All with Tony Hawk watching within the background. Yes, that Tony Hawk. It’s the situation when an 11-year-old skateboarding prodigy will get to coach with the game’s long-time GOAT.
Flip the script, and film a hectic afternoon for Nelson. Playing dress-up along with her cat, Bloody Mary, might be hectic, significantly when Mary isn’t as cooperative as Nelson’s different cat, Freddy Krueger. Then there are these events when Nelson and her youthful sister quarrel whereas taking part in with their dolls. And let’s not overlook when that sport of Minecraft has a awful ending.
Some may marvel why the aforementioned examples aren’t flipped. Playing with dolls and pets ought to be a pleasure. Doing insane methods that require a skate lingo guide for non-fans on a vert ramp standing almost 15 toes — methods the world’s greatest skate boarders try (efficiently and unsuccessfully) every day — ought to be the avoidable obstacles. For Nelson, the youngest-ever X Games medalist after final yr’s effort in California, the tougher the trick, the extra decided she is to grasp it.
She is aware of her present life-style is difficult, however she places on a protecting helmet and pads every single day to make private battles with a vert ramp appear like light-weight work. Her greatness is supported by a generational expertise in Hawk, who has dominated the skateboarding scene since turning professional at 14 years outdated. It’s her tenacity, fearlessness and relentlessness that reminds him of a youthful model of himself.
“She chooses the highest-level methods to study, and he or she follows by means of with them. At some level, she began making up a few of her personal,” Hawk stated. “I’m speaking about methods that had by no means been thought of in our realm, and he or she was doing them for the primary time on the age of 10, 11.
“She is means forward of anybody her age — or at any age, for probably the most half. It’s like she skipped the entire foundational steps in skateboarding to get to a few of the most elite methods.”
Add that unbelievable capability with tons of humility and an enthralling persona, and also you get Nelson, a happy-go-lucky skateboarder who received over followers globally at X Games 2023, earning a silver medal within the Pacifico Women’s Skateboard Vert at 10 years and eight months outdated. X Games 2024 runs Friday by means of Sunday in Ventura, Calif., and Sunday afternoon, Nelson as soon as once more will compete within the occasion and be examined on her execution of management, originality and general use of the vert ramp.
Winning a gold medal Sunday can be an honor. Competing for the love of the game, nonetheless, is what organically places a smile on the face of the incoming seventh-grader who turns 12 in November. Some X Games rivals are viewing this weekend as win or bust. To Nelson, that is nonetheless simply enjoyable and video games — and that’s OK.
Even if many skateboarding followers already think about her a wunderkind.
“Very rapidly, I might inform that she had one thing extraordinary,” Hawk stated.
Born in Calgary, Alberta, Nelson and her household moved to San Diego roughly three years in the past because of her dad’s occupation. Nelson’s family isn’t filled with skate boarders. Nobody inspired her to aim ramp methods. But as a 4-year-old, she realized to snowboard in the course of the Canadian winters, and when her household moved to California, she was launched to skateboarding and skate parks at 8.
With apply, she realized to regulate a skateboard, then she tried maneuvering on a vert ramp. That was a interest. Now, this interest has developed into one thing that’s given Nelson a highlight she by no means imagined.
“It type of simply occurred,” Nelson stated. “I used to be simply skating for enjoyable, after which I began competing. I don’t know, every thing simply actually occurred directly.”
“She’d already caught the skating bug in Canada however didn’t have plenty of services there that suited what she was desirous about, which was extra vertical, half-pipe skating,” Hawk added. “When they moved, they realized they had been within the epicenter of vert skating.”
Nelson first would study to carry out methods on small ramps. She then started working with one in every of Hawk’s associates, professional skater Lincoln Ueda, who additionally works with members of the Chinese nationwide workforce. Hawk took a telephone name from Ueda that concluded with an emphatic message.
“He stated, ‘You’ve acquired to see this little woman,’” Hawk stated.
