Young Girl Lands 540 Skateboard Trick

She may be the daughter of three-time Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning swimmer Justin Norris, but nine-year-old Sabre Norris, from New South Wales, Australia, has already made a name for herself by landing her first skateboard trick, a 540-degree spin.Show more

Here's the story in her own words:

"My skating all started because I wasn't allowed to get a bike because we don't have a garage. So my mum bought us skateboards instead. I started from rolling down my dad's business car park. I've been skating for about 3 years. My favorite trick is a 540. I watched Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins do it on the internet, and I just had to do it. That was my 75th attempt of the day. Every time I tried one and didn't land it I put a rock on the table. It ended up being my 75th rock. I was frothing. I did some 720s too. Not proper. I called it 540 to revert to splat. I didn't cry though. My goal is to do 100 of them before this Saturday. I'm up to 75. I still can't ride a bike, but I can do a 540."

A 540 is an aerial where skater and board spin one and a half rotations in midair. They were first performed on vertical ramps and quickly became a staple of vertical skateboarding at the professional level, but they have also been performed on box jumps, pyramids, down stairs, and even on mini-halfpipes. In a 360 Spin with another 180 in there so the board almost spins a full rotation twice.It is basically a full circle and a half so if you think about it in skate lingo one example is a 540 flip where the board does a 360 Flip but keeps going for another 180 so it reaches 540 also so the tail ends up being the nose.

The video shows the young girl’s persistence and determination attempting the trick all over again but falling to her knees every single time. The moment comes when she finally manages to keep from tripping off her board, and she is absolutely ecstatic at her achievement once her success dawned on her. Sabre’s tenacity helped her to successfully complete a 540-degree rotation on a ramp in this inspirational video. After Sabre has tried the stunt several times during which she endured a few hard falls unable to cleanly land the one-and-a-half rotations on her skateboard, she wasn’t disappointed. She kept trying and trying unit she finally landed straight and firm and let out a long excited shriek.

"I can't believe it!" she screamed and then stepped off her board to take a moment to let it all sink in and catch her breath. The video shows a few failed landings, but after 75 attempts that day, Norris finally landed the 540. This talented young girl also won first place in the girl's competition of the Australian Bowl-riding Championships in February of this year and that's only the beginning of a list of goals the ambitious nine-year-old plans to achieve.