In Tony Hawk’s book Occupation: Skateboarder he mentions that when his very first pro model was released in 1982 it wasn’t exactly a top seller. Hell, if anything, it was a bottom dweller. To add insult to injury the market for skateboards back then was nonexistent at best, so to not have a remotely popular model translated to mere pennies on the royalty dollar—more precisely, 85 cents, the whopping sum total of which Tony claimed to represent one of his earliest royalty check payments as a paid professional skateboarder.

It’s old news, but it’s good news. Tony Hawk was in South Africa skating with the locals, and I mean the Zulu locals, which was coincidentally an early name for the Ramp Locals in a working version of the Thrashin’ script. Tony was there in conjunction with Laureus World Sports Academy in order to attend a launch for an Indigo Youth Movement project, whose goal is to “to help young people in rural communities develop life skills and confidence through skateboarding.” Who started the IYM? Why, our old friend Dallas Oberholzer. This isn’t Tony’s first involvement with youth skateboarding in Africa. Birdhouse and the Tony Hawk Foundation have sent boxes of product to the Uganda Skateboard Union, including skateboards and shoes. It’s true. I’ve seen the pictures on the Interwebs™. I just can’t find them.

[Photo: Patrick Royal for Laureus]

From the annals of YouTube, home movie footage of a 1985 Del Mar contest with runs from Christian Hosoi and Tony Hawk. Someone’s parents must have had some dough, because the camera had sound too. One funny bit, the crowd goes nuts for two consecutive head high airs, but then almost falls silent when Hosoi only goes chest high on the next wall. It was impossible to get a good still capture from this footage.

– Thanks to JF Fullum for the inadvertent tip.

Back in June we reported on the Stardolls online Ryan Sheckler dress up doll. It looks like they’ve added Tony Hawk and Bam Margera too. Sheckles must have pitched a fit, because he’s been removed from the site, and hold on, in the short delay since I first found out about the new additions, Tony Hawk has been removed as well, but maybe that’s because his celebrity likeness looked more like the test tube spawn of John McEnroe and Jimmy Carter.

[Source: Examiner.com]

You can look at this picture of some sort of anti KFC protest by PETA, or you can watch some video footage of Peter Hewitt dressed up as an eagle in the 88 footwear Destroy Everything video. There’s also a short and boring interview with Tony Hawk (not his fault) from FHM magazine where he briefly talks a bout doing the loop in a chicken suit for Jackass. Your choice. – Thanks to Seth Grossman for the tip