As he prepares to defend his crown at this weekend's General Pants BOWL-A-RAMA Bondi, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk took some time away from the bowl to explore the incredible Stockton Sand Dunes in Port Stephens. We were lucky enough to spend the day with Tony, where we rode quad bikes and sandboarded down the largest continuous mobile sand dunes in the Southern Hemisphere with the man himself. Not a bad day at the office, huh?

Located just over 2 hours north of Sydney, Stockton Beach is truly something else. Tony arrived by quad bike and was immediately blown away by the desert-like terrain, complete with epic ocean views. It doesn't get much better than that. 

Tony was pretty quickly hitting the dunes on his quad. These things are steeper than photos could possibly show...

...And he realised sandboarding was the more appropriate mode of transport – at least on the way down. 

Sandboarding straight into an interview with the local TV network. 
 

Did we mention these things are steep? Some are too steep for quad bikes to navigate, which meant hiking back up was the only option. Even Tony was buggered at times...but always ready for one more descent. 

We got them angles, baby. Didn't see the TV camera guys trying this one. 

Tony had tamed the sandboard spot, so we hopped on the quad bikes again and hunted down something a little bigger...

...And we found it. 

Tony had no trouble with the steepest dunes, but some of his family members left a little worse for wear. This is no joke – Tony was gaining some serious speed on these things. 

Tony genuinely enjoyed his time at Stockton, and raved about the dunes and activities throughout our session. And we did too – this place was truly incredible, and it certainly won't be our last visit. 
 

Film: Jakob Kennedy & Tom Hackett
Edit: Jakob Kennedy
Photos: Riely Walker