Tony Hawk doesn’t seem like Tony Hawk in the opening frames of HBO’s new documentary about the skateboarding legend’s life.
Normally, the lanky and lean skater casually rips through the air, pulling a show-stopping move out of his unrivaled bag of tricks (Hawk invented more than 100 himself) before landing smoothly on the ramp’s floor and throwing an easy smile-and-wave to his cheering spectators.
But in director Sam Jones’ Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off, which premieres on April 5, the 53-year-old is struggling. He hits the floor hard, repeatedly. At one point, he screams out in frustration and pain, nearly knocked out from the force of once again trying to land the near-impossible 900. He scrapes himself off the floor, sweat dripping off his face, and dutifully climbs the ramp ladder to give it another go.
The 900 is considered one of skateboarding’s most difficult tricks, requiring a skater to launch themselves high enough to complete 2.5 rotations in the air. Hawk became the first to accomplish said feat at the 1999 X Games, finally landing the trick after his 10th attempt.
Still, that was years ago. And with each failed attempt where Hawk’s board flies out from underneath his shoes or his helmet nearly pops off due to the brute force of his fall, the film silently poses the question: Can Hawk still do it? And if we’re being brutally honest, should he even be trying? The question is even more pertinent given how Hawk turned up to the film’s Saturday premiere at Austin’s SXSW on crutches after sustaining an injury to his leg.
Jones, whose previous documentaries include I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco and Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued, is an amateur skater himself, admitting to stalking a teenage Hawk around California skateparks growing up. Jones’ intention wasn’t just to tell a typical origin story of a scrawny kid from San Diego who helped transform the skateboarding industry, ending with a shot of Hawk surrounded by all his trophies and accolades. (There would be shockingly few, as Hawk has a habit of tossing out his medals and trophies, according to close friends.)
Instead, Jones set out to tell an intimate and raw story of Hawk’s journey, his relationship to skateboarding, and the all-too-real consequences of deeply loving something that could spell your end but soldiering on with reckless abandon.
The doc features never-before-seen footage from Hawk’s early days in San Diego. He was the fourth child of Frank and Nancy, who had Hawk when she was in her forties, and it was Hawk’s older brother Steve who inadvertently helped introduce him to skateboarding, with a young Hawk picking up one of his janky, unused boards.
From there, Hawk managed to land a spot on pro skater Stacy Peralta’s Bones Brigade crew that also included Rodney Mullen, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Steve Caballero, and Andy Macdonald, all of whom participated in the film.
But while Hawk made a name for himself as a high schooler in the 1980s, earning six figures a year from touring, competitions, and selling out his line of skateboards, it all ended abruptly in the early ’90s as interest in skating drastically dropped and cities bulldozed skate parks. Stuck with two mortgages and a young family, Hawk was in such dire financial straits that he was borrowing money from his parents and paying off his water bill in installments.
Finally, things began to pick up again in the mid-to-late ’90s thanks to the introduction of X Games, which helped bring the sport to a wider audience as it was broadcast on ESPN. By the end of the 2000s, Hawk had become a household name with his own popular video game series, arena tours, and wins in nearly every competition he participated in.
Now a family man in his fifties, Hawk has long since retired from competing, but his skating days are far from over. He rides four to five times a week, still pushing himself to perform risky, highly skilled tricks just to prove he still can. Over the course of his career, he’s broken countless bones, including his ribs and pelvis, and has had a number of nasty concussions.
There’s a moment in the film where Hawk links back up with some of his Bones Brigade brothers to recreate one of the iconic skating videos the group made in the ’80s. While some of his peers let their boards fly out when they don’t want to risk an injury, Hawk goes for it. He lands hard on the ground, barely able to move. Everyone around him goes silent. After five minutes of laying motionless on the ramp, he hobbles over to the side, white as a sheet.
Peralta says it was this accident that led him to rally some of Hawk’s closest family members and friends in convincing the skater that it was far past time for him to pack it in. He’s far too old to be risking death as a pastime, they reasoned.
But as Rodney Mullen—a skateboarding legend in his own right—puts it, true skaters can’t help themselves. Skateboarding is their life; it makes them who they are. And they’ll continue doing what they love until the wheels fall off.
In the final moments of the film, after countless attempts at landing the 900, Hawk stares in silent concentration before launching himself down the curved ramp once more. He spins his body fast, gracefully touching the bottom of his board. He’s landed the 900. He’s done attempting the dangerous trick—at least for now.
