Tony Hawk hails nine-year-old Canadian Reese Nelson as future skateboard star 

Skateboarders everywhere had better watch out: Reese Nelson is coming.

At just nine years old, the Canadian is tackling verts like riders well beyond her years and her slick tricks and skills are attracting attention.

In addition to making Canada Skateboard’s 2022 National Team in the park division, Nelson has caught the eye of Tony Hawk, the so-called “Godfather of modern skateboarding."

The 54-year-old stepped in to support the young talent as soon as he saw her abilities on a board:

“She’s nine years old and she is doing tricks that are extremely difficult and dangerous,” Hawk told People in response to a question about the next generation of skaters. “She really is a prodigy.”

Born and raised in Calgary, Canada, Nelson first started skateboarding at the age of four after watching her brother on a board.

“I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t skateboarding,” Nelson told Monster Children.

In just five short years, Nelson has moved from rookie to real-deal already boasting a bag of tricks that include backside hurricanes, ollie 540s front side crooks. It is little wonder why Hawk has heralded her as the “future of vert.”

To celebrate her ninth birthday, all Nelson wanted to do was skate, so Hawk joined her at a vert where the young Canadian, now based in California in the US, had just one request: that they do air overs.

And sure enough, the legend and his friends obliged.

When Nelson isn’t skating or studying fellow Canadian Colin McKay’s old vert videos for inspiration, she enjoys snowboarding out of the Canada Olympic Park as well as hanging out with her family: “I like to draw or play dolls with my sister,” she continued to Monster Children.

Though still in the single digits when it comes to age, Nelson is far from alone when it comes to being a young competitor on the skateboard scene.

At Tokyo 2020 in 2021, the women’s street skateboarding podium featured NISHIYA Momiji (13), Rayssa Leal (13) and NAKAYAMA Funa (16), making it the youngest ever in the history of the Olympic Games with an average of 14 years and 191 days.

In park, Japanese rider HIRAKI Kokona (12) took silver while Great Britain's Sky Brown (13) took bronze.

With skateboarding set to return to the Olympic roster for Paris 2024, following its success in Japan, could Nelson make it all the way to the French capital?

We'll have to wait and see.