Despite what you think, there is plenty to be “stoked” about when you’re in the fifth decade of your life.

For Tony Hawk, participating once again in the X Games—this time against teenaged in the vert competition—is what gets his board up.

“I am going to be 55 years old next month,” Hawk said earlier this spring when I spoke to him via Zoom. After pausing a moment to laugh, he said “and I am competing in the X Games! There’s not a lot of sports where you have 55-year-olds who get to compete with teenagers.”

In this April 2023 interview, Hawk talks about how much skateboarding as changed and evolved, while sticking to the core ethic that saw it become a worldwide phenomenon.

Read the full Forbes.com interview story with Tony Hawk here.