Legendary skater Tony Hawk is renaming a trick with a troublesome name to better honor the deaf skateboarder who invented it

• Tony Hawk announced in an Instagram that his video game, "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater," will rename a trick called the "mute grab."
• Hawk said the trick was named after an amateur skater named Chris Weddle, who is deaf and used to be known as the "quiet, mute guy."
• Hawk spoke with Weddle, and they decided to rename the trick "The Weddle Grab."

Tony Hawk announced on Instagram on Wednesday that his video game, "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" will rename a trick called the "mute grab."

Hawk said the trick was named after Chris Weddle, an amateur competitor, who had come up with the trick, a front grab in the air. Weddle, who is deaf, was often called the "quiet, mute guy," so the trick became the "mute grab" or "mute air."

Hawk said in recent years, people have reached out to Weddle to see what he thought about the name and it became "obvious that a different name would have honored [Weddle's] legacy, as he is hearing impaired but not lacking speech."

Hawk said after speaking to Weddle, who he described as "gracious," he decided to rename the trick "The Weddle Grab."

"It's going to be challenging to break the habit of saying the old name but I think Chris deserves the recognition," Hawk wrote.

Furthermore, Hawk wrote that when he informed Weddle of the news, Weddle sent back a photo of him doing the trick in celebration, which Hawk put on his Instagram.

For nearly 40 years, we’ve shamelessly referred to this trick as the “mute” air/grab. Here is the backstory: around 1981, a deaf skater and Colton skatepark local named Chris Weddle was a prominent amateur on the competition circuit. The “Indy” air had just been created & named so somebody proposed that grabbing with the front hand should be known as the “Tracker” air. Others countered that Chris was the first to do, so it should be named after him. They referred to him as the “quiet, mute guy.” So it became known as the mute air, and we all went along with it in our naive youth. In recent years a few people have reached out to Chris (who still skates) about this trick and the name it was given. He has been very gracious in his response but it is obvious that a different name would have honored his legacy, as he is hearing impaired but not lacking speech. I asked him last year as I was diving into trick origins and he said he would have rather named it the “deaf” or “Weddle” grab if given the choice. His exact quote to me was “I am deaf, not mute.” So as we embark on the upcoming @tonyhawkthegame demo release, some of you might notice a trick name change: The Weddle Grab. It’s going to be challenging to break the habit of saying the old name but I think Chris deserves the recognition. Thanks to @darrick_delao for being a great advocate to the deaf community in action sports, and for being the catalyst in this renaming process. I told Chris tecently and his reply was “I’m so stoked!” And then he shot this photo in celebration yesterday. : @yousta_storytellers_club

A post shared by Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) on Aug 12, 2020 at 8:40am PDTAug 12, 2020 at 8:40am PDT

This September, "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" and "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2" will be remastered for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

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