back to indexDetermination, Achieving the Impossible and Pursuing Your Passion with Tony Hawk
Chapters
0:0 Introduction to Tony Hawk
1:56 Tony’s Drive, Determination, Perseverance, and Motivation
2:34 Common Misunderstandings about Skateboard Culture
12:50 Surfing
19:3 Modeling Determination as a Parent
22:42 Tony’s Favorite Travel Destinations and Travel Hacks
25:4 Racking Up Miles and Playing the Points Game
33:21 Instances of Mistaken Identity, Health, Fitness, Routines, and Supplements
43:46 Time Management: Saying No and Toddler Hack
47:51 Relationship with Money and the Value of Education
57:21 Advice about Pursuing Your Passion and Parting Advice
64:16 Tony’s Current Focus and Where to Find Tony Hawk
00:00:00.000 |
I'd say I started making pretty good money around 16, 17. And it was like, "Oh, this is awesome. 00:00:08.160 |
I'm going to take all my friends to Hawaii. I'm going to Sharper Image and buying all the gear." 00:00:12.560 |
And at some point, my dad gave me the best advice. He said, "I really think you should 00:00:19.840 |
put some of that money away." I was like, "Why?" I said, "It's just going to keep raining down on me." 00:00:25.840 |
And he said, "Well, you just don't know if this is going to last." Because he really wanted me to go 00:00:31.280 |
to college. He was like, "If you're going to do this, you should really save from what you're 00:00:37.040 |
making here." And so when I was 17, he co-signed a mortgage for a home. I bought a home when I was 00:00:48.320 |
17. It was my money, but he co-signed it just because I was not 18. And because you might not 00:00:54.000 |
have had the income to qualify for a mortgage. No, I did. I had the income to qualify, but I 00:00:58.720 |
literally was not old enough to sign the paperwork by myself. Hello, and welcome to another episode 00:01:04.240 |
of All The Hacks, a show about upgrading your life, money, and travel. I'm your host, Chris 00:01:08.880 |
Hutchins. And as you can probably see, I have a few skateboards hanging on the wall behind me. 00:01:13.120 |
It's not just because they look cool. I have loved skateboarding since it was a daily habit of mine 00:01:17.680 |
as a kid, and I still skate a bit today. Well, you probably can't see, but one of those skateboards, 00:01:22.960 |
this one, is actually signed by Tony Hawk, who I looked up to for so many years when I was skating, 00:01:28.800 |
which is why it is surreal that I'm sitting down with Tony today for this episode. He's one of the 00:01:33.840 |
most decorated athletes in the world. He turned pro at 14, and by 16, he was considered the best 00:01:39.600 |
competitive skateboarder on earth. He was a world champion for 12 years in a row. He launched a 00:01:44.720 |
video game franchise with 30 million games sold. He also runs a skate brand, a nonprofit clothing 00:01:50.800 |
brand, and has made hundreds of appearances on movies, magazines, and TV shows. We're going to 00:01:56.800 |
talk about his career, how he pushed himself to achieve things that so many people thought were 00:02:01.680 |
impossible. We're talking about what lessons we can take away from his career in skateboarding, 00:02:06.560 |
what he's learned being a parent to four kids, and some of his favorite travel hacks. We also 00:02:12.320 |
shot this in person at his studio, which has an awesome three-camera setup, so I hope you enjoy. 00:02:17.600 |
And since I'm still getting this YouTube channel going, please do me a favor and click the thumbs 00:02:22.080 |
up and subscribe to the channel. All right, let's do this. Tony, welcome to the show. 00:02:34.800 |
what is one thing you think most people just don't get about skateboarding or skateboard culture? 00:02:38.800 |
Um, the amount of discipline it takes. I think that there's still a stigma that skaters, 00:02:46.640 |
especially people who make their living from skateboarding or from riding their skateboards, 00:02:50.880 |
are slackers, are stoners. They just get up late, they do what they want, they go trespassing, 00:02:57.120 |
they go skate. And to get to a certain level of skating, to get to some of the more difficult 00:03:04.720 |
maneuvers, it takes years of discipline and perseverance, pain. And I think that that's lost 00:03:14.080 |
in the noise of these guys are, they're rebels, they got crazy hairdos, you know, they go against 00:03:21.760 |
the grain. It's like those things are also true in a lot of ways, but they do that out of, it's 00:03:28.720 |
more out of function of where they came from, because especially in the early 90s, mid 90s, 00:03:36.320 |
there were no places to skate. And you had to break into places, you know, you had to hop fences 00:03:42.880 |
and go to schoolyards or go to, go to plazas to, to find any type of terrain. 00:03:48.320 |
And then skaters got labeled as, as outcasts and outlaws through that. 00:03:53.840 |
Yeah. I remember flipping over like Shays lounges at the pool and trying to grind the, 00:04:00.000 |
the like rails on there. Like there was, there was nothing to do back then. Um, 00:04:04.160 |
I know you have a lot of discipline, right? You talk about how important it was 00:04:07.360 |
going back to the early days. Was there anything about your upbringing that kind of drove that 00:04:12.800 |
competition and determination? I was just always very determined. That's my, that was my, 00:04:18.960 |
my mom's best explanation for it because people would say I was a terror and I was a nightmare 00:04:24.480 |
and I was relentless. And she's like, he's just very determined. And that was her nice way of, 00:04:28.880 |
of summarizing my behavior. But I think that I wanted to figure things out and, 00:04:35.360 |
and I was going to do it at all costs. Like I wanted to, I mean, I play baseball and basketball, 00:04:41.600 |
but I didn't thrive and only because of my size, you know, I was committed to it and I was, 00:04:47.680 |
I was doing the work and I was trying to get in the mix, but I just, I didn't have the, 00:04:52.080 |
the strength or the, or the height to really make a difference. 00:04:55.120 |
Um, cause I was really small for my age. And then when I found skating, 00:04:59.280 |
I still had the same disadvantage, but there was something about it that was much more creative 00:05:04.800 |
that I enjoyed. It wasn't, it wasn't a team sport. I didn't have to, I didn't have to listen to a 00:05:11.520 |
coach or, or rely on the team. And, and there was something about that that spoke to me, but also 00:05:16.720 |
just the, the, the whole culture and how people's attitudes was, was very do it yourself and they 00:05:25.120 |
were proactive and I loved it. I know you said it's not a team sport, but there were a lot of 00:05:29.760 |
other people involved. There were a lot of other skaters. It wasn't, it wasn't that, 00:05:33.600 |
that it was so individualistic that it was like, I'm just on my own mission. I love the community 00:05:38.880 |
of it. I love that you could go to the skate park and be trying to learn something. And suddenly 00:05:44.320 |
people rally around you because they just want to see you succeed. And then you have the support. 00:05:49.280 |
And like, in that sense, you have a team, but you're not, you're, you're not relying on each 00:05:56.880 |
other for the, for the, the, I don't know, coordination or anything like that. You know, 00:06:03.200 |
it was very much like, like, you could do it. You got it. All right. And then, and then someone else 00:06:07.600 |
is trying something else and then you, you get behind that. And, and I, and I think that spoke 00:06:11.280 |
to me a lot too, because I was, you know, I was, I was really small for my age. I didn't feel like 00:06:19.600 |
I fit in anywhere. I was, I was bullied a lot, mostly because of my size, but also just because 00:06:24.960 |
I was, you know, not, I was not the cool kid. And then when I found skateboarding, there were 00:06:30.240 |
a bunch of people like me all trying to find their way and, and they, they all connected through 00:06:35.200 |
skateboarding. Yeah. I, I look back to my childhood and I remember like those days I was not the cool 00:06:40.160 |
kid. I was like the computer nerd and skateboard nerd. And you know, you found our tribe, if you 00:06:46.160 |
will. Yeah. I didn't have, I think the determination you did. I remember all I wanted was to skate at 00:06:52.240 |
like an amazing level and it just never clicked for me. I found determination other places later 00:06:57.520 |
in life, but it was so hard. You, I've seen, you know, documented, fortunately, a lot of your 00:07:04.400 |
experiences in life are documented against all odds, against all pain. You know, I, I remember 00:07:10.800 |
watching the X games in, in 99, where you're trying to do your 900 is, you know, 12 times in a row, 00:07:16.800 |
falling, falling, even this year, trying to kick flip for five, 10 minutes after surgery. Like, 00:07:23.200 |
what do you think allows you to go and just keep going? Because I remember sitting in the garage, 00:07:29.040 |
trying to kick flip for hours. And then I just, I just gave up at some point and I just couldn't 00:07:34.000 |
keep going. I think firstly, that I have convinced myself that whatever it is I'm trying is possible. 00:07:42.160 |
And so I just have to figure out the right approach to make it so. And that, 00:07:48.160 |
that comes in a lot of forms. But, but I do feel like, especially if I go to try a new trick, 00:07:54.400 |
it's like, I have every element of this trick. I know how to spin. I know how to flip my board. I, 00:08:00.800 |
I have landed in similar fashions. So it's like, how do I combine all those elements to make this 00:08:05.840 |
one thing work? And I think I, I rely on that so much that I'll, I'm willing to push through 00:08:12.240 |
