Thrasher Magazine

Tom made headlines at 12 with the first 1080, but he’s had a helluva journey in the years since. Gregson gets into heavy territory with his boy to discuss early fame, puttin’ down the bottle and gettin’ picked up by the Birdman.


Tom keeps the discipline alive with an unbelievable part that pushes the boundaries of the vertical plane

Alright, this is a little different than our last interview.
We’re sober! Both of us.

Do you remember our last interview?
Not really. No.

Yeah, new you. I feel like a lot of people feel like you’re a different fucking person and skater, just in the last few years. What made you do what you’re doing?
I feel like my influences in skating have changed a lot, and just the people I’m surrounded by.

How would you describe yourself before, and how have you changed?
Before, I just kind of got stuck in that whole contest thing. I still do contests a lot, but it was more like that was all I did. The only tricks I could really do were contest tricks. And now, I’m trying to get out of that phase and just filming more and trying to do my own thing a little bit.

Front blunt to lipslide, mean and green     Photo: Aguilar

Who were the people that wanted you to do the video-part-type stuff? Who influenced that?
Definitely you and Greyson, for sure. When we were younger, there was a lot of pressure to just go film, which was sick. I’m very glad that you guys were good influences. The people I looked up to when I was younger were contest skaters. And that’s kind of how I viewed them. Now that I’m older, I realize that all those guys have also filmed some of the gnarliest vert parts, and just parts in general. I’m attracted to that aspect of it more than when they were just contest skaters.

The video parts live forever. I feel like with the contest runs, people don’t even remember first place. They just remember a crazy thing that happened at an event. What are your favorite parts to watch?
Bob, Colin McKay, any Jake brown video, Alex Perelson, too. I’ve probably seen Bob’s Extremely Sorry part like 100 times. I mean, Shea and I were watching it while we were skating yesterday, because I had to make sure that we weren’t stepping on his turf. I’ve probably watched every vert part like a dozen times. It’s kind of where my heart is still at, just vert. So that’s, for me, the most exciting thing to watch.

Switch back D on the tombstone to set up for a 1080 down the snake run. Tom vs Kona, Round 1     Photo: Aguilar

Did you think of vert skating and Mega-ramp skating as the same shit when you were a kid?
For a while I wasn’t even skating vert; it was just Mega. Looking back on it, it’s kind of insane. I’m honestly sad that it’s, like, completely dead now. There’s one; it’s Bob’s, and it’s pretty much falling apart. So I mean, Mega is pretty much dead. Vert and Mega are same-same kind of. You can do the same tricks for the most part.


Yeah. When I was a kid, it was definitely different. Vert was vert and Mega was like this new thing.
Yeah. I think it helped me, though. Because I got so comfy on Mega that doing airs and stuff on vert got a lot easier.

How old were you when you did the 1080?
I was 12, and I honestly can’t remember a single thing from it.

He may have been Ten-Eighty Tom or the Olympics guy, but all Schaar really wants is to play soccer. Fakie 5-0 fakie and GOALLLLL!    Photo: Burnett

Did you think you were doing something that people would still be talking about so many years later?
No, not really. The weirder part was all the stuff that came with it after, like going on the fuckin’ Ellen show and being on the news and stuff. I was 12. I had no idea what I was doing, and that stuff’s still weird to me. But doing the actual 1080, I was just a kid. I feel like when you’re a kid, you just kind of try and learn stuff a lot easier. So it wasn’t like this big thing that I built up in my head or anything. It just kind of happens.

Then you were thrown into skating. I feel like you did the 1080, then you’re skating contests with all the dudes you looked up to pretty quickly.
Yeah, pretty much. All of a sudden they’re like, Oh, well, you should do X Games and whatnot. I honestly had no business being there.

What was that like?
I mean, the first one was cool. I was just this little kid skating with Jake and Bob. I remember Jake giving me shit because I wouldn’t do the 70-foot gap. I was like 4’ 9”, probably weighed like 80 pounds. He’s like, You got to do it. They’re not going to give you a good score if you don’t do the 70-foot gap. I stood up there for like 20 minutes, and I was like, I’m gonna die if I do this.

