Does Tony Hawk smoke weed? What he and Nyjah Huston have said

Does Tony Hawk smoke weed? The last time he spoke about it publicly, he said no. On Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast in June 2024, Maher asked if he had ever skated baked. Hawk said he smoked a little when he was younger, “and it really affected my skating negatively,” so he stopped, because skating was the thing he had. That is his 2024 account; we have no newer statement.

It is one of the more candid answers a famous athlete has given on the subject, and it cuts against the old picture of the stoner skater. Here is the exchange in context, what Nyjah Huston has said about growing up around cannabis, and what the anti-doping rules say now that skateboarding is an Olympic sport.

Last reviewed: November 2026.

Does Tony Hawk smoke weed? The Club Random exchange

The conversation got to weed by way of doping. Maher and Hawk had been talking about Lance Armstrong, and the talk turned to whether anything gives a skater an edge. When the stoner stereotype came up, Hawk agreed it had some truth to it, “especially in the 80s.” But skating now is far more diverse, he said, and it is in the Olympics, so people are very serious about it. They work out. They are sponsored by Nike and have those resources.

Then Maher asked directly: “You never were baked when you skated?” According to a third-party transcript of the episode, Hawk answered: “No, no, I smoked weed a little bit when I was younger, and it really affected my skating negatively.” He said he was so fixated on skating that he decided he could not do it, “because this is what I have, this is what I do.”

So the full answer is a little weed as a young pro, a bad effect on his skating, and a decision to put skating first. He did not lecture anyone else about it, and nothing in the episode suggests he has picked it back up.

Why so many people ask about Tony Hawk

Hawk is the most famous skateboarder alive, and for a lot of people he is the only one they can name. According to Guinness World Records, he became the first person to land a 900, two and a half airborne rotations, in competition, at ESPN’s X Games Five in San Francisco on June 27, 1999. Three months later, on September 29, 1999, the first Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game came out and put him in front of a huge audience that had never stepped on a board.

Skateboarding grew up as an outsider sport, and weed was part of its image for decades. Searches like this one are really asking whether the biggest name in the sport fits that picture. His answer, in his own words, is that he tried it and it did not fit him.

If the game is how you know him, our piece on cannabis and video games covers that side of the culture.

Does Nyjah Huston smoke weed?

Nyjah Huston has not said in any interview we found that he smokes. What he has talked about is growing up around cannabis. In a Highsnobiety cover interview with Brock Cardiner, ahead of skateboarding’s Olympic debut in Tokyo, he said: “I was always around my dad growing weed when we grew up, that was his source of income.”

He told the story of a hard childhood. His family never had much money. They spent years in Puerto Rico, where he did not even have a good place to skate, and his father pushed him onto big rails when he was eight or nine. When his parents divorced, he moved back to Davis, California with his mother. He was 15 when he won the first Street League contest, a $150,000 prize, after Rob Dyrdek helped cover the family’s hotel.

Asked in the same interview whether he had to cut back on partying as a competitor, he said he would be cutting back before the Olympics to be in his healthiest condition ever. He went on to win bronze in men’s street at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

What the anti-doping rules say about cannabis in skateboarding

Olympic skateboarding falls under the World Anti-Doping Agency code, and USADA’s marijuana FAQ lays out how cannabis fits. WADA prohibits natural and synthetic cannabinoids in competition only. CBD was taken off the list in 2018, according to USADA’s summary of the 2018 list. THC is the one cannabinoid with a threshold: labs measure carboxy-THC, its main breakdown product, in urine against a 150 ng/mL threshold, and every other cannabinoid except CBD is banned in competition in any amount. None of this works as a personal clearance rule.

WADA reviewed the cannabis listing in 2022. Its committee found no rigorous evidence that cannabis enhances performance, but kept it on the Prohibited List because it judged cannabis a health risk to athletes and against the spirit of sport. USADA adds that the rule applies to every athlete covered by the code regardless of the state they live in, so California’s legal market changes nothing for a competitor.

The list narrows on January 1, 2027: UK Anti-Doping reports that natural minor cannabinoids such as CBN and CBG come off it, while THC and its psychoactive mimics stay banned in competition. Amateur contests and local jams set their own rules, so check the event before you enter.

Skateparks, cannabis and California law

California lets adults 21 and over buy and use cannabis, but the DCC is clear that you cannot consume it in public places, and a city skatepark is a public place. Private parks and indoor facilities set their own policies.

Hawk’s experience matches what the CDC says about recent cannabis use: it can affect attention, movement and coordination. Skate sober, and never drive after using cannabis; the DCC responsible-use page covers impaired driving. For anything you buy, the label is the final word, and effects vary from person to person.

If you want to talk products, the budtenders at your local Vibe store can walk you through the menu. None of the skaters named here has any connection to Vibe.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Club Random: Tony Hawk episode listing
• Club Random Tony Hawk: transcript (podscripts)
• Highsnobiety: Nyjah Huston cover interview by Brock Cardiner (before Tokyo 2020 Games)
• Guinness World Records: first 900 on a skateboard
• Nintendo Life: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 25th anniversary (2024)
• Sports Illustrated: Jagger Eaton, Nyjah Huston win silver and bronze (Paris 2024)
• USADA: marijuana FAQ
• WADA 2026 Prohibited List
• UK Anti-Doping: 2027 Prohibited List summary of changes
• CDC: cannabis and brain health
• DCC: what is legal
• DCC: responsible use
• USADA: 2018 Prohibited List, summary of major changes

For adults 21+ (18+ with a physician’s recommendation in California). Keep out of reach of children and pets. Do not drive or operate machinery after use.