Interviews// Tony 'Birdman' Hawk

With Tony Hawk: Ride and its plastic board peripheral taking something of a critical shelling of late, we thought it was a good time to catch up with the eponymous skate hero. So, SPOnG ventured out to talk to the man who recently told the Sudbury Star:

"(The critics) were ready to discredit it (Tony Hawk: Ride) before they even tried it, and if it didn't play exactly how they imagined it... then they passed it off.

"I don't agree with people who say the board's not responsive," he continues. "I think that they're just not giving it a fair shake. And I think a lot of them came into it with an attitude that it's going to suck.

"I know that (Ride) is super fun, and I think there's a misconception that I just stick my name on a game," he said. "I brought this idea to Activision, and I saw it through, I've been playing it every step of the way and I am very proud of it."


SPOnG: I want to talk to you about the new game and also about your favourite holiday habits and the stuff that you love about travelling, your favourite skating hotspots around Europe and so on.

Tony Hawk: Cool.


SPOnG: Before we get into that, I have to say that I used to be a huge Bones Brigade fan. I actually saw [seminal 1980s skating movie] The Search For Animal Chin again recently.

Tony Hawk: Wow, yeah! That takes me back. I think that was 1987 or something. Twenty-two years ago.


SPOnG: How has skateboarding changed in those twenty-two years?

Tony Hawk: Well I think it’s evolved a lot. I mean, definitely in terms of popularity. It has become much more generally accepted than it was back in those days, when it was a little bit more underground. And street skating has changed so much and proliferated, becoming loads more technical and refined. And even the ramp skating has come on in leaps and bounds. So it’s changed quite a bit.
But on all those original levels that Chin was all about it is still all about having fun, about escape and about having a creative outlet.


SPOnG: Are you still in touch with all those Bones Brigade guys?

Tony Hawk: Yeah, I see them all once in a while. Fate brings us together every year or so at least. And that’s because we all still skate quite a bit. Cab [Steve Cabellero] and Lance [Mountain] still skate the ‘Legends’ events, and I do see Tony [Guerrero] every once in a while whenever our paths cross. It's fun that everyone's still in the industry. Even Rodney [Mullen] is still killing it!


SPOnG: So let’s talk about the new game. What’s the deal?

Tony Hawk: Ride is basically a skateboard controller. So it is a board that you stand on and it responds to every type of motion you make. And you don’t actually have to be able to skate to even play it. So, once you get on it senses any type of tilt or twist or kick that you throw at it. In addition to that it also has infra-red sensors at each end of the board which sense your hands – and which cause your on-screen character to respond by grabbing his board.

It’s something that I took to Activision a couple of years ago, originally, because I felt that the wireless and motion-sensing technology had finally come of age to actually do something like this.


SPOnG: Cool. So you have been pretty closely involved with the development of the controller?

Tony Hawk: Yeah, with this game I’ve been as heavily involved as much as I was with the very first Tony Hawk game that we released.


SPOnG: Do you think that this follows on from things like Wii Fit? It seems that there is a trend in videogames right now towards games which encourage you to get up off the couch and move your body around. And actually do some exercise!

Tony Hawk: Yeah. Well, to be honest, my inspiration was more Guitar Hero. To create a game that has a controller that emulates what you are actually doing and what you are actually playing. And that was the whole idea of doing the skateboard controller. I mean, I appreciate Wii Fit, for sure. But that is not the technology that we’re using at all.


SPOnG: With Guitar Hero, it is interesting that sales of real guitars have gone through the roof, almost in line with that game’s increasingly popularity over the last few years. Do you think your videogames have had a similar impact on sales of skateboards and skating gear?

Tony Hawk: Oh yeah, absolutely. When the first few games were released, they certainly opened up people’s eyes to the possibility of skateboarding. It taught them about aspects of skateboarding that they previously didn’t know much about. And it definitely inspired lots of people to try it.