In my childhood, I was obsessed with skateboarding. As often as possible, me and my friends would go to a halfpipe in a town nearby and practice all day there. We would also visit the skateshop every so often and buy all the skateboarding magazines available. In those magazines was always this absolute legend: Tony Hawk, the best skateboarder in the world. He was like a God to us. The documentary about him, that is now streaming on HBO Max, showed me that he is just a man who, despite all his physical injuries, won’t stop skating until his wheels fall off (Hawk is now 54). Tony Hawk’s life story is not just interesting for skate fans, but for everybody. This is already one of the great sports documentaries. At the age of nine, Tony discovered skateboarding and since then has done nothing else. Pretty soon, he joined the famous Bones Brigade (a team of pro’s with a.o. Lance Mountain, Steve Caballero, Mike McGill and leader Stacy Peralta). A few years later, he turned pro and started winning every competition in the country. In the early nineties, skateboarding went out of fashion and Hawk could no longer make any money doing what he loved. He even had to sell his house and break down his personal halfpipe. He never stopped skating though and in the late nineties/early zeroes, it came back and Hawk made millions on huge shows in Las Vegas and the well known video game franchise. We follow him on his path through those years as he tirelessly works towards his greatest career achievement: the impossible 900. His perseverance is amazing and inspired me to think of new things to try that I think are impossible. Apart from being a moving life story, it also gives the viewer a gigantic amount of the most insane skateboarding footage ever collected. Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off is a great flashback to my childhood, but Hawk’s amazing aerial acrobatics are a thrill for everybody to behold.

Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off is now available on HBO Max

The verdict: to stream or not to stream? To obsessively stream