Tony Hawk Quotes

I grew up skateboarding; it was fun. I didn't think about money, I didn't know how much professional skateboarders made. I just knew that if I became a professional skateboarder, I would achieve a lot and get to travel and do these great things.

When I started skating, it was such a small community. You didn't aspire to be rich or famous or make a career out of it because that wasn't something anyone had done yet.

I was born in Orange, California and I grew up in Huntington Beach. I started skateboarding when I was five and continued to do so off and on over the years.

Some skaters, they live for skating, and they are home-schooled. I'm very lucky my parents let me go to school and have a normal life.

The reality of professional skateboarding contests is that they're not relevant in our world.

The mainstream thinks that every skateboarder aspires to be in the X Games.

I got into skateboarding when I was like a shorty. It was a toy thing.

We got skate parks in different states, but me skating? Nah, I'm too gangster; I can't rock with it. But I watch it.

I'd made enough made money by the time I was 12 to never work again, so it's not about a big pay check with me.

I grew up skateboarding, but I don't even do that anymore.

I was 15 when I got my first job as a proofreader for an advertising agency in the City, earning £12 a week. But by then, I was already playing darts tournaments every weekend, regularly winning the £50 first prize. By the time I was 16 and winning two or three contests a weekend, I ditched the agency job and concentrated on darts.

I have a very close friendship with the skaters.

It's lovely to have money to give away - that's the bonus of winning the Nobel.

When I was around 15, I did my first movie. I was at a kids' agency, and the third time I was invited to an audition, they offered me a little part in some kiddie thing, and I earned my first money. I was very proud that I could buy my first mountain bike with my own money.

I feel like skateboarding is as much of a sport as a lifestyle, and an art form, so there's so much that that transcends in terms of music, fashion, and entertainment.

Growing up in Huntington Beach, you were either a traditional sports athlete, a skateboarder, or a surfer. I got my first skateboard when I was five and skated off and on over the years, did a little BMX racing as a kid, and then in my freshman or sophomore year I started getting a little bit more into skateboarding.

This is something I've always wanted to do- to skate through a part of New York City that thousands of people ride through every week, feeling the energy of one of the original stomping grounds of street skating.

I skate all the time, but it's silly for me to do contests when MTV is giving me a boatload of money.

I've known Larry Clark since I was fourteen. I've always skateboarded in Manhattan. Larry got into the scene in the early '90s, taking pictures and skating with us.

I'd like to consider myself a versatile skater and I like to skate to different kinds of music.

For me, skateboarding is a lifestyle. I really don't know anything different. My life revolves around skating. If I wasn't a professional skateboarder, I'd still be skating every day.

L.A. is a city that has given me great support for skating.

I want to be a skater.

I generally like white skates.

DC and Monster have always supported my vision for street skateboarding, from building skate plazas throughout the world to now creating the first-ever professional skateboarding league.