WASHINGTON — Skateboarding legend Darren Harper and his daughters, Tink and Demi, have turn into viral sensations because of their spectacular on-line movies documenting their skateboarding journeys.
Darren, who refers to himself because the “Obama of Skateboarding,” has been a long-time fixture of the Washington D.C. skating scene and is widely known as one of many first outstanding Black skaters. “I began skating once I was about eight or 9 years outdated,” Harper says. “I picked up a board once I was residing in a low-income neighborhood in Southeast D.C.” Harper credit skateboarding with serving to him escape the medicine and violence that surrounded him and says the game inspired him to forge a greater future for himself as a teen.
In October 2021 considered one of Harper’s movies caught the eye of skateboarding icon Tony Hawk, who reposted the clip on his Instagram and applauded Harper as “subsequent stage.” A couple of months later, Harper, Tink, and Demi have been shocked to obtain an invite to satisfy Hawk for dinner!
For Harper, it was a dream come true. As a teen, he says his friends idolized athletes like Michael Jordan or Deion Sanders, however his personal hero was all the time Tony Hawk. “He’s the rationale just about why I stored persevering with to push and who saved me,” he added.
Harper plans to proceed sharing the movies of his daughters skateboarding on-line and hopes Tink and Demi observe in his footsteps {of professional} skating. “The ladies find it irresistible and can proceed to try for greatness,” he says. “I might like to see them within the Olympics hopefully, if not, I nonetheless need to see them take over and be a family identify in skateboarding.”