For the week of July 16 - 22, 2003

Keeping it real

Tony Hawk’s show stops in Hailey

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By JEFF CORDES
Express Sports Editor

Parking the Quiksilver bus by the rodeo grounds and quietly packing out their boards, the Underground Skatepark Tour of Tony Hawk’s 900 Films sneaked in to Hailey Sunday.

Word spread like wild fire.

Tony Hawk was in town.

Unbelievable stuff—Tony Hawk comes out of the Hailey pipe Sunday night. Express photos by David N. Seelig

The only skater to complete a 900—two-and-a-half rotations above the half pipe back in 1999 in the X Games vert contest in San Francisco—wanted to try the well-respected Hailey pipe.

You might as well have said Michael Jordan was shooting hoops at the middle school. But it wasn’t just Tony Hawk, at 34 the one true superstar of skateboarding. It was the whole cast.

Bam Margera of "CKY" and "Jackass" fame. Shaun White, one of the world’s hottest snowboarders. Alex Chalmers, a concrete skate specialist from Canada. Ryan Sheckler, already one of the world’s top amateur skateboarders at 13.

They took over the place. They kept it real.

Within an hour, 200 admirers and fans stood on the edge of the deep Hailey pipe and watched history in the making.

The crowd was the right size. It wasn’t the 6,000 who came out to see the world’s most famous skateboarder Monday in Boise. It was Tony Hawk, right next to you.

The slickest pillar of the skateboard community does tricks—starting in 1980 with the Backside Varial, adding Lipslide Revert in 1984 and Indy 540 in 1986, then Frontside Hurricane in 1988, Kickflip McTwist in 1994 and, amazingly, the 900 four years ago.

San Diego-born Hawk, 34, from Carlsbad, Calif., is in his 21st year as a professional skateboarder. The 13-time X Games medalist is married with three kids. He’s the sport’s squeaky-clean icon, promoting boarding everywhere. The best.

Shaun "The Egg" White, 16, nails one. Express photos by David N. Seelig

Unfortunately, Hawk had to leave Hailey Skate Park early because he sliced himself above his left ankle brace while attempting to balance along the pipe’s grind. They wrapped his shin with torn T-shirts and Hawk persevered to master his trick before leaving for the hospital to get 14 stitches.

He liked the pipe. He said it was huge. Heck, it took him 11 tries to do the 900. The grind was nothing after getting hurt.

The younger ones took over.

Although he’s better known as one of the world’s top snowboarders, Shaun "The Egg" White, 16, also put on a show in Hailey Sunday evening. The 5-foot-4-inch, 125-pound prodigy from San Diego has said skating vert helps him with overall balance.

White has said in a MountainZone.com interview, "Skating vert, like, being in really big ramps like that, just helps with snowboarding, because you know they are starting to make a lot bigger half-pipes now. It helps me to keep speed."

Boarding for 10 years, White washed the competition at the Winter X Games in Aspen. He swept gold medals in SuperPipe and Slopestyle and was named "Outstanding Athlete."

Other stars in Hailey were Margera and Sheckler, who are in their own universes in a couple of different ways.

Cult hero Margera, 23, the skateboarder and budding film director ("CKY" series) from Pennsylvania, is currently working on a new movie called "Your Life is Pathetic." Californian Sheckler, 13, is doing a noseblunt slide into skating fame. He’s a natural for films—and he wowed the Hailey crowd in Hailey with his skills.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.