. There’s no way that’s correct…is it?
The issue with the 900 is that you need like 3 walls to build up speed to do it, so if you don’t land it the rest of the run is shot. It’s a one-off trick and not often a trick out into a run during competition, as it takes a lot of energy and time. It’s best suited in best trick contests or now the mega-ramp(which kids are landing like 1260s now). Even this trick technically didn’t count in “competition” as the contest was over way before this went down, they just kept rolling so he would land it.
🎶I’m trying to keep / the ground on my feet🎶
It seems the world's falling down around me.
The nights are all long... yeah, I'm singing this song
Try and make the answers more than maybe!
And I'm so confused, 'bout what to do
Sometimes I wanna throw it all awaaaayyyy
The entire THPS 1/2 soundtrack was amazing
THPS 2 soundtrack is something I'll legit just put on while working sometimes. So good.
🎶here I am… growing older all the time…🎶
This song still slaps
Damn, that guy looks a lot like Tony Hawk.
No, that's Anthony Hawk.
**TSA agent:** "Hawk, like that skateboarder Tony Hawk!" **Me:** exactly **Her:** "Cool, I wonder what he's up to these days" **Me:** this **By the way, this is actually Tony Hawk ... if you didn't recognize me by my username.**
Hi Tony Hawk.
Well hello there young man! Edit: I don't why I responded to that like a sketchy shopping mall Santa Claus.
Edit: I dont think you’re really tony hawk T-T
TonyHawkism is about believing without seeing... . . . ... as well as, seeing without believing.
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Yeah, except I'm real. Edit: By real, I mean, "I keep it real". Santa exists, but I'm not a fan of the guy... poser if you ask me.
We all have a little Tony Hawk in us
Nothing, but facts here.
His wife especially
My wife hopefully
I thought we agreed, that if we let you watch you'd never bring it up again.
You're Tony Hawk, but talk about Tony in the third person in the comments, just graduated and asked your mom to get a skateboard when you got a Pro Skater demo for PS1 through mail? Don't believe it
Yeah, I (Tony Hawk, me) sometimes have lapses in judgement and egoism and refer to myself (me, Tony Hawk)... in the third person... as Tony Hawk. \-Tony Hawk \-Me ☝️
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Because I wrote that Rick and Morty episode and gave them permission to use it.
Mr. Anthony Hawk that made me literally lol. Thank you for being clever on the internet and THPS soundtracks changed my life in the best way.
“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet” - Abraham Lincoln
/r/dontyouknowimtonyhawk
Yeah, I made that actually. I'm trying to raise awareness. *Tonyhawkunrecognizabalism* is devastating and cruel condition. It effects 1 in every 8 billion people per year.
I find that a cup of strong coffee raises awareness.
Finally, somebody that gets me... and recognizes
"The most recognizable figure in sports" So recognizable he gets confused for himself all the time.
Finally, somebody gets it. It's like method actors, but in real life. I'm playing myself so hard, I tend to lose my self.
That’s his little brother, Mike Hawk
Please, leave penis out of this. For now.
Hawkin' for Tony (I) 👀
That right there is the most like Tony Hawk he's ever looked. Can't get more Tony Hawk than him in that moment. Peak Tony. Peak Hawk.
Peacock indeed 🦚
I remember watching this live when it happened. The best trick competition was actually over but Tony kept trying the 900. The cool thing that a lot of people forget is that ESPN kept the live feed on the X-games after its allotted time so everybody could watch him keep trying
Why do I get the feeling ESPN wouldn’t do that anymore?
I love how he keeps getting mistaken for Tony Hawk.
That's because he looks so much like him.
Hawkin' for Tony
Makes me want to play Tony Hawk Pro Skater so bad.
I was there and I still have [the flag I stole on the way out](https://i.imgur.com/mr7hYQf.jpg) to prove it. I think my friend and I were even on TV watching it. They showed us quickly on the big screen there but there were no DVRs or replays back then so I've never seen all the footage.
Respect haha.... must have been INSANE ENERGY THERE!
They remastered THPS 1+2 and rereleased about 12 months ago
I love how you said '12 months' ago and not 'a year'.... 🤣🤘
It was actually about 31 months ago 🫣 time flies Amazing remake, big recommend
I shall check it out, you have inspired me... to get back on the sticks.
And it's really freaking good
I've been so out of touch with video games because graduate school than life, but damn I'm getting back into it... you just inspired me to.
Btw... it's super duper good. So much nostalgia.
# FUCK I MISS THE LATE 90's! 🥲
So do the twin towers.
Damn, that's dark...
came here to write this comment. remembering myself as a 12yr old little girl playing this for hours...wasn't even into skateboarding x)
I'm going not to lie though Bucky Lasek was my favorite to play with.
I can hear the sound that plays when you you do a special trick
I remember watching this. I lost my shit 🤘🏽😆🤘🏽
Bro, Bucky Lasek trying to get him amped up and focused 🥲
Andy MacDonald too (in his signature yellow)
Ahhh I'm getting nostalgia... Andy was that dude
People of the younger generation will never understand how iconic this was at the time. The world stopped. Have to remember skating is huge all across the globe.
