Tony Hawk - He was who I wanted to be...

... the best version of myself. Sam's biggest (and almost the only...) idol is the skateboarder Tony Hawk (also known as "Birdman").

Born May 12, 1968 Tony Hawk landed his first contest win at the age of 11 and turned pro by the age of 14. Tony gained enormous fame for completing the first 900 (The 900 is a 2.5-revolution (900 degrees) aerial spin performed on a skateboard ramp) at the 1999 X-Games as well as his licensed video game titles distributed by Activision.

But just as like as in life of Nick Hornby, also in Tony Hawks' life was a turning point. When he was nine years old, his brother changed his life by giving him a blue fiberglass banana board.
On his official web page tonyhawk.com it says:

Before skateboarding Hawk was a self-described nightmare. "Instead of the terrible twos, I was the terrible youth," he said. "I was a hyper, rail-thin geek on a sugar buzz. I think my mom summed it up best when she said, 'challenging."

When Tony was a child, he had a mental disorder and he was aggressive. But this story turns good. When he was 17, he became worlds best skateboarder and after 1980 he became world champion 11 times, one by one.

1999 he made the 900. Today he just skates for fun and has sometimes whistle stops in TV.
Here are some examples:

Tony Hawk feat. The Simpsons:

The simpsons with blink 182 and tony hawk - MyVideo

Tony Hawk for "SCARRED"

In the acknowledgment of "Slam", Nick Hornby thanks also Tony Hawk - and really: In the german "Wikipedia", there is a mentioning about Tony Hawk's emergence in "Slam" under "Trivia", which says that "Slam" is the only novel Tony Hawks has something to do with.

... Cool guy! :)

Greetings,

Victoire*