No one had ever done it.

No one else has done it since.

At the 1999 X Games in San Francisco, lanky skateboard legend Tony Hawk launched into the air during the final moments of his turn on the half-pipe, rotated two-and-one-half times in mid-air and then glided back to earth. The crowd of 8000 erupted; a swarm of skaters encircled Hawk and hoisted him on their shoulders. The 32-year-old professional skateboarder had just landed the impossible, physics-defying "900." The maneuver was so audacious that it made sport highlight reels and grabbed buckets of ink the next day in the papers. The "Michael Jordan of skateboarding" had once again astounded his peers and captured the attention of non-skaters everywhere. Like Jordan's game-winning jumper in the '98 playoffs, Hawk's completion of the 900 was yet another highlight in the career of an astounding athlete.

As a nine-year-old tyro, Hawk became addicted to skating when his older brother gave him a fiberglass board. At 11, he explained to his father that he wanted to quit Little League to devote more time to skateboarding. Hawk attacked skateboarding with an innovative mindset and an obsession that often left his parents sitting in the parking lots of SoCal skateparks begging him to call it a day. He picked up his first sponsor -- skateboard company Dogtown -- when he was only 12, and two years later he was riding professionally for Powell-Peralta skateboards. His teenage years were spent as a member of Powell-Peralta's Bones Brigade, an elite team of skaters who dominated contests and starred in a now legendary string of skateboarding videos. Their popularity transcended skateboarding culture, and the five young skaters became teen icons, appearing in crowded shopping malls for autograph signings and touring the world.

Raking in nearly $70,000 a year from contest winnings, royalties and demo performances, Hawk became a 17-year-old home owner. To skateboarding fans he was already considered the greatest skater the sport had ever seen. He perfected fellow teammate Mike McGill's 540-degree rotation (known as the McTwist), created new variations of the move (including the Kickflip McTwist, Varial McTwist, Stalefish McTwist and others) and pushed it forward into a 720-degree rotation. He is credited with inventing nearly 80 tricks and, until his recent retirement from the competitive circuit, won 73 contests.

Last year Hawk earned a reported $1.5 million in endorsements, while his skateboard company Birdhouse brought in $15 million. He has appeared in the Gap, Coke, Pepsi, Gillette, Mountain Dew, AT&T, Gatorade and "Got Milk?" ads and his autobiography Hawk: Occupation Skateboarder was a New York Times best-seller. His videogame Tony Hawk Pro Skater has remained on the top ten list of best-selling PlayStation games for a year, and the recently released sequel is expected to do the same. This year he launched Tony Hawk Skatepark Tour, a weekly show on ESPN.

From the SoCal home he shares with his wife and two children, the "Ambassador of Skateboarding" chats with Playboy.com about retirement, competing and the perils of being a spokesman for a sport that doesn't want one.