Nyjah Huston ‘loves the challenge’ of staying at the top of street skateboarding

For Nyjah Huston and other skateboarders trying to balance a career in competitive skateboarding with filming video parts, skateboarding greatness cannot be measured by medals alone.

But medals are a universal measure. They tell a story that lacks context but emphasizes a central point: medals equal dominance.

On Saturday at X Games Ventura 2024, Huston took gold in the Men’s Skateboard Street Best Trick finals after competing head-to-head against Jamie Foy, Ryan Decenzo and Filipe Mota. Hutson pulled off a perfect switch frontside heelflip tailslide in the quarter-finals, a perfect nollie heelflip backside lipslide in the semi-finals and a frontside nollie heelflip noseblunt slide to take gold from Brazilian Mota.

The gold medal was Huston’s 14th at the X Games, tying legend Bob Burnquist for the most skateboarding golds of all time. He has earned 22 X Games medals in total and is already the winningest street skater of all time.

If Huston can get another gold medal in the men’s street final on Sunday, he will tie Shaun White and Garrett Reynolds for the most gold medals in X Games history.

Huston is widely regarded as the best street skateboarder of his generation, perhaps of all time. But Saturday’s gold medal was his first in five years, when he took gold in the same event at X Games Minneapolis.

Huston’s skating is no less dominant, and his arsenal of tricks seems endless. But the 29-year-old veteran is constantly being pushed by the next generation, many of whom first picked up a board after watching Huston skate. In Saturday’s gold medal match, Huston faced off against 17-year-old Mota, both of whom endorse Nike SB and Monster Energy.

That gold medal match alone spoke volumes about the current landscape of street skateboarding. In 2020, Huston let Mota, then 13, go to his private park to film a video for Monster. Four years later, and the student challenged the teacher.

“When it comes down to it, I’m getting older and skateboarding is a very young sport,” Huston told me Saturday after beating Mota to win best street trick.

“When you look at how many people are winning, they’re really young; my easiest years as winners were from 15 to 20,” Huston added. “I have to take a step back and be proud of myself, not only because I’m still at a winning level, but also because I still love skateboarding so much and still want to progress and love the challenge.”

After accepting his gold medal, Huston headed to the booth for his skateboarding brand Disorder, which he launched in 2021. A few hundred fans waited in a line that snaked through the Ventura County Fairgrounds in hopes of meeting him and getting merchandise inked with his signature.

“I love having my own brand, being involved in the creative side and figuring out which guys we put on our team,” Huston said. “That’s the cool thing about owning a skate brand: it’s more than just selling product and making money. It’s about the atmosphere, it’s about the skaters and who’s actually part of the crew, it’s about putting out video parts — and I have a video coming out soon, so I’m really excited about that. It’s cool to just do things like sign autographs, meet fans, and get people to buy product.”

In 2021, Huston launched a Disorder board with custom Olympic graphics that he rode in Tokyo. In Paris he will ride his new Uncle Sam design. That deck, as well as a few other Olympic graphics, will be available for purchase soon.

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Huston turned pro at age 11. Since then, he’s dealt with the “usual stuff” when it comes to skateboarding injuries: sprained ankles and heel bruises. But he didn’t have his first surgery until August 2022, when he tore his ACL, creating a hole and grinding up a handrail.

When healthy, the absolute longest Huston has been off his board is a week. While rehabbing his torn ACL, it was four months and 12 days before he could even attempt a kickflip.

“I wasn’t sure if I would ever feel this good on my board again,” Huston said. “I wasn’t sure if I would still have the same confidence.”

It took hours of physical therapy and a holy amount of patience, but Huston was not only back in shape on his board, he’s feeling as good as ever on it. As he approaches Paris 2024, for which he qualified with the conclusion of the Olympic qualifying series in Budapest earlier this month, he can’t help but think back to where he was, physically and mentally, ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

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During training a few days before the Tokyo street competition, Huston tore a ligament in his wrist. It didn’t require surgery, but it hampered his skating enough to contribute to his seventh-place finish, despite being the gold medal favorite.

But as much as – or more than – the injury, Huston had put enormous pressure on himself for the Tokyo Games. Instead of putting his best foot forward — and Huston is known as a closer who delivers when the stakes are high — it derailed his Olympic dream.

“I think overall since then I’ve gotten better at taking care of my body, eating healthier and going out less, especially lately,” Huston said. “It’s life; you gotta enjoy it too, and all my friends are always trying to go out and have fun, but I’ve been sober for a couple of months now and so I’m going to be at peak health for the Olympics.

But before the Olympics, there’s the X Games street final – and the opportunity to take one win and become the all-time X Games gold medal leader. Given how badly he wants a podium in Paris, Huston needs to limit injury risk at the X Games. But the competitive fire that burns within cannot be extinguished.

“I think skating competitions are the best practice, so it’s worth taking that risk to practice for the big Games coming up,” Huston said. “And it’s just — I like competing, you know? Even if I don’t have the hardest run and I don’t win every time, I still have fun competing and I still know that it makes me a better skateboarder.”

While it would mean a lot to tie White and Reynolds for the all-time gold medal record, Huston isn’t putting too much pressure on himself to do so at this X Games. He’s confident he can skate at this level for “a few more years” and that he’ll get more opportunities.

That’s harder to say about the Olympic Games. The following summer, the Games will be held in Los Angeles, home of Houston and, overall, the birthplace of skateboarding. But a lot can still happen between now and 2028.

Huston is now ready to seize the Olympic opportunity that lies before him.

“I’m trying to go into Paris without putting as much pressure on myself as I did last time in Tokyo, because it was a lot… it was a lot to deal with during the race and it was a lot to deal with afterwards,” Huston said. “When it comes down to it, I’m trying to go out there and be a little bit more relaxed and have a little bit more fun these days.”