biggest industry grifters claiming to be pro skateboarders

[grandslam]

Defining grifting in skateboarding is taking more that you give.
In 2026, I would argue Tony Hawk fits that definition.

[TwisT]

Defining grifting in skateboarding is taking more that you give.
In 2026, I would argue Tony Hawk fits that definition.

You think Tony Hawk is taking more from skateboarding then he gives?

[GardenSkater77]

7:38 Tony blames slamming on his head for not having eyebrows. I don’t believe him. He’s grifting for a Rogaine sponsorship.

[Cuban_Lynx]

Y'all drinking the THPS Kool-Aid. The only reason he's a 30 Thousand Hundred Millionaire with 5 wives, married into the Cobain family, and partied on Epstein Island is because he cock-blocked Tas Pappas.

[Malcolm Sex]

Defining grifting in skateboarding is taking more that you give.
In 2026, I would argue Tony Hawk fits that definition.

One of the stupidest takes I’ve ever seen. Holy shit.

[Aerozzmith]

Ermmm,uhhhhhh, Fred gall?

You might want to recheck the definition of grifter. Focus your brain, and come back renewed. This is an objectively incorrect answer.

[lowline]

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ultra cringe

[close]

How anyone can make both drinking and smoking look that uncool is beyond me.

wait until you read the description

People always tell me I’m brave for posting old clips of myself or moments from when I used to drink. But honestly, it doesn’t feel like courage at all—because I don’t identify with that person anymore. When you’re born again through Jesus Christ, the old you is gone. I’ve been restored, renewed, and made new.
‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’ — 2 Corinthians 5:17

[lowline]

you're so brave man. you filmed yourself drinking on your phone instead of just... drinking

[Resin]

You know when someone starts with the incredibly vague "people always say" you're about to get hit with some bullshit

[kookdusoleil]

You know when someone starts with the incredibly vague "people always say" you're about to get hit with some bullshit

Spot on. “People always say” or “people always ask me”…..no they don’t

[MeanestCleanestPenis]

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He still owns a shitty shop out here that he uses to try and get people into the church. I do not feel bad for laughing at his el toro attempt as many times as I did. Fuck that guy!

[close]

Dan P and Dave Jonsson offer #motivation and an indoor in the worst part of Surrey to anyone that drinks their kook aid

https://www.instagram.com/davejonsson?igsh=MXJvc2JhdXY3dHA0eA==

Also can’t forget about Trevor Houlihan if we’re talking 604

What's the story on Trevor Houlihan? Met him once and he was nice enough if a little hyper. Was he actually a pro?

[actuality]

Having a name on a deck while not putting out footage or even stepping on a skateboard is grifting.

What are your thoughts on AH's continued Cardiel decks?

[Garfiled L. Asagna LLC]

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Saying Tony Hawk is wild.

He's one of the only guys from that generation that's actually giving back and contributing to skateboarding.

Meanwhile, you got islamaphobe and fake ass christian, Steve Cab still getting paid.

[close]

Cheers to this.  Fuck Cab.

Tony's still skating, signing completes and leaving them at skateparks for kids to find, and building skateparks with his foundation, and seems to still be a generally good human being.

[close]

False dichotomy. Hawk is both a valid professional skateboarder and a grifter. Hawk and Shaq will put their names on literal dog shit for a quick buck.

[close]

Yeah look at those endorsements, what an evil guy!  You left out all the charities he's either founded himself or the fact that he gives hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to others.  Slagging Tony Hawk for this shit is reaching hard.  The guy has literally paid for brand new skateparks in shitty areas where kids could use somethign like that most.  But yeah, he took a check from Subway so fuck him.

Dont really have a dog both those things are tax write offs. Donald Trump also runs a charity he donates a salary too. Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, these dudes all head charities and donate lots of money to them so they dont have to pay taxes. Not saying this makes tony a grifter, its just rich dude stuff, but it also dosent make him defacto a saint. Every con man got a charity.

Tony is a grifter, but hes a grifter like most old folks are bigoted/racist. Its not excusable 100% but its also understandable, like I dont like the my nan is uncomfortable around gay folk, but I also understand for a large part of her life its was just how things were, and also that hers brain mush. Tony the same way. His entire life hes been selling products and appearing in commercials for whoever will sign the check. And we've been fine with that for a while. But times have changed and hes showing his age. Deep down my nan and Tony are good people, but modern day there actions are not without criticism.