Spinning 1080s and beating Bob… all the way back in 2013. Not bad for 14    Photo: Kanights

Any other peer pressure from those days?
I went to Bob’s when I was nine to try and do Mega for the first time, because he somehow saw me skate. He was like, Yeah, you should come do my ramp. I went out there with my dad. I had my whole chest protector, my butt pads and everything, and I stood on top of the drop-in for like an hour. He was standing behind me, just saying, “Go, go, go,” and yelling at me. He said go probably 100 times. And I just stood there in fear. Then I finally dropped in, and halfway down the ramp, I went to go kneeslide. I caught a screw and flipped over to my back, and my shirt came up and I got burned.

So you didn’t even make it to the gap?
No, I just dropped in and kneeslid. Then I went up to my dad, and I was like, Can we go? He’s like, Yeah.

That’s insane. And then, did Bob make you pay to skate his ramp?
Yeah, only for maybe like a year or two. But it was because he had the only ramp, and it was leading up to X Games, like, everybody was there. It was just a few hundred bucks a month. It made sense. We’re all using his ramp. He paid God knows how much money for it, and we were all using it for practice.

Imagine if this was your comfort zone? One-eighty to switch crooks at Bob’s House of Mortal Danger

You say the Combi was the contest that got you out of being, in your head, the vert baby.
I think so. When I was a kid, I just skated vert and Mega. I didn’t know about Grosso, Hewitt, Ben Schroeder and all those guys until I started doing that. I met them and I heard the lore behind them and everything. It introduced me to a whole other side of skating, which I’m very grateful for it. It slowly took me away from vert, and I started skating more concrete stuff.

Did you feel like you needed to prove something to a whole different group of skaters?
Not really. It was kind of more to myself. The first years that I did the contest, I would do a 540 and then a 720 and then fall on a 50-50 through the corner or something. And I was like, This is pretty embarrassing. So I kind of tried to make myself learn how to skate bowls a little bit better.

Then we met you through Element—me and Greyson. You started traveling with us. At what point did you want to be a part of what we were doing?
That’s a great question. I don’t know. You guys just bullied me for the first few years. Not really that bad, but Jerry and Greyson were in my ears, for sure. I could only really do 540s and Jerry just hated that. So then he made me learn stuff like back bonelesses, or whatever other Jerry tricks he’s got. But I think getting in the van was just such a different experience from how I grew up skating, which was such a controlled vert environment. I just got tossed in a van with the craziest people, going from here to Portland and back. It was eye-opening.

Never not flying, heelflip fakie     Photo: Burnett

I feel like it made you want to keep doing it.
For sure. I love doing it now. I feel like there’s a lot of people that don’t really get that opportunity in skating, to see that side of it. I’m honestly bummed for them.

I feel like those trips definitely shaped you into caring about the other side of skating. So you were on Element, then what happened with all that?
I got put on Element, I think through Bucky. He introduced me to Johnny when I was pretty young. They were giving me boards for a while, and then I went to Dew Tour when I was like 12. They weren’t gonna let me skate in the contest because I wasn’t pro yet. Someone at Element heard about that, so they overnight made a graphic and turned me fake “pro,” just so I could do the contest. But then the fake pro thing stuck around for too long. I was just kind of in this weird I-don’t-know zone of being like, I have my name on a board. But I was like 12 or 13. I definitely shouldn’t have my name on a board. But they were selling ’em. It was a whole weird situation. And then five years later, they re-turned me pro and did a whole series. They just made it a little more official, but it still felt weird.

And then how’d that all fall apart?
That’s a better question for Element. I don’t know what was going on over there for a while. But a lot of people were getting hired. A lot of people were getting fired. And then I think the US side of it fell apart. There was a while where Element was stacked for like five years, from like 2016 to 2020. It was pretty insane. People just kind of left one by one, and then the team fizzled out. And then Tony hit me up. And it’s pretty hard to say no to Tony. Nah, I’m just kidding. I’m really excited. He is pretty hard to say no to, though.


It’s, like, the most stressful for you when he’s talkin’ to you on the phone.
I can’t talk to him normal still. I’m trying my best to just pretend like he’s not Tony Hawk, but it’s Tony Hawk!

Tell me about your earliest memories with Tony. 
I met him at Bucky’s Bowl-B-Q thing when I was nine or ten. He invited me to go do this demo in Las Vegas, where he set up his ramp for a charity thing. He was asking me to do doubles with him. I was really young, and I could barely do airs and 540s. He was like, Yeah, let’s do doubles. I’ll go over you, you go under. I was like, No, I don’t trust that one at all. I feel like I kind of bummed him out. I didn’t get invited again for a while.

