VENTURA — Nyjah Huston reminded the action-sports world that he hasn’t gone anywhere.
Huston won his second Summer X Games gold medal of the weekend on Sunday at the Ventura County Fairgrounds and his 15th overall to move into a tie for the most golds in the history of the X Games.
The 29-year-old Laguna Beach resident is now even with skateboarder/snowboarder Shaun White and BMX street rider Garrett Reynolds for the most X Games gold medals, and he surpassed Bob Burnquist for the most in skateboarding.
Huston won 13 gold medals from 2011 to 2019, but had not captured one since.
“I didn’t think I was going to get it done that fast,” Huston said. “I hadn’t got a gold medal in a few years, so even just getting one this weekend was really rewarding, let alone two. So now, I’m very confident I’ll be able to beat that record some time in the next couple years.”
Huston, who will be competing for the U.S. in skateboard street at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, fell on his first trick of the contest before earning a score of 92.33 on his second run, moving ahead of Braden Hoban of Encinitas for first place.
“The first run is always the hardest,” Huston said. “You’ve got to get rid of those nerves. It’s also windy out there, so it’s not easy to deal with that wind and put together a whole run, but I think getting that fall out of the way only hyped me up more to land the next one.”
Huston’s confidence was beaming on his third run, when he was rewarded with a score of 95.00 to put more distance between him and the field.
Hoban had one more run and bettered his previous best score with a 90.66, but the 23-year-old had to settle for second.
“He’s the gnarliest dude ever,” Hoban said of Huston. “He’s one of the greatest skaters of all time, so it’s pretty cool just to see it in person. It gets everyone fired up. There’s a lot of octane flowing through the whole skatepark.”
Arisa Trew defended her titles in women’s skateboard park and vert.
The 14-year-old from Australia went down on her first run in park before landing a 540 on her second turn around the course, as well successfully dropping in off a high ledge, a move that took her down on her initial run.
She earned a score of 87.33 to move into first place and that held up through the third round.
“I was feeling really good today in my practice and then my first run I was kind of shocked about how I didn’t land my ledge because I was doing it pretty well in practice,” Trew said. “I was like, ‘Oh, what’s going on?’ But then my second run, it went sketchy again, but I was, ‘I don’t care, I’m just landing it no matter what this time.’ “
Trew returned to the vert ramp a couple hours later and edged Mizuho Hasegawa of Japan for the win.
Kevin Peraza of Tucson also defended his title in men’s BMX park best trick.
Peraza landed a backflip 180 flair whip to fakie on his third try to overtake Mike Varga and Daniel Sandoval.
“Just perseverance and failing and failing at the beginning and keep getting up and continuing to do it is why we ride BMX,” Peraza said. “To be able to stomp that in my third attempt and taking first place and being able to take a victory lap and do a Superman seat grab for the crowd and treat them to a show and take that weight off my shoulder is so, so special.”
Corey Creed of Australia won the Moto X quarterpipe high air, knocking off three-time defending champion Colby Raja of Palmdale. Creed sailed 53 feet 7 inches on the last of four jumps to better his previous leading mark of 51-10.
Raja went 51-7 on his final attempt on the lone electric bike in the contest to take silver.
Patrick Evans won the Moto X best whip on Friday night with the lone electric bike in the lineup.
Ryan Williams capped off the weekend by winning the BMX dirt best trick with Baker finishing second.