Skateboarding is one of the sports which has shown immense growth in the past decade. Notably, it is being recognized now and is included in the Olympics as well. Skateboarding veteran Chad Muska once revealed how the Tony Hawk Pro-Skater has helped in changing the image of the sport. In addition, how much it has excited people to pursue skateboarding as a sport.

Nevertheless, taking the sport from anonymity or very less known to a mainstream sport. Specifically, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk had a huge role in bringing this change to the skateboarding world. 

A video game that attracted the youth to skateboarding

To begin with, Tony Hawk is one of the biggest legends of the sport. However, when he got retired, his contribution only got doubled. He did plenty of things to advertise the sport. Hawk introduced an outstanding video game in 1999, called Tony Hawk Pro-Skater. Later on, it eventually got several sequels to the game now.

The 90s skateboarding sensation, Chad Muska once revealed his feelings about being the character in that game. He said, “Never in a million years would I have imagined I was gonna be a video game character. I think the games they influenced my life in general. This game did so much for not only myself but the skateboarding industry on a whole.”

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He continued, “Introducing skateboarding to the masses and to this day I mean people come up to me and they are like Tony Hawk pro skater. I picked you and if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have started skateboarding. So, this game culturally developed a generation. I look forward to see what the impact and response to this game coming back is. I know I’m excited about it.”

Contributions of Tony Hawk to the skateboarding world

Apart from the game, Tony Hawk through his Skatepark Project, built several skate parks for the locals to have a certain place where they can go and participate.

Hawk made everything available and attractive enough for people to strive for it. As more people get joined in a sport, the bigger it becomes. A similar thing happened with skateboarding. It became a mainstream sport.

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Being a part of a high-grossing video game is indeed a big thing. Moreover, when it inspires thousands of people, the value gets highly increased. Chad or any other skateboarder who is a part of the game, everyone feels blessed to be able to inspire the next gen to enter the sport. Have you ever played Tony Hawk Pro-Skater? If yes, how much did you love it?