13-year-old skateboarder becomes first woman in history to land 720
Tom Wood
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/Arisa Trew
A 13-year-old Australian girl made history recently after becoming the first woman to perform a 720 on a skateboard.
You can see her land the move here:
Making the achievement even cooler, Arisa Trew managed to perform the trick in front of none other than skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.
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Trew is a 13-year-old skater and surfer from Gold Coast in Australia, and she was performing at Vert Alert, a tournament set up by Hawk to promote vert ramp skating.
As part of her run in the Best Trick category at the Salt Lake City get-together, Trew managed to perform two complete spins in mid-air – for a total of 720 degrees - making her the first female to ever achieve such a feat.
Hawk himself pioneered the trick back in 1985, as well as performing the first ever 900 – one more half rotation – back in 1999.
In reward for her efforts, Trew was awarded some of the competition’s $75,000 prize.
The competition was set up to promote the vert discipline, which was recently reintroduced to the X Games for women.
Now, Trew has qualified for that contest, as well as – hopefully – inspiring others to get active and get onto a board.
Afterwards, she posted on Instagram: “I can’t believe I landed my first 720!!!
“And to be the first girl in the world to land a 7 in competition, thanks for the fun @thvertalert and everyone who helped me land it!!”
Hawk shared a video of Trew’s trick and said: “The level of vert skating continues to exceed all expectations, as @thvertalert brought out the best performances of transition skating all weekend.
“Here are just a few examples, including @arisa_trew’s first 720 that happened just after best trick and brought the house down.
“We’re still here; just look up.”
Arisa’s coach Trev Ward was also full of praise, writing: “What an amazing experience and journey it’s been with @arisa_trew to land the 720 in competition.
“We started the process not too long ago and in a few hours she was putting it to wheels.
“Then we had to head to Argentina for an @worldskatesb event where Arisa came 7th.
“We knew @lillystoephasius was super close but our eye is on the 2024 Olympics. With a bit of time off between Argentina and Rome we came to the USA to compete at @thvertalert which Arisa won.
“When best trick came I asked her what are we doing? She replied a 720."
The coach continued: “I knew Lilly would be going for it too. What an amazing scenario. The 2 best vert skaters going head to head to land the 720 in front of the inventor of the trick @tonyhawk,
“Tony was giving both girls tips on how to do the trick.
“With the hype of the crowd both girls battled for the trick and in the end Arisa landed the trick outside of time but became the first girl in history to land the 720.
“We knew it was coming soon.
“We just didn’t expect it to be on the world stage rather than on our vert ramp back home in Australia.
“Arisa has an amazing mindset and will power to succeed.
“Congrats Arisa you are amazing. Thanks to all that gave her advice.”