Between Boardslides and Burnout: My Notes from the Road

Beneath a scrim of grungy, distressed-looking design motifs, skateboarding superstar Hawk presents a tour diary of his most recent trips around the world, from the X-Games to the Fox Teen Choice Awards and back again. Written in the dopey drawl of the diehard extreme sportsman, Hawk's diary extols a lifestyle of predictable thrill-seeking (donut fights in the RV, singing along to gangsta rap), in the end painting a portrait of a nice guy with not very much to say. With less-than-gripping sentences such as ""The course looked fun, so I decided to skate a little,"" and ""The crowd was huge as we walked in, and the street demo was exciting,"" the diary is largely an excuse for splashy graphics and photography, neither of which are delivered to much effect. Many of the photos are merely headshots of Hawk in far-flung locales, and the design looks like Raygun magazine circa 1996 at best. In the wake of the recent skateboarding documentary Dogtown and Z Boys, however, which turned self-promotion into an extreme sport of its own, this volume may well find an audience in the desperately-sought-after youth market of wannabes.