Nine-Year-Old Skateboarder Casually Pulls Off Three 900s In A Row In Front Of Tony Hawk

Getty Image

It’s been 25 years since Tony Hawk became the first skateboarder to land a 900, a feat that only around a dozen people can currently brag about pulling off. That list also includes Ema Kawakami, who recently became the first person to land three of them in a row at the ripe old age of nine.

On June 27, 1999, Tony Hawk checked off a bucket list item that was a decade in the making by landing the first 900 (the equivalent of two-and-a-half rotations) during a vert competition at the X Games around a month after he celebrated his 31st birthday.

It was an iconic moment in skateboarding history that only a handful of people have been able to replicate on a vert ramp at a competition. The stakes have since been raised on a big air ramp (Tom Schaar pulled off a 1080 in 2012 before  Mitchie Brusco did a 1260 at the X Games in 2019), but it’s still an incredibly exclusive club to be a member of.

Over the weekend, Hawk was front and center at the Vert Alert competition that was held in Salt Lake City for an event that featured  Ema Kawakami, a nine-year-old from Japan who’s only been skateboarding for five years.

It’s safe to he’s learned a thing or two over that span, as he put on a truly wild show for Hawk and everyone else who’d gathered inside the Jon M. Huntsman Center at the University of Utah by landing not one, not two, but three 900s in a row to become the first person to ever go back-to-back-to-back.

Kawakami had previously teased what was in store by doing two consecutive 900s during a run the previous day, and while his feat wasn’t enough to earn him a spot on the podium when everything was said and done, it’s clear he has a very bright future ahead of him.