Who Will Fill Tony Hawk's Shoes?

Mar 08 2007 / Los Angeles, CA

If you wet your finger and point it skyward, you just may feel the winds of change blowing into Denver next week. Two surprisingly young skaters, Ryan Sheckler and Nyjah Huston are set to take the Dew Action Sports Tour skateboarding stage, and may well again steal the thunder from a well-established field of competitors. After the last tour stop in Louisville, these two brash upstarts have veteran boarders searching their rearview mirrors, and none of them is smiling.

For sixteen-year-old Sheckler, the stop in Louisville drove a stake through the heart of any naysayer’s. With last years’ overall championship title under his helmet, Ryan put the rest of the field on notice; crushing the Skate Park competition and wowing the judges with two solid flights in the newly included Jam Session format. Talk about planting a flag.

The second, and perhaps more astounding dark horse (if only because of his age) is another native Californian by the name of Nyjah Huston. At eleven, the dreadlocked Nyjah is the kind of phenom one might expect to find on a Romainian gymnastics team. He has all the moves, the tricks, and the polish of a superstar, only it’s hard to believe he brings it all in a package that small. In Louisville, he crushed the Open Qualifiers at the Panasonic, cinching second place in the prelims behind Sheckler.

One might wonder how these tricksters became so good, so fast? Raw talent, to be sure, simmered in a skateboarding culture that’s pure left coast.

For Sheckler, it started with his father’s old beater rail; a relic of the glory days when empty swimming pools, loading docks, and anything called a hill became an instant invitation to innovate. At age ten, Ryan won his first of many competitions in the California Amateur Skateboarding League, and through 2001, continued to shred the amateur circuit, picking up his first sponsor in eyewear maker Arnette.

VIDEO Check out this recap of the 2006 Panasonic Open Skate Park finals featuring Rya, Nyjah and Jereme Rogers PLAY >   PHOTO GALLERIES Nyjah Huston Gallery START GALLERY> Ryan Sheckler Gallery START GALLERY>

In 2003, he turned pro, and in 2004 was named World Cup of Skateboarding’s National Street champion. ’05 saw Sheckler take that honor again, along with being crowned the Dew Action Sports Tour Athlete of the Year. Impressive to say the least.

As for Nyjah Huston, the world at age eleven must seem like one giant playground. From the streets of Davis, CA, Nyjah has rocketed onto the pro circuit after claiming solid finishes in amateur competitions in 2003, ’04 and ’05, and excellent pro finishes at the ’05 Vans Downtown Showdown, the West 49 Canadian Open, and the Global Assault Street Finals. With his second place finish in this year’s Dew Action Sports Tour stop in Louisville, this wild-child’s meteoric rise seems virtually unstoppable. Where he found his moves is anyone’s guess, but one doesn’t have to look much further than his neighborhood in Davis to know that skateboarding in that neck of the woods is more cult than anything else.

But, that still doesn’t explain the depth of Huston’s talent. It’s like Nyjah is channeling the spirit of some long-departed boarder who first had the idea of dismantling an old pair of skates and screwing the wheels to plank. Watching him in fluid motion is absolutely jaw-dropping. He has a placidity and confidence that comes from somewhere far beyond his tender years, and those stellar talents will only continue to develop. All this has many veterans twice his age wondering how long it will be before Huston is looking at them through his rear-view mirror.

For a sport that always looking for the next big thing, Nyjah Huston and Ryan Sheckler my just fit the bill. One thing’s for certain: With seemingly irrepressible young guns like these two now solidly on tour, this year is shaping up to be a battle royal in the world of skate. When the dust settles and all is said and done, don’t be surprised if the last man standing is not a man at all. And he may have the wind at his back for a very long time.