Tony Hawk Lands 900 At Age 48 [Video]

Tony Hawk is probably still the most famous skateboarder in the world, and he demonstrated he still knows how to do the hardest tricks by landing a 900 at age 48 recently, according to CBS Sports.

Hawk commemorated landing the trick for the first time 17 years ago by doing it for the RIDE Channel.

For those of us who aren’t aware, a 900 is a move that involves spinning in the air 2.5 times. Tony Hawk first landed the 900, arguably the first 900 ever documented, at the X-Games in 1999, according to Mashable.

Some have argued Tony Hawk wasn’t the first to land a 900 on film, because there is a video of Danny Way appearing to land one in 1989. However, Hawk has argued that Way didn’t actually land the trick, but he did spin enough times.

“When I saw that footage, that’s what gave me the idea that like, ‘Oh this really is possible. This can be done,’ ” Hawk told Transworld in 2015. “And for sure at that point everybody thought that Danny was going to do it. We saw him land on the ramp right there and he was the only one that could even spin it. Then a few years after that, when I started spinning it around completely, and pretty much getting my board back on the ramp—then it was just more like one of us was going to do it.”

Several other people have landed the trick since Tony Hawk first did it in 1999, but it’s still seen as one of the hardest tricks in the professional skateboarding world.

In 2014, Tony Hawk got in a bit of trouble when he was part of a video where a fake hoverboard is used. The video shows Christopher Lloyd of Back to the Future and the famous DeLorean from the film. Many people have said they would like to see a hoverboard like the one depicted in the second Back to the Future film.

A few days after the video came out showing Hawk and other celebrities riding the board, Hawk revealed that it was all a big prank.

“I wanted to believe it as much as you did,” Hawk said, according to USA Today. “But to me it was just a fun opportunity to ride a DeLorean with Doc and to actually ride on the stunt harness they used back in Back to the Future II.”

Hawk apologized for misleading people, and he said he’s sure hoverboards will exist someday.

Hawk has also appeared in a video for what appears to be a board that actually does hover, but the hoverboard only works on certain metallic surfaces, according to Time. The Kickstarter for the hoverboard, called the Hendo, received over half a million dollars in contributions.

Tony Hawk is obviously famous, partially for his “pro skater” video games. The first game was released in 1999 for the Sony Playstation. The fifth game was released in 2015, and it was met with very bad reviews. Some have argued that the last game was rushed, because Tony Hawk’s contract with the game’s publisher, Activision, was set to expire in 2015, according to Motherboard.

Tony Hawk said the recent 900 he pulled off may be the last time he attempts it, but we’ll just have to wait and see. If he can pull it off at 48, there’s no telling how many years of skating he still has ahead of him. As for his video games, that franchise may be done with.

[Photo by Zak Kaczmarek/Getty Images]