essays & effluvia: Dreadlocked Skater

Monday, July 17, 2006

Dreadlocked Skater

Great photo

The kid's eleven . . .

Excerpt:

Sliding along ledges, curbs and railings on his skateboard has been mere child’s play for 11-year-old Nyjah Huston, skateboarding’s youngest professional. For his next trick, however, Huston, a sixth grader from Davis, Calif., must negotiate the demands of sudden success and attention, obstacles that have derailed several sports wunderkinds.

Soaring on his board, his long black locks trailing, Huston resembles a small plane pulling a banner ad over the beach. The message is likewise hard to miss.

“The kid is special,” said Don Bostick, president of World Cup Skateboarding, the sport’s main sanctioning body. Bostick, who has seen scads of top skaters during a career spanning three decades, said: “When I watch Nyjah, I’m amazed at how good he is. It’s mind-blowing.”

When asked to forecast Huston’s future, however, Bostick offered one caveat: “If he can make it through his teen years, I think he’s the future of street and park skateboarding.”

At the Dew Action Sports Tour’s second stop Friday night in Denver, Huston placed second in the park finals, an event in which competitors perform maneuvers — like flipping their boards while in midair — on a course consisting of ramps, rails and other obstacles meant to mimic urban terrain.

He turned pro this season so that he could compete on the Dew Tour. Skating against boarders twice his age, Huston has earned enough points to rank third in the season points race with three events left.

Although park and street skaters have tended to be somewhat younger than other action sports athletes, Huston’s swift success has raised eyebrows.

“We haven’t seen anything as young as we have in skateboard park, with Ryan Sheckler at 16 and Nyjah at 11,” said Wade Martin, general manager for the Dew Action Sports Tour. “In other disciplines, like BMX vert, the average age of the athletes is probably 30 years old.”

Source:
Navigating a Pro Career and the Preteen Scene, Skateboarding
MATT HIGGINS
NYTimes, July 17, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/17/sports/othersports/17board.html