Tony Hawk Answers Skateboarding Questions From Twitter

Hey I'm Tony Hawk and welcome to skate support.

Okay, here we go.

Is there a skateboarding trick called the eggplant?

Yes, there is a skateboarding trick called the eggplant.

I'll show you how to do one right now.

Over there I'm gonna do a regular handplant, and

then here I'll do an eggplant.

Hopefully you can spot the difference.

What we call handplant or invert is done by using

your front hand to grab the board on your toe side,

and then using your

trailing hand to actually stand

on the coping, and that's how you balance.

That's a handplant.

Here's an eggplant.

An eggplant is reversing those hands.

So using your back hand to grab the board, your

front hand to actually balance your body, and doing

the same direction of turning.

Bro I need some advice on how to do a 540 on a skateboard.

My first advice to you is learn how to skate quarter pipes,

preferably bigger ones because the bigger the

quarter pipe, the more airtime you can actually get.

And have to spin a full 540 rotation.

I'll show you a McTwist, actually a version

of a 540 right now.

This is a 540 on vert.

I'm gonna grab my board on my toe side which we call mute.

Around my leg, we call that tucking, and if you do

a 540 grabbing this way, assuming you go upside down

a little bit, that's a McTwist.

It's one of the scariest things to learn because

when you start to do it, you're blind to a landing

for a half a rotation.

And so you kinda gotta use the force.

I don't know how else to explain it, so I would say

just get used to that spin until you actually

start to land it.

Hey Tony Hawk can you please make another

pro-skater video game?

My contract is up with Activision.

They own the license to that actual name, Tony Hawk's

pro skater.

If we could come to some new agreement, absolutely.

Yes, I'm in.

Hi Activision.

Free agent right here, let's do some more fun stuff.

How do you do a board slide on a bench rail

or pipe on a skateboard?

I can show you the difference between a board slide

on a rail and a board slide on a ramp right now.

You approach some sort of ledge and then you

slide using only the board, the wheels are off the ground.

This is what a board slide looks like on vert.

Let's see.

Which skateboarding trick was the hardest to learn?

McTwist 540s.

It took me nearly 10 years to figure out how to

do a 900.

One of the tricks that I've only done a couple times

in my life, is a kickflip McTwist, which is actually

like my board does a kickflip and I catch it in

the middle of McTwist, and there is so many things happening

all at once.

That it's almost like the planets have to align

for it to work out perfectly.

Years of struggle with that trick, only to land

two on video.

Does anyone know how to setup a skateboard?

I have all the stuff just none of the

tools or knowledge.

I do know how to setup a skateboard.

What you need is skateboard, trucks, wheels, bearings

and hardware.

Okay, so the first thing you do.

Get a skateboard, a strip of grip tape.

You wanna take the backing off, get the sticky part down.

Push the grip tape on from the center out, so that

you don't get too many air bubbles.

If you do get air bubbles, take a box cutter, Exacto

and just slice it and put them down, and no one

will ever know that you didn't know what you were doing.

Place the grip tape, get it flat, cut it around the edges.

Don't cut too hard in, another sign that you don't know

what you're doing.

Then you wanna poke holes through the grip tape through

where all the trucks go, put the hardware through

on top of the grip tape, take your trucks so that

the kingpins are facing in.

Next you wanna attach the wheels.

And I'm gonna use my little handy tip for putting wheels on.

Take two bearings, you've got the outer part of the bearing,

and the inner part of the bearing.

The outer part is sealed.

Put the inner part facing up, two bearings like this.

Take your wheel, facedown, put it on one bearing.

Turn it over, put it on the other bearing.

Put your spacer on, and that's it, and your

wheels are ready, good to go.

I give away my skateboards so much for auctions,

for charities, and to people.

I had to learn how to break in new skateboards constantly.

And now that's more what I'm used to.

Every other pro swears by their trucks and

how they turn and will hold onto them at any cost.

I give them away.

This is a technical question.

This says three flip?

Is that the same as a tre flip?

And how you you do a varialflip but not a kickflip?

Isn't varial a shuvit kickflip?

That is a loaded question.

Okay, a three flip is a nickname for a 360 flip,

also known as a tre flip.

So yes, all of those are the same nomenclature.

A kickflip is when you actually just flip your board

all around, right?

A 360 flip is when the board does a full 360 rotation

and a kickflip.

A varial flip is half that.

So a varial flip is a 180 kickflip, and you're gonna

put the board backwards.

How do you even kickflip a normal board?

How do you even stand on a skateboard without eating shit?

Well, those are two very different questions.

I'll take the second one first.

How do you stand on a skateboard without eating shit?

Center your weight and anticipate the motion.

That's gonna be the best way to be on a skateboard

without actually falling off of it.

If you just stand on the skateboard stationary, it

tends to be a little too wobbly and there's not

much leverage that you get from that.

Tighten the trucks, cause you don't want them

to be super wobbly.

Use your back foot to push off and stand with

your weight centered, and make sure you're

anticipating the motion.

Now let's see.

How do you even kickflip a normal board?

The idea of a kickflip is using your front foot to

get the board flipping.

So, while you're sliding your front foot to

level out your board, you actually slide it off of

the edge of the board, and that gets it flipping.

And the idea is you want it to be flipping while

you're still going up so you can catch with your feet

and then you put it down.

It should be that easy.

But it's not.

I don't know why but recently I'm tempted to get

a skateboard but I think I'd look ridiculous.

Any advice on a starter board or rig?

Midlifecrisis.

Okay, I'm gonna guess that you're somewhere between

30 and 50?

A starter board has sort of a distinct nose, you know,

sort of a shovel nose and a wider tail.

Some bigger wheels, maybe something a little softer

so you can cruise down the street as well as

riding in the parks.

Just start slow.

You know, I don't think it's ever too late to start,

and it's a great way of exercise.

So, good luck.

Tony Hawk how do you do an ollie?

An ollie is the basis of most skate tricks.

It's the way you lift the board up in the air

using your feet.

I can show you how to ollie on flat, and I can

show you how to ollie on vert.

Like this.

Snap the tail and

slide your front foot simultaneously

to bring the tail up.

That's an ollie.

Ollieing on vert is a totally different technique.

You're lifting up from a vertical plane, so you're using

friction way more.

And you're actually like floating and putting pressure

on your board a lot more to keep it in the air.

Cause you're considerably higher than you

are on the flat.

This says why can't you skateboard when you're 40?

Well, I'm 49.

The end.

Oh okay, this is a good one.

This says dude you're the best.

You have inspired me to skateboard.

Please I have one question what was your

first skateboarding trick?

The first thing I ever learned on a skateboard where

I felt like I learned a trick, was going up a curb.

I learned how to rock my board up a curb and then

put my foot closer to the nose, and actually

lift my back wheels up to clear the curb.

And I think that's what sparked my interest in

getting to the skate park and learning tricks.

I still love doing it.

Alright, well that was skate support with wired.

And this is Tony Hawk, thanks for watching.