{"id":2379,"date":"2014-08-24T17:05:54","date_gmt":"2014-08-24T17:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/2014\/08\/24\/skateboard-legend-tony-hawk-thrills-crowd-of-several-hundred\/"},"modified":"2014-08-24T17:05:54","modified_gmt":"2014-08-24T17:05:54","slug":"skateboard-legend-tony-hawk-thrills-crowd-of-several-hundred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/skateboard-legend-tony-hawk-thrills-crowd-of-several-hundred\/","title":{"rendered":"Skateboard legend Tony Hawk thrills crowd of several hundred"},"content":{"rendered":"

If gravity didn\u2019t come to die at the Davenport Skatepark Saturday, it looked a little sick after skateboard legend Tony Hawk and his Birdhouse team got done thrilling a crowd of several hundred.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Mr. Hawk, 46, is one of the most accomplished and influential skateboarders of all time, with nine X Games gold medals, 12 National Skateboard Association world championships, and several movie appearances. He retired from active competition more than a decade ago, but stays active promoting the sport and the Birdhouse Skateboards brand he co-founded in 1992, as well as other sponsors.<\/p>

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\u00a0\u201cObviously it shows how far skating has come in the mainstream culture,\u201d Mr. Hawk said before the exhibition of the turnout gathered around the expansive park. With the River Roots Live festival just a few blocks away, even moody afternoon skies couldn\u2019t dampen a festive downtown atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWe have a really diverse mix of styles (on the Birdhouse Team) and it\u2019s exciting to bring that to towns that maybe haven\u2019t seen all of it,\u201d Mr. Hawk said. \u201cAny type of terrain, we have an expert at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"Terrain styles can include deep bowls, pools, bird ramps, benches, ledges, stairs, and handrails, he explained. Mr. Hawk and his team managed a few 360 flips after skating up the park\u2019s deep bowls, and a time or two Mr. Hawk bailed off of the skateboard in midair, perhaps demonstrating the way that\u2019s safely done with a no-harm-done landing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0And there were ledge tricks, kick flips, backside 360s, ollies \u2026<\/p>

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Ollies?<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s where you do this,\u201d helpfully explained audience member Greycin Sarazin, 5, of Bettendorf, demonstrating the kick to the board\u2019s tail that initiates a launch, a fundamental move. Greycin is a Davenport Skatepark regular and a daily X Games watcher, his mother Gabbie said.<\/p>

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\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve never met a 5-year old so obsessed with skateboarding,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s taught me all the terms. He knows all the tricks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0For skateboarder Jeremy Lough, 16, of Muscatine, seeing the pros perform is motivation. \u201cYou want to do it.\u201d<\/p>

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\u00a0And Mr. Hawk \u201cis a legend,\u201d said Chad Meyer, 19, of Peoria, after chatting and posing for photos with Mr. Hawk during a preshow invitation-only meet-and-greet at The River\u2019s Edge facility next to the skatepark.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mr. Meyer and three friends earned their invitation to that event after Davenport Parks & Recreation personnel spotted them picking up trash from the skatepark grounds at 3 a.m. Saturday, after the lights had gone out.<\/p>

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\u00a0\u201cWe had nowhere to go,\u201d Mr. Meyer said. \u201cWe just started picking up bottles. The parks people are really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0The drive from Peoria is worth it just for the park, the young men said. There\u2019s nothing in Peoria like it, though they are part of a fundraising effort to change that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWe still need $340,000,\u201d said Joe Harper, 20. \u201cThis (Davenport) park is like heaven for us. We don\u2019t have anything close to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0For Birdhouse team member Kevin Staab, also part of the meet-and-greet, meeting dedicated young skaters like that is part of the fun of the team\u2019s tour.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to come to a new place and ride a new park, and skate with local skaters,\u201d said Mr. Staab. \u201cIt\u2019s always fun to promote skateboarding in a positive way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mr. Hawk and the Birdhouse team received no appearance fee and came to promote the sports and the Birdhouse brand, said Daniel Sheridan, performing arts supervisor for Davenport Parks & Rec.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photos by Paul Colletti Courtesy of The Dispatch<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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If gravity didn\u2019t come to die at the Davenport Skatepark Saturday, it looked a little sick after skateboard legend Tony Hawk and his Birdhouse team got done thrilling a crowd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}