Nyjah Skull Fracture

[layzieyez]

I’ve never regarded vert as dorky even though me skating it might look that way.

I got into skating naively thinking I could table top judo and method airs someday.

When I finally had access to an actual vert ramp, it was very apparent I was never going to be a vert champ.

I’ve done a helmetless/padless frontside 5-0 to completely miscalculating reentry meaning I dropped past the two feet of vert on the ramp somehow not slipping out when my wheels finally found the transition below.

That split second of weightlessness/helplessness/dread up higher than any gap I’ve ever skated was enough to convince me I’d never skate vert without the accoutrement of safety gear again. I surely would never have tried (and succeeded at) 10 o’clock in the Upland park full pipe without full gear on.

Anyone thinking vert is dorky has probably never dropped into an actual vert ramp let alone tried anything on the lip.

[Sedition]

Anyone thinking vert is dorky has probably never dropped into an actual vert ramp let alone tried anything on the lip.

THIS.

[GnarAlarm]

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Anyone thinking vert is dorky has probably never dropped into an actual vert ramp let alone tried anything on the lip.

[close]

THIS.

I skate exactly zero vert and the reason is...it scares the absolute ever loving shit out of me.

[Dj Paul]

KARMA

[The Huffer]

Vert is scary to skate properly. So are big handrails. I'd argue though, Vert is more controlled and predictable. I seriously think the risks are higher on the terrain Nyjah skates. So if helmets are acceptable on vert there is no logical reason they shouldn't be on street.

In saying that I also have the same  irrational internal bias against helmets and know I would not enjoy street footage as much with a helmet-wearing skateboarder while I  would gladly watch Frazier or Schaff all day on an 11' foot wooden halfpipe. It's silly and there is no real logic beyond aesthetics, behind it.

I've been wearing a lid more often, mostly in bowls. I like a full cut so I don't have to listen to anyone. It's like a little hiding place.... I feel emotionally safe more than physically safe in one.... I'm not well though.

[Mildred]

I’ve never regarded vert as dorky even though me skating it might look that way.

I got into skating naively thinking I could table top judo and method airs someday.

I was fortunate enough to have a ramp near me and thought I would like to learn vert, mainly because I was progressing and wanted to rip in skateparks with steep ramps. I bought knee pads and a helmet with the full intention of doing at least one or two foot airs out of the ramp after six months. Seemed doable.
Except vert is fucking terrifying. The walls come up so fast and maintaining speed and feeling comfortable in the weightless zone just getting up to the coping and back and again was way more intense than I wanted it to be. After six months my run was a teeny tiny frontside grind, one backside kickturn/coping plink and four good pumps in me per turn. If I ended up back upright on the deck I would stall and couldn't get over the mental block of rolling back in consistently. That was the limit for me. I sucked.
I rode a few times without pads and I never even bothered trying to hit the coping, just dropped in and turned. I enjoyed it but man other parts of skateboarding were a lot easier and forgiving than trying to skate vert. Kudos to anyone who does. I did get better at riding bowls and other ramps though.   

[potpie]

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why is it 'culturally' OK to wear helmets on a wooden vert ramp but not giant hand rails or even concrete bowls?

[close]

This may be more obvious than I think but it's likely due to vert/bowl/park skating pre-dating (hardcore trick) street skating and the park owners navigating legal culpability by forcing those wishing to enjoy their park to wear, at least, a helmet.

Vert skaters were probably like, "Oh, that's wack" at first but, you know, them's the rules. Then they just got accustomed to it. Hard to worry about looking corny when everyone's forced to look corny.

Some of them are probably glad they get to wear a helmet without any stigma, like when my gf forces me to take a shower before I get into bed. I put up a fight at first and act all put out, grumble, but when I'm laying bed, clean as a whistle, I'm kinda glad she made me take the shower.

But street skaters were real rebels. Their whole shit is illegal. Nobody's telling them to do shit. To keep the analogy up, they don't have a bed to get into, showered or unshowered. No gf giving them an ultimatum. They sleep in the streets. Ironically, they probably sleep in a dry shower in a flop house.

But, yeah, nobody's telling them shit. Because property owners don't even want them on their property at all. Street skaters are running from the cops, they don't have the regiment of some old dude (who's nice enough but also doesn't want to lose this sweet skatepark business he's running in court) telling them, "No Helmet, No Skate".

They were never forced to get accustomed to it like the vert skaters (whose alternative was not skating at all).

Dope insight, would gnar.

[Sandwich Marty]

The first time I stood on the deck of a vert ramp and looked down I was shocked that I had to lean over the coping to see where the ramp was. It was then that I knew I would never skate that shit. And I didn’t, and I won’t.

[layzieyez]

By the way, 10 o’clock at the Upland park is not at all that difficult to do since it’s a slightly downhill run.

It’s more about “do you really want to be up there?”

