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Legendary skateboarder and protagonist of our childhoods Tony Hawk is coming to the Beacon Theatre for one night only to talk candidly about his career and little-known tidbits about his life—including some juicy details about what it was like to become a star at such a young age.
The Beacon Theatre event, “Secret Tapes,” will take place on Thursday, April 4 and will be a conversation between Hawk and longtime friend and fellow skateboarding prodigy Rodney Mullen. Time Out New York spoke with Hawk to find out more about what we should expect from the upcoming event.
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The initial seed for the speaking tour came approximately four years ago, when Hawk realized that even though he’d spoken at several events with Mullen, it was always under the rules of a conference or a convention. For this, Hawk wanted to have a raw and unfiltered conversation with his friend.
Rodney and Hawk were both young skaters at the same time and created their own skating techniques that were replicated by skateboarders all around the world. The two friends also formed their own skate companies at around the same time and stopped competing around the same time, too. Throughout their parallel careers, they’ve deeply influenced each other. Their talk will center their friendship, as well as conversations on the difficulties of maintaining longevity as professional athletes.
Even for the biggest Tony Hawk aficionados, the event promises some nuggets of information that the two skaters have never spoken publicly about. “It is unlike anything you’ve ever seen from me or him in the past,” Hawk tells Time Out New York. “We're going to get into the more internal struggles we had as kids and some of the outside influences that were not encouraging to the point where both of us almost quit for various reasons.”
The speaking tour is only happening in two cities: Austin and New York. When we asked why Hawk chose New York for this tour, it seemed like to him, the choice was a no-brainer. “New York is iconic in the skate scene and has always had a strong presence and influence in what we do, and we don’t really get to do our speaking gigs out there,” Hawk told Time Out. “New York is such a revolutionary place because of the influences and the techniques that were created there based on the unavailability of skate facilities, and it’s such a hub of our culture.” He cites New York skateboarders’ boldness, grit, and ability to scout out places to skateboard at as part of what makes the techniques so unique.
So who should attend the Beacon Theatre conversation?
”For one, anyone who is doubting chasing their dreams. And two, anyone who thinks that this road has been easy or that we were destined for this or that we were naturals,” Hawk tells Time Out. “That was absolutely not the case.”
You can get your ticket to the event here. Tickets start at $76.