Tony Hawk is a grifter and a sellout but hes earned the right to be that guy. And it dosent change the contributions hes gave to skateboarding.

[JakeBeskatin]

Tony Hawk good in my hood

[IWANNABEABIGDOG]

Every YouTuber

Everyone 50+

[ChuckRamone]

I can tell this guy is just in it for the fame and attention.

[Slave IV]

I can tell this guy is just in it for the fame and attention.

Is that Thrilla Gorilla's son?

[aleksander]

Since no asked, I dug into what I could from Push Movement's financials and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/921973657

The high volume of contributions lead me to believe there's no way Brent's going around asking for people to donate to get $190k of revenue, so I looked to see if they received any grants and found a few. Since they've had ~$89k in the bank (presumably based on these filings), it makes me think that they are beholden to use those funds for a certain project they received a grant for. Anyways here's some grants I see they've received.

https://www.oregonmetro.gov/sites/default/files/2026-03/nin-capital-grants-awards-2016-2025.pdf
https://www.zeffy.com/grant-programs/23-7108002_40k_push_movement_school_skateboard_program_an_4lrvha
https://ktvz.b-cdn.net/2024/05/OCF_Community_Grants_Spring_2024_Grants_List.pdf
https://www.awesomefoundation.org/en/projects/212392-push-movement

Even in those links it's not easy to definitively say how much they've received but they're obviously active in looking for them. Applying for grants isn't an easy process and requires time and connections to the community (at least somewhat). They also reported a $30k loss last year, and Brent was the only one to take a salary ($62k) so assuming the smallest amount of overhead (taxes and such) to keep it running means they spent ~$140k towards something. Running skate events under a nonprofit can end up pricy if you want to do it legitimately since you need insurance, and if they are part of neighborhood revitalization grant they probably spent a good amount towards that.

They also had some "skate program" revenue in past years, nothing in 2025 but it does mean they were running some type of skate camp thing presumably.

All that to say, it doesn't really seem like he's grifting. If you consider him receiving a barely livable salary for putting in work to receive grants grifting, your problem is more with the capitalistic "nonprofit" system the US has, which honestly is fair.

Irrespective of what Brent’s doing, I like when people on Slap come through with their own area of knowledge and experience to research/explain things. Nice work, mate.

[ChuckRamone]

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I can tell this guy is just in it for the fame and attention.

[close]

Is that Thrilla Gorilla's son?

Probably illegitimate son. Like father like son

[blindfoldedhillbomb]

Brent Atchley is grifting all over the place in P-Town. He is taking people's donations and claiming to be rehabilitating people but instead he just cashes checks and cool guys everyone. He has made over 100 grand and all he has done is order pizza, have some hippy "sound baths" and make social media posts. Meanwhile if you try to get some help all he does is give you the cold shoulder and cool guy you unless you are part of his friend group.

All you have to do is follow the links to check the receipts. Total fraud:

https://justice.oregon.gov/Charities/Charity/GetCharityReport?rptId=703327950

https://justice.oregon.gov/Charities/Charity/GetCharityReport?rptId=1013836217

So are you mad that someone is stealing from a charity or are you mad because this dude doesn’t want to skate with you?

[status]

Yeahhhhh calling the birdman a grifter ain't it. Tony Hawk earned his keep. He can grift all he wants. Skateboarding is literally his job and he's getting older so why not make money while you can?

He gives back to the industry more than we know, not just monetarily but his time which arguably is more important.

Dude was editing his own videos and making shit money on the side doing odd jobs in the 90s. If there's anyone "grifting" off skateboarding, Tony is the best representative to do that. Not corny at all. He's a good spokesperson, non-skaters love him and culturally has done more than anyone else in the action sports world. Tyshawn on the other hand.....

[JugeL]

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ultra cringe

[close]

it's fine he got sober but this motherfucker is selling hats that say "i love jesus" on it and making reels like this that seem like a personal glaze fest

he seems like the kind of person that would have been kooked out of skating in the 2000s pretty quickly but now anything goes so he's building a brand. one reason i miss gatekeeping

Dude also seems to be engaged to alleged sexual abuser so theres that also

[Sandwich Marty]

Yeahhhhh calling the birdman a grifter ain't it. Tony Hawk earned his keep. He can grift all he wants. Skateboarding is literally his job and he's getting older so why not make money while you can?

He gives back to the industry more than we know, not just monetarily but his time which arguably is more important.

