Mystery of X Games awaits women who reached vert finals at Tony Hawk’s Vert Alert

As the announcer counted down the qualifiers for Tony Hawk’s Vert Alert women’s finals last weekend — in reverse order, of course — 13-year-old Arisa Trew grew still. The eight women whose names were called would earn a share of the prize purse, yes. But they also would gain entry to a realm none of them had been able to access before in the world of vert.

Something called the X Games.

It’s not that Trew and the other competitors were unaware of the world’s largest action sport competition. Quite the opposite. The teen from Gold Coast, Australia, had actually already been selected to compete in park skateboarding at the X Games California on July 21-23. Women competing at the X Games in vert, though? That hasn’t happened in Trew’s lifetime. The last one was held in 2010, the year she was born.

“I’m so stoked,” Trew said Friday after qualifying second. “I hadn’t seen one, really, or even heard of it.”

Yet, she’ll be the one to beat after winning Saturday’s final at the Delta Center, where she skated against a very talented and very young crop of riders. When X-Games organizers canceled the women’s division, they cited, among other factors, a lack of interest and upcoming talent. Since then, it appears vert has had a resurgence. Rounding out the top three were 16-year-old Asahi Kaihara of Japan and 10-year-old Reese Nelson of Canada. None of the eight finalists was older than 21 and only half had competed previously at the Vert Alert.

Kaihara said through a translator that she has seen more women dropping into the vert ramps at parks. High-caliber competitions are a little more difficult to find, however, so that, more than qualifying for the X Games, is why she said she made the trip from Japan.

“It was so fun,” she said after placing at the top of Friday’s semifinals. “I was very nervous.”

With this new generation of vert women also comes a new level of skill. In the semifinals, Trew attends a school geared toward developing skateboarders and on Friday became only the third woman known to have performed a varial 540. Word around the Delta Center, meanwhile, was that Kaihara was already skating like a top-level pro.

Bryce Wettstein of California, who placed sixth at the 2020 Olympics in park skateboarding, marveled at the caliber of tricks.

“I feel like I wonder how everybody does it,” said Wettstein, who took fourth at Vert Alert. “Because everybody does it their own way.”

The 19-year-old will get to compete in her home state in vert at next month’s X Games. She said she still can’t believe it.

“Really?” she said Friday. “This is real?”

All eight men who reached the Vert Alert finals also secured a spot in the upcoming X Games. Winner Edouard Damestoy of France had already clinched his spot entering the weekend after winning X Games Japan in May. Third-place finisher Jimmy Wilkins also was already in after winning vert at the 2022 summer X Games. Moto Shibata of Japan placed second.