Tony Magnusson (born February 23, 1963) is a
Swedish semi-retired professional
skateboarder
Skateboarding is an action sport that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation. Originating in the United Stat ...
and part-owner of
Osiris Shoes. Magnusson gained significant fame throughout the 1980s by inventing several tricks and becoming one of the first professional skateboarders to start a rider-owned company.
Youth
Magnusson was born in the municipality of
Tyresö, located in the city of
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
. He started skateboarding at the age of 12 on a Newporter skateboard, when skateboarding was still considered "a fad".
Magnusson turned 16 and had to decide whether he wanted to go to college or continue skateboarding.
Professional career
Magnusson started his career as a rider in the United States for the
Uncle Wiggley team in 1983.
After several years, Magnusson and his friend
Mike Ternasky would form the H-Street skateboarding company, and would consult with skateboarding industry leader
George Hamad to help with its daily operation. Magnusson was fond of the
Powell Peralta
Powell Peralta is an American skateboard company founded by George Powell and Stacy Peralta in 1978. The company rose to prominence in the 1980s as skateboarding began maturing as a sport. The company featured the Bones Brigade, a team featurin ...
videos, but did not have the budget to film the videos that they did. Instead, Ternasky and Magnusson agreed to edit the videos at home and sign some of the era's most innovative skaters to the team. Names like
Ron Allen, Matt Hensley, and a fourteen-year-old
Danny Way
Danny Way (born April 15, 1974) is an American professional Skateboarding, skateboarder. He was awarded Thrasher (magazine), ''Thrasher'' magazine's "Skater of the Year" award twice. He is known for extreme stunts, such as jumping into a skatebo ...
.
His company would shoot some of the most popular skateboarding videos in the 1980s. ''Shackle Me Not'' was considered to be a turning point as to how skateboarding videos were made, and the 1989 release of ''Hokus Pokus'' featured new team members
Brian Lotti,
Colby Carter, and
Sal Barbier
Salvador Lucas Barbier or SLB (born July 12, 1969) is an American designer and creative director, widely known for his innovative and trailblazing professional skateboarding career.
Early life
Barbier was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisian ...
. Magnusson would go on to release five different videos under the H-Street name.
Magnusson was also an innovator on board design. He would design a concept called the "Hell Concave", which is a deep concave that extended from the nose of the board to the tail.
In a 1983 interview Magnusson described his first model as "a very light board that has just the right amount of flex in it. The construction is very complicated and I'm not skilled enough to explain the details."
H-Street later disbanded. and co-founder Mike Ternasky died in a car accident on May 17, 1994. After years of discussion, Magnusson and George Hamad resurrected the H-Street brand in 2008.
Other ventures
Magnusson was also one of several people who founded
Osiris Shoes. Osiris was founded in 1996, and continues to produce technical footwear that is worn by several professional skateboarders.
Other achievements
Magnusson is a five time winner of the Legends of Skateboard World Championships, an event held in Germany that he won each year from 2001 to 2005. He also placed 5th in the Legends division of the 2009 X-Games.
In 2024, Magnusson was inducted into the
Skateboarding Hall of Fame
Skateboarding Hall of Fame (or SHoF), founded in 1997, is a museum and hall of fame located in Simi Valley, California, United States. The museum documents the history of skateboarding and the skateboarders, photographers, and other notable figu ...
.
References
* https://web.archive.org/web/20130523034720/http://skately.com/library/people/mike-ternasky
External links
*
Osiris Shoes official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magnusson, Tony
1964 births
21st-century American businesspeople
Swedish skateboarders
American people of Swedish descent
Skateboarders from California
Living people
People from Del Mar, California
X Games competitors
Sportspeople from Stockholm