How the X Games Helped Save Skateboarding w/Tony Hawk | Joe Rogan

It started to slowly come back really when the X Games came into play, where suddenly we were on TV and kids could see how much skating had evolved. Well, the whole public could see how much skating had evolved from the time that they last saw it in the late 80s. And then they were singing and they were just like, whoa, these guys are... This is for real, you know, this is, for lack of a better word, this is a sport. These guys are doing acrobatic things and it takes discipline and it takes determination and kids recognize that. And I think that's really when skating started to spark again. And this is like 95-ish? Probably closer to 96, 97. The first X Games was a little strange, a little scattered, because it was like skateboarding and bungee jumping and rock climbing and sky surfing. They were trying to figure it out. Eco-channel. They were just throwing everything. And then it really rubbed us the wrong way because suddenly we were labeled as extreme. And it was like, what do you do? I skateboard. Oh, you're into extreme sports. No, I skateboard. I don't know. Yeah, that's a weird category, right? That extreme sports category. It was just anything. Yeah. And that was, I mean, really, it was coined by ESPN. So that's why they changed it to X Games. So the first one was Extreme Games 95. They changed to X Games in 96. I think they really found their niche a few years later when they really sort of weed out all the random stuff. And it was more about skateboarding, BMX, motocross. Like those became really the highlights and the reason people are tuning in. And then that's when things really exploded. And what were like the early skateboarding events in X Games? Like what did you... It was Street and Vert. So Vert came back. Yeah. Yeah. Well, a lot of it for us... I think it was really because ESPN recognized that Vert is a spectator sport. Yeah, that was going to say for us on the outside, we would watch it to see someone fall spectacularly. Yeah, sure. Because you guys would go, you would hit those ramps and you would watch people just fuck up and you're like, oh my God, look how far he's falling. Right. Yeah, for sure. And then once they got, you know, once they evolved that into what they call the big air ramps, the mega ramps, then it was just like the aerials and the risk factor was tenfold. Yeah, the risk factor... I mean, I've seen some wipeouts that are just... they're baffling. I think when things started to really explode with that, with the big air thing, and then Jake Brown had his big accident, the one that kind of everyone saw went viral. You've probably seen him where he's just falling from like 30 feet up. Yes. That's when they started to... I don't want to say tone it down, but really, they started to figure out how to do it in a way that is still progressive, but not just throwing caution to the wind and not just trying to break all the height and spin records. How bad did he hurt? You know, they really refined it. I mean, surprisingly, I think he broke his hand, maybe his heel, and had like internal bruising, but it was really unbelievably lucky. Yeah, I watched that and I was like, there's no way this guy's going to live. And then, you know, they didn't have the proper protocol in place. They just let him walk off the ramp. It was nuts. But it was definitely a shock to the system. And like I said, they started to refine that event where it's just like, all right, you guys, we're comfortable at this certain height. Let's just stick with that. Even all the skaters said it themselves. They're like, well, we can really work on new tricks at this height instead of trying to... Go to the moon. Go to the moon, right? Thanks for watching.