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Arisa Trew Nails a 900

14-year-old Arisa Trew just became the first female skater to land a 900. She calls it “a dream come true” on Instagram.

Discussion  3 comments

Matthew Haughey

That’s so goddamned rad! I love that kids are breaking barriers on what’s possible on a skateboard. Young people today didn’t have to grow up in the 1980s with dudes gatekeeping the sport.

I love that a bunch of teens from Brazil and Japan in both the men’s and women’s competitions are doing stuff that blows away everything that established long-time stars of the sport can even do.

Monica

Love this comment. As a girl who tried my best to skateboard in the early nineties amidst a bunch of dudes whose biggest burns involved calling each other “little girls” and “pussies” and who refused to take girl skaters seriously, this made me cry.

That said, it is worth noting that enhancements in decks, bearings, trucks, wheels and the evolution of vert ramps (material + specs based on physics stuffs etc) give today’s skaters a solid advantage over their eighties counterparts. Still, what they're doing is incredible.

There's a nice parallel to mountain biking in there. California hippies who wanted to ride bikes in the mountains in the 1970s began Frankensteining motorcycle parts onto regular bicycles. Fast-forward to now, when you've got some folks on mountain bikes that cost ten grand tricked out with high-end components that will naturally outperform anything from the past.

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Barbara Roseman

I love her response to completing it. She's like, "Did I really do that?," and then the sheer joy of the other girls. So wonderful.

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