Ao Nishikawa Makes Skateboarding History With Terrifying Trick on Tony Hawk’s Ramp

Skateboarding progression is nothing new—it’s simply part of the game. But every so often, something comes along that’s almost impossible to comprehend. This was one of those moments.

Tony Hawk and Vert Alert recently hosted an “Ollie 7 NBD” contest, encouraging anyone brave enough to pull off a no-grab 720 to step up to the challenge, and Japanese young gun Ao Nishikawa happily accepted. The clip has been making waves the last few days, but in case you missed it, here you go.

Ao etched his name into skateboarding history with this one. Having legends like Bucky Lasek and Bob Burnquist there, alongside Tony himself was just the icing on the cake. This is as real as it gets—a major leap forward for transition skating.

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I don't want to take any of the much-deserved shine away from Ao, but since we're here, can we just take a second and appreciate the fact that it's the start of 2026 and The Birdman is already out there learning new tricks? Insane. Tap that post above and see for yourself. Okay, back to Nishikawa.

Over the past year or so, Ao has built a reputation for forward-thinking skating and a straight up fearlessness to test new limits on his board, and this latest accomplishment reinforces his role as one of the most exciting skateboarders to watch right now. There was nothing mellow about this. Truly unreal.

"People wanna argue and say, 'He's smaller and spinning is easier,'" Tony says before setting the record straight: "This shit is hard."

Congrats, Ao! This is absolutely incredible. Skateboarding is evolving at such a rapid pace! Hold on tight, y'all! It's only going to get crazier.