LEGENDS NEVER DIE: TOM KNOX ON SKATE PIONEERING AND THE ART OF THE GRIND

At Moya Brand, we’ve always believed that the mat isn’t the only place where character, discipline, and flow are forged. The parallel lines of street culture and martial arts run deep in our DNA. That’s why we are incredibly proud to sponsor a true pioneer who embodies this lifestyle to its absolute core: Tom Knox.

For those of us who grew up studying skate videos in the late '80s and early '90s, Tom Knox is royalty. He is the man who literally helped rewrite the rules of street skating. But what makes Tom a perfect fit for the Moya family goes beyond his legendary status on four wheels—he’s also a high-level Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt who has been quietly dominating the mats for decades.

Recently, Santa Cruz Skateboards released an incredible retrospective video diving into Tom's legacy. It’s a masterclass in what it means to dedicate your life to a craft.

Rewrite the Rules: From Speed Freaks to the First Kickflip Wallride

If you skated in 1989, your world was changed by Santa Cruz’s seminal video, Speed Freaks.

Before that era, skateboarding was heavily dominated by vert. Street skating was still finding its footing, often viewed by major companies as a secondary discipline. Then came Tom Knox. In his iconic video part—filmed entirely in a single, organic day of skating around Visalia, California—Tom unleashed a rapid-fire barrage of technical street tricks that people didn't even have names for yet.

"I had no idea that video part filmed 37 years ago would still be relevant today." — Tom Knox

Among those tricks was the first-ever kickflip wallride caught on film at Redwood High School. It was a moment of pure, raw progression. While the industry was trying to figure out where street skating was going, Tom was already there, transferring vert-inspired lip tricks onto curbs, ledges, and brick walls.

The Perfect Counterweight: Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, and Preventing Burnout

While the world knew Tom as a street skating phenom, his foundation in martial arts actually came first.

Tom began training Judo at just four years old. As his skate career exploded in the late '80s and early '90s, martial arts remained his anchor. Eventually, that path naturally evolved into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

For Tom, BJJ and skating have always been two sides of the same coin. They exist in a perfect, symbiotic balance:

• The Mindset: "I can go skate to take my mind off jiu-jitsu. I can go do jiu-jitsu to take my mind off skating."

• The Discipline: Both subcultures demand an obsession with repetition. You don't land a technical trick or sweep a tough opponent on the first try. It takes hundreds of hours of falling, adjusting, and trying again.

• The Battle: In BJJ, you fight another person. In skating, you fight gravity and concrete. Both require you to conquer your own mind first.

Tom didn't just transition into BJJ as a hobby; he applied the same competitive fire that made him a pro skater. He achieved the #1 ranking in the world for the IBJJF Master 4 division out of over a thousand athletes. Since 2008, he has run his own academy, guiding the next generation of youth and young adults into world-class black belts.

Coming Full Circle

Today, Tom Knox has achieved the ultimate dream: living a life fueled entirely by the two things he loves most.

The pressure of the industry is gone, replaced by the pure joy of the movement. Whether he's teaching a killer class on the mats or heading out to the local curbs to make sure he can still "ollie up three stairs" (a personal benchmark he plans to keep until he's 65), Tom represents the very best of our community.

He is a reminder that style, longevity, and respect are earned through years of showing up and putting in the work.

We are honored to have Tom Knox representing Moya Brand. Check out the full Santa Cruz retrospective to see the history behind a true dual-threat legend, and join us in congratulating Tom on a lifetime of pushing the boundaries.

Keep grinding. Keep rolling.