Joe Rogan Experience #1477 - Tony Hawk

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   And we're rolling. (door shuts)…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:02

      And we're rolling. (door shuts) How are you, Tony?

   2. THTony Hawk0:04

      Awesome, thank you.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:05

      My pleasure. Thanks for having m- uh, thanks for coming here, man. It was really-

   4. THTony Hawk0:08

      Yeah, hey, thanks for inviting me.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:09

      ... cool to meet you.

   6. THTony Hawk0:09

      It's an honor.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:10

      It's interesting to see you even just fuck around with your skateboard, just the way you maneuver it.

   8. THTony Hawk0:15

      (laughs)

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:16

      You're so, you're so adept. It's w- really weird, like y- the way you move your feet and just pick it up and-

   10. THTony Hawk0:22

       Oh, it's very impressive. I mean, it really is just, a- at this point, kind of an extension of my body.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:26

       It seems like it.

   12. THTony Hawk0:27

       And, uh, it, it's w- I guess it's weird. I don't think about how comfortable I am, and a lot of times we'll be in a city or something, or just like now, I didn't know where to park, right? So I just park somewhere kinda close and just, I go skate. And I feel way better about doing that than, like, parking and then walking somewhere, and, and it just, you know, I know I can get around people and sort of be indiscreet and, and, uh, stealthy.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:50

       D- and we were indiscreet?

   14. THTony Hawk0:51

       Well, I'm just saying, like-

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:52

       Tony Hawk on a skateboard is indiscreet? (laughs)

   16. THTony Hawk0:54

       (laughs)

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:55

       That's ridiculous. That might be the most ridiculous thing.

   18. THTony Hawk0:56

       I do get weird looks for sure.

   19. JRJoe Rogan0:58

       For sure.

   20. THTony Hawk0:59

       I get, yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan0:59

       They're like, "Is that-"

   22. THTony Hawk0:59

       I get a lot of, "Do a kick flips out from car windows."

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:02

       Oh, really?

   24. THTony Hawk1:03

       Yeah.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:03

       Oh, that's funny. (laughs)

   26. THTony Hawk1:04

       Yeah. That's my curse that I, that I... (laughs) That's my burden I carry.

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:08

       I'm seeing these new skateboards that are... They look like convertibles where as these guys flip the board, the wheels flip up and go to the other side.

   28. THTony Hawk1:17

       Oh, yeah, that's a, that's sort of a phenomenon, sort of a s- social media thing going on.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:22

       Ah, like-

   30. THTony Hawk1:23

       And-
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Wow. That's a great…

   1. THTony Hawk15:00

      So I w- I was trying to learn different skills. Um, and, you know, maybe skating wasn't gonna pay the bills, but I couldn't let it go from my life.

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:09

      Wow. That's a great story.

   3. THTony Hawk15:12

      It was a-

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:12

      You hung in there, and you brought it back (laughs) .

   5. THTony Hawk15:14

      I, yeah, I guess (laughs) .

   6. JRJoe Rogan15:15

      I mean, in a lot of ways, right?

   7. THTony Hawk15:18

      It was, um, it started to slowly come back, uh, really when the X Games came into play-

   8. JRJoe Rogan15:24

      Mm-hmm.

   9. THTony Hawk15:25

      ... um, where suddenly we were f-... We were on TV, and kids could see how much skating had evolved. Well, the whole public could see how much skating had evolved from the time that they last saw it in the late '80s. And then they were seeing it, and it was just like, "Whoa, these guys are... This is for real." You know, this is, uh, you know, for lack of a better word, this is a sport. These guys are doing acrobatic things, and, and it takes discipline, and it takes, um, it takes determination. And, and kids recognize that, and I think they, you know, that's really when skating started to spark again.

   10. JRJoe Rogan15:58

       And this is like '95-ish?