pain and exhaustion to get there. It doesn't always work. I mean, like when you talk about, 00:08:18.000 |
you know, you saw the 900 was 12 tries. Those 12 tries are representative of thousands of tries. 00:08:24.480 |
I tried that trick for 10 years. So 12 tries was nothing. You know what I mean? 00:08:32.480 |
There was a 12 I got to witness. No, but I'm saying, but, but you, but, 00:08:35.920 |
but I understand that if people saw that from the outside, they're like, Oh, he won't give up. 00:08:40.080 |
And I was like, yeah, you have no idea how deep that not give up goes, especially for 00:08:44.240 |
that particular move. Um, I would try dozens of tries in one session only to walk away with a 00:08:51.680 |
broken rib. So heal up and come back and do it again, heal up and come back and try again. 00:08:56.800 |
Actually after the broken rib that put me on pause that, that one, I had actually stepped 00:09:01.360 |
away from that trick after getting hurt like that. Um, and at some point thought 00:09:05.360 |
I've given it everything I have, I've fully committed to it and that's what happens. So 00:09:10.960 |
maybe it's not in the cards at the time. Did you think I'm quitting on this endeavor or I did? 00:09:17.440 |
Yeah, actually after, after I broke my rib, I was like, I, I had every element, I had every piece 00:09:21.600 |
of it. I had the landing, I had everything. And so if it didn't work, it's never going to work. 00:09:28.000 |
But in that one instance at the X games, the reason I even tried it was because it was the 00:09:34.560 |
best trick event. I had a trick in mind for what I wanted to do that I had made once before. 00:09:39.280 |
And so I thought I'm just going to try it. That's my best trick. I'm going to try to get to that 00:09:44.240 |
trick. And I got to it very early. So I didn't really have anything else planned. And so the 00:09:50.240 |
announcer actually at the time, the announcer that was on site said, Oh, let's see one of those 900 00:09:56.720 |
attempts. That's what, that's what started it. Was that part of your being was being encouraged 00:10:03.040 |
by others or was it internal motivation? No, I mean, I, I think that I probably would have 00:10:07.840 |
tried it anyway. Cause it's like, yeah, that, that would be my next trick that I'd like to 00:10:12.240 |
accomplish would be the next best trick for sure. Um, and so I tried it more to appease the crowd, 00:10:21.200 |
like, Oh, this is what, this is what it looks like. And then somewhere around the third or 00:10:25.760 |
fourth try, my, my speed was consistent. My spin was consistent. I started spotting the landing. 00:10:32.240 |
And in previous attempts, I only ever spotted the landing, maybe one out of five tries 00:10:36.880 |
because the ramps were all pretty terrible back then. You couldn't, you couldn't rely on the speed 00:10:42.080 |
or they weren't, they weren't, um, uh, the walls weren't the same. So you're always kind of 00:10:49.920 |
struggling to adjust. And that ramp was built really well. So I didn't have to struggle with 00:10:56.480 |
the, with the construction. It was more like I could rely on the speed and the, the trueness of 00:11:02.080 |
it. So, so after about my fourth, third or fourth try that I'm, I can see it. I see it every time I 00:11:07.520 |
might as well try to make it again. And when I did try to make it the first time, when I tried 00:11:12.800 |
to put it on the wall, I fell forward, but I didn't fall forward so hard that I got hurt again. 00:11:19.680 |
And that was the key because it was like, Oh, maybe I can adjust, I can adjust the landing 00:11:25.840 |
and I can try to get more in my back foot. And then I, I turned, I made, I basically shifted 00:11:34.400 |
my weight mid spin so that when my landed, I was more on the back foot and I was too far on the 00:11:39.680 |
back foot. And then I shot at backwards. We call that shooting out. Um, so the first one, I was 00:11:47.680 |
too top heavy. I fell forward the second one, the ones I tried to make. And then that next one I 00:11:52.480 |
shot out. And it was like, that, that was the magic moment because it was like, well, split the 00:11:57.200 |
difference and that's it. And then that's when it worked. Wow. So, so it sounds like you, you've 00:12:01.920 |
gotten close to giving up, but are there things that someone listening, let's say someone listening 00:12:07.120 |
is hearing this story. They're like, this guy's not afraid of anything. Are there other, other 00:12:11.040 |
sports, other things in life that you're, that you have fear from? Oh, for sure. I like, I surf 00:12:16.240 |
and I don't like big surf. I don't, people say, you know, you ride these giant ramps. Yeah. But 00:12:21.280 |
if I fall, the giant ramp doesn't crash on top of me and hold me underwater. You know what I mean? 00:12:27.280 |
That's I, I, I just never, my brother was, he is a surfer. Um, and that's how I got into 00:12:33.680 |
skateboarding, my older brother. And, um, but when I would go surf with him and he wanted, 00:12:38.640 |
like, he's, he has plenty of experience. He'd go out to pretty heavy stuff. And it's just like, 00:12:42.560 |
I don't that I like riding a big wave, but I don't, I don't want to suffer the consequences 00:12:48.640 |
of falling on one. I mean, having my first experience surfing was a friend of mine took 00:12:54.320 |
me and he was like, let's just try these on a short board. I had no idea what I was doing. 00:12:57.920 |
Yeah. Not, not a great first experience on a short board. Uh, and then the next one was like 00:13:03.360 |
Hawaii long board, super chill. I was like, Oh, I could get back into this. Well, I'll tell you, 00:13:07.520 |
I have since I have surfed through my years because my brother wouldn't allow me to exist 00:13:12.960 |
without at least a foot, a foot or a toe in the water, so to speak. But I, um, have, I have fallen 00:13:19.040 |
in love with the wave machines, the wave pools, because they are consistent. Um, they're not 00:13:27.600 |
too scary. Um, and they are like skate parks because when you go surfing out in the wild, 00:13:36.320 |
you never really know what you're going to get, right? You get waves and sometimes they're good. 00:13:40.480 |
Sometimes they're not good. Um, you've got to figure out kind of how to navigate nature and 00:13:45.200 |
where the swell is going to hit. Those things are, the waves are always good. They're, they're always 00:13:50.800 |
going to barrel. And so in that sense, you have what, what I consider a skate park to try to learn 00:13:57.200 |
tricks and try to learn techniques. So yeah, I get it. It's not like, it's not the purest thing. 00:14:02.640 |
It's not, you're not out in nature, but, um, but for me, it's just a controlled environment and it 00:14:09.440 |
very much feels like skateboarding. Yeah. I've been waiting for a time where I'm near one of 00:14:14.160 |
these wave parks because I don't think there's one near, near San Francisco, at least close enough. 00:14:18.560 |
Uh, Lamore Fresno. Okay. Not go out for a few hours and then come back. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Um, 00:14:26.480 |
so you've got this crazy determination with skateboarding. Did you ever figure out or, 00:14:31.520 |
or do you know the secret to applying that to something else? I think for my personal life, 00:14:36.400 |
there are things where I'm like, I'm wildly obsessed with optimizing travel. 00:14:40.800 |
And, but that doesn't mean that I can take that same thing and apply it necessarily 00:14:44.720 |
to go learn a kickflip though. You've somewhat inspired me to do that as soon as I get home today. 00:14:48.720 |
I think I learned the value of, of patience and perseverance and that I've, I've transcended 00:14:55.280 |
to being a parent, to being a business owner, to, to travel, to, you know, pretty much everything. 00:15:03.920 |
I learned all that through skating. And is there a way that you applied that? I, 00:15:08.880 |
you know, it's, it's not always natural for someone who's, I could do this as hard. I could 00:15:12.800 |
try everything and then they get to work and they're like, Oh, it's hard. Like, how do you 00:15:16.240 |
rewire your brain to say, Oh, well, I know how to do this with skateboarding. Um, I think this 00:15:19.920 |
is more of that. Yeah. And also, also trying to, uh, trying to reach back to remembering, well, 00:15:27.120 |
how, how was I able to figure this out? And I, I don't know a good example. I think that 00:15:33.280 |
with parenting, especially it's so easy to get frustrated and give up. It really is like, 00:15:39.200 |
you know, I, I get it. It's hard, man. When, especially when your kids are relentless and 00:15:43.920 |
they're difficult and you want to just be like, you know, you, you want to just yell and you can't, 00:15:49.600 |
that's not effective. And so you've got to figure out how to sort of change your approach 00:15:55.280 |
and to see what is effective. And that is really hard. And so, but I learned that through skating 00:16:02.480 |
and I learned, and I've had plenty of kids, so I've had time to figure it out even more so. 00:16:08.320 |
Um, but I think that it's, it's just more that I, and I learned the value of persistence 00:16:13.680 |
and determination and you do see the results eventually, but they're not, it's, it's not some, 00:16:19.280 |
it's not some wow moment always. Yeah. You know what I mean? You've got to sort of see, 00:16:25.120 |
you, you, you take your wins, your small wins as long the way. 00:16:30.400 |
I'm early on the parenting journey with one at two and six months, but 00:16:34.560 |
I've seen some small wins and it's like, Oh yeah. And those, and those, um, 00:16:40.560 |
they're exponentially get better. Yeah. And you can see that, Oh, well I planted the seed. 00:16:44.960 |
