If I’m Not Skating as Nyjah, It’s Always Going to Be Bam or Tony

Photo by Aedrian Salazar on Unsplash

Bam Margera was the first skater I ever gave a damn about. He wasn’t just some name in the lineup. He was the one I locked in without hesitation every single time I played Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. I didn’t care about stats or trick difficulty or who had the smoothest animations. I cared about who felt like skateboarding. That was Bam.

The purple hoodie. The CKY logo. The complete disregard for anything polished or expected. Bam was chaos on wheels, and that’s exactly what made him magnetic. Picking him meant you were not trying to play it safe. You were there to have fun, screw around, land something ridiculous, and maybe crash a few times doing it. And that made him real.

Outside the game, he was even bigger. Jackass, Viva La Bam, the CKY tapes that got passed around like sacred contraband. Bam took skating and infused it with this punk rock energy that made it feel dangerous, hilarious, and alive. He wasn’t just a pro skater. He was a full-blown cultural event. And for a lot of us, he was the reason we picked up a skateboard in the first place.

So, when I found out he was not originally included in the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 remaster, I was pissed.

That decision was absolutely trash. It was cowardly. It was an erasure. No other way to put it. Somebody at Activision, or wherever that call came from, thought they could just cut him out and pretend it didn’t matter. Like, fans wouldn’t notice. Like, he didn’t shape an entire era of skating and pop culture.

They probably hid behind some corporate excuse. Legal problems. Personal issues. Public image concerns. I get it, Bam has had a rough time. His struggles have been public and messy. But guess what? Skateboarding is not clean. It never was. This culture was built by people who fell down, got up, and didn’t care what anyone thought in the process. If anything, Bam’s journey is the exact spirit of skating. Raw, flawed, unfiltered, and honest.

Trying to cut him out of the game he helped define is not just insulting. It is a slap in the face to every kid who grew up watching Jackass on repeat. It’s a disgusting attempt to rewrite history just to make things look a little shinier.

And let’s be honest, if Tony Hawk hadn’t stepped in and fought to get him back in, Bam would have been erased completely. It took The Birdman himself using his own influence to force Bam into the remaster, not even as a main character, but as a secret unlockable. That alone tells you how twisted the priorities were. That Bam Margera, one of the most recognizable skaters of the early 2000s, had to sneak back in like some hidden bonus character. It’s pathetic.

Tony knew what they clearly didn’t. You cannot tell the story of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater without Bam.

So yeah, I’ll skate with Nyjah Huston. He’s my main now. He is a beast. Clean, technical, focused, a master of his craft. If I want to build the perfect line or hit a flawless combo, I’m picking Nyjah. He represents the modern form of skateboarding, disciplined, elite, and globally respected. He’s skating’s future, and he earned that.

But if I’m not using Nyjah, I’m going straight to Bam or Tony. That’s the entire shortlist.

Tony is the godfather. Without him, there is no game. There is no industry. He is the reason skateboarding is where it is today. He made it into something that could be played, watched, and respected.

Bam is the intensity. The soul. The guy who made skating feel like a full-blown personality. He wasn’t there to win medals or be polished. He was there to live out loud. To be unpredictable. To make skating fun. He reminded us that it didn’t need to be perfect to matter.

So no, I’m not going to just accept some sterilized version of the past where one of the most iconic skaters is erased for convenience. I’m glad Tony stood up and did the right thing, but it never should have come to that. Bam should have been in from day one. His legacy is not negotiable.

And if I ever have to pick someone to skate as who isn’t Nyjah Huston, it’s going to be Bam. Or Tony. Every single time.

Because they are not just skaters in a game. They are the game.