Skateboarding: Professional trickster still 'the man'

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

A man-boy named Hawk glides along on a plank of wood with wheels, and three thousand teenage boys howl.

Tony Hawk is the world's greatest skateboarder, ever, no argument about it.

When I tell a bunch of teenagers that I have five minutes to talk with Hawk the legend, they say things like: "No way! Wicked. He's the man!"

Apparently I am about to meet one gnarly dude.

The gangly 32-year-old superstar slides into Auckland's Aotea Square behind dark shades, fresh from surfing at Piha, and the kids start yelling his name.

In the United States he's right up there with Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.

He is the king of such moves as the kickflip Mctwist, the stalefish 720 and the frontside gay twist madonna.

"He can do everything and a few others," one fan said.

But he is THE god when it comes to the holy grail of all skateboarding tricks - the 900.

No other man, woman or scab-kneed teenager has ever perfected the 9 - two and a half spins in midair with one hand on the board.

He has cracked ribs and has a crooked spinal cord from six years of attempting the elusive trick. But he also has earned millions of dollars - just from being a kid who has never quite grown up.

Hawk was a hyperactive child who ate and drank a lot of sugar. His parents say the breakthrough came when his elder brother gave him an old plastic skateboard at age 6 and he found somewhere to pour his energy.

"Skating became the black hole of my life," he wrote in his book Hawk, Occupation: Skater.

Now there's an understatement. The scrawny, goofy-footed California blond kid devoted his life to the up-again, down-again sport from the age of 9 - giving up his ambition of being a maths teacher.

He had sponsorship deals before he turned 13 and was a professional at 14.

Not that professionalism meant a hell of a lot in the early 1980s, when skateboarding was way down the bottom of the half-pipe.

"It was like being a pro frisbee thrower today," Hawk said.

His first royalties cheque from the sale of Tony Hawk skateboards was 85c. These days he owns the company.

A Tony Hawk Birdman deck - that's without the wheels - costs around $170 in a skate shop here.

Then he collects on the Tony Hawk brand of skate shoes, his personal clothing range and of course his video games - Tony Hawk Pro Skater, versions I and II. He's working on a third one for PlayStation2.

But for all his wealth, his two front teeth are false and his shins have been sewn up countless times, his legs now a lattice of shiny pink scars.

Yesterday, before he gave a free demonstration before 4000 fans in Aotea Square, he revealed a couple of fresh grazes on his shins.

"There aren't really so many injuries in skating - it's a misconception," the laid-back skater said.

"It's not about tempting fate. Going hard is all part of progressing."

Hawk, now a father of two, retired from competition soon after he achieved the legendary 900 in 1999, but now he travels the world doing demonstrations.

He has done what every athlete dreams of - achieved every move he ever he wanted to - and won three times more pro contests than any other skater alive.

In the crowd yesterday, a Californian woman tells me that it's a huge deal that he is here, and he's still skating at 32.

"He's our No 1 icon of alternative sports. He's a great skater and he's a clean skater - he's not into drugs and stuff, he's a family man," she said.

The kids, in their backward caps and baggy shorts, lean over the railings and grab him as he skates by.

Skateboarding keeps dying and resurrecting itself, and it seems to be still kicking right now. Hawk believes it's here to stay.

"Skating just keeps getting better. There will always be the hard-core element no matter how underground it becomes or how banned it seems," he said.

"I think we're out of the cycle of ups and downs now."

Tomorrow night he will show off his "ridiculous" skills to a sellout crowd at the Vodafone Xtreme Air Event in Hamilton. World stars of BMX, in-line skating, barefoot skiing and motocross will also do their tricks over the three-day festival.