After viewing a few of Nelson’s efficiency movies, Hawk acquired contact info for Nelson’s mom, Lindsey Bedier, and despatched her a direct message by means of social media. He invited the household to his warehouse, the place Nelson showcased her expertise in particular person.
“It was loopy. I stated to my husband, ‘Tony Hawk simply DMed me,’” Bedier stated. “Everyone thinks we moved to California for skateboarding, however we’re simply not that hardcore. It was so loopy when he DMed.”
Nelson placed on a present throughout their first encounter, and Hawk finally prolonged Nelson membership to his Birdhouse Skateboards workforce. Since then, the 2 have develop into fairly shut. It’s a businesslike mentor-mentee relationship some days, two associates appearing goofy on others.
There are additionally these days when Nelson forgets Tony Hawk is the Tony Hawk. He has a prolonged record of accomplishments, which incorporates being the first to successfully complete a recorded 900 (2 1/2 full revolutions) in 1999. Nelson’s preliminary ideas of the skateboarding legend are barely completely different from these older than her, anticipated contemplating she wasn’t born when Hawk, now 56, was the face of the game within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s.
Nelson usually is reminded of how well-known her mentor is. Whether it’s a meals run to P.F. Chang’s (rooster fried rice is her favourite) or an occasion at a skate park, if she is with Hawk, she sees how excited his fan base will get. It doesn’t imply she understands the hype. Blame timing, as Nelson was born in 2012.
“I all the time assume it’s bizarre how individuals simply come up and need footage,” Nelson stated of Hawk.
“When we first went (to the warehouse), she was similar to, ‘Oh, cool … like, let’s skate,’” Bedier added, laughing. “She had no thought.”
Hawk has a funnier interpretation of their relationship. As arguably probably the most well-known skateboarding mentor, Hawk can solely shake his head when Nelson chooses in opposition to taking his recommendation. It’s as if his many years of expertise are upstaged by the robust will of a preteen.
But in lots of kinds, Hawk appreciates Nelson’s psychological method to the game. She is aware of what she desires, and whereas she’s targeted on every day enchancment, she isn’t afraid to say no — not even to him.
“She is fiercely decided and devoted, nearly to a fault by way of she is not going to surrender,” Hawk stated. “There are occasions when I attempt to inform her issues, primary trick options: Hey, perhaps it is best to attempt to study … ‘I don’t like them.’ This might be one thing you go to as a backup. If you lose pace, you … ‘Yeah, I don’t need to do this.’
“But I’ve helped her study a few methods. I’ll take credit score for that.”
@reese__nelson 🌪️ #padup #187killerpads pic.twitter.com/oUEcYRL45X
— 187KILLERPADS (@187KILLERPADS) May 28, 2024
The center youngster of three, Nelson brings a assorted persona to the desk. She loves Eminem and can vibe to his tracks when she tries to get right into a zone. When she’s watching tv, she loves the Netflix actuality sequence “Nailed It!” in addition to different baking exhibits.
Nelson has been homeschooled in earlier years however is happy about in-person seventh grade within the fall. It’ll be the primary time in years that she returns to education with different college students.
When requested what’s extra nerve-racking between beginning center college or touchdown 540s and 720s, she didn’t hesitate to reply.
“Going to center college,” she stated. “I imply, like, I’m nervous.”
When she arrives at her new college, she’ll have tons of tales to inform. Nelson lives a cool-yet-unorthodox life that some might imagine is as difficult as one in every of her gravity-defying makes an attempt at a skate park. Even her mom calls her life “unusual,” however that’s removed from a diss. If something, it’s the last word praise.
How many individuals can say they know Hawk? How many can name or textual content the skateboarding icon at any hour? And what number of, no matter age, can say they’ve skated with Hawk and Beastie Boys member Ad-Rock on the identical day — and deal with it as “simply one other day?”
