It was a sunny day in Fremont when Nola Gass, 10, and Micah Pyo, 12, excelled at the NorCal Amateur Skateboard League’s Nov. 12 competition held at the Fremont Skatepark. Both kids came back home to Santa Clara with first place medals.
Competing with three other skateboarders, Gass won first place in the Vert/Bowl category for girls ages 8 to 12.
“For my first run, I did a melon grab backside air, which is standing on your skateboard and using your left hand to grab behind your heel and then hopping and doing a 180,” Gass said. “I also did a 360 bertslide where you ride on your board and put your hands down on your ramp, and while the wheels are on the ramp, you do a 360 slide.”
Gass said she has been skateboarding for a little more than two years. She likes celebrity skateboarder Sky Brown and is working on copying Brown’s stalefish frontside airs.
“I practice mostly six days a week, sometimes seven,” Gass said. “On Fridays, I skate for four hours at Lake Cunningham. I like the creativity of skateboarding. You can make up your own tricks.”
Pyo competed against four other skateboarders at Fremont Skatepark and won first place in the Vert/Bowl category for boys ages 8 to 12.
“At the contest, I did a backside melon, which is going up and out of the bowl and then going into the bowl and grabbing the bowl behind your back heel,” Pyo said. “I also did a frontside indy, where you go up in the air and your back is turned to the bowl, and you grab the bowl between the front of your two feet.”
With four years of skateboarding experience under his belt, Pyo skates almost every day.
“My favorite skateboarder is Jeromy Green,” Pyo said. “I like that Jeromy does death-defying tricks that seem impossible. I try to copy most of his airs because he goes super high and he has a lot of style while doing that.”
