He’s the record-breaking skateboarder who took the sport mainstream. Here he reflects on how the sport has changed, and how he feels knowing he may never do a 720 again
In January, after a few attempts the previous days, Tony Hawk landed a 720 – a skateboarding trick involving two full rotations mid-air. Hawk is widely understood to have invented the 720, a move he has performed many times during his career. But this time, as he wrote on Twitter, it “was a battle … I can’t imagine doing any more”.
I’m speaking to Hawk from his car. He is on his way home to Encinitas, California, having just wrapped a skateboarding trip in Mammoth Mountain. It’s not that he’s physically incapable of performing the trick again, he says, but that “the risk” – think a broken pelvis and teeth knocked out – “versus the reward will not be worth it in years to come”.
