Roughly 200 athletes are participating this Saturday and Sunday in the world's largest skateboarding competition at Encinitas Community Park. The event is organized by Exposure Skate, a nonprofit organization founded with the goal of making skateboarding more accessible.
The event attracts athletes from all over the world, including 14-year-old Arisa Trew, an Olympic gold medalist who is visiting from Australia. Trew is the definition of accomplished, with a laundry list of firsts already under her belt before even finishing high school.
"The trick 900, the Switch 540, I've won a lot of X-Games gold medals, I'm the Olympic gold medalist for park skateboarding and I've just been doing a lot of comps and just skating a lot," said Trew.
Skateboarding stories
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At such a young age, Trew is grateful she has already come so far in her skateboarding career.
"It's really cool to have done a lot of things in skateboarding at a young age because I know that I have a long future ahead of me so I can just keep skateboarding and have fun," said Trew.
Trew is also excited to be skating for a good cause. Over the years, Exposure Skate has raised $296,000 for domestic violence survivors and offered free skate classes for young girls, taught by professional skaters and Olympians.
"Exposure is really inclusive for women's skateboarding because it just shows all the girls that everyone can skate and everyone can do the skateboarding tricks and just have fun with each other and compete," said Trew.
Trew is looking forward to participating in the Open/Pro division on Sunday. Competitors will have the opportunity to win a piece of a $60,000 prize purse through the Intermediate, Advanced, and Open/Pro divisions in Street, Bowl and Vert events.
