(upbeat music) - We actually talk a lot about travel on the show. I'm imagining you've been to, I don't know, countless countries. I don't know if you even keep track. Is there a favorite? Is there, are there places that you love going and going back to that, you know, aside from just the skating there might inspire people listening to?

- Iceland is amazing because the landscape is so diverse. I can't explain it, but you, like, you go there, as soon as you leave the airport, it looks like you're on the moon. And there's just all of these, all of this moss covering these rocks, and there's the Blue Lagoon.

And, and then as you drive South, it completely changes into like, almost like a farm setting. And then, and then it changes again, like another half hour into the drive. And, and yeah, I mean, it can get really cold there, but it's really, it's an amazing place. And so my wife and I went there a long time ago, almost, almost 15 years ago now, and it felt very untapped.

Definitely wasn't a tourist destination. And now it feels much more like there is tourism, but if you just drive out of the city, you can see some amazing sights. - My general rule is if you go, not when everyone else goes and leave a little bit outside, you can have a very different experience.

- Yeah, we're not afraid to, to go way off the beaten path, which we do a lot. Other than that, Japan is just so, so surreal. It feels like a video game. - We just did an episode on Japan, and the episode was like three, we were like three hours in and we covered Tokyo and Kyoto, like with, and Japan.

- Oh yeah. - We couldn't even get kind of close to comprehending the entire country. And the guy I was talking to had been there 20 times or something, and like, he's just still like every, everywhere I go, I see something new. - Oh, every time. Yeah. And we brought our kids when they were all, I brought all of them when they were pretty young, but we brought them all when they were, you know, just before they were teenagers and they were all mesmerized.

Like it was fascinating. Even the, even Disneyland is, you know, it's still the magic kingdom, but it's very different. - Japan's one of the coolest places. Early on, you traveled a lot as a skater before you'd hit the kind of success you've had now. I got to ask a question I know everyone is thinking because multiple people said I should ask, were you racking up all these miles?

'Cause I know you weren't making a lot in the early days, especially in that kind of mid part of your career. What was that like? You know, you were tall, you started getting tall, uncomfortable, were using points, were you trying to get status and upgrades? - I honestly, I didn't fly first class until I was in my thirties.

- Were you optimizing things when you traveled thinking, okay, I'm gonna rack up a bunch of miles. - Yeah, but also just, I just learned how to travel more efficiently and a little bit lighter and how to navigate airports and lines and, you know, where the best security checkpoint is instead of the one where everyone's just being fed into, just stuff like that.

I guess I learned how to be a better traveler in those days, but I learned the value of frequent flyer miles through those years. Especially when I wasn't making very much money, but I did still have to travel to go do stuff, I collected a lot of miles. Yeah, I mean, I was a million miler on United very early on.

- You know what they sent me for that? Luggage tax. - That was gonna be my guess. Like it's not a very rewarding experience. Here you go. 10 bucks. What would some of the things if you were telling your favorite travel hacks to how you make your life efficient when you travel, whether it's, you know, a secret neck pillow or some crazy, you know, eye mask?

- Well, let's see. I just flew home from New York and it was last minute. And so I'm in the bulkhead. I do like, I don't know, it's not some great hack, but if you want to travel with your laptop or anything else, 'cause you know, you have to put your backpack up in the overhead.

We're getting into the weeds here, but if you're in the bulkhead, take your laptop out and put it right under your feet so that half of it's kind of under your own seat. And then the other half, you just kind of lightly put your heels on it. It'll hide it from the flight attendants.

And then you have your laptop. You don't have to go up and get it, which is like kind of a hassle, right? - Yeah, if you have one of those laptop sleeves, I like to get like a black one 'cause then it just blends in everywhere. - Yeah, I'm pretty good at just hiding it all together.

And then usually, like, I'll have a little bag. It's usually actually my toiletry kit. And then I just stuff like my headphones and my iPhone cable, you know. - Everything you need. - Everything I need, but just put that and then put that on the side of the seat so they don't see that either.

That's my bulkhead hack for you. - Love it, yeah. - But as far as other travel, I think I learned also just to, you know, it's not like I carry some big wardrobe or anything, but I do try to keep it down to a carry-on and a backpack. If I can, at all costs, 'cause I don't want to check bags.

I can't, I'll tell you that the biggest travel hacks for skateboards and, you know, people will travel with skateboards, but you can travel with a skateboard and put it in the overhead anywhere in the U.S. If you're making a connection, say in Frankfurt or London or even Tokyo, you, is it Tokyo?

Yeah. You can't carry your skateboard on the plane through those airports. So I have been told, I've been told a couple of times, I've actually gotten away with it once, but, and I learned the hard way, like going through London, you're in the terminal, you're connecting, right? But you know how they have to, you have to go through another security checkpoint?

You can't bring your skateboard. So you have to go outside the airport on a connecting flight and check it in. - And probably miss your flight, maybe. - Oh yeah, yeah. And I've actually thrown a skateboard away because of that. - Yeah. - In London, they said, "Oh, you got to check in." I go, "I don't have time." They go, "Well, I don't know what to tell you." And then I put it in the trash can at the security checkpoint.