I'll tell you what I did with all my kids early on. And it was hard. Cause I was, you know, 00:16:50.160 |
very much in the early days, kind of a single parent. Um, I just travel with them in a way. 00:16:57.120 |
It wasn't a question of like, Oh, I gotta go. I'm going to have to find care. It was, we're going. 00:17:02.000 |
And in the beginning that was super hard, especially when they're, when they're toddlers 00:17:05.920 |
and you know, they, they don't have patients. We didn't have iPhones or anything like that. So it 00:17:10.400 |
was more like, all right, we're like, I remember I took my son, my oldest son. I took him to Japan 00:17:15.440 |
when he was four, because I had the opportunity to do some skate demos. No one was paying me to 00:17:19.920 |
skate demos at the time I was struggling to pay bills. And it was like this, this, uh, brand in 00:17:26.080 |
Osaka said, Oh, we want you to come to our skate shop and do two skate exhibitions a day in the 00:17:31.360 |
skate shop. So they built these little, these little ramps in their skate shop, like moved all 00:17:36.400 |
their inventory. And, um, and I brought him along and yeah, it was challenging, but, but, but it 00:17:44.480 |
made him appreciate different cultures and travel and things like that later on. And it wasn't even 00:17:51.040 |
a, like nowadays he's 30 now, um, he's adventurous. Um, he understands and, and is, I hate using the 00:18:01.600 |
word tolerant, but, but he is embraces other cultures and other ways of life. You know what 00:18:07.440 |
I mean? It's, it's, it's not like everything's so, Oh, it's weird. It's crazy. This food or 00:18:11.840 |
the way they do things. He's, he's down for it. Yeah. I think in the moment, we just took a trip 00:18:18.720 |
with two kids, two, two and two and six months. And it's brutal. But you, you think, why are we 00:18:23.600 |
doing this? And you got to constantly remind yourself, well, there's a reason we're doing 00:18:27.440 |
this. We're doing this. I think in those, in those years, it's super hard because it's like, 00:18:32.080 |
they're not going to remember any of this, but it does set a precedent and it sets a way of, of 00:18:37.440 |
functioning with your family that they get used to. And you'll see other kids try to do that. 00:18:44.480 |
Like eventually they're going to want to bring friends along. The friends are like, what? I 00:18:47.920 |
don't, I can't, where do we go? What do we do? And you'll, your kids will be dialed in. Yeah. 00:18:54.640 |
Even adapting ourselves, getting comfortable with, okay, well, traveling in London with two kids is 00:19:00.400 |
very different from two single adults. And so like, we're trying to get comfortable with that, 00:19:05.280 |
which was hard. And I think it, it worked really well. I know you've said, you know, 00:19:10.480 |
skateboarding is a title, but your favorite title is parenting or dad. Um, is there anything else 00:19:16.480 |
you were trying to teach your kids that to give them that determination? Do they have it? Did they 00:19:21.600 |
see it from you? I think they see it from me by example, but, but I do feel like there is a bit 00:19:27.680 |
also nature over nurture where I see them and they're all different. And a couple of them have 00:19:35.760 |
that relentless determination and they're going to see it through against all odds, against all 00:19:40.160 |
injury. Um, uh, one of them was actually kind of so, so determined and so fearless that I worried 00:19:50.000 |
for him when he was young. I used to say I was my son Keegan, but I used to say like, you don't go, 00:19:55.920 |
you don't babysit Keegan. You go on death watch. You're just trying to keep him from, from hurting 00:20:00.960 |
himself because he doesn't understand the consequences of all the stuff that he's trying to 00:20:04.800 |
do. Um, so they're all, they're all very different, but, but I do see that they do have that same 00:20:13.120 |
sense of commitment. And was that a conscious thing or do you think it was just by watching 00:20:19.040 |
you have it yourself? Well, I, that's what I said. I think, I think the, the, each of them are 00:20:23.440 |
different, but they all do see them see their challenges through. Some are just a little more 00:20:30.720 |
daring with their challenges. And I can't say they got that from me. I mean, maybe they, 00:20:35.200 |
they saw that I would, I would pose a challenge and then I would see it through for sure. 00:20:40.240 |
But like I said, they, you know, there was one, like some, my kids were really, 00:20:45.360 |
really good skaters, really solid, um, had the foundational skills, but didn't really want to 00:20:51.440 |
push their limits too hard or put themselves in danger. And then other ones, one especially was 00:20:58.560 |
not great at skating early on, didn't want to put in the hard work to get the foundational skills, 00:21:03.840 |
but would try anything and get hurt. Didn't care. And were you there pushing or supporting, 00:21:11.680 |
or what was your kind of role to help them kind of grow and evolve? 00:21:15.040 |
It's, it's hard with my position because of course I'm, I'm qualified to give them advice, 00:21:22.400 |
but because I'm dad, they don't want to hear it. And I actually have seen it happen time and time 00:21:27.440 |
again, where I'll, I'll tell them to try something or to do it a different way. They don't take my 00:21:32.720 |
advice because they're determined to do it their way. One of their friends is like, Oh, you should 00:21:36.480 |
put your foot over here more. And they do it and it works. Like, that's what I told you. 00:21:41.680 |
I feel like the same applies with spouses as well. 00:21:45.840 |
Maybe a little bit. Um, but, but, uh, but they do it. And honestly, it's, it's fun too, 00:21:52.880 |
cause they all skate. And, um, so when we go travel and they're all adults now, my, all of 00:21:58.000 |
our boys, uh, two are still in college, um, three are on their own. And then my daughter's the only 00:22:04.320 |
one still at home. She's 14. So whenever we travel, um, you know, they're, they're very 00:22:09.200 |
self-sufficient, but the, what they want to do when we go places to go to the skate parks. 00:22:13.920 |
And at some point he was like, you guys, can I get a break from skating maybe? 00:22:19.120 |
So I ended up going with them as their filmer. That's my role. And we travel together. 00:22:24.720 |
We actually talk a lot about travel on the show. I'm imagining you've been to, 00:22:28.560 |
I don't know, countless countries. I don't, I don't know if you even keep track. 00:22:31.760 |
Is there a favorite? Is there, are there places that you love going and going back to that, 00:22:37.280 |
you know, aside from just the skating, there might inspire people listening to. 00:22:41.520 |
I, I, Iceland is amazing because it's, the landscape is so diverse. I can't explain it, 00:22:49.360 |
but you, like, you go there as soon as you leave the airport, it looks like you're on the moon. 00:22:54.400 |
And there's just all of these, all of this, um, moss covering these rocks and there's the blue 00:23:01.040 |
lagoon. And, and then as you drive South, it completely changes into like, uh, almost like 00:23:09.280 |
a farm setting. And then, and then it changes again, like another half hour into the drive. 00:23:13.840 |
And, and, um, yeah, I mean, it can get really cold there, but it's really, it's an amazing place. Um, 00:23:19.760 |
and so my wife and I went there a long time ago, almost, almost 15 years ago now, 00:23:26.560 |
and it felt very untapped. Definitely wasn't a tourist destination. And now it feels much more 00:23:34.160 |
like there is tourism, but if you just drive out of the city, you can see some amazing sites. 00:23:39.920 |
My general rule is if you go, not when everyone else goes and leave a little bit 00:23:44.160 |
outside, you can have a very different experience. Yeah, we're not afraid to, 00:23:48.160 |
to go way off the beaten path, um, which we do a lot. Uh, other than that, Japan is just so, 00:23:54.400 |
so surreal. It feels like a video game. I, we just did an episode on Japan and 00:24:03.760 |
we, the episode was like three, we were like three hours in and we covered Tokyo and Kyoto, 00:24:08.320 |
like with, and Japan couldn't even get kind of close to comprehending the entire country. And 00:24:13.920 |
the guy I was talking to had been there 20 times or something. And like, he's just still like 00:24:18.240 |
every, everywhere I go, I see something new. So every time. Yeah. And, and we, we brought our 00:24:23.040 |
kids when they were all, I brought all of them when they were pretty young, but we brought them 00:24:26.400 |
all when they were, you know, just before they were teenagers and they were all mesmerized. 00:24:33.760 |
Like it was fascinating. Even, even the, the, even Disneyland is, you know, it's still the 00:24:39.680 |
magic kingdom, but it's very different. Japan's one of the coolest places. Uh, early on, 00:24:44.720 |
you traveled a lot as a skater before you'd hit the kind of success you've had now. I gotta ask 00:24:50.480 |
a question. I know everyone is thinking because multiple people said I should ask, uh, were you 00:24:55.760 |
racking up all these miles? Cause I know you weren't, you weren't making a lot, uh, in the 00:24:59.680 |
early days, uh, especially in that kind of mid part of your career. What was that like? You know, 00:25:05.680 |
you were tall, you started getting tall, uncomfortable. We're using points where 00:25:09.200 |
you're trying to get status upgrades. I, I honestly, I didn't, I didn't fly first class 00:25:14.800 |
until I was in my thirties. Were you optimizing things when you traveled thinking, okay, I'm gonna 00:25:20.800 |
rack up a bunch of miles. Um, yeah, but also just, I just learned how to travel more efficiently and, 00:25:26.080 |
