Tony Hawk Reflects on the Self-Discipline He's Gained from 40+ Years of Professional Skateboarding

"I’ve been struggling with my skating lately; not so much from a recovery standpoint, but trying to enjoy older tricks while maintaining a baseline that I consider 'good enough' has become more challenging," Tony wrote on Instagram. "It’s hard to admit that it matters this much. But I can’t shake it, even though this mindset has carried me through 40+ years of professional skating and crossed over into business success."

The thought also reminded Tony of a quote by Dave Carnie (arguably one of the most creative “skate journalists” to ever put a pen to paper) from a few years ago, which was:

“As a skater you learn self discipline. There’s no one telling you what to do. There’s nobody pushing you to land a trick. Nothing happens if you don’t learn eggplants today. Nothing happens to you if you don’t make a kickflip down some stairs. It doesn’t matter, but you push yourself to do it anyway. When you have that sort of mentality, that drive, you can take that into any other discipline, any other industry, any other culture, and succeed because you learned how to do that through skateboarding.”

It's pretty natural for skateboarders to get, you could say, philosophical about skateboarding. We dissect it constantly, whether we realize it or not. From bar stools after a successful day in the streets to reunion sessions with your old skate homies, strangers at the skate shop, friends at the skatepark—wherever. And I wouldn't have it any other way. It consumes our life. How could we not?

I'm humbled to know that when I'm in my fifties, sixties, seventies and beyond, those thoughts and conversations will continue all the same. It's always nice to get a personal look inside the minds of our heroes and this post from Tony was no exception. Thanks as always, Birdman. "This discipline endures!"