Tony Hawk took skateboarding to new heights in 1999. Overcoming the halfpipe in the X game, he began to spin violently, completing 2.5 turns in the air before gracefully gliding back into the ramp.
The 900 was named after the amount of spins required to travel, but Hawk, the sport's biggest star, landed it, rewritten the rules of what skateboarding can do, exposing the sport to a much more mainstream audience.
Then, shortly after his victory moment, Mr. Hawk's gravitational skate morphology began to disappear to the near-extinction point. It was replaced by street style, which was more easily learned at the skate park, leaving a huge ramp behind by all generations of skaters in the generation.
But it's beginning to change.
Social media has been flooded with videos of pre-preve skaters rising from a ramp and flying into the air in recent months, reluctant to try the kind of tricks they've experienced as skaters. They are shifting the paradigm with movements that go against gravity, urging other children around the world to try the same thing.
Hawk's style of vertical skating — “Wertz” to those who practice it — is making a comeback, and he is eager to turn that momentum into a return to the event at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The Vert is the most epic shaped skateboard. Its simplicity, combined with the pure excitement of dangerous manipulation, makes it easier for non-skates to understand.
Hawk solidified himself as the face of the sport in the early 2000s thanks to his 900s and the hugely popular video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. However, although unknown to his new admirers, his dedication to Vert was a case of clinging to the past.
“It's still considered a niche,” Hawk said in an interview, discussing the current state of apex skateboarding. “That's something I find difficult for.”
The reality is that Hawk's achievements at Vert Ramps have made the practice seem more popular than that. Renton Miller, a former professional skater and head of the World Skate Veil Skating Committee, a sports governing body, said Vert Skaters like Hawk are usually in the minority and “it stands out because it's so ladd.”
Enter people like 25-year-old skaters that many see as Vert's next big star, potential bridge between the older and the next generation, kids who find sports through social media.
Shal, who was signed to Mr. Hawk's Birdhouse Skateboarding Company, was born the year Hawk landed the first 900. He rode his first real pinnacle ramp at age 6, and later landed 900s and 1080s in the same year. He was 12 years old.
“The 900 took a lot of time,” Schaal said of learning two difficult tricks. “If you get over the fear of making those extra spins, they all blur together and become one big spinning mess.”
Vert rewards the type of blind action that is typical of adolescents, and adolescents are shaping the future of style.
“Young skaters have more resources,” Hawk said. “They have training facilities now. Kids are encouraged to start skating. That wasn't the case when we were younger. They were discouraging them from skating. It was a bad effect and there was no future.”
Hawk said it took him 10 years to try it before he landed the 900, and he finally achieved the feat when he was 31 years old. Now he is in awe of how the young skater is built on his achievements and the achievements of his peers. Last year, Arisa Trew became the first female skater to land 900 people. She was 13 years old at the time.
“As soon as we start riding, some kids get captivated in the air and know what's possible,” Hawk said. “For them, the 540 is just the starting point. The 540 wasn't created until they were teenagers.”
Evangelist Hawk knows what he wants to do next. The Summer Olympics are heading towards Los Angeles in 2028. Southern California is the global epicenter of skateboarding, and as Hawk states, he is “hustling” to add verts as an event. With the increased visibility of the form, Hawk believes more peak ramps are being built. To help him get things started, he is willing to put his equipment on the line.
“I'll give them my lamp,” Hawk said enthusiastically. “I've got terrain here. Find a place for that. It's all yours.” I have the best lamp in the world, and it's assembled in a few hours. ”
The International Olympic Committee will issue the final decision on the 2028 Olympic Vert and other events at the next Executive Committee, which will be held on April 9th.
Many skaters believe that the top competition is an obvious choice for the Olympics, but were excluded from the 2020 and 2024 games, Hawk said due to bureaucratic challenges and overall lack of Vert Skaters at the time.
Schaal, who is also good at park-style skating, won a silver medal at the event at the 2024 Olympics. But he inevitably competes in that style. Vert remains his main passion.
“When Grandma watches the Olympics, the streets and parks are very technical for people who don't understand skating,” Schaal said.
Hawk said he knew at the time of the debate to add skateboards to the 2020 game that there weren't enough apex skaters left to form a competitive field. But as the sport has grown in popularity, so has his public advocacy.
“The gap between gender and skate quality around the world was huge back then,” said Luca Basilico, who oversees skateboarding for World Skate. “It was another time, but we're not there anymore.”
To reach this point, sports had to let go of the past.
By the time he landed the 900, Mr. Hawk and his cohort (holdover in the 1980s, when Vert was the dominant style of skateboarding) were aging from their professional careers. There were few apex skaters approaching behind them.
“People who skate today, especially those over 25, will say they've started skating in some way for Tony Hawk,” said Jimmy Wilkins, an outstanding velt skater. “Even if not, they probably grew up skating in the park he built for them.”
However, the young skater who brings back Vert's art on Instagram isn't very closely tied to Mr. Hawk. They were born after his big moment. Innovation and advancement in form is something new and unique.
Elliot Sloan, a 36-year-old veil skater who became professional in 2008, described the “big gap” between the generational cohorts of veil skaters. He thought he was fortunate that Hawk's success in the late 1990s was part of a still-living sport.
However, Hawk's achievements are far from the past, with Wilkins and Sloan clearly being elders. And the skaters that come behind them are incredibly fast.
“I've just seen a lot of these kids beginning to look like seven years old and I think 'This kid is pretty good',” Sloan said. “And the next thing you know, I'm competing with him.”
“The biggest thing about Vert Resurgence is the bit of ground expansion that it has with the kids,” Miller said. “There are many top facilities all over the world, and there were few in the past.”
The rise of young veil skaters shocked veterans, but Hawk was able to continue pushing it back into the public eye. However, regardless of the era, popularity, or visibility of sports, despite his official retirement, he cannot separate himself from the man himself who stuck to his old habits.
“I have to skate,” he said at the end of the interview. His friend Bucky Lasek has come another legend from the 1990s. They were planning to spend the day on Mr. Hawk's personal lamp.