Blindside kickflip to fakie over a 16-foot chasm of certain death. Then a nice chat with Galina     Photo: Burnett

And then you tried the loop. How long after was that?
Oh, God, that sucked. That was a few years after. I was 14 probably. I got there, and then Tony and Bucky were on both sides of me, and they’re like, You could do it. It’s easy! And I’m pretty sure Bucky has never done it. But they’re like, Don’t even think about it. So I tried it a few times. Then on the third one, I just carved too much and flew out the top and clipped my foot on one of the pads that they had set up. It just tossed me straight to my shoulder, and I shattered my shoulder. Tony felt really bad about it, so he gave me a PS4.

Damn. Birdhouse has gone through several different waves, and it seems like they’re making some moves right now—turning a bunch of people pro and there’s a new team manager. What’s the plan?
There is no official plan. What they are doing right now is sick. I think we’re getting the right people on Birdhouse. Very soon we’re gonna film a video at some point. It’s gonna be really sick.

Some people might be surprised to hear Greyson got on. I heard he basically just wanted to be able to skate with you all the time. How’s that feel to have your old tormentor look up to you as somebody who’s going to help him stay on track?
Well, he went from my tormentor to, like, my best friend, because I could handle the tormenting. Me and him have been on a lot of trips, and we’ve been through a lot of stuff. The fact that he even wanted to be on Birdhouse I think is sick. I’m glad that we get to do this together.

Who the fuck put this tree here?!     Photo: Aguilar

What’s the last year of your life been consumed by?
All this Olympics stuff. It’s been kind of a nightmare, but also fun. It depends on how you look at it. There’s just a lot of weird behind-the-scenes political stuff. I really just want to do it because those are the kids I grew up with, skating those contests. We’re kind of like a little family, because we just travel around to all these different contests, and we just get to hang out. That part of it is really fun. It can be stressful, with, like, parents being weird behind the scenes. It’s the Olympics, after all. People get so competitive over it. It’s insane. So that part of it is not fun. Overall, I enjoyed it, though. I actually did have fun during the whole process. Love it or hate it, it’s brought skating into a new light. I think a billion people probably saw skating for the first time. Depending on how you look at it, I think it’s a good thing. But I think it just is up to the skating community to keep it the way skating should be, and not let these outside influences control how skating is viewed.


What’s one of the most bizarre things you’ve seen behind the scenes there? I heard the Chinese team maybe pulled the failed gymnastics kids out and forced them to skate.
There’s so many different rumors about where some of these kids that are insane came from. Yeah, I heard that. Some of the teams were taking kids that were in gymnastics, and then just threw them into skating. They picked it up, then all of a sudden they were doing 720s overnight. The one bad thing I don’t like is that a lot of these kids are just doing the exact same five tricks. Which is not the point of skating. Everyone’s supposed to have their own style and do their own thing. But, fuck, they’re really good at those five tricks. I’ll give them that.

What’s the wildest offer or opportunity that’s come your way via your Olympic fame?
I threw out the first pitch for the Padres game. That was pretty cool.

Thirty-hour send is a state of mind—switch backside shifty     Photo: Burnett

Basically, you went to the Olympics and then you came straight home and Tony’s press person was helping you, right?
I went straight from Paris, and I came home for a day, and then I went to New York to do the whole media tour thing. You just go on a bunch of different random Good Morning America shows, just random talk shows. It’s not anything that exciting, I’ll be honest. I was just talking about myself, which sucks.

Who’s reached out to party, besides Willow Smith?
Not really anyone. I’m not in that scene enough to be getting the crazy party text.

Hittin' the Oski at the Hawk's Nest

Any absurd endorsements?
Jessup hit me up. That’s pretty crazy.

I mean, you got the New Balance thing. That’s new.
Yeah, I don’t know if that was directly correlated with the Olympics. I’m sure that helped. I’m actually very stoked on that, ’cause I always thought that company was sick as fuck.

I heard Jamie Foy was one of the people that helped.
I mean, I was skating his shoes. I heard he was hyped on that, so hopefully he put in a good word for me.

