Tony Hawk’s favorite skateboarder is a boy from Russia. Maxim Abramov’s story

Skateboarding has long been neither a novelty nor a gimmick in today’s world. The subculture continues to grow and convert thousands of new followers. Skate contests held on the planet can easily rival any major world cups and championships.

Many computer games have been created about skateboarding, and it is impossible to count advertising campaigns with the participation of professional skaters. Once a common pastime for the youth of California has now reached such a scale that skateboarding was recognized as an Olympic sport and the first competitions were held at the past games in Tokyo.

All this success and worldwide recognition would not have been possible without the main ingredient – human beings. Thanks to each and every skater individually, the subculture lives on. And today we will tell you about one of them – Maxim Abramov from St. Petersburg. The boy is missing both legs, but every day he proves that skateboarding is not just a fun, but a real tool for life, which is available to everyone.

skateboarder

He talks about the role skateboarding plays in his life, Tony Hawk’s sensational Instagram post and why he doesn’t like Lionel Messi.

Max Abramov

– Tell us about yourself. Who are you? What are you? Why are you?

– My name is Maxim, I’m 12 years old, and I live in St. Petersburg. I’ve been skateboarding for five years. You could say that it’s my job, and I do it with pleasure. I come to skate and clean. I try not to miss training, but it’s not up to me, it’s up to my mom. If I misbehave.

– Mom can take the board away?

– Pretty much.

Max Abramov

– How did you come to skateboarding? How did you find out about it?

– Pasha, my coach, was doing a skateboarding school here in the first skate park in St. Petersburg, Vidensky, together with DC Shoes. They did it for free and for anyone who wanted to skateboard. I got to one of these sessions when I happened to be passing by the park. Pasha noticed me right away and came over to meet me. Then he told me that on a skateboard you can fly, do unreal tricks and slide on the railing. He also told me that there were guys just like me. That they are full-fledged athletes, super popular in their countries and skate on a par with everyone else. Like Felipe Nunes.

After this training my mom got in touch with Pasha and we started training together. And now it’s the fifth year.

– And you came to the park on a skateboard?

– Yes, it was a penny board. But I didn’t know how to do tricks and just used the board to move around. It was comfortable. By the way, I even have a photo from our first class.

– Tell me, how do other guys treat you at the skate park?

– Usually as friends, like at school. We play at practice and we all treat each other with respect. And that’s what I like the most about skateboarding – the people. Everybody’s nice, and that’s really cool.

Max Abramov

– What does skateboarding give you in your life?

– Skateboarding gave me the opportunity to overcome my fear. I am very afraid of heights and high speed, I try to overcome it at every training in the park, and I succeed.

– I know you’re subscribed to Tony Hawk on Instagram. Do you know each other personally? Have you skated together?

– In person? No. Tony saw my video online, posted it and wrote a whole post. Called me his new favorite skateboarder and tagged me there. After that 20,000 people subscribed to my page, and Pasha did five interviews a day for three months.

Professional skateboarder, head of a public organization for the development of skateboarding in St. Petersburg.

The news that Tony Hawk had written such a post about us went around the world. I was sent pictures from the Danish subway, from the BBC. We gave the rights to the content to whoever we could.

– Pasha, it turns out that Tony expressed his respect and you didn’t communicate any more?

– We haven’t called or met in person, but I correspond with him. It’s certainly cool to realize that Tony Hawk is typing you a message on Instagram. Personally, I grew up on his videos and started skating in general thanks to the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 game. My whole generation grew up on the game. Now we have a joint project, but it’s still in the preparation stage and we’re keeping everything secret.

Max Abramov

– Max, imagine if you had a choice now: skateboarding or another sport, what would you choose?

– Skateboarding. I’ve been skating for five years for a reason. But if I didn’t know anything about skateboarding, I would choose soccer. I played for Dynamo for a week, but I couldn’t bring a doctor’s note.

– And now you root for someone or just watch soccer?

– “Real Madrid” and “Barcelona” are favorite teams. Among the players: Ronaldo, Neymar and Ronaldinho. Messi I have a good attitude towards, but I don’t like him very much. His chips are not tasty (laughs).

– This year skateboarding made a name for itself at the Olympic Games. Did you watch the broadcast?

– I didn’t watch the Olympics. I didn’t know where, and there were hardly any cool commentators. I didn’t have any time at all, I was skating all the time. And mostly I only watch the X-Games.

Max Abramov

– Would you like to go to the Olympics?

– I had this idea to go to the games in 2024, but skateboarding is not included in the Paralympics yet. For that we need more athletes like me. In the meantime, there are competitions like this at the X-Games, at the Dew Tour, and we have to go there, to America. Soon, in six months.

– Max, what are your other plans for the future?

– Drink water (laughs). To train a lot. I want to get to the X-Games, at least to the qualifiers, and then the first place.

Max Abramov

– Pasha, a couple more questions for you. How difficult is it to coach Max?

– Difficult, he always takes away oranges and tangerines (laughs). In fact, now is the period when he is maximally fired up and wants to do difficult elements, it’s easy to persuade him to do them. Skateboarding is about overcoming fear, and this is a separate skill that needs to be developed.

– Does Max have an opportunity to be fully independent and support himself through skateboarding?

– Yes, of course. First of all he inspires other people, a lot of people subscribe to him, they write comments to him and watch his videos. I think that Max will continue to develop in skateboarding. Now I’m talking to companies that are ready to start supporting Max and give him opportunities to develop not only as an athlete, but also as a person. For him to travel, to create his own blog. All of this will help him socialize and get comfortable with himself. And, of course, continue to inspire even more people. Not too long ago, Max’s video was reposted by Nigel Houston (one of the most popular skaters right now), and there were half a million views in a few days.

It feels like progress when so many people react. And the bigger the public reaction, the more opportunities Max has. All doors are opening for him to self-actualize in life. And skateboarding only helps him – it’s such a key.

– What do you think skateboarding is now, from your point of view?

– I think skateboarding is a very cool community of people with a common goal. It’s a street art form, like graffiti, and yet there’s also a sporting component. I don’t know of any other sport that is involved in media projects and advertising in the same way. If you watch clips of Morgenstern and Yegor Creed, you see skateboarding. It’s all used as part of youth culture, a very popular part of it. All the most famous celebrities skateboard. For example, Tony Hawk said that during the pandemic he was expecting a drop in sales of his Birdhouse brand, but it turned out to be the opposite, everywhere was sold out. Now skateboarding is experiencing a big upswing. Because of the Olympics, the movement has become official.

Max Abramov

When I was in Brazil at the Red Bull Skate Arcade, the guys there told me that if you are in a favela neighborhood, but you have a skateboard in your hands, you won’t get hurt there. Because skaters are now respected as street people. It’s that culture where guys make themselves out of nothing and get results. And it’s also grown to the point where you can make money with skateboarding and live independently.