and a little bit lighter and, um, and how to navigate airports and lines and, and, you know, 00:25:34.480 |
where the best security checkpoint is instead of the one where everyone's just being fed into 00:25:40.080 |
just stuff like that. Um, I guess I learned how to, how to be a better traveler in those days, 00:25:45.680 |
but I'd learned the value of, of frequent flyer miles through those years when, when, especially 00:25:51.920 |
when, um, when I wasn't making very much money, but I had, did have still have to travel to go do 00:25:59.760 |
stuff. Um, I collected a lot of miles. Yeah. I mean, I was a million miler on United very early 00:26:06.240 |
on. Yeah. You know what they sent me for that luggage? That was going to be my guest. Like, 00:26:13.280 |
it's not a very rewarding, rewarding experience. So here you go. 10 bucks. Yeah. Um, what would, 00:26:20.000 |
what would some of the things, if you were telling your favorite travel hacks to how you make your 00:26:24.080 |
life efficient when you travel, whether it's, you know, a secret neck pillow or some crazy, 00:26:28.160 |
you know, I mask. Um, well, let's see. I just, I just flew home from New York 00:26:34.480 |
and it was last minute. And so I'm in the bulkhead. Um, I do, I do like, I don't know. It's not, 00:26:41.840 |
it's not some great hack, but if you want to travel with your laptop or anything else, 00:26:47.680 |
cause you know, you have to put your backpack up in the overhead. We're getting into the weeds 00:26:51.040 |
here. But if you're in the, if you're in the bulkhead, take your laptop out and put it right 00:26:57.280 |
under your feet so that half of it's kind of under your, your own seat. And then the other half, 00:27:02.400 |
you just kind of lightly put your heels on it. It'll hide it from the flight attendants. 00:27:05.680 |
And then you have your laptop, you don't have to go up and get it, which is like laptop sleeves. 00:27:12.560 |
I like to get like a black one. Cause then it just blends in everywhere. Yeah. I'm pretty 00:27:16.080 |
good at just hiding it all together. Um, and then usually like I'll have a little bag. It's 00:27:21.920 |
actually my toiletry kit. And then I just stuff like my headphones and my, uh, iPhone cable, 00:27:29.360 |
you know, everything you need, everything I need, but just put that and then put that on 00:27:32.720 |
the side of the seat. So then I'll see that either. That's my bulkhead hack for you. 00:27:35.520 |
Um, but as far as other travel, I think I learned also just to, 00:27:44.480 |
you know, I I'm, it's not like I carry some big wardrobe or anything, but I do try to 00:27:50.000 |
keep it down to a carry on in a backpack. If I can't at all costs, cause I don't want to check 00:27:57.680 |
bags. I can't, I'll tell you that the biggest travel hacks for skateboards and, you know, 00:28:03.520 |
people, people will travel with skateboards, but you can travel with the skateboard and put it in 00:28:08.480 |
the overhead anywhere in the U S if you're, if you're making a connection, say in Frankfurt or 00:28:15.920 |
London, um, or, uh, even Tokyo, you, is it Tokyo? Yeah. You can't carry your skateboard on the plane 00:28:27.360 |
through those airports. So I have been told, uh, I've, I've been told a couple of times I've 00:28:36.320 |
actually gotten away with it once, but, um, and I learned, learned the hard way, like going through 00:28:40.320 |
London, you're in the terminal, you're connecting, right. But you know how they have to, you have to 00:28:46.240 |
go through another, um, uh, security checkpoint. You can't bring your skateboard. So you have to 00:28:51.280 |
go outside the airport on a connecting flight and check it in. And probably miss your flight. Maybe. 00:28:57.360 |
Oh yeah. Yeah. No, I've actually thrown a skateboard away because of that. Yeah. In London, 00:29:01.600 |
they said, Oh, you got to check it out. I don't have time. They go, well, I don't know what to 00:29:04.960 |
tell you. And then I, I put it in the trash can at the security checkpoint. Okay. I think it's a 00:29:11.840 |
safety risk. I think it's a weapon or I assume. Yeah. I mean, also Mexico too, surprisingly, 00:29:18.480 |
you can't carry a skateboard on the airplane in Mexico. So every time we travel with the kids, 00:29:23.200 |
Mexico, we've got to put them all in plastic bags. So we're just this, we're a disaster coming back 00:29:28.880 |
cause we're just a bunch of luggage. Um, so yeah, that's my, that's my advice. I don't know if it's 00:29:34.400 |
a hack, it's just my advice. Like if you're going to travel through Europe, don't carry your 00:29:38.480 |
skateboard onto the plane that is connecting. That could probably apply to other items. There 00:29:44.320 |
are some, I can't remember, not that it's the end of the world to replace things like nail scissors, 00:29:49.600 |
but there's some nail clippers. There's some country where you can't bring nail clippers on 00:29:53.120 |
your plane. Cause I remember, or if it has that like slide out file and I've definitely gotten 00:29:58.720 |
dinged on that. So I would say if the hack is to look up, what are the security requirements for 00:30:04.880 |
the country you're transiting through? Uh, or, you know, I try at all costs to fly direct just 00:30:11.040 |
to avoid these problems when possible. Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Um, yeah, 00:30:15.600 |
there used to be, I live in San Diego, but I live in North County and you used to be able to fly 00:30:19.920 |
from Carlsbad airport to LAX. And so basically you could go anywhere from LAX. Right. So that 00:30:26.560 |
was always like the best way to do it. But, um, many times our Carlsbad flight would be canceled 00:30:33.360 |
and we just have to drive, you know, literally drive to Carlsbad airport, like a couple of flights 00:30:37.440 |
canceled. Just keep going North to LAX. Um, but, uh, yeah, it's funny with the, with the skateboard 00:30:45.760 |
thing. I remember, so my wife and I usually carry our skateboards when we go places. Cause we like 00:30:52.800 |
to, we like to skate around cities, you know, just as transportation, um, if we're going by ourselves 00:30:58.000 |
and we're coming back from, oh man, I can't remember where somewhere. Um, and I think we 00:31:06.320 |
were coming back from Brazil maybe. And we were coming through the, um, where you hand them your 00:31:15.040 |
customs form. And the guy, I'll never forget this. He grabbed my customs form and he saw 00:31:22.000 |
my skateboard in his peripheral. And immediately it was like, go that way to secondary. 00:31:27.760 |
Cause he saw my skateboard. It was so obvious the way that his, you know what I mean? Like I 00:31:33.120 |
just saw his wheelchair and like, oh, he's a problem. He's a skateboarder. And he looked up 00:31:36.800 |
and he saw my face and he recognized it, but he'd already handed me this red card to go to secondary. 00:31:42.480 |
And he goes, oh, oh, you know what? Just tell them you're in a hurry. I said, oh, is that going to 00:31:47.360 |
work for me? You're sending me to secondary where they're going to go through all my stuff. And I'm 00:31:50.720 |
going to tell him I'm in a hurry. That's probably not the best approach. And then my wife and I 00:31:55.760 |
got into secondary. They wouldn't let us go to the bathroom. They wouldn't, you know, we were like, 00:31:59.200 |
we were very much, um, uh, being interrogated. Yeah. I mean, you've, you've told lots of 00:32:05.840 |
stories. I'll, I'll encourage anyone here to go check out the internet for all the stories of 00:32:09.840 |
you getting recognized as other people. Uh, is there a good one? You don't care. 00:32:16.000 |
Yeah. Um, yeah, I, I, it still happens all the time. And it's weird now because obviously, 00:32:23.200 |
as you would know that, that, that meme kind of took off, um, or not the meme, but just me 00:32:31.680 |
telling my story, like all the stories that tell it are absolutely true. 100%. Um, but it started 00:32:38.640 |
happening. So it would happen pretty frequently and I was sharing it. And at some point people 00:32:42.800 |
thought I was making it up. So I kind of stopped sharing these incidents because people were just 00:32:47.040 |
like, come on, like, really? But now it's gotten to the point where it's like this, this vicious 00:32:53.120 |
cycle where people now want to say it, even though they know who I am all the time. So I would say 00:33:00.080 |
that happens probably three times a day. That, that interaction, like anyone ever tell you, 00:33:06.160 |
you look like Tony Hawk. Yup. And you're the first today. Um, but then, but then it happens 00:33:12.320 |
genuinely at least once or twice too. And the, when it happens genuinely, if people were following me 00:33:18.160 |
around, they wouldn't believe it. Cause you know what I mean? Like they just, they hear about it 00:33:22.640 |
and it's just like, all right, like enough with this non, you know, this, this whole, um, I don't 00:33:28.160 |
even know what you call it. Mistaken identity thing. Yeah. But the, so yes, it still happens. 00:33:36.080 |
It happens as a joke. It happens for real. The, the, I think my favorite one as of late was that 00:33:42.640 |
I was sitting at a gate and this guy was sitting across from me at the gate. Um, and he, he looked, 00:33:50.240 |
he came over, he's a man, you know, you look just like Tony Hawk. He said, oh yeah, I know. I've 00:33:54.400 |
heard that. He's like, it's crazy. And then he went and sat back down and then a group of people 00:34:00.080 |
came who did recognize me for real and wanted autographs and pictures. And the whole time he's 00:34:07.200 |
watching me laughing because he's in on the joke that it's not really me. Do you know what I mean? 00:34:14.800 |
