Tony Hawk Learns Some Hard Half-Pipe Lessons in Surfbort’s ‘Open Your Eyes’ Video
Tony Hawk gets some extreme — and sometimes questionable — half-pipe criticism from Brooklyn punks Surfbort in the new video for the group’s song, “Open Your Eyes.”
“Open Your Eyes” is a charmingly ragged blast of pop-punk, with guitarist Alex Kilgore noting Hawk was a perfect fit for the video since the song is about “navigating life’s difficulties with grace… not only is he the embodiment of physical grace he also gracefully transitioned so many obstacles and injuries.”
That doesn’t mean Hawk doesn’t have to work hard to win Surfbort’s approval in the new video. Despite the skateboarding legend’s best efforts, he struggles to elicit more than a yawns or spittle-filled slams from the group. Frontwoman Dani Miller even breaks out the whiteboard to teach Hawk a lesson in shredding, while some green screen technology allows all of Surfbort to really show him up.
“I was honored to be featured in Surfbort’s video,” Hawk tells Rolling Stone. “The new album is great, and ‘Open Your Eyes’ is an inspirational song for these tumultuous times.”
Miller added: “It was so rad hanging with Tony Hawk for ‘Open Your Eyes.’ He is such a talented, incredible human and we share the same self-deprecating humor. He let me scream at him and tell him he sucks and then he let me skate him as my skateboard! The video of us refereeing and yelling at Tony relates to real life, if people are telling you you suck or trying to bring you down pushing through and skating through to the good times is what life is about! He also did a trick over me, kinda one of the coolest moments of my life.”
“Open Your Eyes” appears on Surfbort’s most recent album, Keep on Truckin’, which was released last fall. The clip for the song arrives on the heels of a video for another album track, “Lot Lizard 93,” which features another pro skateboarder, Lizzie Armanto.
