Do we like them?

Do we like Tony Hawk?

Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or company turned up, and there is years of real good, but the record on trans issues and the planet is thin.

Hawk was born in San Diego in 1968 and turned pro around 14. He was among the world's top skaters by 16, and he landed the first 900 in competition at the 1999 X Games. He co-founded the skateboard company Birdhouse in 1992 and built the Pro Skater video game line, which put skating in front of a mainstream audience.

The recent stoush was a rumour, not a scandal. After the Epstein files came out, a claim circulated that he had married on Epstein's island, apparently helped along by wedding photos credited to a photographer named Mark Epstein. Hawk said the photographer is no relation to Jeffrey Epstein, called the whole thing a “narrative of nonsense”, and apologised to the photographer. He listed where each of his weddings really happened, so it's easy to check.

On the harm test, we found nothing against him. In 2014 he fronted a Human Rights Campaign video for marriage equality and said “We need to continue working until every state recognizes marriage as an equal right”. We found no sign of him pushing conspiracy theories, anti-vax lines or anything aimed at trans people. That's a thin record on trans issues and the planet, because he mostly stays quiet on them, so it's an absence of harm rather than a loud stand.

The good-person test is clean too. We didn't find a conviction or a court loss against him. His charity, now called The Skatepark Project, was founded in 2002 and funds free public skateparks in low-income communities. In 2021 it gave $10,000 to a Massachusetts skatepark honouring a teenager killed in a hit-and-run.

He has also used the charity to push inclusion. The Skatepark Project runs a fellowship that trains diverse locals in community organising so they can build parks in their own neighbourhoods. Hawk has said he sees it partly as a response to George Floyd's killing, and he named LGBTQ+ representation among its priorities.

He seems fairly grounded about the fame. In 2025 he said it was “baffling” that people still care about what he does in his late 50s. He auctioned some of his most valuable boards and memorabilia that year, including the board from his first 900, with part of the proceeds going to his charity.