skater badboy

# Name: Tony Hawk
# Gender: Male
# Hometown: San Diego, California
# Date of Birth: May 12, 1968
# Family: 3 children - Riley, Spencer & Keegan
# Occupation: Launcher of the Boom Boom Huck Jam, Tony Hawk Foundation, Hawk clothing, Birdhouse, and featured in Tony Hawk video game series
# Began Skating: 1977
    * First Sponsored: 1980
    * Turned Pro: 1982
    * Favored Discipline: Vert
    * Stance: Goofy
    * Tony Hawk is retired from competing

Tony Hawk Skateboarding Style and Strengths: Tony Hawk is harder on himself than anyone else ever could be. This drive is seen in Tony Hawk's skateboarding style - he is original and relentless. He has a monsterous list of skateboarding tricks invented, a huge stack of trophies and gold medals, and is easily the most recognisable name in skateboarding. Tony Hawk has never settled for anything but his best, and his best skateboarding has earned him the position at the top.
Tony Hawk Favorite / Signature Skateboarding Tricks: Tony Hawk's favorite trick is the 540, with his favorite variation being the Mute.
Tony Hawk Skateboarding Tricks Invented (partial list):

    * Backside Varial
    * Shove-It Rock'n Roll
    * Fakie-to-fronside rock
    * Ollie-To-Indy
    * Fingerflip Backside Air
    * Varial Gay Twist
    * Gymnast Plant
    * Frontside 540-rodeo Flip
    * Lipslide Revert
    * Airwalk (vert)
    * Airwalk-To-Fakie
    * Madonna
    * Saran Wrap
    * Stale Fish
    * 720
    * Backside Ollie-to-Tail
    * Indy 540
    * Frontside Gay Twist
    * Nose Grind
    * Backside Pop Shove-it
    * 360 Frontside Rock n' Roll
    * Frontside Cab
    * Stale Fish 540
    * Eggplant-To-Fakie
    * 1/2 Elguerial
    * Frontside Hurricane
    * Cab Shove-It
    * 360 Varial-to-Fakie
    * Backside Rewind Grind
    * Ollie 540

# Backside Ollie One-Foot
# Varial 540
# Frontside Blunt
# Cab-To-Tail
# 360 Varial Disaster
# Heelflip Varial Lien
# Frontside Noseslide
# Switch Indy Air
# Switch Backside Ollie
# 540 Board Varial
# Kickflip Mctwist
# Cab Lipslide
# Heelflip Varial Lien Revert
# Heelflip Slob Air
# Stale Fish 720
# Varial 720
# 900
# Frontside Stale Fish 540
# Shove-it-to-Backside Smith
# 360 Varial Mctwist
# Shove-it Fakie Feeble Grind
# 360 Shove-it Nose Grind
# 1/2 Cab Frontside Hurricane-to-Fakie
# Shove-it-to-Fakie Frontside 5-0
Tony Hawk Skateboarding Career Highlights:
1982 - Joined the legendary Bones Brigade team
1989 - Featured in Gleaming the Cube movie starring Christian Slater
1999 - Activision releases Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, the first in a long line of successful video games
1999 - X Games 4 - Tony Hawk lands the first 900
2003 - featured in the 300th episode of The Simpsons
2003 - wrote HAWK -- Occupation: skateboarder , a New York Times Best Seller
Life - Tony Hawk has entered about 103 skateboarding competitions. He has won 73, and taken second in 19
Tony Hawk Personal History: Tony Hawk was a troubled kid. He would push himself to do well in everything - in fact, to do better than he possibly could do, and then get angry with himself for failing. His parents had him psychologically evaluated, and discovered that he was "gifted". His older brother Steve gave him a skateboard, and Tony found something that he could focus on, and get good at. He would still push himself relentlessly, which helped propel him to be the world's most recognizable skateboarder today.
Tony Hawk Interesting Fact: Tony Hawk had his first film debut in the 1989 movie, Gleaming the Cube - the first feature film to use skateboarding as a major theme. The movie stars Christian Slater, with Tony playing Christian Slater's friend, Buddy. Mike McGill does all of Slater's skateboarding, Rodney Mullen is seen skateboarding during the opening credits, and Stacey Peralta did all of the film's skateboarding directing.
Tony Hawk Quote: From the Tony Hawk Website - "I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out. I mean, I never thought that I could make a career out of skateboarding."

Step 6 - Stomp and Lean
When you put your front foot on the board, stomp it down with all your weight until your front wheels hit the ramp, and lean into it. Put all of yourself into the ramp - you can't hold anything back.

It can be scary to stomp down and lean into open air. There is no turning back once you've started the stomp, and I would say at least 80% of the problems people have when dropping in is not being committed enough to this part. You have to trust that you and your skateboard will make this work. You have to invest in dropping in 100%. It's all or nothing. Be committed to the drop in. Once you do it, it will get easier and easier every time.

Here's a secret about skateboarding - skill is very important, but even more important than skill is self confidence. It's all in your head. This is what separates something like skateboarding from other "sports". Your strongest opponent is yourself. So when you face something like dropping in, and you do it, you are taking a huge step toward self control.

That was a little deep, but it's true. The point is, if you are going to try and learn to drop in, then just do it. It's like Yoda says, "Do or do not, there is no try." Yeah, I just quoted Yoda. But he would agree - when you get to the top of that ramp, and you are ready to drop in, just put your foot over those front trucks, stomp it down, and LEAN IN!

Step 5 - Place Your Front Foot
When you are ready, put your front foot over the front trucks of your skateboard.

I recommend blurring this step with the next one, and not putting your foot there and waiting. But take a look at the picture above to get an idea for where your front foot should go.