Tony Hawk recently discussed the worst injury of his career withJackassstar Steve-O. The professional skater appeared on an episode of MTV’sWildboyzin 2003, where he attempted the “Loop of Death,” which is how the incident occurred. The show starredJackasscrew members Steve-O and Chris Pontius, along with cameos from Johnny Knoxville, Wee-Man, Manny Puig, Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man, and more. WhileWildboyzonly lasted for four seasons, it had a big impact onJackass 2and even the third installment, according to director Jeff Tremaine.
In a recent episode of Steve-O’s Wild Ride podcast,Tony Hawkdiscussed his 2003Wildboyzinjury. As it turns out, the stunt was supposed to be Steve-O’s but he shattered his ankle while performing a stunt involving a porta potty. So, Hawk came on board and decided to take on the “Loop of Death,” which is also known as a full pipe in theworld of skating. Hawk misjudged his speed and ended up hurting himself very badly. He explains.
“The problem was that thestarting rampwas too slow, and so I tried to overcompensate on the starting ramp and that sent me into the wrong position for the loop. I ended up shooting out through the loop flying through and landing on my hip and my head. I was knocked out and I realized that I shouldn’t have taken the loop for granted. That one was pretty ugly and life threatening.”
Tony Hawk broke his pelvis, broke his thumb, fractured his skull, and suffered a concussion during theWildboyzfilming. Steve-O says the whole ordeal was very “upsetting” to see and notes that Hawk kept repeating that he didn’t want his kids to see the footage when he was being taken away on a stretcher. Hawk admitted that the stretcher was when he first remembers waking up from his concussion, due to the immense pain from being lifted on to it from his broken pelvis.
Steve-O said watching Tony Hawk go down was one of the most disturbing things he’s ever seen, which is saying something after making all of theJackassmovies and TV shows. As for the “Loop of Death” footage,Wildboyzand director Jeff Tremaine chose not to air it because of how disturbing it was. But, when MTV was doing a series calledScarred, they reached out to Tremaine for the footage, which had him ask Hawk for permission.
MTV premiered the “Loop of Death” footage onScarred, and it is not pleasant to see. Tony Hawk said that it took a long time to recover from his injuries and noted that there was nothing he could really do except stay in bed. Thepro skatersays that even coughing would hurt his entire body. Thankfully, Hawk survived and did not end up with any long-lasting damage, and as seen in the new interview, he can look back and laugh at it now. you’re able to watch the interview with Tony Hawk above, thanks toSteve-O’s Wild Ride YouTubechannel. You can see the infamous footage below, but consider yourself warned, as it is graphic.
