TONY HAWK

:''This article is about the American skateboarder. For the British comedian and author, see Tony Hawks. For the New Zealand basketball player, see Tony Hawke.''

'Anthony Frank Hawk' (born May 12, 1968) is a professional American skateboarder. He is considered the most successful and influential person of modern vertical skateboarding. He is credited with the invention of many aerial skateboard tricks including the Stalefish, Madonna, and McHawk, and over 80 others, but is most famous for being the first to land the 900 (two and a half rotations—900°—in the air before landing back on the pipe) during the televised June 27, 1999 X Games, for which he received an enormous amount of attention. It marked the next level of his rise to fame, solidifying his status as a household name. He retired from competitive skateboarding afterwards, but continues to skate and perform at demos.
Hawk was born in Carlsbad, California. In 1994, after the skateboarding industry took a downturn and vertical skateboarding's popularity waned in the rise of street skating, Hawk started Birdhouse Projects along with ex-Powell Peralta pro Per Welinder, which is now known as Birdhouse Skateboards. He also owns his own film and TV production company, 900 Films, and, along with his family, started Hawk Clothing. Tony's Boom Boom HuckJam tour is the most successful action sports tour featuring skateboarding, BMX, and Freestyle Motocross. The tour went to arenas across the USA in 2003, 2004, and 2005 and is touring Six Flags parks across the country in the summer of 2006 and 2007.
Hawk also teamed with Activision to release a popular skateboarding video game series, beginning with ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater'' in 1999. Ten games with the ''Tony Hawk'' license were released, the latest being the simultaneously released ''Tony Hawk's Project 8'' and ''Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam'' in 2006. He also created the game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. Activision is releasing a new Tony Hawk Game, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, in October 2007. On August 23rd and August 24th 2007 Tony Hawk appeared on the 2007 edition of the worlds largest computer games exposition, the Games Convention to show some tricks on the half-pipe and promote his new video game Tony Hawk's Proving Ground.
In 2000, he wrote an autobiography with Sean Mortimer that was entitled ''HAWK: Occupation: Skateboarder'', which made it to number 18 on to the New York Times bestseller list. He later wrote a second book, a road journal called ''Between Boardslides and Burnout''. In March 2007, Six Flags Fiesta Texas unveiled their latest roller coaster creation, Tony Hawk's Big Spin, a skatepark themed coaster that spins while riding around the track.
In 2002, Tony created the Tony Hawk Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to assist low-income communities in the creation of well-designed skateboard parks. In four years, the Foundation gave away over a million dollars in grants and assistance. In April 2007, along with eleven other philanthropic athletes (Andre Agassi, Muhammad Ali, Lance Armstrong, Warrick Dunn, Jeff Gordon, Mia Hamm, Andrea Jaeger, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Mario Lemieux, Alonzo Mourning, and Cal Ripken, Jr.), Hawk founded Athletes for Hope, a public charity that was launched publicly on ABC's Good Morning America and ESPN. Athletes for Hope connects athletes, individuals, and businesses with charitable and community causes.
According to TV Guide, Hawk has been confirmed as a celebrity candidate on The Apprentice 7. He has appeared as himself in ''The Simpsons'' episode ''Barting Over'' along with ''Blink 182'' also as themselves.

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External links

External links

★ Tony Hawk official website

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★ Blitz Distribution, Tony Hawk's Distribution Company

★ Fury Truck Co., Tony Hawk's Truck Sponsor