Post #2: Pop Culture Narrative

I am the first to admit, I went through a “skater” stage. Around the late 90’s and early 2000’s Skateboarding was huge. It was the cool thing to go out and skateboard with your friends and see who could land the better trick. But, Skateboarding did not propel itself to its status today. It had the help of one person, Tony Hawk. Tony Hawk single handedly lifted, his popularity, the X-Games and Skateboarding to unthinkable heights. All with just one trick.

In the 1999 “Skateboard Vert Best Trick” contest has professional Skateboarders drop in the Vert ramp and try to land the “Best Trick,” in quest of that gold medal. Tony Hawk came into this event with a ton of hype; there was a rumor that he could land a 900. This meant he could go into the air, turn 2 ½ times and land on all four wheels of his skateboard. This was unheard of! Tony could care less about boundaries. He tried to land this trick 8 times and failed all 8 of them. Everybody stopped what they were doing to start cheering Tony on. The entire Skateboarding community was cheering him on. Ignoring his past failures he tried again. This time spinning at a ridiculous speed and landed it! The whole stage was jumping up and down with celebration as they just saw history.

Nobody had ever seen a single person take this big of a step forward in a sport before. Tony Hawk instantly became the Godfather of Skateboarding, rocketing the sport’s popularity off the charts and elevating the X-Games ratings. He came out with his own skateboard line, I remember having to get one. Also he created the Tony Hawk Pro Skater video games. I can guarantee at least two people in this class have played a Tony Hawk video game. I strived to be him because he was against the grain. He went to college and he has a family. He wasn’t the typical bum skateboarder. Who wouldn’t want to be they guy/girl who takes something they love and bring it to the top with them?

Type this link in YouTube, it is Tony Hawk doing the 900. I couldn't post the video on this blog so this is the best I could do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RstrPAUmtnA&feature=player_detailpage