Nyjah Huston On The Discipline Behind Dangerous Street Skating

Trying to influence more people to, you know, get outside and be active and make the most of their daily life. And that's not me saying that you have to go out there and skate some massive handrail and crack your skull like I did. I mean, like, whatever makes you more simple than that, right? Yeah, it can be more simple. There's so much more to life. Like, even just getting out and going on a going out on a nice walk and going on a hike or picking up a hobby can be anything. Welcome to Forbes Talks Shop. Today, we're joined by Olympic skateboarder Nyjah Houston. We chat with him about the incredible way he bounced back from injury, his Rastafarian upbringing, and his plans for the 2028 Olympic Games. Nyjah, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm very pumped to talk to you about all the cool things you have going on. You got a lot going on. Let's jump right into it. Yeah, let's do it. Thank you for having me. What are you most excited about right now? Man, still riding my skateboard. Truthfully honest, though, it still excites me so much, especially street skating and skating around new spots around the city. I mean, that's the main reason why I'm here in New York for the next few days is filming, working on some big projects, one of them being for Nike that's going to come out at the end of the year. So yeah, it's just hitting up all the amazing, famous skate spots. And I actually haven't spent too much time skating around specifically New York area before. So there's a lot of stuff I'm excited to check out. How do you find your spots? Well, you get inspiration from watching all the skate videos of your homies and the skaters that I look up to and are hyped on watching. And then also you got your friends from out here, from all over, the filmers, the photographers, and kind of a mix of everyone that gets together and really, really knows all the best stuff to hit. Do you have a favorite spot in the world to skate? If I'm going to spend all day just cruising around, having fun with my friends, filming stuff for Instagram, more of a mellow day, it's going to be UCLA. I actually had a really good day skating UC San Diego yesterday. There's a lot of good spots there too. But then if you're wanting to go for something serious and really hard and dangerous, then got to throw out the Hollywood High Rails. It's at a Hollywood high school and it's one of the most famous skate spots in the world. Just depends on what vibe you're going for. Yeah. Feeling dangerous or not. I mean, I'm not going to lie. Some days you wake up and you just want to go for something crazy. Really? Dangerous, yeah. And how did this all start in the beginning for you? Walk me through your journey. So my dad skated back in his teenage years. And when he had me and my brothers and my sister, we all grew up skating. I'm one of five. We're all two years apart. I'm the middle child and grew up skating with my brothers and they were really good too. But I was the one that was willing to put in the time by myself. And I didn't always need my brothers around or I didn't need friends around to want to be on my board. I would literally wake up in the morning and skate for hours in our little obstacles in the yard that my dad built. And then my mom would have to like beg me to come inside and eat breakfast and do my schoolwork. And then I'm skating all day. And then same thing at night, I'm just like doing the same trick a hundred times in a row in my garage. So I guess I just had that discipline and dedication to it from the get-go. I know you travel a lot. You just flew in from California. How do you package all this gear and travel with it? You have all your equipment, your skateboards. Do you travel with multiple? Walk me through how you get all that stuff from coast to coast. Yeah, it is funny. I was actually just thinking about that right now because my hotel room wasn't ready. And I have my massive bag laid out in the bathroom and I'm trying to get ready to come here and do this. And I'm like, I'm only here for a few days. Why do I have such a big bag? But you really do need a lot of stuff. Multiple extra boards. You need a big bag to fit boards in. Extra, basically extra everything. Extra trucks that are already broken in, which is like the metal part of the skateboard that you grind on. Extra wheels. All the wrist guards. Thicker insoles in case you skate something that's super high impact. A bunch of wax. Skate tools. All sorts of clothing that's ready for any weather, any situation. So yeah, it's a lot of stuff we got to pack. And then there's also like the physical therapy side of things. So it's like the Normatec boots, the muscle gun, my little like scraper tool stuff, and just anything that I can do myself physical therapy on to allow myself to be able to skate the next day basically. The Normatec boots are also not that small. You know, you can fold them up. Those are a mission. And what kind of massage gun? Theragun. That's a lot of stuff. Now, speaking of other stuff, because now you have your clothes too, you're known maybe just as much for your style as you are for your skateboarding. How would you describe your style? People love your