Like he and I are sharing this inside joke somehow that these people are crazy and they're mistaken, 00:34:20.640 |
but he just thought it was hilarious. Did you ever tell him at the end? Or did he ever? No, 00:34:24.880 |
I don't. I, I just, it's up to them to, you know what I mean? To either decide that or to ask me, 00:34:29.760 |
it drives my daughter crazy because a lot of times people will say it until you look like Tony Hawk. 00:34:35.840 |
I'm like, yeah, they, yeah. And it's, that's cool. And they walk away and my daughter's like, 00:34:39.520 |
why didn't you tell him? I go, he didn't ask. So if someone asks, you'll say, yeah, of course. Yeah. 00:34:44.320 |
All right. Well, I hope whoever was sitting across from you at the airport is listening 00:34:46.880 |
and they can finally come to terms with the fact that that was way more fun in his mind, 00:34:52.800 |
making fun of people. Yeah. Like that was, that was his thing. So I just let him run with it. 00:34:57.600 |
So to round out travel, you know, I'm sure you buy lots of things. Do you, do you play the points 00:35:04.560 |
game? Do you try to rack up points or cash back on credit cards to travel for free still? 00:35:09.600 |
Yes. I, I try to, well, I try to focus in on, you know, one or two airlines or their partners so 00:35:18.320 |
that I rack up the most points on, on them which is for the most part United and Delta. But also 00:35:25.520 |
all my credit card purchases go towards miles. And so I use those for my team. So for instance, 00:35:35.120 |
we have the skater Felipe Nunez from Brazil. You might've seen him. He's a double amputee 00:35:42.320 |
and he skates with he skates like kind of sitting on his board, but he's amazing. 00:35:47.040 |
It's crazy. I'll find a link to it and put it in the show notes. 00:35:50.400 |
Like truly deserves to be a pro skater. Like he is incredible and has only gotten better, 00:35:55.840 |
but it's tricky because he lives in a really small town, a couple hours from Sao Paulo. So 00:36:01.920 |
in Curitiba, so for me to get him flights is always really tricky and challenging, but I do it 00:36:08.240 |
using my visa points and I can get him his flights all the time. So anybody, he has to travel with 00:36:16.560 |
kind of a handler and it's a whole thing. But that's, and I use that for his flights. I use 00:36:21.680 |
him for my other skaters flights if they need to get somewhere for a skate trip or whatever. And, 00:36:25.760 |
and it's been, it's been awesome. Yeah. I'm, I'm always, everyone's always 00:36:30.240 |
surprised that it seems like no matter how successful you are, no matter how famous or 00:36:34.160 |
rich or whatever you are, everyone still wants to make sure that when they're spending money 00:36:37.840 |
on their card, they're getting like the most they can out of their rewards. 00:36:41.200 |
Yeah. And I, and also, I mean, just with, with me, sometimes other groups, uh, do my travel. 00:36:48.480 |
If I'm going to an event, I do a lot of speaking gigs, um, corporate gigs and whatnot and 00:36:52.880 |
conferences. And so sometimes it's up to them to do the travel and they don't plug in my, 00:36:58.960 |
my advantage number or my, you know, my mileage plus number or whatever. And 00:37:02.480 |
it's, it's such a hassle. Like it's, it's, it all seems so frivolous, but it's important 00:37:09.040 |
because it's like, you get in it, you can go to a different line, you know what I mean? 00:37:13.200 |
For security or whatever it is. And, and there's just some efficiency to it. And when you travel 00:37:17.440 |
as much as I do, those things count for a lot. Yeah. I know someone who's like, they're part of 00:37:22.480 |
their rider for speaking is like, I will book my flights and you will reimburse me because 00:37:26.640 |
I just don't usually what we do, but, but every once in a while it slips through the cracks. 00:37:31.040 |
Yeah. Uh, well, if anyone's listening, if you ever take a flight and you didn't put your number in, 00:37:35.440 |
you can actually retroactively ask for credit. So if you're ever forget, yes, 00:37:39.040 |
uh, the airlines do allow you to do that. It's better to do it at a ticket counter though. 00:37:43.200 |
Yes. They can do it fast. They can do it immediately. That's the other thing is, 00:37:46.960 |
is people like they wield such great power at the ticket counters. They could literally just 00:37:52.880 |
put you on a flight to London first class without blinking an eye. If, if they wanted to. 00:37:58.640 |
It always amazes me when someone's flight, something happened and they're yelling at this 00:38:03.440 |
person. And I'm like, you realize the person that holds the keys to whatever your situation will be 00:38:08.800 |
is that person who is not responsible for your delay or for your seat mix up. 00:38:15.440 |
I think just being nice to the person at the desk and can pay dividends on. 00:38:19.920 |
So absolutely. Yeah, no, I agreed. Yeah. I I've never scored this kind of mythical. 00:38:25.520 |
We're just going to upgrade you for no reason kind of thing. Obviously if you have status, 00:38:28.960 |
you can get it right. But, um, but everything else like, Oh, my flight's gone. They could decide, 00:38:33.920 |
do I want to put you on that easy connection or you want to do, I want to just give you a 00:38:37.040 |
coupon and you can get a hotel and come back tomorrow. And, uh, playing that game is, 00:38:41.760 |
has been very helpful. And if that line's too long, I always try to call 00:38:45.360 |
and see if I can get someone faster than a long line. Like when a flight's canceled and there's 00:38:49.120 |
a hundred people lined up. Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, I, I can, I, so I have all the apps, 00:38:55.440 |
you know, the flight track, like that will sometimes alert me 00:38:58.080 |
to a problem by flight before the airline does. So I'm, I'm always kind of ahead of the curve 00:39:04.560 |
with that where it's like, Oh, this thing's getting canceled. I'm going to go figure this 00:39:08.240 |
out before everyone else at the gate knows that's what's happening. And you're like telling them, 00:39:11.920 |
you're like the flight's canceled. She's like, what, what? Oh yes, it is. Yeah. Yeah. You're 00:39:16.080 |
telling them. Um, so one other area that we haven't talked a lot about is around kind of 00:39:22.400 |
health and fitness and, you know, people like Laird Hamilton go nuts about everything they do 00:39:27.280 |
with their regime for exercise, sauna, all this stuff, skateboarding. I think some people, 00:39:32.960 |
especially when I was a kid, like didn't even see it as a physical sport. I can, 00:39:36.640 |
I can assure you, I'm sure you can assure everyone that it is. How much was kind of 00:39:42.000 |
diet exercise training outside of skating important or, or how has that evolved as you've 00:39:48.080 |
gotten older? I think in the early days it, I didn't, I didn't recognize the importance 00:39:53.760 |
of, of my diet and training and whatnot, but I was so obsessed with skating that that was all 00:40:01.840 |
my exercise. And that was enough because I was skating three to four hours a day, every day, 00:40:07.520 |
um, giving it a mile. So I think that over time I, and also just seeing my peers, I saw 00:40:18.000 |
a lot of them not take care of themselves, drinking too much, partying and, and really 00:40:22.720 |
kind of losing their skillsets. And so skating was always such a paramount importance to me 00:40:28.960 |
that I was never going to let that happen. And I saw it by example, like, Oh man, he's not skating 00:40:35.120 |
good. Oh, that's because he won't stop partying. And so for me, that was sort of the first lesson 00:40:41.280 |
was, was not, not completely, but, but clean living for the most part. But as I grew older, 00:40:48.080 |
then I realized the importance of, of diet and of trying to stay active when I can't skate. 00:40:54.000 |
And now, especially at my age and with my, my current recovery, um, I I've learned that I 00:41:00.480 |
got to stay active. Even if I can't skate, I got to, and I need to do so much stuff to help. I I'm 00:41:07.200 |
recovering from a broken femur from last year. I need to do so many things to help that healing. 00:41:12.080 |
Um, and it, it, it was at one point it was because it was a full-time job and I had to kind of back 00:41:18.480 |
off from it. Cause I was like, maybe I just need to wait, just give it time instead of trying to 00:41:23.520 |
do all these other things like hyperbaric chamber and laser treatment and acupuncture and peptides. 00:41:29.120 |
And, and I was going all the way in with all those treatments. Um, and, and at some point 00:41:35.200 |
it didn't, I actually went the wrong way with my recovery, but only because I, I couldn't stop 00:41:42.000 |
skating. So my bone never connected to itself. It never actually became one bone again. So I had it 00:41:50.320 |
reset, um, two months ago. And are there things that you think that you've experimented with, 00:41:55.840 |
whether it's diet or, you know, different kinds of treatment that you think you'll keep in a 00:42:01.040 |
routine or that are lasting or things like breathwork or yoga or any of those things that 00:42:06.240 |
are part of your routine? I think, uh, swimming helped me with my strength a lot when I wasn't 00:42:12.400 |
skating. So I'm, I'm going to lean into that more, um, going forward, including with my skating. Um, 00:42:20.240 |
and, and just trying to, you know, it was more like, um, not eating to excess and not indulging 00:42:29.760 |
in sweets and sodas and stuff like that. Um, I, I still, I still carry a lot of my habits from, 00:42:36.400 |
from as a kid, then I still enjoy, you know, not the healthiest of foods, but I don't go all in 00:42:44.320 |