Your insides will feel like you’re on a roller coaster ride loop except you’re not on a track.

It’s the best worst feeling I’ve experienced on a skateboard.

So happy younger me was so determined to get near all those stickers other skaters had slapped to mark their territory in the pipe (I never had the gall to multitask existing in the oververt and laying a hand down to place a sticker).

[SatanicPanic]

NYJAH. You have nothing to prove.

Yeah no one is going to top his Need That part, calling it right now. Just like no one's ever topped Daewon's Round III part for pure manual craziness, no one is going to hit more giant handrails with more tricks than Nyjah. Not even Foy.

[benboardbreaker]

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NYJAH. You have nothing to prove.

[close]

Yeah no one is going to top his Need That part, calling it right now. Just like no one's ever topped Daewon's Round III part for pure manual craziness, no one is going to hit more giant handrails with more tricks than Nyjah. Not even Foy.

this is so true, and Nyjah should have won soty for that part. I am not into his skating, but it was beyond next level and it needs to be recognized.

[Kielwasser]

"We don’t put ourselves thru the torture and pain for money or to prove anything. We do it because it fuels our daily life."

This is simply describing an addiction.

It's kind of miraculous that no pro has ever died as a direct result of an on-the-board injury. It does seem that, if someone as  high-profile as Nyjah died while skating (or as a complication from two documented traumatic head injuries), that would truly alter public attitudes about skating.

And just like that we've already forgotten about James Hardy because this is exactly how skateboarding deals with this shit.

There are others where the role of head injuries on their trajectories just got swept under the rug. Lennie Kirk, Robbie Russo, James Brockmann. Alex Wilms is open about it. There are probably so many more.

[BenTramer78]

Expand Quote

"We don’t put ourselves thru the torture and pain for money or to prove anything. We do it because it fuels our daily life."

This is simply describing an addiction.

It's kind of miraculous that no pro has ever died as a direct result of an on-the-board injury. It does seem that, if someone as  high-profile as Nyjah died while skating (or as a complication from two documented traumatic head injuries), that would truly alter public attitudes about skating.

[close]

And just like that we've already forgotten about James Hardy because this is exactly how skateboarding deals with this shit.

There are others where the role of head injuries on their trajectories just got swept under the rug. Lennie Kirk, Robbie Russo, James Brockmann. Alex Wilms is open about it. There are probably so many more.

Not sure if it's pure speculation but I remember reading somewhere that the hill bomb head injury could have contributed to Jake Phelps' eventual death indirectly by worsening his addiction to whatever drugs he was abusing.

[idontlikeyouinthatway]

Nyjah fan to Nyjah hater to Nyjah fan again.   been a wild 15/20 years.  honestly SLAP just refusing to give the dude any credit that he's actually one of the gnarliest to ever do it is enough to make me like him, but with him continuing to just full send stuff cements the fact that he's really one of the best.

dude is a raw 100 percent street skater and the fact he is good at contests just messes with people's minds.

heal up jah, I want to see some new footy

[camel filters]

Expand Quote

"We don’t put ourselves thru the torture and pain for money or to prove anything. We do it because it fuels our daily life."

This is simply describing an addiction.

It's kind of miraculous that no pro has ever died as a direct result of an on-the-board injury. It does seem that, if someone as  high-profile as Nyjah died while skating (or as a complication from two documented traumatic head injuries), that would truly alter public attitudes about skating.

[close]

And just like that we've already forgotten about James Hardy because this is exactly how skateboarding deals with this shit.

There are others where the role of head injuries on their trajectories just got swept under the rug. Lennie Kirk, Robbie Russo, James Brockmann. Alex Wilms is open about it. There are probably so many more.

How exactly do you want it dealt with? I support anyone who wants to use a helmet, pro or not. But mandating it in street skating will not happen at least in the forseeable future. Skating champions free will. Also, marketing helmeted skaters is near impossible. Most people want to look cool. As long as AA is the poster child, that won't happen.

Now good health insurance for skaters is something people both sides of the helmet argument would agree on. Steering conversations towards that is way more fruitful than, "please wear a helmet" comments to skaters who will never change their minds.

[Cuban_Lynx]

^AA uses natural padding. && uses the bedazzled Capix

[camel filters]

^AA uses natural padding. && uses the bedazzled Capix

Someone kook me to oblivion. I'm sorry for my sins.

[Sedition]

Vert is scary to skate properly. So are big handrails. I'd argue though, Vert is more controlled and predictable. I seriously think the risks are higher on the terrain Nyjah skates. So if helmets are acceptable on vert there is no logical reason they shouldn't be on street.

In saying that I also have the same  irrational internal bias against helmets and know I would not enjoy street footage as much with a helmet-wearing skateboarder while I  would gladly watch Frazier or Schaff all day on an 11' foot wooden halfpipe. It's silly and there is no real logic beyond aesthetics, behind it.

