Tony Hawk

Hawk has four biological children: Riley, Spencer, Keegan, and Kadence. His eldest son, Riley Hawk, became a professional skateboarder. Riley is married to Frances Bean Cobain, and they welcomed a son in 2024, making Tony Hawk a grandfather.

Hawk was married to Cindy Dunbar from 1990 to 1993, Erin Lee from 1996 to 2004, and Lhotse Merriam from 2006 to 2011. He married Catherine Goodman on June 27, 2015, in Limerick, Ireland.

Hawk received his first skateboard from his older brother at age nine and began practicing at Oasis Skatepark in San Diego. He was winning amateur competitions throughout California by age 12, turned professional at 14, and joined Powell Peralta's professional team. He gained wide attention through the company's Bones Brigade videos.

Hawk's parents supported his skateboarding because it gave him an outlet for his restless energy. He made his television debut in 1981 on Captain Kangaroo as “Skateboard Johnny.” He graduated from Torrey Pines High School in 1986.

Hawk became one of the defining figures in vertical, or vert, skateboarding. He won 73 professional contests and was the National Skateboarding Association's vert world champion for 12 consecutive years from 1984 to 1996.

He developed or popularized numerous advanced maneuvers, including the backside ollie to tail, frontside hurricane, rodeo flip, stalefish, and ollie 540. His competition record and technical innovations helped push skateboarding from an underground activity toward mainstream sport and entertainment.

At the 1995 X Games, Hawk won gold in vert and set a record score of 97.50 for a perfect run. He later won ten X Games gold medals and was inducted into the inaugural Skateboarding Hall of Fame class in 2009.

On June 27, 1999, at the X Games, Hawk landed a 900 after succeeding on his twelfth attempt. The maneuver required two and a half rotations in the air before returning to the ramp and had not previously been completed in competition.

The televised achievement became one of skateboarding's defining moments. Hawk retired from professional competition in 1999, but continued to skate in demonstrations, exhibitions, and special events. He landed what he described as his final 900 in 2016 and returned to the X Games Vert Best Trick event in 2021.

During skateboarding's downturn in the early 1990s, Hawk co-founded Birdhouse Skateboards with professional skateboarder Per Welinder. The company later became one of the best-known brands in skateboarding as interest in the sport revived.

In 1999, Hawk partnered with Activision on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. The series expanded through numerous main titles, spin-offs, and remakes, introducing skateboarding culture and its techniques to a large video-game audience. Hawk also wrote the autobiography Hawk: Occupation: Skateboarder, published in 2000.

His other ventures included the traveling action-sports show Tony Hawk's Boom Boom HuckJam, which launched in 2002 and featured skateboarders, BMX riders, freestyle motocross performers, and punk bands. In 2012, his production company, 900 Films, partnered with Google to launch the RIDE Channel on YouTube.

Hawk's screen work has generally drawn on his identity as a skateboarder. He also made a cameo as an astronaut in Lords of Dogtown and voiced himself in Tony Hawk in Boom Boom Sabotage.

On television, Hawk appeared as himself in programs including The Simpsons, Rocket Power, Yo Gabba Gabba!, Zeke and Luther, and Last Man Standing. He voiced Coop on Cyberchase, hosted the Hall of Game Awards, and competed as Elephant on the third season of The Masked Singer. He was the subject of the 2022 documentary Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off.

Hawk created the Tony Hawk Foundation in 2002 in response to the shortage of safe and legal skateparks in the United States. Renamed The Skatepark Project in 2020, the organization supports public skatepark development, particularly in underserved communities.

Hawk also helped found Athletes for Hope in 2007 with athletes including Andre Agassi, Muhammad Ali, Mia Hamm, and Cal Ripken Jr. The organization encourages professional athletes to volunteer and support community causes. His skatepark advocacy has remained a central part of his work after his competitive career.