fashion. I describe my style as, I mean, pretty casual laid back, but also not afraid to mix it up with the different types of pants or colors or hats or whatever I'm wearing. And really that's what skateboarding is about. And I think that's really one of the best things about the culture is everyone has their own style. Everyone has their own different fits that they wear. Everyone has their different physical style on a skateboard. And it makes it so creative and makes it so much different than most other sports out there. What is one piece of gear that could be clothing or accessory that you refuse to wear if it has a single scuff on it? And what's one thing that actually looks better once it's been thrashed? My cars. Oh, your cars. Okay. Yeah. My cars. Those things got to be on point. If I scrape my rim, which rarely happens because I'm a good driver, if anything like that happens, I'm like, oh my God, I got to take my car to the shop immediately. But yeah, I'm always down to rock some worn out gear. I think that's just kind of the skate vibe. We talked about hotels a little bit in traveling. You said Normatec Theragun. Is there another tool that you travel with that allows you to turn your hotel room really into a pro athlete recovery space? A TV setup. Especially when I travel overseas and staying at random hotels that don't have Netflix and stuff, I got to have my little Roku plugin or something. That's how I let myself finally be able to relax at the end of the day because I'm just not really a lay around, relaxed type of person. Really? Yeah. Most of us skateboarders aren't or athletes in general, but even my mellow days at home where I don't have anything to do, I'm just always on the go. Even if I have absolutely nothing to do, I'm probably just walking around Laguna Beach, getting some exercise in. But yeah, when it comes to jet lag and especially being overseas, having to wake up at a certain time for my contest and stuff, TV is my time that I can finally let my brain start shutting off a little bit. What does Nigel Houston watch on TV at night? Are you watching skateboard videos? No, no. I can't watch skate videos before I go to sleep because that'll just get my mind going. I'll be like, oh, I need to skate that spot. I need to try this trick and that's the last thing I need. So if anything, the skate videos are more to start the day and get the hype going. If we stripped away all of your current sponsors and high-end tech and you had to go to a local skate shop with $100 to build a complete emergency rig, what specific parts are you prioritizing to still perform at an elite level? First, I'm going to have to go with the trucks because that's what is allowing the board to move the right way and turn correctly. It's got to be the right height. It's got to be the right width. You have to grind a certain way. That's the main part of your board where if you switch up to a different brand, it's really hard to get used to because a lot of people will skate the same pair of trucks. I'm even skating the exact same pair for the last six months. I'll have to switch out little bolts and parts here and there, but for the most part, I skate a pair for a long time. Whereas the skateboard, especially if I'm skating around the city, skating rough ground and whatnot, and skating hard, I'm bored a day. If you're really trying a trick for a long time, hours straight, and it's rough ground, you need a new one the next day. Wow. To be able to skate your best the next day, you need a new one. I did not know that. Crazy. It's pretty crazy, yeah. Wow. Skating is a mental game. It's 90% mental. Do you have a digital tool, a playlist, a meditation app, even a voice memo habit that you use to reset your brain after a heavy fall? After a heavy fall, the most important thing for me is to start getting active again as soon as possible. The longer I lay around and I'm not doing anything, it makes me dwell on the situation. It makes me stressed out that I'm not doing everything I can to get back on my board. Speaking of that, I had an insane fall right before New Year's. Yeah. It fractured my skull and my eye socket as well. I'm pretty sure my eye socket just got fractured because I hit my head that hard that it just shook my whole face. Oh, man. But yeah, this is a good example of that, where I was fortunate enough to not have any surgeries or really injure anything else aside from really bad whiplash and whatnot. My brain was rattled for a couple months after that. But once I was able to walk around again, I was on my feet because I'm not going to lie, I was like a zombie in bed for a whole 10 days. Yeah. But then I was like, all right, I can walk. I'm good. I don't have any serious injuries. So then I was like, all right, I'm going to start going on some hikes. And then a few days later, I'm like, all right, I'm going to skate some flat ground. Really? And my physical therapist and my friends and stuff, they're like, dude, what are you doing? Chill out. I'm like, I'm a good enough skater that I know that I'm not going to hit my head again skating flat ground. So you just got to obviously be smart about it. But I feel like, especially with a brain injury like that, if you're still committed to your