By Brad “J”

It started out like any other day. I just got done surfing out in front of my house back in early May. I decided to go get a veggie burger from the local store. The phone rings. Now, I know what your thinking, Tony Hawk, on the other end, right? Well it wasn’t. It was my good friend and sometimes boss, Michelle, from ESPN. Michelle told me about this skate park tour. The tour headed by Tony Hawk was to travel across the USA with some big time pros hitting up different skate parks along the way. It was to be called The Tony Hawk Gigantic Skate Park Tour. She wanted me to handle the MC duties I couldn’t believe it!

Tony Hawk is an absolute legend in the sport of skateboarding. I had the pleasure of working with him in the early 90’s replying to his tons of fan mail. This was back in the era of Powell Peralta. Tony used to be a member of the Bones Brigade before becoming the President of Birdhouse. Now he was in charge of his own skate park tour. It was scheduled to kick off in his hometown of San Diego. The finale was to take place in Woodstock Illinois 5 weeks later. The tour was composed of 12 stops all together. That’s 12 towns across the country. We were in for some serious board riding.

What a turn out, Over 1000 kids and parents on hand. It was to be a great Fathers day. Nobody was sure what to expect for the first day. When the boys pulled up they couldn’t believe their eyes. Nobody anticipated this! Many of the skaters, including the Birdman, had trouble getting in through the thick crowd, but they eventually managed. Representing SD was a 13 year old pro snowboarder, Shaun White. Whether its busting phat stale grabs 5ft out on vert, or his 360* grabs over the street course kicker, this kid can do it all. A small kid, but a big ruler. He was an inspiration for all. Look for his pro snowboard model out by Burton on shelves now.

On a scary note, Rick Thorne, host of X-Today, and the Hawkster were doing a vert doubles sesh when the two got tangled up. Rick Thorne came down right on top of his bike. It looked like he was out for the remaining 3 demos. Unless you know Rick, he’s what people used to refer in the 80’s as “radical“. His no holds bar style had him back in just 3 days just in time for stop 3.

Tony decided, instead of a “best trick” contest, they would try a “high ollie” contest over the 6-foot street kicker. The park even had a limbo stick to use as the height gauge. Everybody ripped including the likes of Kris Markovich, Andrew Reynolds, Willy Santos, and an injured Bam Margera of CKY2K fame. Bob Burnquist stole the show with his 7 1/2’ ollie over the limbo stick. That could have cleared Shaq! However, the landing was so flat, I think that the skaters ended up an inch shorter after the demo was over. You couldn‘t have scripted a better kick off. The Tony Hawk Gigantic Skate Park Tour was on.

OK, now this crowd was even bigger. There were about 2500 hyped spectators. Skate Street now has a new location. The old one was bigger, luckily for us with that size crowd. Kris Markovich was going huge with his big floaty kick flips over the entire fun box. Andrew Reynolds was almost impossible to keep up with his arsenal of flips, vaerials, and big ollies. Of course the birdman had a few things up his sleeve. You had to be there to see his rock to fakies on the pass vert wave wall. Jason Ellis was inventing the “ape hanger” on the rafters above the vert ramp, don’t ask. The crowd really go got in it when Mike Escamiila, a.k.a. Rooftop, was flying out of the bowl with his BMX version of skateboardings, blunt to fakie on the spectator’s fence. That thing was about 5ft back from the edge of the bowl. How sick is that? My highlight of the stop had to be when this little 6 year boy came up to me and told me his board got ripped off. So I went up to Tony to get the little guy an autograph, and Tony decides to give him his board. This kid not only got Tony Hawks autograph, but got his deck also. His face was lit up like a Christmas tree! Stop number 2 in the books. What a day. Two down and ten more stops to go.

They call it Sin City, home of the Rat Pack. Scorching temperatures in the 100’s, viva Las Vegas. 300-400 people on hand were braving the heat. We were scheduled to have the demo at another skate park, but plans changed last minute. This new park was tiny but a fun indoor warehouse chock-full of the biggest names in skateboarding. This time Danny Way joined the crew. Just in time to do big ole 360* rodeo flips on the tight street course. Jason Ellis was still monkeying around. He decided to amaze everyone by trying to jump off a 7’ platform behind the make shift vert ramp. He hurled his body off about 7 times. It was weird, how everybody just stopped skating and watched Jason! Sometimes he slammed really hard, but he got up every time. Ellis may have been down but he wasn't out. He never did actually pull it off, but he gained some serious punk rock points from his comrades. This was by far the smallest crowd yet. Everyone hooked up with autographs or free product. Not a bad demo for last minute park changes. Next up Utah.

I officially claimed stop 4 as Andrew Reynolds Day. That guy is simply amazing. First of all, everywhere we went people were crazy for this guy. Andrew had a plethora of unbelievable flip tricks. He pulled just about every trick he tried and usually about 4-5 feet higher than everyone else. Mr. Hawk was just coming off the flu (bronchitis), but still managed to blow everyone's minds with 13 to 14 consecutive 540’s on vert. On the street course, Willy Santos and T-Hawk were matching each other trick for trick, that's pretty amazing since Tony considers himself only a “street hobbyist“. Willy on the other hand is a street sensation. This park was huge and we squeezed in about 2,000 spectators. A solid 5 hours of some serious world class skating took place on this day. The first leg was a huge success. Getting to skate and hang with the some of the best skaters in the world. Now it was time to head home relax and rest up for leg 2 to kick off in Florida.

We had spent the day surfing in the warm East Coast waters and looking forward to a few runs on the street course before tomorrow’s event. We pulled up to this park around 9pm on the day before the demo. The park had not even been built! There were people scrambling to get elements completed. It was crazy. This had to be the most ghetto situation so far. The next morning it was still not complete. Camera crew, production staff, and myself strapped on the tool belts and joined in the kayos of pounded nails to get the ramp done. Only three hours to go until the Hawk bus pulled up, we had to get crackin. It took allot of teamwork to get that thing built, but we prevailed in the end. The only bummer was that it started raining 3 minutes into the vert demo so back inside we went. Kris Markovich was tearing it up until he ripped his butt check on a loose nail. Hey, we built the vert ramp not the street course. The tours very own stunt guy Bam Margera notices a scissor lift and talks the operator into raising it up so he can jump off onto a smaller ramp below. This drop was about 15 feet. It took him only three attempts before pulling it off. The crowd was freaking out. To bad they didn't have AC in the building. Temperatures rose to about 108 inside! Is all about survival on this stop. It was a strange demo, but everyone made the best of it. The crowd went home super stoked. Next stop Skaters Island RI. It was about a 10 hour drive so we decided to pass through Philly and pick up some cheese steaks to get us down the road.

I lived a dream come true this summer. Skating and hanging out with the biggest names and experiencing the magic of such talented skaters. I got to know the legend of skateboarding himself, Tony Hawk. As I’ve said before - you had to be there! Next year promises to be an even bigger, so look for Tony and the boys. They just might be heading to a skate park near you.