Tony Hawk’s legendary skateboard just sold for a record-breaking $1.15 million

By SAFIYAH RIDDLE, Associated Press/Report For America

The skateboard that Tony Hawk used to make history in 1999 has sold for a record-breaking $1.15 million, according to a statement from Julien’s Auctions on Wednesday.

The deck, called the Birdhouse “Falcon 2,” was used by Hawk to land the first-ever 900 trick — a 2-and-a-half-turn trick few skateboarders dare to try — at the 1999 San Francisco X Games.

After numerous failed attempts, Hawk successfully flipped twice through the air and landed the move. The packed crowd roared and announcers screamed on the live broadcast.

By then, Hawk, was 31-year old and already a decorated skateboarder. He had won 73 championships by age 25 and was world champion of vert skating — where skateboarders careen back and forth on a steep ramp — for 12 straight years in the 1980s and 1990s.

But the historic landing at the turn of the century cast Hawk as an indelible household name, and it made him one of the most well-known trailblazers in the sport.

Hawk said in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week that he hoped the anonymous buyer was “someone who truly appreciates it, or that event or that object meant something to them and that it’s not just a flex because they have the money.”

Hawk, who many credit with thrusting skateboarding into mainstream pop culture, went on to win 10 X Games gold medals.

The auctioneer said that the $1.15 million sale was the largest price tag on skateboard memorabilia in history.

The collection up for sale also included other exorbitantly priced Hawk paraphernalia, ranging from an autographed Frosted Flakes cereal box that went for $512 to the scraped knee pads he wore to make history in 1999, which topped $57,000.

A portion of the proceeds from the auction will benefit The Skatepark Project, Hawk’s nonprofit foundation that helps build skateparks.