A close call. Tony Hawk shared the gory details of a skateboarding accident that left him with injuries which required his wedding ring to be removed.
“Just received my x-rays from Saturday’s debacle,” the professional skateboarder, 52, wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, June 10. “They had to cut my ring off before returning my bones to their full upright and locked position. My fingers are still sore / stiff / swollen but mostly functional. And I still love my job.”
Hawk informed fans about the accident earlier this month, noting that it occurred while he was skating in a backyard pool with his 27-year-old son, Riley. “The pool was smaller than I anticipated so I didn’t wear full pads, likening it to a miniramp [sic],” he captioned Instagram photos of his injuries on Sunday, June 7. “We were having a blast, and at one point I actually gave advice to Eddie [Elguera] on doing a frontside rock (one of his signature tricks, and my first ‘advanced’ move as a kid). The session was fun until I did a backside smith stall as a set up for a backside blunt, and suddenly found myself on the flat bottom with my fingers bending in new directions.”
The athlete pointed out his error in not wearing the proper safety gear. “I regretted not wearing full pads. Ironically, that wouldn’t have saved me from injury but I was being too cavalier to think that a wall over 8’ with vert was as ‘safe’ as a mini-ramp,” he explained. “The session came to a screeching halt, and Riley drove me to the hospital like Ricky Bobby with a cougar in the backseat.”
Hawk recounted how his case was “expedited” because his fingers appeared “dusky,” meaning he had “extreme circulation loss.” He added that his “fingers were back in place, and no longer dusky,” within 30 minutes.
“I write this because today I am filled with divergent emotions: sadness from scaring my son & friends, regret from being cocky / careless, grateful from having an injury that could have been worse, and frustrated that I never got a backside blunt… as my skater ego endures,” he concluded. “As pro skaters, we accept that injuries are inevitable and perseverance is key to success. But it still sucks to get hurt, especially at my age. And I’ll still be back for more.”
Hawk married Cathy Goodman in June 2015. He shares son Riley with ex-wife Cindy Dunbar, sons Spencer, 21, and Keegan, 18, with ex-wife Erin Lee and daughter Kadence, 11, with ex-wife Lhotse Merriam.
