Quiksilver Presents Tony Hawk & Friends European Skate Tour
Published 1st Jul 2010 by Matt Costello

Brighton, one of England’s most visited seaside towns will host the final show on 21st July 2010 for Quiksilver presents Tony Hawk and Friends European Tour. In order to give Tony Hawk and his crew the best set-up possible, Quiksilver has the help of one of the UK’s most popular skateboarders, Pete King, who owns the biggest vert ramp in the country measuring in at a huge 4.5m high and 15m wide. The show will be opened by a selection of the UK’s top vert skaters, including X Games Ams (US) winner and Quiksilver rider Sam Bosworth.

The event will take place at the Old Paddling Pool, located at the old (west) Pier on the seafront. Infamous for night time views of the pier and atmospheric vibes Brighton seafront will come to life with a spectacular display of some of the world’s best skating and UK’s top music acts.

On the music side, the British deck star, Christian Stevenson, whose passion for skateboarding is no longer a secret, will mix during the show. Awarded a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), the eclectic Christian Stevenson is both a TV and radio presenter. Alongside Christian will be original UK Skater Bob Sanderson and Dave Duncan hosting the show. A night of skate frenzy will be followed by headlining music act, Maxïmo Park. The Newcastle five-piece is amongst the UK’s most popular British Indie rock bands, with two albums just about to go platinum. Maxïmo Park’s first album, A Certain Trigger launched in 2005 and has recently been nominated for a Mercury award.



Tickets cost £15 (available online at www.ticketmaster.co.uk)
Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.

PROGRAM

WEDNESDAY 21th JULY
6pm Doors open - DJ Christian
Stevenson
6:30 – 7:30pm European Skate Demo
7:30 – 8:30pm Tony Hawk & Friends Show
8:30 – 9:30pm Maximo Park concert


More info about…

TONY HAWK

For several decades, Tony Hawk has been one of the most visible personalities of skateboarding. Global star, businessman, role model and sports icon and star of his own video game, Tony Hawk is above all a legendary skateboarder and an internationally recognized athlete.

Tony Hawk was nine years old when his brother changed his life by giving him a blue fibreglass Bahne skateboard. By twelve, Tony was sponsored by Dogtown Skateboards, by fourteen he was pro and by age sixteen Tony Hawk was widely considered the best skateboarder in the world. In the ensuing 17 years, Hawk entered an estimated 103 pro contests.
He won 73 of them and placed second in 19, by far the best record in skateboarding’s history. As a high-school senior, he was able to buy his own house at age 17. Two years later he bought another house: a four-and-a-half-acre spread where he also built a monster skate ramp.
Hawk was constantly travelling worldwide for demos and contests. The next few years ripped by in a blur of financial uncertainty and personal challenges. Tony started a skateboard company, Birdhouse Projects. Birdhouse wasn’t making money and Tony’s future was sketchy. Skateboarding went through its cycle and was then deemed cool again.
The Hawk became the Phoenix. Birdhouse became one of the most established skateboard companies in the world and Tony signed a range of endorsement deals with companies like Quiksilver. In 1998 he and his family started a kids skate clothing company called, of course, Hawk Clothing. In 1999 Activision and Tony created the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game. They expected decent sales, but the next year, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 was released and jumped to the number one position for over a month. The Tony Hawk series has become one of the best-selling video-game franchises of all time.

By the end of 2009, Tony and Activision launched the innovative new Tony Hawk Ride, with its own motion sensitive skateboard shaped game controller that the player stands on to play the game. This fall the follow-up, Tony Hawk : Shred will be released. Tony’s success overflows into the non-electronic world as well. His autobiography, HAWK— Occupation: Skateboarder was a New York Times bestseller and is currently available in paperback. He also created the immensely popular Tony Hawk’s Gigantic Skatepark Tour for ESPN. Tony retired from competitive skateboarding at age 31. He still skates almost every day.

