Tony Hawk led the skateboard to new levels in 1999 when, well above an X Games halfpipe, he began to turn furiously, completing two and a half laps before grabiously sliding back to the ramp.
The 900-named for the number of rotation degrees that the movement requires-it seemed impossible, but Hawk, the biggest star of the sport, managed to do so, rewriting the rules of what could be done in a skateboarding and exposing the sport to a much larger audience.
Then, shortly after his moment of triumph, the form of hawk skateboarding, which challenged gravity, began to disappear, almost reaching the extinction. It was replaced by a street style that was more easily learned on clues aimed at the sport, with a whole generation of skaters leaving the giant ramps behind.
This, however, is starting to change.
Social networks have been flooded in recent months with videos of pre-adolescent skateboarders releasing ramps and flying in the air, performing the types of maneuvers that experienced skaters were reluctant to try. They are changing the paradigm with their movements that challenge gravity and inspiring other children around the world to try it.
Hawk’s vertical skate style – “vert” for those who practice it – is coming back, and he is eager to turn this impulse into a return of the event at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Vert is skateboarding in its most spectacular form. Its simplicity, combined with the pure emotion of their dangerous maneuvers, makes it easy for those who don’t skate understand.
Hawk, thanks to his 900 and the extremely popular video game that followed, “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater,” consolidated the face of the sport in the early 2000s. But without the knowledge of his new admirers, his dedication to Vert was a case of attachment to the past.
“It’s still kind of considered a niche,” Hawk said in an interview, discussing the current state of Skate Vert. “This is what is difficult for me to accept.”
The reality is that Hawk’s achievements in vertical ramps simply made the practice look more popular than it really was. Renton Millar, a former professional Skate and head of the World Skate Skate Skate Committee, the sport’s regulatory agency, said skaters to see how Hawk were usually a minority, “that stand out because it is very radical.”
People like Tom Schaar, a 25 -year -old skateboarder who many see as the next big star of Vert and a potential bridge between older and next generations – children who are discovering sport through social networks.
Schaar, who is hired by Hawk’s Birdhouse skate company, was born the year Hawk performed his first 900. He walked in his first Royal Rampa at 6 and later managed to perform a 900 and a 1080 in the same year. He was 12 years old.
“The 900 took much longer,” Schaar said about learning the two difficult maneuvers. “Once you surpass the fear of making those extra turns, they kind of mix in a large whirlwind.”
Vert rewards the kind of inconsequential actions that are typical of a teenager, and teenagers are shaping the future of style.
“Young skaters have more resources,” said Hawk. “They have training facilities now, and children are encouraged to start skateboarding. This was not the case when we were young. The children were discouraged to skate. It was a bad influence, with no future.”
Hawk said he took ten years trying to be able to perform the 900, finally reaching the deed when he was 31 years old. Now he watches with admiration while young skaters build about his achievements and those of his colleagues. Last year, Arisa Trew became the first female skateboarder to perform a 900. She was 13 at the time.
“Some of the children, as soon as they start walking, are fascinated with the air and know what is possible,” said Hawk. “For them, a 540 is just a starting point. A 540 was not even created until I was in adolescence, you know?”
Hawk, always evangelist, knows whatever happens next. Summer Olympics are going to Los Angeles in 2028. Southern California is the global skateboarding, and Hawk has been, as he says, “striving” for the vert to be added as an event. This would increase the visibility of style and, Hawk believes, would lead to the construction of more vertical ramps. To help start, he is willing to put his own equipment at stake.
“I would give my ramp,” said Hawk fervently. “I would say, ‘Here’s the terrain. Find a place for her, and it’s all yours.’ I have the best ramp in the world, and it is portable.
The COI (International Olympic Committee) will issue its final decision on VERT and other events for the 2028 Olympics at its next executive board meeting on April 9.
Many skaters believe that having a vert competition is an obvious choice for the Olympics, but it was left out of the 2020 and 2024 games, Hawk said due to bureaucratic challenges and a general absence of skaters vert at the time.
Schaar, who also stands out in Park style, took home a silver medal at this event at the 2024 Olympics. But he competes in this style out of necessity; Vert remains his main passion.
“When my grandmother is watching the Olympics, Street and Park are very technical for someone who doesn’t understand skateboard,” said Schaar.
Hawk said that at the time of discussions to add skateboarding to the 2020 games, he knew there were not sufficient skaters to constitute a competitive field. As the popularity of sport has grown, however, its public defense has also grown.
“The difference between gender and the quality of skateboards around the world was great at that time,” said Luca Basilica, who oversees the skateboard for World Skate. “It was another time. But we’re not there anymore.”
To reach this point, the sport had to leave its past behind.
When he performed the 900, Hawk and his group – from the 1980s, when Vert was the dominant style of skate – were aging in his professional careers. Very few Skatists Vert were emerging behind them, leaving Hawk as one of the few high voices pressing to continue.
“People who skate today, especially those 25 years or older, will say they started skateboarding because of Tony Hawk somehow,” said Jimmy Wilkins, a prominent Vert Skatista. “Even if this is not the case, they probably grew up walking on a track he built for them.”
The young skaters who are reliving the art of Vert on Instagram, however, are not so linked to Hawk. They were born after their great times. His innovation and advancement of style are his own something, a new thing.
Elliot Sloan, a 36 -year -old Skatista who became a professional in 2008, described a “huge gap” among the generations of Skatistas Vert, which made his own quest very lonely. He considered himself lucky for being part of a sport that was still alive, largely thanks to Hawk’s hits in the late 1990s.
Hawk’s achievements, however, are much in the past, and Wilkins and Sloan are decidedly vertens of Vert. And the skaters that are emerging behind them are getting incredibly good, incredibly fast.
“I’ve seen so many of these children start to emerge at the age of 7, and I think, ‘this child is very good,'” said Sloan. “And then, suddenly, I’m competing against her.”
“The best thing about Vert’s resurgence is the wave of support he has with the children,” Millar said. “There are a number of vert facilities around the world, where in the past there were almost none.”
Although the emergence of young Skatistas Vert shocked some veterans, he allowed Hawk to continue to bring him back to the public’s eye. But regardless of the era, the popularity or visibility of sport, it cannot be separated from man himself, who remained true to his old habits, despite his official retirement.
“I have to go skateboard,” he said when he concludes an interview. His friend Bucky Lasek, another legend of the 1990s, was coming. They were going to spend the day in Hawk’s personal ramp.