“Tony was like, ‘Hey, you need to come skate with Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys?’” stated Bedier, a fan of the Beasties. “Reese was like, ‘OK.’ And I’m like … ‘What?!’
When Nelson isn’t skateboarding, she’s learning her private favorites: Tom Schaar, the first to land a recorded 1080 (three revolutions), and Colin McKay, a fellow Canadian.
Nothing private in opposition to Hawk, proper?
“Tony is sweet, however I actually like Tom Schaar’s skating. He’s robust and aggressive,” Nelson stated. “Colin’s like that, too. Tony does good methods, although.”
Nelson additionally retains a watch on one other youth skateboarder making information as of late. Arisa Trew, a 14-year-old from Australia, final month turned the first-ever female skateboarder to successfully land a recorded 900. Trew is ranked the No. 2 feminine park skateboarder on the earth, in response to World Skate, and her 900 got here 25 years after Hawk landed the trick at X Games V in San Francisco.
“She works arduous. She’s good,” Nelson stated of Trew. “I haven’t actually thought of making an attempt (the 900).”
ICYMI … The legacy of the 900 continues!
History has been made once more and the similarities are uncanny.
First @tonyhawk landed the World’s First 900 at X Games 1999, now Arisa Trew has develop into the primary girl to land a 900 on a skateboard.
The torch has been handed. pic.twitter.com/0NqYlB9kAH
— X Games (@XGames) May 31, 2024
Nelson remains to be about having enjoyable with skateboarding reasonably than constructing the legacy her followers may push for. Hawk continuously reminds Nelson that at this stage in her life, profitable isn’t every thing. Though profitable a gold medal can be a monumental X Games achievement, merely competing within the prestigious occasion ought to be valued.
Keeping her expectations tempered arguably is Hawk’s hardest job as mentor. Particularly when it pertains to a competitor who enjoys displaying off her aggressive fashion and making an attempt strikes that include the very best levels of problem. Many occasions, these strikes are profitable. Sometimes, they miss — and Nelson is her worst critic.
“She’s very arduous on herself, (however) I need her to nonetheless have enjoyable with it,” he stated. “Her willpower and her fierceness is sort of an impenetrable wall.”
“I really feel strain, however not as a result of different individuals put it on me,” Nelson added. “I put plenty of strain on myself to be excellent and to study every thing each time. And generally, it doesn’t work, which is annoying.”
Having Hawk as a mentor helps to maintain Nelson’s life balanced, Bedier stated. Hawk has 4 kids, so he understands the pressures Nelson goes by means of as a younger competitor, in addition to the curler coaster of feelings Bedier offers with.
Hawk’s wisest phrases could persistently go to Bedier extra usually than Nelson, primarily due to the evolution of her daughter and what’s to return if she continues excelling within the sport.
“It’s been over three years. … He’s actually develop into anyone I can depend on for recommendation and help, not only for Reese’s skating, however by way of my position as a guardian, like, what I can do to help her,” Bedier stated. “His recommendation has been invaluable. It’s not nearly methods; it’s serving to us navigate the world of skateboarding.”
Sunday shall be Nelson’s time to shine, and he or she’s prepared for the highlight. But remodeling into her personal model of a superhero nonetheless is extra for the reminiscences and fewer for the celebrity and fortune.
X Games will get one other likelihood to see the innocence of a rising star. And on the similar time, Nelson could have one other shot at displaying why individuals ought to listen.
“I’m one of many older guys, however we’re speaking about 20-, 30-year-old veterans of vert skating watching her, and so they’re fully blown away,” Hawk stated. “It’s not a novelty. It’s not, ‘Oh, she’s good for her age.’ She’s simply that good.”
“It’s been a wild trip the final three years, and we didn’t search any of this out,” Bedier added. “Reese has a very good group of individuals round her. We positively hit the jackpot.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photographs: Ric Tapia / Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Images, Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times by way of Getty Images and Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
