Thank you, Tony Hawk 🛹
It’s finally here!
Last week the video game Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 was released. In case you didn't know, it is a remake of the first two games of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise that were released in 1999 and 2000. These games were a wild success and put skateboarding back on the map.
The game played an unmistakably important part in how I got to where I am today.
⏪ Let me take you back to 1999...
I was 12 years old and my free time was mostly spent playing video games with my buddies. One of them had just bought Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. I never heard of it and didn't know what to expect. Sure, I knew what a skateboard was, but that was about it. Who the hell is Tony Hawk?
Then my buddy put the game disc in the PlayStation. A video started playing; People on skateboards flying through the air, jumping off stairs, flipping their boards and grinding on handrails... It was the coolest thing I had ever seen.
I instantly fell in love with the game; the gameplay, the soundtrack, the skateboard videos that were unlocked when you completed the game. It was perfect.
It inspired me to try skateboarding in real-life. After days of practicing, and falling off my board a couple of dozen times, I landed that first Ollie. What a rush. It was on now. That’s when I really got into skateboarding. If I wasn't at school, I was skateboarding. Rain or shine, you could always find me and my buddies shredding up the schoolyard.
⏩ Fast forward to 2005...
I had just finished high school and had to decide on which follow-up study I wanted to take. But like most kids graduating from high school, I didn’t really have a clue what to study. So I just went with what most of my classmates picked: Commerciële Economie.
It was terrible. I really hated it. Halfway through my first year I decided to quit and stopped going to class. Instead I went skateboarding.
At the end of September 2005, the new school year had already started and I still hadn’t found a study that suited me. I was heading towards a gap year.
Luckily for me it didn’t come to that; I was skating with an old friend, and he told me he was studying Communication & Multimedia design at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. It sounded interesting, so the next day I went there and attended a couple of classes. I liked it, so I signed up.
Looking back now, I’m sure glad I did. Attending that school led to some of the best things in my life –– On day one I met my girlfriend with whom I now have two beautiful daughters. I started my first business and got paid for doing something I loved, designing stuff. And I met Wesley and Rene, two of my business partners in Kersvers and two of my dearest friends with whom I get to work with every day.
And there you have it… If it weren’t for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, I wouldn’t have started skateboarding, and I wouldn’t have signed up for that study… Thus, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
So thank you, Tony.
Thank you for everything.