on just fast food and just the, you know, more, um, stuff that's going to slow me down and, and 00:42:51.280 |
try to make a concerted effort to take supplements, to eat greens, um, you know, 00:42:58.640 |
less processed foods, stuff like that. What kind of supplements? Well, I take, uh, quite a few, 00:43:03.440 |
but, but most importantly, I have to take a stat now because I have high cholesterol because of my 00:43:07.520 |
family history. So I take, um, QNAL CoQ10. Um, I actually, it was funny because they were looking 00:43:15.840 |
for, they reached out to me about possibly doing an endorsement. Like, do you know what this is? 00:43:20.960 |
You know, I take it. I literally take it every day. Wow. And so, uh, I was kind of the perfect 00:43:27.120 |
one for their campaign. You know what I mean? So it's stuff like that, but multivitamins too. 00:43:32.480 |
Okay. And a bevy of other ones just trying to keep my, um, you know, all my, my levels balanced. 00:43:40.720 |
What about the morning routine? Are you early, early up and early after it? 00:43:45.280 |
Yeah. Well, we still have a, we still have one at home. Um, usually I got to make sure my daughter 00:43:49.920 |
is up and getting ready by 7:00 AM. So I'm usually up by six 30. I mean, that's not crazy early, but 00:43:56.080 |
sometimes it's six. Um, and that's kind of my time to, uh, try to go through my communications 00:44:06.000 |
emails and, and whatnot. Um, because as the day starts and as like she goes to school, 00:44:12.080 |
I come here, this is my office. This is my ramp is, um, things get crazy through the day. 00:44:17.440 |
And so it's hard to stay on top of communication. Yeah. I heard you say in a podcast almost five 00:44:23.760 |
years ago that your kryptonite was time. I'm curious. I'm curious if in the last few years, 00:44:30.000 |
you've made any changes, whether it's to time management or anything that's made you more 00:44:35.040 |
productive. Uh, yeah, I've learned to say no. I mean, it's hard, especially when things are, 00:44:41.280 |
things are growing and things are successful and people are, are asking for your time and, and, 00:44:47.600 |
and for whatever, for, for you to attend events or for you to do interviews and things like that. 00:44:55.360 |
And at some point I thought, I don't need to do these things. And I don't think that they are 00:45:02.560 |
necessarily beneficial. I don't know, you know, that they just don't seem like they should be so 00:45:09.600 |
obligatory. Um, I'm honored that people want to talk to me and that people want me to do stuff. 00:45:14.080 |
But at some point I needed for my own sanity, for my own, and also for my own family dynamic 00:45:21.840 |
to just be available to them and not be on the, on the move all the time or just home on my phone. 00:45:27.360 |
That's, I think that's one thing that people don't necessarily recognize is that just because 00:45:34.240 |
you are home, if your attention is elsewhere, you're not really home. Yeah. I think it's something 00:45:39.280 |
that when you have young kids, you start to realize, wow, like the number of times I'm just 00:45:43.680 |
a little bit distracted, uh, because they run off and you're like, whoa, I was distracted. 00:45:48.480 |
They're no longer trying to show you something. And you're like, uh-huh. Yep. Yep. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. 00:45:51.680 |
And you think that that's good enough, but they, they see that, you know, and, and, and they, that, 00:45:55.520 |
that can be effect that can affect them. Yeah. I think in some ways it might've been much easier 00:46:01.520 |
to be a parent before all of the distraction that we have. Yeah. In other ways, I think it was way 00:46:06.160 |
harder. Yeah. So I, I, I was very young. I was 24 when my, when my first son was born and, um, 00:46:13.920 |
that was, you know, there were no DVRs. We were still using VHS and he would wake up super early. 00:46:20.160 |
And sometimes before Sesame street was on the air, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, what do we get? 00:46:26.640 |
Let's read a book or do something. Um, so yeah, it's, uh, you know, you, you learn and you learn 00:46:32.400 |
to, you learn to entertain the old fashioned way, storytelling. It's like, uh, that I find this on 00:46:40.400 |
flights now. It's like, you're on a flight, you're on Southwest. There's no TVs. There's 00:46:44.320 |
no device. Like you're sitting there and you're like, it's amazing how kids are like, I want to 00:46:48.560 |
run around. And you're like, well, you can't run around. I want to read a book. Okay. Five minutes 00:46:52.400 |
in. I don't want to read a book anymore. So, uh, I think flights in that kind of toddler age are 00:46:56.880 |
really tough. Um, one thing I will, I'll tell you a hack for toddlers, since you do have young ones 00:47:03.280 |
and this is going to be weird, but it worked for me a couple of times. My son was prone to, um, 00:47:09.440 |
being carsick sometimes, um, and, and on planes too. Um, and so sometimes we would be walking 00:47:17.680 |
through a terminal or something, and then he would just barf. And I learned that, um, it's very easy 00:47:24.000 |
to remove your shoe, remove one sock, use that as a rag and just throw the sock away and deal with 00:47:32.160 |
just wearing one sock the rest of your trip or your day to, to save from having to try to go some 00:47:39.440 |
massive cleanup effort. The sock burp cloth. What's that? The sock burp cloth. Sock burp cloth. 00:47:44.800 |
Yeah. Yeah. I've done, I've done it a few times. The last thing we didn't really talk on was around 00:47:50.720 |
money. So early on in your career, you were making six figures in high school. So I'm, 00:47:55.280 |
I'm trying to comprehend that, you know, most people in high school are making 00:47:58.960 |
maybe a couple bucks on a side gig. What was money? What was the relationship with 00:48:03.600 |
money like back then? Well, it was all a big surprise. Cause it wasn't like, 00:48:07.920 |
it wasn't like you got into skateboarding to be rich or famous. No one had become rich or famous. 00:48:14.880 |
No one made money doing it. You just did it cause you loved it. And all of a sudden there was this 00:48:19.200 |
fame and there was this money. And I was in my late teens. I I'd say I started making pretty 00:48:25.840 |
good money around 16, 17. And it was like, Oh, this is awesome. I'm going to take all my friends 00:48:32.880 |
to Hawaii. I'm going to sharper image and buying all the gear. And, and at some point my dad 00:48:39.520 |
gave me the best advice. He said, I really think you should put some of that money away. 00:48:44.560 |
I was like, why? As if it's just going to keep raining down on me. And he said, well, you know, 00:48:50.640 |
you just don't know if this is going to last. And, and, um, cause he really wanted me to go 00:48:54.800 |
to college. And it's like, if you're going to do this, you should really, you should really save 00:49:00.000 |
from what you're making here. And so when I was 17, he co-signed, uh, a, a mortgage for a home 00:49:09.760 |
that like we, I bought a home when I was 17, it was my money, but he co-signed it just cause I was 00:49:15.280 |
not 18. And cause you might not have had, had the income to qualify for a more, more. No, I did. I 00:49:20.800 |
had the income to qualify, but I literally was not old enough to sign the paperwork by myself. 00:49:25.680 |
So he co-signed on, on a house for me. So I lived in my own place as a senior in high school, 00:49:32.400 |
as if I was in college with your parents, weren't there. So, and then I had all the high school 00:49:38.320 |
parties. I had one roommate that was also at the same high school. We had two older roommates that 00:49:42.880 |
just had jobs, but were young enough to be, um, taking advantage of the situation. And so, you 00:49:53.760 |
know, when you're in high school, whoever's friends are out of town, that's where the party 00:49:57.760 |
is. My, my, whoever's friends, uh, whoever's friends' parents were out of town, that's the 00:50:03.120 |
house where the party is, right? My parents were never in town. So my house was always where the 00:50:07.840 |
party was. And it got, it was very challenging to stay focused on school when I'm already making 00:50:14.400 |
more than my teachers and I'm, everyone's coming over to hang out and then I'm supposed to get up 00:50:20.960 |
early and drive to high school. Um, but I did, I mean, I, I did mostly because of how important my 00:50:27.680 |
parents, how much they valued education. My mom was a teacher, um, at a junior college at the time. 00:50:35.360 |
And so I knew they'd be really disappointed if I just left. 00:50:38.880 |
So finishing high school was like a very. Well, yeah, it was important. Yeah. 00:50:42.880 |
Yeah. And then did you keep saving or was the house the kind of saving grace? 00:50:48.720 |
The house was saving grace. Yeah. I, I, um, well, I got in kind of over my head. So a few years 00:50:54.480 |
later I bought another property. I built a bunch of big ramps on it. It was, it was a four acre 00:51:01.040 |
lot here, kind of East San Diego. And, um, at some point, not long after that, my income started 00:51:08.480 |
dropping by half, by half every month because it was all royalty based. It was all based on, 00:51:14.800 |
um, items or products with my name on it. Skating was taking a downturn in popularity. So suddenly 00:51:21.840 |
skating is not popular. My name's not popular. My products aren't selling and I'm stuck with 00:51:26.960 |
two mortgages, my first child on the way. And it was like, how did I get here? This is crazy. So 00:51:33.360 |
I sold my house for basically, um, I had taken a second, I had taken equity out of it to start a 00:51:41.760 |
skate company, which seems like not the smartest move at a time when your income's dropping, 00:51:46.560 |
