| Possibly the most influential skater of all time, deniably the best skater of all time. Tony Hawk was king for his time, and can still rule competitions, though now a days Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek and Jamie Thomas, to name a few, have been known to give him a good fight (and on occasion beat him) in Vert comps, and lets just face it, Rodney Mullen is hands down the king of street, Tony's got no chance there.
Tony Hawk's career kicked off in the 80's after he realized his career as a model wouldn't work out. At age 16, a young blonde haired boy, Tony already had the 720, the ollie 540 (spin without grabbing the board) and Judo under his belt. Since then he has invented the Gymnast Plant, Mute Invert, One-foot Invert, 900, Airwalk, Rocket Air, Varial 540, 360 Flip to Mute and many more.
Tony was and is king of the vert, undeniably, because without him many of today's vert kings wouldn't have any tricks to perform. Generally, if it wasn't Tony's vert trick, it was Danny Way's the other vert king. Obviously Tony set new standards for skating, so he is the most influential neck to neck with Danny Way, though he no longer remains the best skater, Cybrid.
Tony rides for birdhouse, his other sponsors are Arnette, Quicksilver and TSG. He also has his own company, Hawk Shoes.
Three cheers for Tony!
Other skater profile nodes:
Danny Way
Bob Burnquist
Steve Caballero
Kareem Campbell
Rune Glifberg
Eric Koston
Bucky Lasek
Rodney Mullen
Chad Muska
Andrew Reynolds
Geoff Rowley
Elissa Steamer
Jamie Thomas
| 
