Arisa Trew

Gold Coast park skater Arisa Trew was catapulted into the spotlight in June 2023 when she pulled off what has been described as the holy grail of her sport: becoming the first female athlete to land a 720 in a competition setting.

For the uninitiated, Arisa explains what a 720 is: “A 720 is when you come up the ramp backwards and spin two 360s in the air and come back down forward on your board.”

Arisa, ranked 14th in the world, landed the two mid-air rotations at the Tony Hawk Vert Alert in Salt Lake City, USA.

“All the pros were coming over and congratulating me and hugging me and cheering me on,” Arisa said. “It was crazy and the crowd was so loud.”

Arisa, 14, started skating as an eight-year-old, but only because the water was too cold to surf.

“I started because I used to surf a lot and one year it got too cold in the water so we basically just went to land and I started skateboarding,” she said.

“I could always skate just on the flat ground and my Dad … me and him would double on the long board on the Esplanade. But then we went to a skate park and I started to skate on the actual ramps.”

Initially skating was just something Arisa did for fun. “I didn’t take lessons, I would just go up to the skate park after school,” she said. “There weren’t any other girl skaters, either.”
But when a new girl in town turned up at the skate park, Arisa had a friend and someone who encouraged her to work on her tricks.

“We became really good friends and she pushed me and that’s when I started getting really good,” Arisa said.

Her career went to another level when her parents, encouraged by her coach Trevor Ward, agreed to let her complete high school through the Gold Coast-based Level Up Australia Academy, which combines elite coaching with home schooling. 

“I love skating with my friends because we can all hang out and learn tricks together, especially landing tricks and learning them,” Arisa said. “It’s the best feeling ever when you can land it.”

Shortly after pulling off the 720 in front of Hawk, Arisa landed it again as she took home the gold medal in the vert competition at the X Games in Ventura, California.

Arisa is now among a group of young Australian female skaters who are regularly making it to the podium at international skating events and are among the leading medal contenders for Paris.

She nailed down her place at the Games by winning back-to-back gold medals at Olympic qualification series events in Shanghai and Budapest in 2024.

“It’s just so crazy right now I don’t even know what to say but I’m so excited,” said Arisa. “Winning both the OQS events has given me a lot of confidence, but I’m just having fun every time I skate.”

When she’s at home she still likes to go surfing “two or three times a week and at weekends”. 

Arisa and fellow Australian skating prodigy Ruby Trew are not related, but the pair are good friends and enjoy making jokes about their shared family name. “We just tell people we’re cousins, even though we’re not,” Arisa said.