Tony decided to stop competing at the end of 1999 after he landed the first-ever 900 (two and a half mid-air spins) at the X Games. The 900 was one of the last on a wish list of tricks he’d written a decade earlier. In 2002, Tony launched the Boom Boom HuckJam, a 24-city arena tour featuring the world’s best skateboarders, BMX bike riders, and Motocross lunatics performing choreographed routines on a million-dollar ramp system, while punk and hip hop music plays.

The most recognized action-sports figure in the world, and according to some marketing surveys the most recognizable athlete of any kind in the United States, Tony is also President of Tony Hawk Inc., a worldwide leader in action sports video games, licensing, merchandising, events, endorsements and film and digital media. He regularly appears on television and in films and hosts a weekly show on the Sirius XM Satellite Radio network. Awarded once again as the favourite Male Athlete at the 2008 Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Awards (he won the same award in 2003, 2004 and in 2001, beating Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and Tiger Woods), Tony is a role model for fans of all ages.
He was named Choice Male Athlete at the Teen Choice Awards 2004 and had won the same in 2001 and 2000. He is an active participant in the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which honoured him as its favourite Male Athlete in 2002.

With the creation of the Tony Hawk Foundation in 2002, Tony has also been helping others experience the same excitement he did as a young skateboarder, learning to skate and building the self-confidence that resulted in his success. Designed to promote and help finance public skateparks in low-income areas, the Tony Hawk Foundation has given away over $3.2-million to 463 skatepark projects throughout the United States: from Marathon, Florida to Port Angeles, Washington, serving over 3-million youth.

JEAN POSTEC
Born in Normandy, and after a detour via Rouen and Savoie, he emigrated to the United States to practise ramp skating full-time. Now based in Tony Hawk’s backyard of Carlsbad, California, 24-year-old Jean has won his ‘vert’ spurs among the best ramp riders in the world. He was introduced to gymnastics at an early age and that experience has taught him to beat ease with his body, giving him a flexibility and suppleness that are essential tools of the skater’s trade. A regular guest at the Boom Boom Huck Jam, Jean Postec also wears the colours of Birdhouse, the label owned by Tony Hawk, who has played a prominent role in his protege’s career. In California, Postec found the facilities of his dreams (all kinds of ramps, pools, etc.) on which to hone his skills, and he now skates regularly with Shaun White and his mentor, Tony Hawk.




JESSE FRITSCH
Originally from Pennsylvania, Jesse Fritsch discovered skateboarding at the age of 8 where his father was working as an eminent Professor of Meteorology at Penn State University. Jesse is also talented musically, having competed in the X Games and Warped Tours as well as played on them as musician.
Fritsch is also known as the co-host of the music and chat show ‘Tony Hawk Demolition Radio’ on satellite radio station Sirius XM, alongside Tony Hawk himself.



KEVIN STAAB
His half-punk, half-grunge appearance, tattoos, piercings and dyed red or blue hair give Kevin Staab a rock star look that contrasts with the clean image of his companions Hawk and Andy MacDonald. And yet behind the wild child guise, this former member of the hugely famous skate team Powell Peralta conceals a gentlemanly, eternally youthful persona. At 43, he has lost none of the enthusiasm and explosiveness of his younger years. As a worldwide specialist of vert skating, Kevin Staab has an unmatched ability to get the crowd going with his old-school moves. His intuitive relationship with Tony Hawk and the rest of the crew mean they are able to combine brilliantly to perform the most amazing tricks, yet make it all look so simple.


SANDRO DIAS
Sandro is a Brazilian professional vert skateboarder. His results tell you all you need to know, having been five-times World champion in World Cup Skateboarding (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007), three-times European champion (2001, 2003 and 2005) and a Gold Medallist at the X Games in Los Angeles (2004 and 2006). He is considered as the king of the 540° and is one of the few people on the planet able to land the 900°. Last year, Sandro Dias has collected two good results in the Dew Tour circuit, including a podium finish and participation in the X Games 15.

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