‘I’m way older, but I’m still doing it’: Tony Hawk on his skateboarding legacy

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”.

Hawk is a busy guy. Looking at his , it would seem his schedule – speaking on podcasts, juggling meetings, taking trips and visiting events – comes easy to the man who has made a lifelong career from skateboarding. But it isn’t. I’ve witnessed the hours that it demands up front: I spent some time around him and his family during a trip to California with my boyfriend – also a pro skateboarder – and it was clear that Hawk is pretty much always on call.