Hawk, who is to skateboarders what Maradona is to football, arrived 5pm at the local skate park to the roar of about 100 people who had been tipped off by text message an hour before.

The 40-year-old Californian and his team kicked off their Australian tour last Saturday in Melbourne, then flew to Brisbane. They made surprise stops at skate parks on the drive down from Brisbane to Sydney.

“No-one really knew he was coming, so there weren’t as many people as you’d expect for a visit by someone like Tony Hawk,” Hallidays Point 17-year-old James Whitty said.

“A lot of people were surprised. It was mainly a word-of-mouth kind of thing.”

For Hawk-eyed fans, there had been clues on the star’s Twitter profile.

“Back on the road, heading for Forster SK8PARK. Should be there around 5. We chose to drive so we could hit some parks along the way. Werdup,” he wrote last Tuesday, followed by “it’s Tuncurry, not Forster. Thanks for the correction. Dumbass seppos”.

Hawk lit up the Tuncurry bowl with his trademark hand plants and drives, which were familiar to skaters and some witnesses who lost large chunks of their high schooling to the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game series.

“I mainly know him through the games,” Whitty said.

“It was pretty cool, because he skates just like the video game. He was happy to do photos, pretty relaxed and laid-back, but I didn’t want to go up to him. He must have hundreds of people come up to him every day.”

Hawk flew out of Sydney for Los Angeles on Saturday.