Video Pairs Tony Hawk with Skateboarding Community in Support of Pullias Study

Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk is joined by an impressive lineup of high-profile professional skateboarders in a new video that urges the skateboarding community to support a groundbreaking study of skateboard culture by taking the time to complete an online survey.  The USC Pullias Center for Higher Education study in conjunction with Annenberg School for Communication is funded by the Tony Hawk Foundation and comes to a close on July 31.

The online survey, which can be taken at www.thfsurvey.org and lasts about 10 minutes, is part of a unique effort to explore the impact skateboarding and skate culture has on young people and their educational and career trajectories.  The study will especially look at skateboarding culture as a lens to understand issues of diversity, race, class and gender.

“Skateboarding has been around for more than 50 years,” Hawk notes in the video.  “But we are just now beginning to understand its value to communities and individuals.”

A dozen other current and former professional skateboarders appear in the video, including Chad Muska, Kevin Romar, Poppy Starr, Amelia Brodka and more.

“If you want to give back to skateboarding, take the survey and share your truth,” states Alphonzo Rawlz, former professional skateboarder and current product designer, who also appears in the video.

USC’s Pullias Center for Higher Education is the world’s leading research center on student access and success in higher education.  The center advances innovative, scalable solutions to improve college outcomes for underserved students and enhance the performance of postsecondary institutions.  Earlier phases of this study included in-depth interviews with 100 skateboarders across the country and an initial survey that attracted over 3,000 respondents.  The findings of the entire study are expected to be shared in October of 2019.

The study is being funded through a $264,000 grant from Tony Hawk Foundation, which fosters lasting improvements in society with an emphasis on supporting youth in low-income communities through skateboarding programs and the creation of skateparks.