"If gymnastics has Nadia Comăneci, we have Tony Hawk,” declared the announcers at the 1999 X Games in San Francisco. Twenty-five years later, the 56-year-old, who once entertained fans with jaw-dropping flips and spins, will cheer on a new generation of skateboarders at the upcoming Paris Summer Olympics 2024. Tony Hawk: Until The Wheels Fall Off is a deep-dive not only into the sporting icon’s life, but the journey of the sport to mainstream attention. In that, it makes for an essential viewing.

In the two-hour-long documentary, Hawk’s idols, including Steve Caballero and Stacy Peralta, revisit how a lanky boy from California carved out a space for himself amidst the rise fall, and resurrection of the skating culture in the USA. “He would fall, break a bone, and dust himself off for another run. We couldn’t do that,” states Peralta in a scene, aptly summarising the skateboarding spirit.