Tony Hawk Claps Back at Instagram Troll Who Made 'Homophobic' Joke About Him Wearing a Helmet
Don’t mess with Tony Hawk.
Over the weekend, the famous skateboarder clapped back at an Instagram troll after he was made fun of for footage from the sport in 1991 that he shared with his followers.
“Imagine being gay enough to wear a helmet while skateboarding,” one user wrote on the Instagram video, as captured by Comments by Athletes Instagram account.
Hawk, 51, then clapped back at the commenter with a creative response.
“Imagine it being mandatory when you were young, and then imagine skating into your 50’s without a TBI…. or being homophobic. Oh wait, you can’t.” he responded.
Hawk said in the Instagram caption that the video was from his final three runs at the Pow-Wow at Powell competition in 1991.
“Fun facts: this was my last event before starting @birdhouseskateboards a few months later,” Hawk wrote. “My deck shape was symmetrical so I didn’t have a designated nose or tail, and my trucks felt the same either way. Impossible to nose was a happy accident; I was supposed to land on my truck. Vert tricks in street contests were totally normal.”
A post shared by Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) on Dec 20, 2019 at 4:05pm PST
In June, Hawk told PEOPLE that despite being known as one of the most famous skateboarders ever, he is rarely identified in public, and the mistake happens most often at airports — encounters he frequently shares on social media.
“It happens quite a bit, and honestly I’ve stopped sharing every encounter because a lot of them are redundant, but it’s mostly because that’s where they check your ID,” Hawk told PEOPLE at the time.
“So my ID says Anthony, that’s my real name, no one’s ever called me Anthony through my life, but there sets the first bar of confusion, and then they see me and they’re used to seeing me at a younger age, because maybe they only know me from video game days, 20 years ago,” he continued.
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Hawk reached the height of his fame during the late 1990s and early 2000s, when he became the first skateboarder to land a “900,” a trick involving the completion of two-and-a-half mid-air revolutions on a skateboard.
The following years sent him into stardom, with licensed video games, and numerous appearances in other media.
Now, Hawk said he has the perfect comeback for when he does get a little name recognition.
“I’ve actually had people say ‘Oh, like Tony Hawk, like the skateboarder guy.’ I said, ‘Yeah, exactly like that,’ and they say ‘Oh, I wonder what he’s up to these days.’ My answer to them is, ‘He’s up to this,’ and they still … It doesn’t register,” he said.
