Episode 23 with Jimbo Hawkins aka Airmanatee
Who the heck is Jimbo Hawkins? Most of you know him as Airmantee, the skater who went viral on TikTok and Instagram for doing a backflip. For Episode 23 of the Then and Now Blading Podcast, I dig into who Jimbo is. Did you know he has been blading for almost 20 years or that he grew up skating in Kentucky with Steven Tat, Brad and Chad Anthony, and the rest of the Southern Scum crew? Jimbo worked at Woodward East for four years, perfecting all kinds of flips on the mini mega on inline skates and a scooter.
After his time at Woodward, he took several years off blading but returned to the sport to reconnect with Brad and Chad. It was Brad who first filmed and posted Jimbo doing a backflip as a joke to post on The Skate Company Instagram. That video racked up 12 million views, so they filmed a second one, which has now been viewed 56 million times on TikTok. This interview discusses how his life has dramatically changed since going viral. He talks about quitting his job, creating content, traveling, and what the future holds for Airmantee.
Since the video was posted in May of this year, Jimbo has been all over the place. He was the host of the Official Blading Cup Instagram Livestream, was welcomed into the Them Skates family, made videos with Airdolphin, was on Braille, filmed with professional skateboarders, and connected with Ricardo Lino, and much more.
Do you enjoy this podcast?
Become a Patreon Member or Make a PayPal Donation
You can watch these podcasts as videos on the Then And Now Youtube channel. The YouTube version also features video and photo overlays relevant to the conversation to make it more documentary-style. The channel also includes The Vault, Jan's collection of raw skating footage spanning from 1995-2010. Find out more about the Podcast and YouTube channel at thenandnowblading.com.
Support Then And Now through our Patreon page.
Links
- Then And Now on YouTube
- Then And Now on Patreon
- Then And Now on Facebook
- Then And Now on Instagram
- Then and Now on Twitter
- Jan Welch's Instagram
