Tony Hawk is one of the most recognisable athletes of all time, not to mention the unofficial figurehead of a cultural movement. Which is great, but not if you’re expected to follow on from that. Still, his eldest son, Hudson Riley Hawk, hasn’t done badly all. He’s an elite skateboarder in his own right, as well as a musician and extreme sports enthusiast. He’s even influenced his old man’s skateboarding through the years too.

Now, both Tony and Riley discuss with Men’s Health the difficulties (and advantages) that come with occupying the same space and the lessons that have passed between father and son.

Tony on Riley

Riley was always skating. Even as a baby, he was on a skateboard, and not always against his will. At that time, it was a challenge to make a living, so [when I travelled overseas] he often came with me because we couldn’t afford childcare.

I remember the day when Riley asked me how to do a particular trick and I was like, ‘I have no idea, but I’m honoured you think I can do it.’ He went off and learned it himself. That was the day I realised he was better than me in many ways, especially in this discipline. I started using a wider board because of Riley. Competition between us would be devastating because I would just lose so badly.

If Riley didn’t want to skate, I’d wholeheartedly support him. My dad supported me when skating was the furthest thing from cool and the least likely path to success. That’s what I took from my dad: support your kids, even if their interests are varying. I just want him to enjoy it. There was a time when it was hard because he has my last name, so if he showed up at a park, there was instant expectation. There was a time in his life when that was a burden. But that changed when he got his own sponsors and got videos out.

There’s a difference between our generations. I would suffer through injuries and I didn’t have the resources or the support to do any recovery or strengthening. And to be fair, skating at that time was the antithesis of sport. We denied that stuff, because we were like, ‘We’re not jocks, we’re not doing those things.’ But as you get older, you realise you need support outside of skating. I might have got it a little too late, because I broke my leg, and that’s when I really leaned into it. But Riley was already on that trajectory.

Tony and Riley pose for a photo, January 2006

Riley on Tony

Skateboards were always around since I was first making memories, and I never thought about doing something different to rebel. When you grow up in southern California, you’re into more of the type of things that my dad and I do, versus traditional ball sports.

I was always surfing as a kid and we’d go to the mountains, snowboarding in the winter, and I was really into dirt bikes. As a kid, all you want to do is be in the air and feel that adrenaline. It’s addictive when you’re young. My dad and I would do all that stuff together. You’re not trying to be a pro, but you have enough skills to just go have fun.

My dad always spoke about just wanting to get better and never resting on your laurels – never going into cruise mode. It just comes down to truly loving the thing you’re doing. There were times when I was skating and I wasn’t having that much fun, because once you get to a certain level, you can get a little burned out. When I was younger, I just wanted to skate all day, every day, but my body can only take so much now.

I wouldn’t necessarily say I see skating more as a sport. I just saw the writing on the wall early with my own body that if I wanted to keep doing it at a level that would be respectable as a professional, I needed to take care of myself and put in extracurricular work. You can only skate for so long before you’re wondering why you’re limping all the time, or why your knees are jacked. I kind of went out on my own and found some basic strength and conditioning stuff. I tried to not go too far down the rabbit hole into the sports science stuff, just because I think skating is still something that is so unique, to the point where you can’t put a pin in the exact routine you should do to be good at it.