Tony Hawk tells the Web Summit about living the dream & helping those in need

JOE’s all time favourite skateboarder, Tony Hawk (sorry Bob Burnquist), was at the Dublin Web Summit to talk about his philanthropic work and how to pull a 1080.

Tony Hawk is no stranger to Ireland and he’s certainly no stranger to the Dublin Web Summit; something that he has attended for the past few years. This year was no different and JOE managed to hear from the man himself when he spoke to a select group of attendees at this year’s Web Summit in the RDS. Tony was there to tell us about his philanthropic work with the Tony Hawk Foundation, which supports recreational programs focusing on the creation of public skateboard parks in low-income communities, and other causes in the US and overseas. When asked about when he knew he could make a difference, Tony said: “At the beginning of my career I never thought that you could be successful in skateboarding, to the point where you could do philanthropy or charity work. “Skateboarding was very small when I started, so to say I'm living a dream is an understatement, because the dream I'm living now wasn't even something you could consider back then. “To have a foundation that can do this sort of work is just incredible. When I started having huge success in skating and in video games, that's when I thought I could make a difference in the world through skateboarding. “I was very lucky that I grew up near one of the last staking facilities in the world to skateboard at, and so I wanted to provide the same type of opportunity in underprivileged areas.” Tony won’t be packing in the skating anytime soon, which we saw first hand down at Bushy Park yesterday afternoon, and so he was asked when he thinks he’ll call it time…

Thanks to everyone that showed up at Bushy Park & to @daveleahy for coordinating my impromptu demo. I love Dublin. pic.twitter.com/7QZWu4UK7e — Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) November 4, 2014

“I guess I'm the one pushing the limits of how far you can take skateboarding into your adult age and still be considered contemporary. I feel like I'll know when to stop when I start getting bad at it. I'll probably just stop doing it in public then, but I’ll continue to do it at my own pace and in my own time.” As Tony is a world famous skater it was inevitable that someone would ask him technique related question, and someone did. The question was: ‘What is the best technique to use when doing a 1080 spin’. Now, skating diehards will know that while Tony might be considered the best of the best, the 1080 is a trick that Tony has yet to land officially. So without skipping a beat, Tony replied: “Are you asking because you want to try a 1080 yourself? In that case, I want you to let me know what the best technique is whenever you land it”. Tony’s brief talk was very inspiring and it’s great to see one of our all time heroes talking about making a change in the world and actually following up with it. For more from Tony head over to his Twitter page, and you can find out more about the Tony Hawk Foundation here.