At 54-years old, Tony Hawk is still grinding out impressive skills on a skateboard, but with continued tricks come new pain. The iconic skateboarder recently joined Dana Carvey and David Spade for an episode of their Fly on the Wall podcast where he detailed some of his most gruesome injuries.
LISTEN NOW: Tony Hawk joins Dana Carvey and David Spade for an episode of the Fly on the Wall podcast
Hawk has experienced several shake-ups over the years as he’s perfected his craft, and while they’ve all come with their fair share of pain, he shared his most recent, a broken femur, was by-far the most difficult to overcome at his experienced age.
“It was a trick that I have done thousands of times,” he said of the event that ended up handing him one of his most chilling injuries. “I didn’t have enough speed going into it, and I knew that full-well, but I’ve always been able to figure that out, adjust for it, in the air and at age 54, that’s the time when you can no longer adjust for it so easily.”
The next thing Hawk recalled was laying on the ramp with his leg “dangling” and instinctually “putting it back in place.” As one friend comically delivered him two Advil with every intention to help, Hawk remembers thinking to himself, “I’m f***ed.”
After eight months of recovery and a metal rod “more expensive than a house,” down his femur, Tony is back on the skateboard. He credits being “possessed” by the sport since being a young kid the reason he is able to get back on after such traumatic injuries.
“I started skating around age 10 and got really into it,” he shared. “I never did it for fame or fortune… having come this far and having success I could’ve never dreamed, I still just wanna skate.”
Hear more about Hawk’s unbreakable desire to board, plus a life-changing video game, and Police Academy 4 by tuning into the Fly on the Wall episode above or on the free Audacy app.
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