A trailblazer's son takes legacy in a new direction

Riley Hawk is the oldest child of skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, who helped bring action sports into the mainstream.

By BOB PUTNAM
Published January 22, 2008

TAMPA - Riley Hawk walked off the course at Skatepark of Tampa when he noticed he was being followed.

He was tailed by a few admirers who sat through two of his qualifying runs at an amateur contest this weekend then asked him to pose for a few pictures.

Hawk obliged before heading back to practice.

"I've got to skate," he said.

The scene was a snapshot into the crazy world of Hawk, who has always lived his life in the public eye.

Hawk, 15, is the oldest child of skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, who helped bring action sports into the mainstream.

Riley "has always been in the spotlight because of his dad," said Riley's mother, Cindy Dunbar, who has been divorced from Tony Hawk for 12 years.

"But he has always liked skateboarding. It's been a constant for him."

The younger Hawk never flew too far from the family nest. Wherever Tony went, Riley went - practices, contests, exhibitions.

But Riley wanted to do more than watch. He wanted to skate. At 2, he was rolling along the family driveway on a skateboard. At 10, he was competing in contests.

"I think it's fun that he's skateboarding, but I don't want him to feel the pressure, and I hope he doesn't," Tony Hawk told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "I don't push him. He just goes and goes. I call myself his skate park taxi because he's always asking me to take him to skate parks. I was never as passionate about the sport as he is now."

The biggest difference between father and son is their skateboarding style. The elder Hawk was a master of the half-pipe, a steeply graded U-shaped chute into which a skater plunges, only to spring up an instant later on the other side of the wall.

The younger Hawk could never fly high enough on the half-pipe. So he opted for street skating, in which riders perform tricks on handrails and other man-made obstacles.

The switch allowed him to forge his own identity in something that was tailored to his special talents.

"My father never really got me involved in (street) skateboarding," Riley said. "That was something I did on my own."

Still, Riley attracted attention whenever he entered contests because of his surname.

"When (Riley) came to skate in Tampa four years ago, it was hard," Dunbar said. "He is really laid-back and shy, and there were a lot of nerves for him dealing with living up to some expectations.

"It's become better over time. Riley has made his own way and doesn't want to feel as if he's riding the coattails of his dad."

Riley is so consumed with becoming a professional that he now goes to Carlsbad Seaside Academy, which action sports stars Shaun White and Lyn-z Adams Hawkins attended.

The school allows Riley to fulfill his scholastic requirements on a schedule custom-fit to reach his potential in skateboarding.

Riley "wants to take this as far as he can go," Dunbar said. "I know his dad is proud of that. It definitely puts a sparkle in his eye."

Bob Putnam can be reached atputnam@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4169.

[Last modified January 22, 2008, 01:00:40]