Mitchie Brusco, an American skateboarding prodigy turned virtuoso, broke both an X Games and a world record as the first skateboarder to complete a 1260 (three-and-a-half turns) on the MegaRamp in Minneapolis, USA. He attributes part of his success to landing this trick to indoor skydiving.
“There’s no denying gravity: it’s going to be a constant force,” says Brusco. “So if you’re standing straight up and you think you’re standing straight up — but in reality you’re leading 10 degrees forward without knowing it — the air is going to show you by pushing you the opposite way that you want to go until you really align yourself with exactly where you want to be."
At 15, he became the youngest skater to land a 900 (degree) on the MegaRamp. At 16, he was the first to pull off a 1080 (degree) in an X Games Big Air competition. A massive 1080 trick won him his first gold at the 2018 X Games in Minneapolis, MN. Earlier this year, at age 22, he attempted but failed to land a 1260 at the Shanghai X Games in China. Indoor skydiving, he says, gave him the edge:
“Once I started diving into the technical aspects of it, I noticed how much I was genuinely pushing myself mentally, physically, spatially.”
Read the "Skateboarder Mitchie Brusco’s Secret Weapon: Skydiving Helps Him Stick the X Games Landings" article on Mitchie Brusco and his Big Air training in the tunnel. It is written by SportTechie Senior Writer Jen Booton. Or watch Mitchi do the 1260 on ESPN.