"People will tell me, 'but you ride a thirty-foot ramp.' Yeah, but it's not going to come after me when I fall."
Nineties heartthrob Rob Lowe is no stranger to these pages. Surf fans have thrilled with reports of his big wave acumen, his love for dropping in on other surfers at Point Dume and his support of Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch even when mocked. He is, by all accounts, as fine an actor as he is surf enthusiast and so you, too, might understand his shock when skateboarding great Tony Hawk appeared on his podcast Literally! and copped to a debilitating fear of waves.
Hawk, of course, is synonymous with vert skateboarding, flying very high in the air and spinning very quickly. It might be thought performing feats of human strength would be much scarier over hardened surfaces though the 57-year-old has a different take.
I’m terrified of big waves,” Hawk begins, stunning Lowe who simply gasps, “wow.” He continues, “and then people tell me, ‘but you ride a 30 foot ramp…’ but it’s not going to come after me if I fall, you know what I mean?
Lowe does know what he means, though counters with the fact that ramps are made of metal and wood. Hawk shares that he knows how to fall, on metal and wood, but has been held down, in the ocean, experiencing that very real terror and it’s not for him. Lowe agrees that hold-downs are uncomfortable and the two leave it at that.
Now, I’m assuming many, here, enjoy skateboarding alongside surfing. Which terrifies more? And which will you hang up sooner, when Father Time comes a knockin?
The ISA World Surfing Games are back live today. It would be brave of you to watch and report back.
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If only Filipe could man up and admit this like Tony did…
How many times have I quit skating?
Not sure I say it out loud anymore
What about his fear of alimony? Or, no fear of alimony?
When we were highschool kids Tony could surf, not a full on ripper but functionally. And good at skim. He’s likely being generous to surfing by expressing fear of big waves. The quiet balls the guy had must have been hard to hide with those short 80’s shorts. If surf was his choice he would have no doubt charged hard.
Looks like this is the last article until Bell’s!
See you then cunts!
Xox
Under rated as a Comedic actor
Skated a lot before I took up proper surfing. Falling in water didn’t worry me a bit after years of hitting flesh onto concrete. I late middle age gave up both. Coming back to surfing last year I had the fear of hold-downs. Now thankfully over that again and slowly upping my wave size comfort levels.
Still laughing (and smarting) over fact that la couple weeks ago I smacked my head off my board a few metres from shore after pulling out of a belly-ride in. Still got a sore spot. LOL. One of my top 3 three surf injuries.
Danny Way said the same thing. Skateboarding is more fun to watch in my opinion. Its definitely more dangerous if your counting deaths per year. Even with drownings, sharks, and hold downs. The inherent danger in skateboarding is it’s done near fast moving cars. If you know a young skateboarder who isnt afraid to go big, make sure he knows that if you’re going to get hit by a car, jump high in the air upon the collision, don’t go low.
But do you know the hardest thing about rollerblading?
Xox
Telling a bad joke about homosexuality?
That’s ridiculous. It is a fine joke!
Xox
Hawk tuah?
Mick Lowe isn’t afraid of big waves.
https://youtu.be/yngBcMhgyZU?si=ausPHp_5rN5DTye2
retelling this story on BG for the 99th time but … Hawk and his entire crew are as cool and nice as it gets, stayed a coupled doors down from them at Waco’s on site lodging, they could not have been more friendly. He was in a walking boot at the time so didn’t see him sample the pool but his kids were on it, he was playing photog dad.
Tony is a genuinely nice guy. The skate scene in Del Mar was one of the coolest scenes in the world, and I think Tony felt like a little bit of an outsider to it. He NEVER big-timed any of the rest of us who were a bit dorkier kids trying to skate. It would have been understandable if he did, but not at all ever, always said hi and talk to you like a normal person like he always did.
To be fair to that scene, there were a lot of cool people around. The in town local kids we all knew each other, and generally got along. Neil Blender was a nice guy, kind of a crazy punk but nice. Tony Magnuson had the niceness and patience of a kindergarten teacher. Dave Swift and Todd Swank (whose 1980’s look is what Chas looks like now) were some of the key holders to Transworld magazine, and those guys could not have been cooler. They skated 10 times better, and hung out with guys who skated a hundred times better, but they would put a picture of you in Transworld if they snap you doing something cool.
The guys who were dicks were the South Bay older guys (Alva, Adams etc, arrogant bullies) and some of the transplants from inland like Allen Losi, who also thought he was pretty special and you should too.
Anyway, as I’ve grown old, I’ve come to more and more appreciate Tony Hawk as an icon of how to get world famous and not see the little people as little people. High character guy for sure.
good to here, the karma followed him
Jay was a thief of the highest order. Beg for a ride and steal change from your floor. Made sure my wallet was always stashed with my weed, spare tire wheel well. “ you going to Dume, how bout a ride to dust bowl?”
I had five Blender decks one after another, I loved them so much.
Hit play on your ISA feed, only to see a woman from Taiwan surf a fat left like a veteran of three surf lessons at Doheny. Awful. Fernando and his kookfest needs to go away.
Just watched a Ukrainian surfer. Not great. She’d be more useful on the contact line at Novopavlivka
More useful on onlyfans
saliva Ukraine
😂
Other than crazy epic conditions (limited to Pipe, Cloudbreak, Jbay, Chopes etc) there is just no way you can make a surf contest entertaining. Sure, it makes for a nice background distraction on a sunny day at your local. But real sport it is not!
100% truth
hitting the concrete < hitting the water
is it really even a tough question?
The last time I really skated was when I was 18. Skated a concrete bowl at night with some buddies….missed the landing… went down and chipped my elbow. Right at the beginning of an indian summer…hot and tons of combo swells. Guess who couldn’t surf them? Haven’t skated since.
faaack that sucks, my bad fall i was about 11 and bombed a hill while on a family vacay hit a rock and slid down an a rough asphalt road with the little broken shells and jagged rocks galore, mind-numbingly bad road rash for weeks!!!
I did that too! We had a moment where we used to bomb hills a bunch. A couple really bad ones that could have been a lot worse if the cars coming the other way weren’t paying attention.
Dodging the real questions, like how Tony maintains such a beautiful shade of brown hair well into his 50s.
I’m guessing you went gray early?
does 30s count as early?
That would classify as premature.
actually started in my mid to late 20s, should never have gone to college/grad school
Should have attended a west coast school on the beach for a stress free experience.
should have done a lot of things different in my 20s, tbh
Take bong hits (tbh)
I’m older than that but still mostly a fetching brunette with some salt and pepper on the sides when I’m late for a trim.
No matter what you think nor do nor say…