   11. THTony Hawk15:59

       Probably more closer to '96, '97. The first X Games was a little strange, a little scattered because it was like skateboarding and bungee jumping-

   12. JRJoe Rogan16:08

       (laughs)

   13. THTony Hawk16:08

       ... and rock climbing and sky surfing and-

   14. JRJoe Rogan16:11

       They were just trying to figure it out.

   15. THTony Hawk16:12

       ... eco chal-... They were just throwing everything. And then it really rubbed us the wrong way because suddenly we were labeled as extreme.

   16. JRJoe Rogan16:19

       Mm-hmm.

   17. THTony Hawk16:19

       And it was like, "What do you do?" "Oh, I skateboard." "Oh, you're into extreme sports?" "No, I skateboard. I don't know what..." (laughs)

   18. JRJoe Rogan16:27

       (laughs) Yeah, that's a weird category, right, that extreme sports category.

   19. THTony Hawk16:29

       It was just anything... Yeah, and that was... I mean, really, it was coined by ESPN. So that's why-

   20. JRJoe Rogan16:34

       Ah.

   21. THTony Hawk16:34

       ... they changed it to X Games. So the first one was Extreme Games '95. They changed it to X Games in '96. I think they really found their, their niche a few years later when they really sort of started to weed out all the random stuff, and it was more about skateboarding, um, uh, BMX, motocross. Like, those became really the highlights and the reason people were tuning in, and then that's when things really exploded for them.

   22. JRJoe Rogan17:00

       And what were like the early skateboarding events in X Games? Like, what did you do?

   23. THTony Hawk17:03

       Uh, it was, it was street and vert, and-

   24. JRJoe Rogan17:07

       So vert came back?

   25. THTony Hawk17:09

       Yeah, yeah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan17:10

       Well, a lot of it, for us-

   27. THTony Hawk17:11

       I think it was really because e- ESPN recognized that the vert is a spectator sport.

   28. JRJoe Rogan17:16

       Yeah, that what I was gonna say. For us on the outside, we would watch it to see someone fall spectacularly (laughs) .

   29. THTony Hawk17:22

       Yeah, 'cause sure.

   30. JRJoe Rogan17:22

       Because you guys would go. You would g- hit those ramps, and you would watch people just fuck up, and you're like, "Oh my God, look how far he's falling."
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Some people do it.…

   1. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      strength and conditioning or anything for skateboarding? Is that something that people do?

   2. THTony Hawk30:04

      Some people do it. I never found it to help my skating, and I always felt like skating kept me fit, so I never really did it. I mean, outside of swimming and surfing, which is more upper body than skating obviously, but, um, but I do feel like that would've benefited me later in life. I just got stuck in my mode. And then just skating was it.

   3. JRJoe Rogan30:29

      And you stay there. You're in your mode now. You don't do anything ...

   4. THTony Hawk30:32

      I don't do anything else. I, I do, I do make an effort to like swim some laps.... um, 'cause my mom lived, uh, till her 90s and she swore by swimming. So-

   5. JRJoe Rogan30:41

      Oh, swimming's amazing.

   6. THTony Hawk30:42

      Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan30:43

      Yeah.

   8. THTony Hawk30:43

      Um, she would go, uh, you know, through... I mean, I remember all as a kid, she would definitely... She had to get her 20 laps in every day. Um, and, and, we, we... Our, our, uh... Where I lived, the residential area had a community swimming pool that was like Olympic size, so that was the kind of thing, yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan31:01

      Oh, nice. Yeah, we were talking before about, uh, surfing. And I was saying that I think that surfing, a- at least partially, would kind of mimic some of the muscles that you use in skateboarding. And then you were telling me about getting towed in by Laird Hamilton.

   10. THTony Hawk31:16

       (laughs) Yeah. (laughs) Well, yeah., so-

   11. JRJoe Rogan31:18

       While you drink his coffee.

