Tony Hawk left his skateboard near Eight Mile and Southfield for someone to find during a visit to Detroit, and a fan named Matt found it. Matt saw Hawk's Instagram post announcing the hunt, recognized the location, and went to look for the prize.
According to Metro Detroit News, Matt was sitting in his truck when Hawk's video appeared first in his feed, less than five minutes after it had been posted. Hawk had written “you only get one shot… to find it,” framing the hunt as a one-shot opportunity. Matt estimated the spot was about 10 minutes away, and he said he wondered the whole drive over whether the board would still be sitting there.
It was. Matt said the skateboard was still there when he arrived, and Hawk later confirmed on Instagram that Matt was the one who found it, tagging his account in the post, per the same outlet's report.
A Pattern Hawk Has Repeated Across the Country
This was not Hawk's first skateboard scavenger hunt, and it was not even his first in Detroit. Back in early August, Hawk left one of his signed skateboards at a Detroit skatepark and later reported that another skater had found it, telling followers, “I left my deck in The D. Finders keepers,” according to Michigan's Thumb.
He has run similar hunts far outside Michigan. On March 31, Hawk shared a video of himself skating at Sul Ross Skatepark in Waco and leaving behind a signed board for a stranger to discover, as reported by the Austin American-Statesman, though it remained unclear who ultimately picked that board up. In Denver, Hawk hid a used, signed skateboard in a flower bed at La Raza Park, and the finder was reportedly neighborhood resident Joseph Martinez, according to the Denver Post. Hawk described the Denver board as finders keepers.
Why Hawk Was in Detroit
Hawk's visit came as Detroit hosted The Coney, a celebrity-led homecoming weekend held September 25 through 26 to benefit youth arts education across the city. The Children's Foundation of Michigan describes The Coney as a new annual initiative launched with Marc Evan Jackson, designed to provide immediate funding and build permanent resources for arts programs for Detroit kids, per the foundation's own announcement.
The weekend was set to culminate in a star-studded performance at the Detroit Opera House on the evening of September 26, according to the foundation. The Coney's giving model was built to address both immediate community needs and long-term sustainability, funneling support into a permanent Endowed Fund for Youth Arts at the foundation. The event was also produced in partnership with the Children's Foundation of Michigan, as Michigan Public reported.
Hawk's Detroit skateboard drops fit a broader habit of the skater showing up at local parks and even helping shape the region's skate scene. He has helped create eight skate parks in the region over the past fifteen years, according to WXYZ. For Matt, though, the connection to any of that history mattered less than the ten-minute drive and the split-second decision to check Instagram from his truck seat — a gamble that paid off with Tony Hawk's board in hand.
