Aussie skate legend Renton Millar is hosting the upcoming Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 Ultimate Jam. The event will feature three formats for THPS competition, best trick attack, highest score single combo, and speedruns. Registration for the event is open until the 29th of June. The Ultimate Jam, presented by esports team Order and Fuel TV in partnership with Activision and 7plus, will be broadcast from the 24th of June.
For over a decade, Renton Millar competed in international skate competitions against the best in the world, winning of the “Oi” Jam in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Trimtribu World Cup Rome, Italy, and the 2009 World Cup Vert Points Championship.
More recently Renton Millar has been focussing on local development of skateboarding in Australia. His company Shredability organises skateboarding events and competitions, and also provides workshops, lessons, demos, and skatepark consultancy.
As part of the promotion for the upcoming Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 Ultimate Jam, Renton shared some of his thoughts on Australian skate culture, THPS, and the Ultimate Jam tournament.
With your experience skating internationally at the highest levels of the sport, can you share any tips with the esports competitors for managing pre-competition nerves?
My tips for competing are to work hard training, and just go for it in the competition. Also, do your best to enjoy competing, and not put too much pressure on yourself. You have to have some fun, and that is the foundation of really turning it on, you have to enjoy it.
Are you currently working on any exciting projects with Shredability that you would like to share?
Winter is downtime, so at the moment I am doing a lot of planning for the Summer. I have a lot to organise with competitions all over Australia, and a lot of teaching skateboarding. I’m very fortunate, I get to skate a lot.
What advice would you give to gamers who may want to try skateboarding for the first time?
Just try and enjoy it, and treat it just like playing around. It really is just like playing. The more you play the better you get. The better you get, the more fun you have, the more fun you have, the more you skate, and that process repeats. But to start the process you just have to muck around and have fun. It starts with fun.
What do you think is the next step in the evolution of skating in Australia?
It’s going to be interesting because Australia is fairly advanced because we have so many great skateparks, they are everywhere. I think the next step is seeing girls really step up and start ripping, and have a proliferation of girls skateboarding. Last year, we began to see it, but I think the wave is just starting. It’s really cool.
What up and coming skaters in Australia should we be keeping our eyes on?
Wow, there are a lot. I just ran a competition a few weeks ago, King Of Concrete Brunswick, and we had Keefer Wilson, Jett De Haan, Noah Bardas, Zara Johns. They killed it. There are heaps of really young ones coming up too. Skating is exploding at the moment and the talent coming up is insane.
Do you have the opportunity to play video games? Do you play THPS? If so, who are your favourite skaters to play as, and do you have any favourite maps?
I just got the new Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, and I haven’t got too far out of the warehouse, although I really like playing that level because it brings back memories of the first time when the game just came out. I was in Germany in 1999, staying at a mate’s house who worked at a skate mag. I think he got it free even before the game was released to the public. We played it as soon as we could and the days quickly became about skating all day, and then playing the video game when we were too tired to skate. That happened for a long time. The game never got old and the new version is just as rad.
So far I have just been playing as Tony Hawk, but in the past I really liked playing as Bob Burnquist and Bucky Lasek.
What are you looking forward to most at the Ultimate Jam tournament?
I’m looking forward to seeing the insane combos that people come up with. I had a sneak peek yesterday and prior to watching it, I thought I was good at the game. I used to play it all the time back in the day. But after watching the clip I realised some of the people playing in the tournament are on another level – they were so good.
Submissions are still open until midnight June 29. So, please head to https://order.army/THPS//.
