5 hours ago
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Ryan Woodrow
Jul 17, 2025, 12:35 PM ET
With Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 now out -- a remake of the two classic games -- skateboarding video games are back in a big way. While series like Skate and indie developers have carried the torch for the genre, there's a magic that comes with the Pro Skater games that nothing else can match.
That magic may exist because it was born from the real love and passion for the sport that Tony Hawk put into the original games, with Steve Caballero serving as one of the biggest torchbearers as the sport first started to grow in mainstream pop culture.
"I started at age 12, and I was so stoked on it that I would be skating regardless of whether there was anyone around watching," Caballero said to ESPN. "Then, when the private skate parks popped up in the late '70s, I went every day, just to try and get better."
The sport has come a long way since then, with skaters continuing to push the boundaries of what is possible. After Tony Hawk hit the first-ever 900 in a competition, no one ever thought it would be topped -- that is, until Gui Khury, a 12-year-old, pulled off a 1080 in a competition in 2020.
Caballero has felt that pressure of trying to find innovation in such a thoroughly explored space.
"There were times in my career when I've thought, 'What else can be done?'" he said. But he also stands firm in his belief that creativity will always win out as long as people are willing to push themselves. "You've got to be a leader and just try new things."
Still, when trying to push the envelope, it is possible to go too far, and that's when things can get dangerous. While Caballero doesn't endorse people being stupid, he says that it's up to skaters to decide for themselves what risks they're willing to take.
"At 60 years old, every time I step on a skateboard, it's a dangerous thing," he said. "But that's my choice, and people admire that. That admiration leads to you inspiring people, and then they become fans; that's what I get out of that."
The THPS series has been a big asset in fostering creativity within skateboarding, too. Its many wild levels led the way in introducing people to the crazy and somewhat irresponsible tricks they could try in everyday locations like their college campus or town square. As Caballero puts it, "Skateboarders look at cities a lot differently; we see possibilities in landscapes."
Having skated in places like "drainage ditches, curbs and strange backyard pools," Caballero can clearly see the influence the games have had on young skaters throughout the years.
"I'm watching these guys go down rails that I would never have even thought were possible," he said, "but they somehow find the balance to stay on them, and I know that was influenced by the game. And all these trick combinations where they're flipping into tricks, sliding, flipping out, doing a manual into the next trick, those are things that were created in the game first, and then they came to life."
It's not just skateboarders that THPS has influenced either -- it's the world at large. Skateboarding is now more accepted in the mainstream than it's ever been -- it's even an Olympic sport. As a result, it's become more accessible than ever, something that Caballero is very pleased about.
"Back in the day, we didn't have all these parks," he said. "So it was hard to find places to skate. In '99, 2000, I was looking for places to skate on the street, but since then, there are public parks all over the world -- they just keep popping up."
That accessibility has also spread to great equality, too, as while the 1990s culture presented it as a very boyish activity, that stigma is all but gone as more women come to the forefront of the sport -- which the roster of THPS 3+4 reflects. Caballero is also impressed with how "skaters are getting really really good super young -- under 10 years old -- and that just wasn't heard of back in the day."
All of this may not have been possible without the games.
"It's helped give us a platform where we didn't have it before," Caballero said. "It's promoted the sport and the joy of it. I've seen it influence skateboarding itself in so many ways. I feel blessed to be a part of it."
