Tony Hawk and Rodney Mullen hanging out

Bobby_Rotkop on March 30th, 2021 at 15:13 UTC »

The two absolute legends of skating. Hawk as the king of vert, Mullen as the king of the street. Mullen was always my guy, as I was too chicken shit for vert 😂

scpitt on March 30th, 2021 at 15:41 UTC »

I bet his wood floors need to be refinished weekly

Sumit316 on March 30th, 2021 at 17:00 UTC »

Rodney Mullen has a good story about Tony Hawk asking him to be a character in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater game franchise.

Rodney had just come back from an Enjoi tour in Chicago where he broke his ankle at a demo. He was in his mid-30s, which is old enough for a big injury to end your career as a pro skater, and he was worried. He was thinking, ‘Should I quit skating?’ So he got in touch with Tony Hawk, who has been a close friend since they were kids. It was around the year 2000 and Tony was already the most famous skater in the world: he’d done the 900 and released the first iteration of the THPS game; Rodney had recently seen Tony on TV at the Academy Awards.

The pair met at a restaurant and Rodney says Tony walked in ‘like a star’ and was getting recognised by other people. ‘I remember seeing him and thinking he’d be different, but he was always exactly the same dude: humble, down to earth, real.’ Rodney was worried about his ankle and his future career prospects, but Tony dismissed his concerns and told him it would heal. ‘And by the way,’ he said, ‘do you want to be in my game?’

‘I had no idea of the significance of it, I was just stoked that he was bringing me in like that,’ says Rodney. ‘That was what was of significance to me, and weirdly, that’s still what I hold onto. Since Tony’s had the game, he’s treated me like gold. The thing I love about Tony is that he represents us. He still stays close to skateboarding and he sort of lives in this other world that none of us can really access, in terms of being that guy you see on TV.’

God I love these two!