Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Vox talks to Tony Hawk about legendary skateboard spots


Two years ago, Vox.com got Tony Hawk on Zoom, and made this video about legendary skateboard spots, asking for Tony's input on them.  


For a group outside the skateboard industry, Vox produced a really cool look at many of the best known skate spots, and how obscure urban places become famous worldwide in skateboarding.  I am, by no means, the first person to look at the history of action sports spots, and how obscure places like a ditch, a set of stairs, or some dirt jumps, become legendary worldwide, in one sport or another.  

In this blog I want to not only dig into the history of legendary spots, but find some new ones, and also look at the effects these spots have on action sports culture, and even mainstream culture later on.  That's a lot to dive into, but I'm now over 2,500 posts into my 14 year long blogging career, so I'm used to looking at subjects piece by piece, over a long period of time.  I have no real idea where The Spot Finder blog/concept is headed, and that's half the fun.  We'll find that out together.  In the meantime, this 13 minute video is a good primer on spots made famous by skateboarding, and how skaters, and other action sports people look at the urban environment, and the whole world, differently from average people.  Enjoy. 

Skateboarding and the City: A complete history- by Iain Borden, the book mentioned in the video.  Not a paid link.

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