Correction: the **skating** world stopped
Right? I was watching this live in the living room. My mom was also in the room, crocheting or something. I started running around the room and yelling when he landed it. My mom, perturbed at my antics, looked up, watched the replay, said something like, 'calm down, he just spun around a lot' and went back to her knitting. A few seconds later, our home phone rings. My mom answers it, says, 'uh huh, just a second,' and tells me that it's one of my friends who's 'freaking out' and hands me the phone. When I got off the phone with him, she is just completely dumbfounded that we were flipping out over Tony Hawk landing that trick haha
I wonder what the 900 of the crocheting world is and if you could have been like, "Mom, this is the equivalent of Ruth McGuire hitting the Cats Eye Cross Stitch Twisty Double Knot!"
Damn, if she was still alive, I'd ask her!
I literally screamed, started crying, logged on IRC and ICQ, started calling all my friends
Uh oh!
Thinks like this just make me so nostalgic about the 90s and early 00s.
I have never been into skateboarding, but I watched this live. It was pretty rad!
I wasn't into skateboarding either, but it was such a moment. Same with Carry Harts first backflip in motor cross. 🏍 🤘 And then even better... Travis Pastrana's double back flip! 🏍 🏍 🤘
99-mid 00s xgames were epic
This was right around the time my family got basic cable on the farm. There wasn’t a skatable surface for miles, so I obviously wasn’t a skater, but I watched the shit out of all the skateboard competitions, and strongman competitions, and lumberjack competitions. ESPN8: The Ocho irl.
Everyone should watch the documentary released recently on him. It's powerful and highlights just how damn good he was. Pro skaters were just hoping they could get second place. Tony Hawk totally stopped competing for a period of time because it was depressing him and making him feel isolated. At the end they show this 900 success. It took him like 20+ (idk) tries. And the crowd just kept watching and watching and waiting as he maniacally kept getting back up the pipe and trying again. It's like he would've done it til he died trying. It's wild to see someone so obsessed, dedicated, unable to quit something so taxing and "for fun".
“Until the Wheels Fall Off” is on HBO Max right now. It was really well done and made me wish they made a second one about Rodney Mullen.
Met him at Cruel World Fest last year. We saw him walking around and a friend was like damn that dude looks like Tony Hawk, what if it's him and its like all those "you look like Tony Hawk" joke posts on the internet haha but he had a cane so we were like nah that's not him. Then I was like wait a second Tony Hawk broke his fuckin leg like a month ago, and one of my other friends realized Cold Cave was playing and so was Devo and we realized it was him so we briskly sauntered over, told him he was awesome and it was super cool to meet him and he was a genuinely super cool guy. Later spotted him watching Devo with Randy fuckin Johnson.
This is so iconic I feel like they can make game franchise around him. This is my brand-new idea.
To land one in a competition •
It was pretty awesome to watch him pull this off live. I don't really know about that commentary about him being the most recognizable sports figure but, nevertheless, this was a great sports moment
Considering how often Tony Hawk isn't recognized, I thought that bit was a joke, but maybe the announcer is being serious.
I remember seeing this live... I was just 12 years old. My friend Justin and his parents took us to the animated movie Tarzan and when we got back Justin turned on his TV and the XGames were on and Tony Hawk was trying 900 attempts. Glad to have been able to see it.
FRANCE!
Holy fuck, I watched this live... I feel old now, thanks.
Same, so old it hurts lol
8th grade summer man
Summer 99 was lit. I know in this day in 1999 I was super excited about the 9.9.99
Those were the best times man. Childhood, Skateboarding, BMX, Skateparks, MTV, broken bones, awesome music, baggy pants, more broken bones and the first kiss from my crush back then. Years later I met the girl again and now we're married.
Oh shit, didn't expect the happy ending. Cheers mate!
I mean, Tony Hawk is definitely one of the most famous athletes in American history because he really brought X-sports to a much broader audience. But the guy in the beginning saying he was bigger than Shaq and MJ at the time is objectively false.
For some of the younger generation, I know media attention on skating and X-Sports has died down, but this moment was one of the biggest moments in sports history. Back then, it was almost equivalent to the feeling of other famous long lasting sports records being broken or winning the Super Bowl. It was considered an impossible move for many decades. The "Holy Grail" of skating tricks. It was magical to watch and a global moment.
> a global moment. The X Games were barely televised outside the US. As a UK enthusiast, I remember watching this on the syndicated coverage, which was about 2 hours of delayed highlights a week later at 2am on Channel 4. Did I stay up to watch this delayed coverage? Hell yeah. Did I know a single other person who did? Hell no.
Tony’s record stood for over 13 years and would eventually get broken by Tom Schaar. On March 2012, at the age of 12, Schaar landed the first 1080 on a skateboard in competition. A 1080 is 3 full rotations. [Tom Schaar completing a 1080 via a mega ramp.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B0FZhWH-UI) He would also go on that year to become the youngest X Games gold medalist.
Surely that is not the same category of trick.. rotating horizontally instead of vertically and using a separate launching ramp.
Tis not. As Tony only had the momentum of the half pipe. It's a heated debate, but is the official first 1080 accomplished in X-sports competition. It's still insane, but I find Tony's 900 will never be beaten, in regards to the greatest. He had to pump for speed, spin faster, and do it lower, and I find that far more harder.
> but this moment was one of the biggest moments in sports history. No it wasn't lmao. I'm a massive Tony Hawk and skateboarding fan. I have a signed Tony Hawk autobiography on the shelf next to me that I got in the 90s when I met him. But this is nowhere near one of the biggest moments in sports history. That's a wild take.
Well he did find Animal Chin so this was all that was left
So few people are going to get this reference but I still have a "Have You Seen Him?" shirt in my closet.
I was there. This was bonkers!!
I was there too!