The name Tom Schaar rings a bell doesn’t it? Well, if you remember rightly, I spoke about Tom recently and how he landed the world’s first skateboarding 1080 over the pond at Woodward. If you didn’t read it, then read it here.

We all knew that this was the start of something special. It only takes one person with one new trick to blow the sport wide open, so it was no surprise that when he landed the 1080, the sport was going to be keeping an eye on him. The great thing about skateboarding is that not every competition has a mega ramp so the 1080 won’t be seen in your local skate park. One event that consistently has the mega ramp is the X Games and most recently, X Games Asia.
It’s one thing to land the 1080 in conditions purpose built for you but he must have been practising hard as this is the trick he took to competition hoping to win the gold. And win it he did!

Impressive doesn’t really cover it. He managed to beat Bob Burnquist by a clear 10 points, and Bob is a seasoned veteran in comparison. Does this mean that in any mega ramp events you’ll see Tom Schaar throw down the 1080? No one else has come close to this yet and all he’ll have to do will be to rock up, land it, leave with the gold. Although it’s still stunningly impressive it doesn’t do much for competition. At least in snowboarding the double cork was perfected by other riders, not Shaun White. This added a competitive element to the events whereas we might just see a 12 year-old taking the gold in every mega ramp competition until someone else can replicate.

Not taking anything away from the kid though, it’s f*cking impressive. Maybe it’s just jealousy? Either way, kudos to Tom Schaar.