I’m sorry – really I am, what with recently discovering that NS6 is miles better than I had predicted, but I just didn’t have the time to make sure this worked in your browser.
So the chances are that you cant see anything at all and it’s all a mess even if you can. But I will fix it – the plan is to make this site fully standards compliant. Although this may take a few months!
Wow – this place looks bland as hell. With loads of other commitments (WipEoutZone) and a lack of motivation all round, there are many cyber cobwebs bulding up.
Time for some spring cleaning, me thinks. What to do… I’m a bit sick of black, actually – the site has had a black background in all three of its guises – perhaps it’s time for a change.
Got it – white! That’s what I’ll do – it’ll look nice and minamilist like a real hard core web designer. Except it’ll have loads of clever PHP in the back end.
And if I’m quick I’ll be able to get it done by the time all the other pretentious people re-launch their sites on the 1st of May!
Although this book is unlikely to be read by anyone who has no interest in skateboarding, it’s still a great read. Tony Hawk is an almost household name – if the question was “Which one of these is a professional skateboarder?” on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, there’s every chance that a non-skateboarder would be able to pick him out!
The book begins with a short account of Hawk’s historic landing of a 900 at the X-Games in 1999. He could easily have waxed lyrical about the event, elevating it to dizzy heights in proportion to the rest of his career. That would have been missing the point, though, as the twenty odd years of his life before hand are just as colourful, if not more so, than that one night.
Somewhat nievely I had assumed before reading this that Tony Hawk had made it big in the 80’s and had been living it up ever since! Unsurprizingly this is far from the truth, as the highs and lows of skateboardings’ popularity led to Hawk’s own personal change in fortune. From luxury tour buses and decent hotels in the 80’s, to sleeping five to a room when skateboarding died in the early 90’s and back again, Tony’s story tells it how it was.
The book reads well, the only faults I could find was that he occasionally chops from one year to another and back which can be a little confusing. This is mostly Tony’s way of linking events in his life, and does not detract from a page-turning narrative. He also tends to reel off trick names like everyone knows what they are – sometimes he describes them, other times not, which could be a little frustrating for non-skateboarders.
To sum up, this is a worthwhile read whether you’re into skateboarding or not. It recounts the life of a man who became an ambassador for an often ill portrayed sport.