Drifting switch flip to fakie over the channel    Photo: Burnett

Didn’t someone from New Balance hit you up to get your shoes?
Yeah. They hit me up to get the shoes that I skated in the Olympics. They’re gonna put ’em in some glass box in their office or something.

You got accepted into Nyjah’s circle.
I did! I’m on his Close Friends Stories.

Backside 360 for his close friend's lens    Photo: Rhino

Is it hectic? 
It’s pretty hectic in there.

Did you win a sender award at the 30th birthday?
Oh, no. I didn’t go. Thirty hours is too much. I can’t do a sober 30 hours. That’s kind of gnarly.

NBS freefall at Sloan’s    Photo: Burnett

On the sober thing, from the outside it might look like everything’s working out. But there’s been times when shit wasn’t working out.
Yeah, for sure. There were a few years when COVID started, where I just wasn’t skating. I was kind of partying too much and drinking too much. I definitely had to clean my shit up and get my act together, and I got help. I think being sober is the best thing that I’ve done in my life.

You had a lot of bad things happen in a two-month period a few years ago: you got kicked off Vans, you didn’t make the Olympic team and then your friend Henry Gartland passed away. That’s a lot for someone your age to handle.
Yeah, it was not a great situation.

Way the fuck up, 360 flip Indy to fakie

I think people don’t realize you were that close with Henry.
I mean, I lived with him for six months. I lived with him, Vincent Matheron and Jake Wooten. Then Vincent and I moved into our place and Jake and Henry got their own place. A couple months later, he passed away. It’ll be four years tomorrow. It was just very surprising. He was just always the nicest. It just rocked all of us.

Then what happened after that?
I don’t know, just felt out of place for a while. I definitely started indulging too much. It went on for too long. I got kicked off Vans and didn’t make the last Olympic team. Then it was COVID, so no one was taking trips or going to contests. I just needed to get my shit together. Two years later, I’m sober and I’m here.

Of all the shit that’s gone down this ancient Aussie tube, the seatbelt is the least offensive    Photo: Burnett

I feel like that was the best decision.
I honestly don’t miss drinking at all anymore.

When a lot of child stars have a hard time keeping that spark for skating, they have to reinvent it. What have been the different stages of motivation?
I kind of like the getting-frustrated part of skating. It shouldn’t be easy. If I ever feel like I’m doing too much of one thing, I’ll just start doing a different type of skating. Forever I was just a vert kid. I was so burned out when I was 15 or 16. Then I started skating more parks. Now I’m skating vert again and I’m honestly having more fun than when I was 12. So just not getting stuck in one thing, and I think it helps filming parts then doing contests, and going back and forth. It’s two completely different things.


What’s the closest you’ve come to quitting skating?
I think about quitting every time I film a trick. It’s a nightmare! No. I don’t really think I have. I mean, the few years during COVID, I just wasn’t skating. But it was never in my head that I was done skating. It just felt like I took a really long break.

Moving to the vert part we’ve been filming for the last year and a half, I feel like you’ve put everything into this. Explain what this part means to you.
It’s been pretty gnar. At first, it was so fun. We were just going to Tony’s to film and doing a bunch of random tricks. When we decided to actually film the vert part, that’s when it became a little bit of suffering. I’m just trying to recreate everything I grew up watching, as best as I can. Hopefully, people will be stoked on vert again. Maybe I’m trying to remind people that it’s the sickest thing ever.

Who’s your favorite woman on vert right now?
I think Asahi might be my favorite right now. She’s ripping. She’s got good style. Seeing Arisa do switch McTwists like it’s nothing is insane.

Who are the top three greatest vert skaters of all time?
Alex Perelson, Bob and Tony.

Taking it blind into an alley-oop lip. Perelson would approve     Photo: Burnett

What’s your obsession with Alex Perelson?
He’s the greatest. You can’t deny it. Growing up, the way he skated, I just knew that’s what I wanted to try and skate like. I feel like 2010 Alex Perelson was the best that anyone’s ever skated vert.

What do people always ask you about?
Olympic stuff, but for 13 years before that, it was 1080 stuff. So finally, I got rid of that question. Not the best switch-up, but at least it’s different.

Any last advice for the kids?
Watch a Jerry Gurney part and go try and do some of that.

When in doubt, spin it out. Melon five in the crusty Corio brownie pan, 2025     Photo: Burnett