Tony Hawk’s father-daughter no-helmet skating photo causes a tizzy

Tony Hawk is just like any other parent who loves playing with his kid in the backyard. Except that most other parents don’t have a 5,000-square-foot skate park in their backyards. And most other parents aren’t skateboarding legends.

So maybe that’s why there was an uproar over the photo Hawk posted on Instagram earlier this week of himself and 4-year-old daughter Kadence playing in the backyard/skate park. It’s a great action shot, with the two of them performing a stunt and Hawk’s caption: “Updated frontside fling photo courtesy of @msk8blake. She is learning to skate on her own, so we might not be doing this much longer.”

Some nice father-daughter fun, daredevil style. Except many people were upset that Hawk and his daughter were not wearing any protective gear, and they let him know about it on Twitter. One person wrote, “Crash, split, blood! Put a helmet on her, moron!”

Of course now there’s a backlash to the backlash, with most responders supporting Hawk and dissing the haters. “Dude it’s Tony Hawk! Relax people!!! He’s in more control of that thing than you are in your own shoes, so pipe down! @tonyhawk - good on you! Your kids look like they’re truly happy and loved. Keep doing what you’re doing!” theirishjam wrote.

Hawk responded in a similar manner by posting another photo of himself riding a skateboard with Kadence, again with no helmet or any kind of protective padding. He wrote: “For those that say I endanger my child: it’s more likely that you will fall while walking on the sidewalk than I will while skating with my daughter.”

What do you think? Are people overreacting? Or should Hawk be a little more safety conscious when it comes to his daughter?

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