History is Your Canvas - Vol. 1 Ed. 9
Sep 15, 2020 9:11 pm
World Builders' Guild Newsletter
Nobody has ever done this before.
June 27th, 1999. San Francisco, California.
Two half pipes reach toward the dusk. The lights flip on, flooding the mass of humanity squeezing the structures. They fight to inch their way closer to history. Witnesses at the church of extreme sports. Their pope is communing with the trick gods tonight.
They want to see a miracle.
One competitor heaves in exhaustion atop the deck. His dark clothes, sweat-stained cling to his lanky body. His colleagues and friends pat him and chant in encouragement. Their contest ended hours ago.
His has just begun.
He furls his brow in determination, presses the board to the coping and drops in.
The crowd whips into a frenzy, "Hawk, Hawk, Hawk, Hawk!"
A few laps in, and he has the speed. Up the pipe and off the lip, he's into his first rotation. The camera pans toward the man, superimposed against the darkening summer sky, gravity about to take hold.
His rotation is endless.
Polyurethane cylinders crunch on scuffed wooden boards. The man crumples slightly upon impact, drags a hand for balance and stands up, unshaken. His board, body, and the trick intact.
Tony Hawk just landed the first 900 in skateboarding history.
Pictured: Not Tony Hawk. (Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Unsplash)
Maybe you've heard of the church that Hawk built. In the 90s he was on a rocket ship of popularity, heralding extreme sports into the mainstream through X-Games competitions and skateboarding tour events. He inspired legions of children to overcome their fears of injury and failure and jump on a board, bike, or into a pair of rollerblades. A hit video game series found its way into the living rooms of millions of young fans.
His companies and endorsement are worth untold millions. His foundation is a landmark philanthropist organization helping kids find purpose and community around the world.
That 900 may as well have launched him into the stratosphere.
It's ironic then, that there are a handful of others who were in the lowest place possible, looking up at Hawk, claiming that they were the first to have landed the 900. Some bitter, some jaded, others just looking for a chance to speak their truth to anyone who would have it, they never stopped insisting on their slice of the glory. They felt their contribution to the competition was as valid as anyone else's, including Hawks'. Vocally fierce, competitive to the core. They would not go silently into the dustbin of history.
World highlights like the 900 are rare defining moments. Tony Hawk took the extreme sports world to another plane of existence that night in 1999.
When you build you world, expect champions to push the boundaries. They will restructure reality. They can't help it. It's in their DNA.
On the other side, expect relentless competition.
It's the way of any world.
To future worlds,
Matt Ventre
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