Tony Hawk is Renaming a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 Trick to Help Better Deaf Representation in Skating and Gaming

If you’re one of the 2,000 people that used the Chipotle app to order the new Tony Hawk burrito and grab a code for the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 Warehouse Demo (alternatively, you can just preorder the game) then you might notice a small but powerful change in the upcoming skateboarding game. In the Tony Hawks’ Pro Skater 1 and 2 Warehouse Demo, and subsequently in the full release, the formerly named “mute grab” air trick has gotten a rename to the “Weddle Grab,” named after trick originator and ’80s Tony Hawk skating peer, deaf skateboarder Chris Weddle. The Birdman himself took to Instagram today to explain the origins of the move, why the original name was the one that stuck, and how he wants to use the opportunity to help repair the representation of deaf skaters in the real and digital world.

 

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For nearly 40 years, we’ve shamelessly referred to this trick as the “mute” air/grab. Here is the backstory: around 1981, a deaf skater and Colton skatepark local named Chris Weddle was a prominent amateur on the competition circuit. The “Indy” air had just been created & named so somebody proposed that grabbing with the front hand should be known as the “Tracker” air. Others countered that Chris was the first to do, so it should be named after him. They referred to him as the “quiet, mute guy.” So it became known as the mute air, and we all went along with it in our naive youth. In recent years a few people have reached out to Chris (who still skates) about this trick and the name it was given. He has been very gracious in his response but it is obvious that a different name would have honored his legacy, as he is hearing impaired but not lacking speech. I asked him last year as I was diving into trick origins and he said he would have rather named it the “deaf” or “Weddle” grab if given the choice. His exact quote to me was “I am deaf, not mute.” So as we embark on the upcoming @tonyhawkthegame demo release, some of you might notice a trick name change: The Weddle Grab. It’s going to be challenging to break the habit of saying the old name but I think Chris deserves the recognition. Thanks to @darrick_delao for being a great advocate to the deaf community in action sports, and for being the catalyst in this renaming process. I told Chris tecently and his reply was “I’m so stoked!” And then he shot this photo in celebration yesterday. : @yousta_storytellers_club

A post shared by Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) on Aug 12, 2020 at 8:40am PDT

“For nearly 40 years, we’ve shamelessly referred to this trick as the “mute” air/grab,” Hawk said in today’s post that features a shot of Weddle performing his namesake trick. “It is obvious that a different name would have honored his legacy, as he is hearing impaired but not lacking speech.” As Hawk points out in the story about the origin of the newly christened Weddle Grab, there is a difference between being deaf and mute, and it was a difference that he and his “naive” skater friends in the ’80s didn’t pay attention to when referring to Weddle.

“I asked him last year as I was diving into trick origins and he said he would have rather named it the “deaf” or “Weddle” grab if given the choice. His exact quote to me was “I am deaf, not mute.” And so, Hawk used his influence over the video game franchise that proudly shares his name to right what the skating legend considers to be a major wrong. The Warehouse Demo and full version feature the updated name of a skate trick considered to be part of the basic arsenal for any vert skater.

Even Hawk knows, however, that habits don’t die overnight and it’s hard to immediately change how people and cultures use words and language. “It’s going to be challenging to break the habit of saying the old name but I think Chris deserves the recognition,” he said. The Tony Hawk franchise is as good as any place to start as one of the titles at the forefront of bringing more mainstream recognition to skateboarding. If new and old players come to know it as the Weddle Grab, it will help the culture as a whole accept and embrace the change.

Tony Hawk: Even at age 52 he’s still revolutionizing his sport for the better. Check out the renamed Weddle Grab in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 on September 4, or this Friday if you have access to the Warehouse Demo.