I think it's just a matter of being conditioned. First time I saw kids on bicycles (or snowboards) with helmets I was like, "Whoa." Now it's like "Whoa" when I see them without helmets. We are conditioned to see vert skaters with gear, so it seems normal. Likewise with see street skaters w/o gear. I mean it was way more normal too see mini ramp skaters with pads back in the day, and no one really gave it a second thought.

But, someone already said it, the (street) game has changed, and things have not caught up. Look at Tommy G. street skating in Future Primitive vs. Nyjah. The risk level isn't even in the same ball park.

As to "vert being more controlled and predictable," I think there is some merit in that. Hawk recently said the reason he thinks he can still skate, at all, because he skates vert and can knee slide (e.g. pads). You can't knee slide down stairs the same way you can knee slide down a vert ramp...which is not to say that vert isn't terrifying (it absolutely is), but rather there are different types of risk factors....and vert might have more a long-game aspect to it than street hammers do. I believe that.

I think helmets are cool, and "tough-guy" egos are lame. More of heavy hitters should rock them, IMHO. But to each their own.

[planman]

Nyjah fan to Nyjah hater to Nyjah fan again.   been a wild 15/20 years.  honestly SLAP just refusing to give the dude any credit that he's actually one of the gnarliest to ever do it is enough to make me like him, but with him continuing to just full send stuff cements the fact that he's really one of the best.

dude is a raw 100 percent street skater and the fact he is good at contests just messes with people's minds.

heal up jah, I want to see some new footy

zip it up when you're done please

[SatanicPanic]

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NYJAH. You have nothing to prove.

[close]

Yeah no one is going to top his Need That part, calling it right now. Just like no one's ever topped Daewon's Round III part for pure manual craziness, no one is going to hit more giant handrails with more tricks than Nyjah. Not even Foy.

[close]

this is so true, and Nyjah should have won soty for that part. I am not into his skating, but it was beyond next level and it needs to be recognized.

I agree. Not a fan of his skating but I have to give it to him. He's the handrail GOAT and I don't think he'll be dethroned in our lifetimes.

Now for his sake I hope he stops trying to one up himself.

And I hate to be that guy, but while a helmet would have prevented a skull fracture, it's not going to do much for a guy who fractures his skull, starts skating again immediately, and then hits his head AGAIN. Like, that's how you make TBIs worse. Football players get CTE too and they're always wearing a helmet. The real answer here, and one I don't think anyone is gonna love, is that skaters need to collectively decide if we've already pushed the limits enough and to maybe consider that it's not worth it. I just don't think you can skate like Nyjah or Pedro or Foy and live a long life, helmets or not.

Does this mean I stop watching their videos? Probably not. But if I were more ethical I admit I probably should.

[alien porkchop]

 nyjah loves cops. cops love nyjah.

[outis]

I care about Nyjah Huston as much as he cares about female skateboarders and the concept of consent. People waffling on this guy is pathetic. Jamie Foy will also 5-0 a hand rail for you and without being a complete piece of shit. I hope he takes the opportunity to fuck off forever.

[Censored]

Nyjah in the hospital bed looks uncanny, reminds me of that fake Brad Pitt scam

[Cuban_Lynx]

I care about Nyjah Huston as much as he cares about female skateboarders and the concept of consent. People waffling on this guy is pathetic. Jamie Foy will also 5-0 a hand rail for you and without being a complete piece of shit. I hope he takes the opportunity to fuck off forever.

I know he was a kid when he said this and he was probably trying to act tough for Phelps, but I wonder if he's changed his tune. Think he'll ever put out a Disorder Sterre guest board?

[excitableboy]

Nyjah fan to Nyjah hater to Nyjah fan again.   been a wild 15/20 years.  honestly SLAP just refusing to give the dude any credit that he's actually one of the gnarliest to ever do   it is enough to make me like him, but with him continuing to just full send stuff cements the fact that he's really one of the best.

dude is a raw 100 percent street skater and the fact he is good at contests just messes with people's minds.

heal up jah, I want to see some new footy

Many here are begging him to reel in this madness so not sure what you're on about.
Iffy style, robotic skating, horrid fits - there is plenty to pick from but not gnarly? I can't think of a stronger consensus in all of skateboarding, really.

[ThatIsNotCricket]

A fractured jah. Awful business.

[Mike Oxwelling]

You don't have to send it anymore. 

Sincerely,

Fun

[alien porkchop]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/may/31/claude-lemieuxs-brain-donated-to-cte-research-after-nhl-stars-death-at-age-of-60

[imafugyashizup]

You don't have to send it anymore. 

Sincerely,

Fun

This. Also I get that he's too dedicated to stop, but you think he'd wanna be able to wipe himself all the way through at least his 70s, instead of aiming for this decade.

[Buttworm]

Sending>>>Wiping