Tony Hawk Occupation: skateboarding is a book about a pro skateboarder. He is not just a skateboarder he's probably the most famous skateboarder of the day!


Tony Hawk started out as a crazy little kid, he liked to throw stuff at his nanny at the age of two! His parents spoiled him rotten. He cried every day going to preschool and was so much trouble that he was kicked out of preschool. His parents were so laid back that they didn't care instead they let him chill at home for the rest of the year.


When Tony Hawk was in grade school his diet was horrible. All he ever ate was junk food. He was all skin and bones. He played basketball and baseball, and was really aggressive, but because of his diet he was not athletic at all. He would be furious if he couldn't win.


One day Tony's brother Steve who was a surfer came home from college. He went into the garage and took out an old skateboard. This skateboard probably looked nothing like you are picturing, it was about two feet long had no grip tape or concave, clay wheels and was only about 5 inches long!


Steve took Tony out to a ditch to show him how to carve up walls. Tony could not figure out how to turn and since he was so competitive he was so mad at himself! Tony put it back in his garage that night and it sat there for a while. He would take it out once every couple weeks and mess around but he didn't show much interest at first.


6 months later he started skating a little more with his 4th grade friends around the neighborhood falling all over the place. The only real skateboarding activity he had seen was at Oasis Skate park which was a 15 minute drive from his house. He would stare out the window in awe every time he drove by. Tony was amazed by the thousands (or so it seamed) of skateboarders flying in circles. Tony nagged his parents everyday for a membership to Oasis Skate Park, he told them he HAD to have a member ship to Oasis. His dad did the next best thing, he built a small wedge ramp in his driveway.


Finally in fifth grade, Tony's friends' mom packed a bunch of Tony's friends into a car and drove to Oasis Skate Park. Tony signed in and rented some pads and a helmet. Rented helmets are probably the grossest thing ever, full of other skateboarders dried sweat and lice! Tony walked out to the skate park in awe, his career had just begun.






Tony started going to Oasis a lot, got really good, and scored his first sponsor: The Bones Brigade. He skated so well that he became the youngest pro in skateboarding. When he turned pro, this team manager told him he needed a custom board graphic. He didn't have much time so he got his friend to draw him up a graphic. A month after it was released he got a letter saying that about 5 people had bought his deck. Not good! Later he drew up another deck graphic, it had a screaming chicken scull on it and Tony liked it and so did the world. The next few months, he got checks for 1000, 2000, and 3000 dollars. He was scoring big bucks.

A few years into being a pro, he was getting depressed because of all the pressure so he decided to quit pro skateboarding. He still skates today and has a son and a wife.
I really liked this book because it relates to my life, because I love to skateboard and this book is about skateboarding. This book is an easy read because of the author's narrative style of writing.