   12. THTony Hawk31:20

       Wow. Um, yeah, so... Well, my brother, my older brother was a surfer and he got me into skating, 'cause he skated in the '70s when that was the thing, was... They were trying to emulate surfing with the skateboards. And so he actually gave me one of his old boards. That was my first skateboard. Um, and then he would drive me to the skate park once a week, like come home from college and take me to the park, and then I just got hooked. Like that was, that was my home away from home from that point on. Um, and so I surf pretty regularly. I would say less now, but, um, but it was hard not to with my brother's influence. And we were in Hawaii... My brother actually used to be the, uh, editor of Surfer Magazine, so he knows all the surfers.

   13. JRJoe Rogan32:03

       Oh, wow.

   14. THTony Hawk32:04

       Um, 'cause he's a re- he's a journalist, um, really good writer. Uh, teaches at Stanford now actually. And so we went to Hawaii... We went to Maui and he said, "Hey, Laird said he'd take us out tow-in surfing if you wanna go." I'm like, "We're gonna go tow-in surfing with Laird Hamilton?"

   15. JRJoe Rogan32:21

       (laughs)

   16. THTony Hawk32:22

       Like that... I don't think his level of what is mellow is something that is... what we would consider... And he's... And I go, "But, you know, we gotta go." Like it's once in a lifetime.

   17. JRJoe Rogan32:32

       Right.

   18. THTony Hawk32:32

       So they took us out, uh, to Spreckels, which is near Jaws, which is their big spot. This is like early 2000s. So tow-in surfing was just starting to come into play. I'll never forget Dave Kalama, who's one of the surfers, one of his homies, he was f- trying out the first foil board there.

   19. JRJoe Rogan32:50

       Oh, wow.

   20. THTony Hawk32:50

       And he had... He was wearing ski boots attached to the foil board. That's how he was riding it.

   21. JRJoe Rogan32:57

       (laughs)

   22. THTony Hawk32:58

       I was like, "These guys are out of their minds."

   23. JRJoe Rogan33:01

       (laughs)

   24. THTony Hawk33:01

       And, uh, and so, uh-

   25. JRJoe Rogan33:03

       Does it detach like a ski boot if you fall?

   26. THTony Hawk33:06

       I never saw it detach.

   27. JRJoe Rogan33:07

       Mm.

   28. THTony Hawk33:09

       He's nuts.

   29. JRJoe Rogan33:10

       Oh, my God.

   30. THTony Hawk33:10

       Yeah, it-
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Hmm. …

   1. THTony Hawk45:00

      last 30 years, it's pretty much the same construction.

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:03

      Hmm.

   3. THTony Hawk45:04

      Seven plywood, maple skateboards. Uh, trucks have not changed. Um, wheels have changed in size and hardness, but it's still the same urethane for the most part. So there hasn't been a lot of huge advancements. The big, uh, the- the big changes are the shapes of the boards.

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:21

      Now, why have they, um, stuck with plywood? What about like carbon fiber-

   5. THTony Hawk45:26

      (sighs)

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:26

      ... any synthetic?

   7. THTony Hawk45:27

      You know, that is, th- that's the big question, and- and something that I would like to pursue, but w- we really need a sea change in skateboarding with materials. I believe that.

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:37

      Yeah?

   9. THTony Hawk45:38

      And we've, we haven't found anything that, that, uh, responds the same.

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:45

       Hmm.

   11. THTony Hawk45:45

       Um, or, you know, it ... The other thing is skaters as, as much as they are (smacks lips) very progressive and, you know, they like to be ... do different things and, and, um, go out- s- think outside the box and whatnot, if you try to sell them a deck that's, you know, 200 bucks, that's g- that's gonna be hard.

   12. JRJoe Rogan46:06

       Hmm.

   13. THTony Hawk46:06

       Even if you can convince them that it's gonna last three times long, four times long.

   14. JRJoe Rogan46:10

       So is it just a money thing?

   15. THTony Hawk46:12

       (clears throat)

   16. JRJoe Rogan46:12

       Or, or are they married to the-

   17. THTony Hawk46:13

       We just haven't really found ... Like there's some, some people have done, uh, different construction where they add a different ply in and that has worked a little bit, um, but, uh, they, it, I ... like I said, there just hasn't been that, that one seed planted where it's like, "All right, this is it. This is-"

   18. JRJoe Rogan46:31

       I would imagine carbon fiber.