Okay. I'm done. - Do you think it's a safety risk? Do they think it's a weapon or? Like what is it? - I assume, yeah. I mean, also Mexico too, surprisingly, you can't carry a skateboard on the airplane in Mexico. So every time we travel with the kids to Mexico, we've got to put them all in plastic bags.

So we're just this, we're a disaster coming back 'cause we're just a bunch of luggage. So yeah, that's my advice. I don't know if it's a hack, it's just my advice. Like if you're going to travel through Europe, don't carry your skateboard onto the plane that is connecting. - That could probably apply to other items.

There are some, I can't remember, not that it's the end of the world to replace things like nail scissors, but there's some nail clippers. There's some country where you can't bring nail clippers on your plane, 'cause I remember, or if it has that like slide out file thing. And I've definitely gotten dinged on that.

So I would say if the hack is to look up what are the security requirements for the country you're transiting through, or I try at all costs to fly direct just to avoid these problems when possible. - Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there used to be, I live in San Diego, but I live in North County and you used to be able to fly from Carlsbad Airport to LAX.

And so basically you could go anywhere from LAX, right? So that was always like the best way to do it. But many times our Carlsbad flight would be canceled and we just have to drive, literally drive to Carlsbad Airport. Like if your flight's canceled, just keep going North to LAX.

But yeah, it's funny with the skateboard thing. I remember, so my wife and I usually carry our skateboards when we go places, 'cause we like to skate around cities, you know, just as transportation, if we're going by ourselves. And we were coming back from, oh man, I can't remember where, somewhere.

And I think we were coming back from Brazil maybe. And we were coming through the, where you hand them your customs form. And the guy, I'll never forget this. He grabbed my customs form and he saw my skateboard in his peripheral and immediately was like, "Go that way, to secondary." 'Cause he saw my skateboard.

It was so obvious the way that his, you know what I mean? I just saw his wheelchair and I'm like, "Oh, he's a problem, he's a skateboarder." And he looked up and he saw my face and he recognized it, but he'd already handed me this red card to go to secondary.

And he goes, "Oh, oh, you know what? "Just tell them you're in a hurry." I said, "Oh, is that gonna work for me? "You're sending me to secondary "where they're gonna go through all my stuff "and I'm gonna tell them I'm in a hurry. "That's probably not the best approach." And then my wife and I got into secondary, they wouldn't let us go to the bathroom.

They wouldn't, you know, we were like, we were very much being interrogated. - Yeah, I mean, you've told lots of stories. I'll encourage anyone here to go check out the internet for all the stories of you getting recognized as other people. Is there a good one you don't share?

Or a good one you haven't shared? - Yeah, yeah, it still happens all the time. And it's weird now because obviously, as you would know, that meme kind of took off. Or not the meme, but just me telling my story. Like all the stories I tell are absolutely true, 100%.

But it started happening so, it would happen pretty frequently and I was sharing it. And at some point people thought I was making it up. So I kind of stopped sharing these incidents because people were just like, "Come on, like really?" But now it's gotten to a point where it's like this, this vicious cycle where people now want to say it, even though they know who I am all the time.

So I would say that happens probably three times a day. That interaction, like anyone ever tell you, you look like Tony Hawk? Yep, and you're the first today. But then it happens genuinely at least once or twice too. And when it happens genuinely, if people were following me around, they wouldn't believe it 'cause you know what I mean?

Like they just, they hear about it and it's just like, "All right, like enough with this non, you know, this whole, I don't even know what you'd call it, mistaken identity thing." - Yeah. - But the, so yes, it still happens. It happens as a joke. It happens for real.

I think my favorite one as of late was that I was sitting at a gate and this guy was sitting across from me at the gate and he looked, he came over, he's like, "Man, you look just like Tony Hawk." Said, "Oh yeah, I know, I've heard that." He's like, "That's crazy." And then he went and sat back down and then a group of people came who did recognize me for real and wanted autographs and pictures.

And the whole time he's watching me laughing because he's in on the joke that it's not really me. Do you know what I mean? Like he and I are sharing this inside joke somehow that these people are crazy and they're mistaken, but he just thought it was hilarious. - Did you ever tell him at the end or did he ever?

- No, I don't, I just, it's up to them to, you know what I mean? To either decide that or to ask me. It drives my daughter crazy because a lot of times people will say, "Oh, you look like Tony Hawk." I'm like, "Yeah, yeah." And they're like, "Oh, that's cool." And they walk away and my daughter's like, "Why didn't you tell him?" I go, "He didn't ask." - So if someone asks, you'll say, "Yeah." - Of course, yeah.

- All right. Well, I hope whoever was sitting across from me at the airport is listening and they can finally come to terms with the fact that that was- - No, I think he had way more fun in his mind making fun of people. - Yeah. - Like that was his thing.

So I just let him run with it.