but I wanted to stay in the industry. And I wanted to, at that point, have more control 00:51:51.520 |
over a brand because up to then I had been skating for the same sponsor for 10 years. 00:51:57.040 |
And their, their popularity was waning. So was skateboarding. And I thought, well, 00:52:03.760 |
I could probably just start a brand and be behind the scenes because it seems like now 00:52:07.200 |
my career as a skater is starting to fall apart, but I could, I could at the very least be effective 00:52:14.480 |
as sort of a team manager, curator, marketer. And so I took, uh, the equity out of my house, 00:52:23.200 |
started Birdhouse Skateboards, um, sold the house for what I owed on it, then moved back into the 00:52:28.960 |
house I was living at as a senior in high school. And, and for probably three to four years lived 00:52:38.080 |
off of Top Ramen, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Taco Bell, um, and just made it 00:52:43.680 |
work. And those were the years when I started to have to travel to make ends meet like Japan 00:52:51.360 |
and bring my son along. You know what I mean? That's, that's how that all unraveled. 00:52:57.200 |
There wasn't childcare at home to help out because if you're eating Top Ramen, it's, it's tough. 00:53:04.160 |
And then things changed. Birdhouse took off. How did that evolve? Like now are you much more 00:53:09.440 |
passionate or interested about money and saving and all of that? Or, or where, where's your 00:53:13.920 |
relationship? Well, I have, I have a much more respect for, for saving money and, and for being, 00:53:22.960 |
um, for making sure everyone's taken care of my, especially with our kids. Um, you know, 00:53:27.760 |
I want them to all forge their own way for sure. But at the same time, we, we want to be able to 00:53:32.160 |
know that we have a nest egg in case something goes south. So, um, my relationship is just that 00:53:37.840 |
I have, I have much more reverence and respect for it. And that I also don't take every single 00:53:45.520 |
opportunity. And I mean, that, that was a big, you know, that, that's a reason why I had so many 00:53:49.760 |
relationships fall apart too. Cause I just kept chasing the carrot even when it was huge, even 00:53:54.560 |
when I didn't need to at all. I just kept going. I, it was like, it was like, I couldn't turn it 00:53:59.520 |
off. And then at some point I realized like, what I'm losing, I'm missing, I'm missing my, my kids 00:54:06.480 |
formative years chasing some, some dream that I've already realized. Yeah. I think at a different 00:54:14.160 |
scale, it's something that we all face is like, you know, you have kids and you're like, I can't 00:54:19.520 |
go to the thing. I can't go to the thing. And I think if you pause and reflect for a moment, 00:54:23.440 |
you're like, but it's okay. Like I miss the day, but it's so hard to process that. And, and like 00:54:30.000 |
FOMO is definitely real. But if, if there's one thing that, you know, your kids can teach you, 00:54:35.360 |
even when they're really young, it's like, you can miss the thing. Like, it's okay. 00:54:39.760 |
Oh yeah. It's okay. Yeah. And, and also if you, if you, if you really devote yourself, um, 00:54:46.480 |
to that time with your kids, you see, you just see the, the gleam in their eye. And you see that, 00:54:54.160 |
that, that they appreciate it. You know, they're not going to speak it to you. Good luck getting 00:55:00.480 |
your kids to say thank you, by the way, for anything, but, um, but they do appreciate it. 00:55:04.400 |
And, and they, you know, and they thrive because of it. Um, but I think it was just that I had 00:55:09.600 |
gotten so used to the hustle of, of not being successful and just going all the time, trying 00:55:17.200 |
to, trying to create something, trying to make something happen that when it started to happen 00:55:21.680 |
in droves, how could I let it go? That, that seems crazy. That's impossible. Why would I not do that? 00:55:28.800 |
Um, and at some point I lost myself in it. Is there something that you wish you'd known, 00:55:34.480 |
or you'd wish someone had told you that could have gotten you out of that earlier? 00:55:38.720 |
I don't, I don't think so. I think it was all so new and fantastical to me that, 00:55:44.080 |
that I don't think I was going to listen to a voice of reason, you know what I mean? 00:55:48.240 |
Um, and so now you've got plenty of things that could keep you busy. What, 00:55:52.640 |
what's the focus now? I mean, you're still skating or you will probably after you, you heal. 00:55:57.360 |
Yeah. Um, now I, I mean, I'm just so thankful to still be in the scene and to be able to 00:56:06.480 |
bear witness to skateboarding's massive, um, acceptance. I don't want to say growth. I mean, 00:56:13.120 |
it definitely has grown hugely in the last five or 10 years, but, um, just to see it come of age and 00:56:20.480 |
to be an activity, a sport, a lifestyle that is all inclusive, that is super diverse, that is now 00:56:28.960 |
an Olympic sport. It's, it's something that, that, um, people like transcends boundaries, 00:56:37.200 |
cultures, economics, you know, people that get together to skate, they don't care where you're 00:56:42.560 |
from. They just care if you're, how you skate. Um, and it's low cost of entry. And so to see it 00:56:48.320 |
come this far and to still be considered relevant, that's, that's the greatest joy I have. So 00:56:52.960 |
what am I doing? I'm, I'm doing whatever I can to still be an advocate for skating 00:56:57.760 |
and to be able to skate myself because that's still is the most fun for me. Um, but whatever, 00:57:05.520 |
kind of whatever comes along. I mean, and like I said, I do a lot of speaking gigs now, 00:57:10.560 |
which I never imagined would be a way of living or a source of income. I say it all the time 00:57:16.880 |
because when I go to these things, it's just like, look, I never imagined anyone would pay me to 00:57:20.000 |
skate. So I certainly never imagined that people would pay me to talk about skateboarding. Um, 00:57:26.240 |
but here we are and it's a blast. I love it. And you think, what's the advice to someone who's 00:57:32.480 |
passionate about a thing that's not necessarily a revenue source for their life right now? 00:57:37.520 |
It's what's going to bring you the most joy and it's worth it. You know, I think it's, 00:57:44.560 |
if you go to work and your work makes you happy, that's living the dream 00:57:49.360 |
at any level. And, and, and if, if it's, if it's very successful financially, 00:57:57.040 |
great, that's just sort of gravy, but it's more about your peace of mind. 00:58:01.840 |
And, and I think that if there is something that makes you truly happy and maybe you have to do 00:58:08.720 |
something else to supplement your income, try to balance those things as best you can. 00:58:12.720 |
Yeah. I've actually, I've turned my position on this in the past few years. I used to say, 00:58:17.280 |
I'll go follow your passion, you know, find a way to make that your job. 00:58:20.240 |
But if you have a job that allows you to follow your passion, not as a job, 00:58:24.480 |
that's okay. Yeah. That's, that's, that's enough. And for a lot of people, my, 00:58:28.880 |
my brother-in-law went pro golfing and then hated it because it was his job. 00:58:33.440 |
And then what got a job and just golfs on the weekend and loves it. And so I think for some 00:58:38.720 |
people, even pursuing it to some extent can actually take away. I don't know if there was 00:58:42.480 |
ever a moment in your career where it was like skating to win competitions and to win trophies 00:58:46.960 |
was just too much and it took away the fun. Yeah, for sure. Especially in the, in the late 00:58:54.080 |
eighties, that was the, that I, I became a machine and it was very cyclical and it was like, all 00:58:59.600 |
right, there's an event coming up next weekend. I've got to learn a couple of new tricks for the 00:59:04.160 |
event because the judges saw what I'm, you know, they, they saw my current roster of tricks. So 00:59:10.480 |
I got to hide it from them and then unleash it in the finals. And then, but it became so formulaic 00:59:17.120 |
that it really was not fun. And at some point I just pulled away and stepped away from it 00:59:22.080 |
altogether because skating had become a job and it wasn't fun for me. And then when I did pull away, 00:59:30.400 |
I, I got very creative with my skating and I was able to really learn 00:59:34.160 |
a lot of different techniques and a lot of stuff that I wanted to pursue, 00:59:38.480 |
even though I wasn't making a living at it at the time. I mean, I kind of was, I still had 00:59:44.480 |
signature skateboards and whatnot, but when you're not in those years, if you were not competing 00:59:48.720 |
actively, you were not going to get coverage. You were not going to get career opportunities, 00:59:56.160 |
but I was willing to let those go to just at least be happy with it. And so it gave me this 01:00:02.720 |
sort of new energy to come back to competing and with a different approach that was more, 01:00:08.720 |
it was more, I don't know how to explain it. I guess, I guess it was, it was less careful 01:00:17.520 |
and it was more risky. That was it. I came, I came at it with a, with a sense of, I'm going 01:00:24.800 |
to just try everything. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I'd rather just do this and take 01:00:29.600 |
the chances and have fun doing it. And if it works, then it's going to work awesomely. 01:00:33.440 |
The downside to that was that when I did come back to competing, it was when skateboarding 01:00:39.760 |
was starting to take a downturn. So I came back with this renewed energy and I was winning a lot 01:00:44.720 |