   19. THTony Hawk46:34

       I- I- I tried something along those lines and it just, like I said, didn't, it didn't have that reflex.

   20. JRJoe Rogan46:41

       Hmm. Does it have to have a certain amount of weight to it too? 'Cause-

   21. THTony Hawk46:44

       That, th- well, that's the other thing. We're- we're kind of stuck where this is, this is how skateboards should weigh.

   22. JRJoe Rogan46:50

       Right.

   23. THTony Hawk46:50

       And so if you bring in something that's way lighter, maybe that's not the answer.

   24. JRJoe Rogan46:55

       Hmm.

   25. THTony Hawk46:55

       But we don't know. It just g- you know, it takes R&D for sure.

   26. JRJoe Rogan46:58

       Hmm. And you would have to get someone really good to fuck with it too, right?

   27. THTony Hawk47:03

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan47:03

       You'd have to g-

   29. THTony Hawk47:03

       And to believe in it.

   30. JRJoe Rogan47:04

       Yeah. And-
5. 1:00:00 – 1:11:05

   But even then, that's…

   1. THTony Hawk1:00:00

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:00

      But even then, that's why I'm encouraging strength and conditioning. Like when I see people in their 50s that are doing things, I'm like, "Ooh, okay." But do you lift weights? Because you should, you know?

   3. THTony Hawk1:00:09

      Yeah.

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:00:09

      Really, like just get a fucking trainer, man. Just keep your bone density. That's, that's what's really ... A, a real problem when people get older-

   5. THTony Hawk1:00:16

      Mm-hmm.

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:00:16

      ... is their, their shit breaks so easy.

   7. THTony Hawk1:00:18

      Right.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:00:19

      And things that normally you just bounce off of and be fine, and then all of a sudden you're like, "Hey, there's some clicking in my arm." You're like, "Oh, shit. I gotta go to hospital." And then y- you know, a normal fall causes you to have a, a cast.

   9. THTony Hawk1:00:31

      Yeah. I learned that well. I broke my pelvis.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:00:34

       Oh.

   11. THTony Hawk1:00:34

       (laughs) Yeah. I was, uh, almost 40.

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:00:38

       Ah.

   13. THTony Hawk1:00:39

       That was a-

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:00:40

       How'd you break your pelvis?

   15. THTony Hawk1:00:41

       Uh, I was doing a, a loop ramp-

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:00:44

       (laughs)

   17. THTony Hawk1:00:44

       ... um, which is something that I had done many times before that.

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:00:49

       Mm-hmm.

   19. THTony Hawk1:00:50

       And the loop that we were skating was kind of weathered and kind of slow, and I tried to adjust for that, and I just overshot it. Like I, I shot out at the top and then just fell straight to the bottom.

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:01:01

       Ooh.... um-

   21. THTony Hawk1:01:02

       Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:01:02

       ... but that's gotta affect you. Jamie broke his butt bone out here with a hoverboard and he was fucked up. You were fucked up for like a year, right?

   23. JVJamie Vernon1:01:09

       Yeah. It came, it came and went. I thought I got it fixed, couldn't get it fixed. No one I went to knew what was going on. Blocked up all the free time-

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:01:15

       It took... He had to self-

   25. THTony Hawk1:01:16

       Yep.

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:01:16

       ... identify what the i- injury was and then... And who, who was it that had a similar injury?

   27. JVJamie Vernon1:01:21

       Uh, Zach Bitter came in, said he had the same thing.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:01:23

       That's right.

   29. JVJamie Vernon1:01:23

       He went and got an MRI. His doctor told him he was okay, and then they... He relooked at it and was like, "Hey, by the way, you have a small fracture in like-" (fingers snapping)

   30. THTony Hawk1:01:30

       Yeah. Where... And it just, it-

Episode duration: 1:42:54