Skate Blog Intern Blog

I attended Tony Hawk’s charity event at Billionaire Ron Burkle’s Beverly Hills estate on Sunday – for a $350 donation.  On one front, one is mingling with spoiled little rich kids (tons of them) who say to their mommies, “Oh, mom – it’s only $1000 for that autographed guitar in the auction.”  On another front, you realize that it’s these rich families who graciously donate a significant amount of money to help organizations such as this so more power to them.  Anyhow, the event was amazing and very well put together… from the valeting of cars to the food/drink, music by Social Distortion, skate jam with Tony and friends, tons of booths with free stuff, hundreds of auctioned items, etc.  Overall, it’s pretty amazing what Tony Hawk has been able to achieve in skateboarding and what his organization gives back…  It was especially nice to see people donating and bidding on the auction during these tough economical times.  Nonetheless, $75k was raised in a matter of minutes by just generous donations – one lady alone who gave $25k.  $350×800 in tickets = another $280k.  I’m not sure what the auction brought in but there was some pricey tags on items.   What’s important here is that the many kids now can have an opportunity to skate/bike with the help of the organization building skateparks.  Tony mentioned the next one was TierraSanta and even had some kids come on stage who would directly be inspired.  I did my due dilligence by promoting the bamboo skateboards and even made a few pro skaters smile when I asked them when they were going to be skating on bamboo.  They sounded excited at the opportunity – now, we just need to get some solid decks in their hands, which we are working on.  Bamboo skate decks are the future!!     

Andy Macdonald, Kevin Staab, Tony Hawk, Shaun White and Bucky Lasek

Shaun White

Ron Burkles estate

Social Distortion 

Anthony Keidis (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

Perry Farrel (Janes Addiction)

Birdman Tony Hawk

Freestyler Matt Hoffman

Freestyler legend Dennis McCoy