Dude was editing his own videos and making shit money on the side doing odd jobs in the 90s. If there's anyone "grifting" off skateboarding, Tony is the best representative to do that. Not corny at all. He's a good spokesperson, non-skaters love him and culturally has done more than anyone else in the action sports world. Tyshawn on the other hand.....

[Steely Daniel]

Anyone who promotes gambling is grifting adjacent at the very least.

[AnimalChinaski79]

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Saying Tony Hawk is wild.

He's one of the only guys from that generation that's actually giving back and contributing to skateboarding.

Meanwhile, you got islamaphobe and fake ass christian, Steve Cab still getting paid.

[close]

Cheers to this.  Fuck Cab.

Tony's still skating, signing completes and leaving them at skateparks for kids to find, and building skateparks with his foundation, and seems to still be a generally good human being.

[close]

False dichotomy. Hawk is both a valid professional skateboarder and a grifter. Hawk and Shaq will put their names on literal dog shit for a quick buck.

[close]

Yeah look at those endorsements, what an evil guy!  You left out all the charities he's either founded himself or the fact that he gives hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to others.  Slagging Tony Hawk for this shit is reaching hard.  The guy has literally paid for brand new skateparks in shitty areas where kids could use somethign like that most.  But yeah, he took a check from Subway so fuck him.

[close]

Dont really have a dog both those things are tax write offs. Donald Trump also runs a charity he donates a salary too. Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, these dudes all head charities and donate lots of money to them so they dont have to pay taxes. Not saying this makes tony a grifter, its just rich dude stuff, but it also dosent make him defacto a saint. Every con man got a charity.

Tony is a grifter, but hes a grifter like most old folks are bigoted/racist. Its not excusable 100% but its also understandable, like I dont like the my nan is uncomfortable around gay folk, but I also understand for a large part of her life its was just how things were, and also that hers brain mush. Tony the same way. His entire life hes been selling products and appearing in commercials for whoever will sign the check. And we've been fine with that for a while. But times have changed and hes showing his age. Deep down my nan and Tony are good people, but modern day there actions are not without criticism.

Tony Hawk is a grifter and a sellout but hes earned the right to be that guy. And it dosent change the contributions hes gave to skateboarding.

[close]

You lost me comparing Tony to Trump, Zuckerberg, and Musk.  Reach a little harder, lol.  His entire life has been selling things?  Guy was skating Del Mar and getting spit on by Duane Peters when he was a little kid for starters, and he kept Birdhouse alive when skating was dead until it took off again.  Trump's daddy handed him millions of dollars to be a fuck all, so did Musk's daddy.  Cut me a break already with the slag Tony Hawk bullshit.

[Mike Oxwelling]

https://skatepark.org/

[layzieyez]

https://skatepark.org/

Specifically, the map page of all the funded projects thanks to him.

That’s the difference.

Is anyone else in skateboarding making that magnitude of an impact?

From here, it actually looks like he genuinely loves skateboarding and not just playing every angle to profit from it like a culture vulture.

[GreenLineAcid]

Brent Atchley is grifting all over the place in P-Town. He is taking people's donations and claiming to be rehabilitating people but instead he just cashes checks and cool guys everyone. He has made over 100 grand and all he has done is order pizza, have some hippy "sound baths" and make social media posts. Meanwhile if you try to get some help all he does is give you the cold shoulder and cool guy you unless you are part of his friend group.

All you have to do is follow the links to check the receipts. Total fraud:

https://justice.oregon.gov/Charities/Charity/GetCharityReport?rptId=703327950

https://justice.oregon.gov/Charities/Charity/GetCharityReport?rptId=1013836217

Won’t believe it. He’s a cool ass person

[Lukabrazi]

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Guy on the left

[close]

Explain? Seems like he’s just a homie that they like having on the session

[close]

Hes a artist

Nice to meet you

[grandslam]

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Defining grifting in skateboarding is taking more that you give.
In 2026, I would argue Tony Hawk fits that definition.

[close]

You think Tony Hawk is taking more from skateboarding then he gives?

Historically, no. In 2026? yes.
Tony Hawk is using skateboarding to prop himself up financially and socially more than directly impacting skateboarding.
Kill Tony appearances, an endless deluge of brand endorsements for things that have nothing to do with skateboarding, podcast cameos that do not relate to skateboarding.

Im open to changing my stance, this is just my opinion based on my perception of him currently.

Interested to hear how current Tony Hawk is benefiting skateboarding as a whole vs benefiting his own legacy from others.