of big events. And all of a sudden it was like, what happened? Where's the crowd? Where's the 01:00:49.520 |
contest? Where's the prize money? You guys like turn the machines back on. I thought this was 01:00:54.240 |
cool. And so I, you know, it was kind of like the wrong place at the right time. 01:00:59.280 |
But you probably wouldn't have had the career you had after that had that not happened. 01:01:03.280 |
No, no. Because in, in those dead years, I was skating more than ever. Um, having fun doing it, 01:01:12.400 |
you know, learning new tricks and learning new techniques. It was just that I wasn't 01:01:15.200 |
doing it in front of crowds because the crowds weren't there anymore. 01:01:19.520 |
Yeah. I think I'm very fortunate that, and I think you did the same with your podcast. Like 01:01:23.120 |
when you start a podcast, if you can start it, not needing to be your, your job and your business, 01:01:28.480 |
you could do whatever you want with it. You can kind of say, you know what? This podcast was not, 01:01:32.800 |
you know, when I started it, I never thought I'd be going over countries as episodes. And then I 01:01:36.320 |
was like, yeah, I'm going to London. I want to talk to someone who knows everything about London. 01:01:39.440 |
Let's make an episode about London. And then we do it on Japan. So I think when you really start 01:01:44.480 |
to do what you're passionate about in your work, it sometimes creates an even better experience. 01:01:49.920 |
And people love these episodes. And I never had an idea, but. 01:01:52.080 |
Oh yeah. No, I think, well, my, my cohost, Jason Ellis and I, we have a lot of, of, uh, 01:01:58.960 |
we have a lot of experience, obviously skating, but just life experience. He, he was, you know, 01:02:03.280 |
had a totally different path than I did. And when we have guests, especially with non-skating guests, 01:02:09.360 |
we relate to them in different ways that people would not expect, but, but in a very, 01:02:14.400 |
in a very parallel way. Um, for instance, we had two wrestlers on, uh, that's our most recent guest 01:02:22.560 |
and Darby Allen and Jamie Hader. And people were like, why would you have them on? And then when 01:02:27.280 |
we started to talk about our experiences and our injuries, we were right in line and we were 01:02:32.240 |
bouncing off of each other. And it was a really great conversation. It was fascinating, you know, 01:02:36.400 |
and say what you will about, about wrestling or that it's made up or whatever it is. They are, 01:02:41.600 |
those guys take as much abuse as skateboarders. Yeah. It was great. I listened to this episode. 01:02:49.600 |
It was wild to kind of, I don't think I've gotten that behind the scenes look at wrestling. Uh, 01:02:55.200 |
you know, it hasn't been a passion of mine, but it was super fascinating and you don't have to 01:02:59.360 |
say who, but I know there's some cool guests coming down the pike. So if anyone's listening, 01:03:03.280 |
yeah, we have, um, we have a, an insane roster coming up and, and, uh, I feel like now we're 01:03:10.000 |
starting to hit our stride and we've been doing it a couple of years. So you're right. It wasn't 01:03:13.920 |
something that we needed and, but we enjoy doing it. And we did find that we had something unique 01:03:18.800 |
to offer. We found a groove, we found an audience. Um, it was just that we weren't doing all the, 01:03:24.640 |
the right things with the algorithms and the, you know, the promotions. And so now we, we have a 01:03:31.360 |
group, uh, Malka that is, um, is taking the reins on that and they've been doing a great job. So 01:03:37.680 |
we get to focus more on the content. Podcast is great. I enjoy it. Uh, 01:03:42.720 |
especially, especially cause I have my, my childhood skate skate dreams still somewhere 01:03:46.880 |
buried in my head for anyone else listening. Where else can they, where else do you want to 01:03:51.840 |
send them to keep on top of whatever you're doing? Oh, um, well, I'm out there on all the social 01:03:56.560 |
media as Tony Hawk. Um, luckily, uh, I had to, I think, I think I had to buy one of someone, 01:04:05.440 |
someone, um, squatted my name on some platform early on. Um, but yeah, so I'm Tony Hawk and all 01:04:11.840 |
the social media and that's kind of where I put all of my content out there. Uh, we have the Hawk 01:04:16.400 |
versus Wolf podcast. Um, I think if anything, my, my energy also is directed towards the skate park 01:04:23.600 |
project, which is my foundation for public skate parks in underserved areas. Um, we have been 01:04:29.200 |
doing it over 20 years now. We've helped to fund over a thousand skate parks, um, in the U S alone. 01:04:36.080 |
Um, we have a couple of, um, international projects as well. And I think that's my proudest work 01:04:40.800 |
because when I was growing up skating, the skate park was my salvation. I know I was, 01:04:46.320 |
I was an outcast kid. I was bullied at school, but I found my tribe and my community at the 01:04:51.280 |
skate park. And, and I was very lucky that, that the park that I grew up skating at was one of the 01:04:56.960 |
last ones in the U S in the mid eighties, there were only a handful. And that was never lost on 01:05:03.360 |
me how lucky I was to have that place to go and to have that, that, um, that crew. So when I was 01:05:10.480 |
in a position to advocate and to possibly affect change, that's what I, that's what I focused in 01:05:17.360 |
on was, was public skate parks. Yeah. I mean, I grew up kind of at the, the born in the early 01:05:22.960 |
eighties and that I was in that kind of dearth of, of lack of skate parks, skate parks. And I 01:05:27.840 |
think my community was like the guy that lived across the street that had a skateboard. Like 01:05:31.120 |
that was it, right. It was the two of us. And, and also that these kids that they find something 01:05:36.560 |
they love, right. And they, they maybe live in an area where there's not much opportunity. 01:05:40.400 |
They find something they love and they're mostly told that they can't do it because they're 01:05:44.080 |
trespassing. Yeah. Or they're a nuisance. They put things to prevent you from doing it. 01:05:48.640 |
And it's like, this kid has finally found something that speaks to them. 01:05:52.720 |
And now you're discouraging them from that. Like, what, what are you doing to your community? 01:05:57.600 |
Um, and so to have those parks, the kids feel like they're, they matter and that they can, 01:06:07.520 |
they can find their, their crew. Um, and, uh, the, I think the best part about the foundations, we, 01:06:14.960 |
we try to empower groups that are already doing it themselves or trying to do it themselves. Like, 01:06:20.400 |
like they're trying to fundraise or they're going to city council meetings or they're petitioning. 01:06:24.720 |
All those things matter. And it feels like you're in an uphill battle that will never end, 01:06:34.320 |
especially with the red tape and the bureaucracy and city councils, but we give them the roadmap 01:06:40.240 |
to do it the right way. And when we do give them our endorsement and possibly funding, 01:06:46.320 |
that's usually the tipping point for them to get it approved officially. And so that, you know, 01:06:50.960 |
for us, it's empowering the, those, those go-getters that were trying to do it in the first 01:06:56.480 |
place. I love it. So you should all definitely check out the podcasts and the socials, but 01:07:00.880 |
definitely check out the skate park project. It's, uh, I wish that it was around, you know, 01:07:05.840 |
30 something years ago for me, it would have been awesome. But any, any parting advice for anyone 01:07:11.680 |
who's looks at you, it says, gosh, when I'm in my fifties, I want to be doing the thing I love 01:07:15.680 |
and, you know, performing at that level. Um, what can I say? I, I think that the, the, 01:07:24.640 |
my approach always has been to keep improving what I do. Um, and at my age that's shifted a bit from 01:07:32.880 |
trying to do these big spins and these big, big stunts to more subtle techniques, but something 01:07:39.360 |
that I feel like is progressive. Um, and I'm talking about just in terms of physical skating, 01:07:43.680 |
but also just my approach to life is like to not wrestle my accolades, to keep trying to 01:07:48.800 |
improve what I do, keep evolving, listen to other, other input and, um, and glean what you can from 01:07:56.640 |
them, glean what, what is appropriate to what you do. Um, you know, I love, I'm fascinated listening 01:08:02.400 |
to people who, who are passionate about what they do, whether they're successful or not just to hear 01:08:07.680 |
what drives them. And a lot of times you can, you can translate that to what you do. 01:08:14.480 |
Is there a favorite way you consume these stories, podcasts you like, books you like? 01:08:18.480 |
Uh, for, for these days, it's actually doing my own podcast. Cause I like to invite people 01:08:22.080 |
that I think are fascinating and really get into their story. Um, I like we interviewed, uh, this 01:08:28.720 |
girl who's a, she's the most decorated Paralympian now. Her name's Oksana Masters. Um, who, who grew 01:08:36.000 |
up in a Ukrainian orphanage, um, after Chernobyl and who was disfigured from Chernobyl, um, who 01:08:42.880 |
came to the U S she got adopted. And her story is incredible and so inspiring. I already knew a 01:08:49.600 |
little bit of it, but to invite her on our pack podcast and hear all of it was fascinating. 01:08:54.400 |
I have not listened to that. So that's my homework for the flight home today. 01:08:57.840 |
Uh, thank you so much for being here or for having me here. 01:09:00.880 |
Oh yeah. Thanks for, Hey, this is, this is my home away from home.