Stumbled upon a character named Mark Gonzales; known for revolutionizing street skating. What used to be a flatland arena, has been overturned to become more acrobatic with Mark's invention of Grinds.
Got linked to a video of some of his contemporaries skating in various locations, and found some similarities with THPS level designs. This would be interesting to know what the inspiration was for those games.
Here is a 3-part documentary:
Blind ~ Video Days
Side note: Mark was born the same year as Tony Hawk (1968)