Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off (HBO Max) The name Tony Hawk is synonymous with skateboarding, and probably always will be, long after he’s gone.īut is he happy? Well, that remains to be seen. Hawk didn’t just dominate the sport, he turned it into a billion dollar enterprise, with over a dozen video games, theme park rides, and the unfortunately named Boom Boom HuckJam, a touring extreme sports show, bearing his name.

That determination only grew as Hawk became older, his likable kid brother persona separating him from the California surfer dudes and surly punk rockers that were normally associated with skateboarding. Hawk was drawn to skateboarding, which to outsiders seemed more a contest of style than athletic prowess, and though he wasn’t a natural, exactly, his dedication and refusal to give up made him a formidable competitor, eventually beating other skaters years older than him. Born to parents already well into middle age, he was a kid desperate to find something to direct the boundless energy and orneriness that drove his mother to threaten to flush herself down the toilet if he didn’t behave. If ever someone seemed destined from birth for their vocation, it was Tony Hawk. Because there seem to be some distinct lines drawn between what Hawk was and wasn’t willing to talk about on camera, this ultimately ends up being the most interesting part of an otherwise fairly rote true story about continued triumph in the face of adversity. Sam Jones’ Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off is ostensibly a documentary about the world’s greatest skateboarder, but it’s also, perhaps unintentionally, a look at Generation X’s unique inability (chillingly, even worse than Boomers) to admit that they may be getting too old for some things. But the fact that you’ve heard of him, even if you wouldn’t know a quad deck from a cheese sandwich, speaks volumes about both his impact, and his role in bringing mainstream respect to a sport once dismissed as a pastime for bored kids and delinquents. Maybe you’ll know there’s a bunch of video games named for him, or that he appeared in a Police Academy movie. If you’re not a skateboarding fan, you’ll likely only be aware that Tony Hawk exists, rather than anything specific about his life or accomplishments.

Duane peters tony hawk