A Gold-Coast teenager has made history by becoming the first female in history to land a ‘720’ in competition.
Arisa Trew, 13, made the two full mid-air rotations at the Tony Hawk Vert Alert in Salt Lake City over the weekend in front of skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, who was the first person to land the trick more than three decades ago.
“I’m so excited to be the first girl to land a 720 in the world,” Trew said after she won the women’s division. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the crowd hyping me up.”
Trew’s coach, Trevor Ward, said Hawk, 55, helped the young teenager with her preparation for the trick.
“It really was an amazing thing,” Ward said. “We’ve worked really hard to get Arisa to this point right now. Just a lot of training, a lot of pain and she came through with the goods on the biggest stage in the world.”
“She did the 720 which Tony Hawk did in 1987 (1985), that was the first time to do it. And now she is the first woman in the world to do it, which is unbelievable as a 13-year-old.”
With her latest accomplishment, Trew’s Olympic dreams of winning a medal at the Paris 2024 Games is looking more likely.
Trew, who names fellow female skateboarders Sky Brown, Ruby Trew and Sabre Norris among her favourites, has been competing at a professional level since 2021. The competitions have taken her around the world, including Tony Hawk’s Vert Alert, World Skate Championships and X Games.
Earlier this year, she told skateboarding publication Slabzoo her dream has always been to become “a pro, getting sponsored and go to the X Games.”
Currently ranked 14th in the world, Trew, who began skating at 7, trains at the Level Up Academy & Training Facility in Queensland, a centre founded by her coach.
Trew will complete at the X Games USA in California next month.