Sunday 24 April 2011 - 10:46
It’s our second year of #THTH and what an awesome year. Last year was a baptism of fire, being new to the whole experience and winning the deck. This year, we were hiding it and boy did we have fun!
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So what is #THTH for the uninitiated? Yes, some of you may be thinking the flood of tweets is annoying and you’re not sure what it’s all about. If you’re a tweeter or a facebooker, think of it like the first time you posted anything – you probably thought only people that have too much time on their hands tweet and facebook, but then it becomes addictive and you can’t help yourself! It’s the same with #THTH. Every year, Tony Hawk (one of the most famous skateboarders in the world) gives something back to his fans and hides a tonne of signed skateboard decks and other goodies in cities around the world. Twitter goes mad, #THTH hiders go into SAS mode and hide decks in the craziest places, and hunters (kids and adults) tread on their own grandmother to find the swag! In a good way of course.
So this year, as a fully fledged member of the London #THTH hiding team, we wanted to make it epic. We wanted uniforms, helicopters and explosions…or we could just film it and have some fun along the way, so that’s what we did.
We wanted to create a teaser to wet the appetite of UK #THTH followers so we enlisted the help of some awesome camera crew – Marc Humphreys, @jpratchett and @emmabeanies, one cool parkour guy @hamzashabazz and one unsuspecting skateboarder Aron Ross just a couple of days before the hunt.
The Tony Hawk Twitter Hunt is about having fun, doing mildly crazy things and giving back to the fans, which went hand in hand with our Guerrilla filming tactics – let’s face it, when you ask permission they always say no and a man with a tape measure, a clipboard and a high-vis jacket appears. That’s not to say we were reckless (don’t try this at home kids) and with a lot of filming experience in public places we took the necessary precautions, we even submitted filming applications, but no one responded. I follow the mantra from my childhood. A life without risk is no life at all – right?
The Wednesday before #THTH, cameras in hand, we headed down to London’s Southbank where you’ll find famous London landmarks, hoards of people and a cool skate park that was once due to be shut down, but kept open, and is now an iconic part of this area of London. We had been bombarding twitter trying to find a skater the night before with no success. On the day, I found Aron at the park and he willingly gave us 4 hours of his time to film with us. I guess the film speaks for itself and what we achieved, filming and editing in 24hrs. Our parkour expert, Hamza from Everything Acrobatic was awesome and caused some wide-mouthed responses from passers by as he somersaulted over people and objects along the riverbank. This is what the hunt was about – cool stuff, cool tricks, in a street location and the race to bag the swag.
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With the teaser complete, we were lucky enough to get a re-tweet and a follow from Mr. Hawk himself and 530 hits on the video on the first day of posting. We used the film as part of the first clue posted on the day of the Hunt. Tony tweeted the London #THTH clue, which led users to a video link that was password protected, so only fans with the password could access it. At the end of the film, they were directed to find the skatepark that it featured and a THTH fan at this location. The race was on. We positioned our guy down at southbank, in a subtle t-shirt (I told you there would be uniforms!) and we awaited our first hunter.
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20 minutes after the first clue was posted, we had our first guys. A couple whom had studied the film and assumed a southbank location – genius, and one step ahead of the crowd. They were given the next clue to the swag.
“This monumentally hot location is worth the climb to bag the swag. Tell the Tony Hawk fan that Barky sent you”
For those that don’t know, there’s a famous monument in London called “The Monument”. It commemorates the Great Fire of London in 1666 and it’s 311 spiral steps to the top with spectacular views over London.
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So the first hunters were off and the next one arrived. A skateboarder from Ecuador can you believe it. Then came a hunter on a bike. So we had a couple on foot, a guy on a skateboard and one on a bike, all racing to the next location…oh and us with camera gear trying to keep up behind them.
Now the 311 step climb is no mean feat, so we decided to send the other, fitter part of the London THTH team to the top, whilst we stayed at the bottom! After making the climb, the couple and the boarder were victorious, exhausted and elated at winning THTH 2011.
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We captured some great interviews and heart-felt stories from the winners. If you haven’t seen the film, please take the time to watch it and rate it here. THTH London UK
If you haven’t done a THTH, I urge you to find your inner child and take part next year. Special thanks goes to the London THTH team.
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