sport and what you're doing, it's important to get through it quickly instead of letting yourself think like, how am I going to feel once I get back on my board after months of not skating? And then at that point, you're just going to be more scared to skate big stuff again. And then I also feel like I'm a believer where brain injuries like that, you need to start using your brain again. And even the neurologist told me, he's like, yeah, back in the day, people used to think that you're supposed to just lay in a dark room and sleep to heal your brain. But really, it's the opposite. You're supposed to get out and be active and be using your brain again. Well, it's incredible that you have that passion for the sport that after an injury like that, you never thought twice about being like, I can't do this again. Instead, you're like, baby steps. I'm getting back in there. Yeah. No, honestly, I never think twice about it because what a lot of people don't realize that really don't know how skateboarding works is there's so many options of things for us to skate out there. If after a fall like that, I was like, okay, you know what? I don't want to risk that happening again. I'm going to obviously still skate because it's the thing I love the most, but I'm just going to skate benches and lower impact things that I'm not risking my life on. But I'm not at that point yet. I'm still down to risk my life. You're still down. I'm still down. Yeah. I feel like you're always going to be down. I'm not going to lie. Yeah. For as long as humanly possible. Yeah. Seems on brand. Looking at the kids coming up now, what's one piece of technology available to them like high-speed phone cameras that you wish you had when you were 10 years old? A funny struggle I remember being younger was more from my dad because he was always the one taking me skating. Every weekend we basically skate the skate park every day of the week. And my dad was like always on my ass about practicing every single day. And then on the weekend we go street skating. So I'm from Davis, California, small town, 20 minutes away from Sacramento and an hour from SF. So those would be the main places we would go skate. And I remember him always struggling with the maps. He would have a physical map and be like, all right, like we're looking for some random spot on some corner behind a building or some random elementary school, like the most random areas you can think of. And he's just like, all right, where do we go? And I'm like, oh man, it would have been a lot easier if he has had the Apple maps or Google maps or whatever. And now a word from our sponsor Helix Sleep. 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That's so bad. Formal though. Yeah, and I dressed up. I wasn't dressed like a skater, let's say that. But yeah, going to things like that, especially not just being a skateboarder, but also being the person I am and the way I was raised, very humble, very simple, Rastafari lifestyle. So if anyone's seen any photos of me when I was a kid, I had dreads down to my butt. They were so long. I didn't cut them until I was 16. And that's the lifestyle I was raised around, was spending a lot of time out in nature, living out of an RV with the whole family a lot of the time, doing a lot of road trips. Very simple, wholesome living. I'm just a simple guy. I like that. Simple, straightforward. Yeah, I really don't need much. What is the first item you purchased after winning a medal? Did you buy something to signify and celebrate that? After winning the Olympic medal? No. I knew you were going to say that. Honestly, I can't even say that I went home and I guess I kind of celebrated after getting the bronze in Paris. Looking back on it now that it was two years ago, I think I should have done a better job being proud of myself instead of feeling down about it because it's the competitive side of me that is having a hard time leaving. Even though I tell myself these days, I'm like, damn, I've had such a long career as a skateboarder, but especially a contest career because I skated my first X Games pro contest when I was 11. That's insane. Yeah, it's crazy to think about. Then I started winning my first pro contest when I was 15. I went on basically a crazy winning streak for the next seven, eight years. Now as these older years start to come on, I have to remind myself, all right, skateboarding is a really young sport. If you look at the majority of people who went out there, they're pretty young. For example, the kid who's been winning the most the past couple years is, I think he just turned 16. Yeah, it's crazy. Then I have another little homie named Julian. He actually skates for my skateboard brand called Disorder Skateboards. I'm helping bring him up a little bit, but he's also been absolutely killing it. He's only 16. It's tough though. It's tough to reach that point and be like, all right, can't keep winning forever. It's not going to last forever. You can keep winning for now and do your best now, right? But yeah, back to the Olympics thing. I mean, obviously so stoked to be able to bring home any medal from my country, USA, and just even being out there, being able to represent my country was something that's so new for skateboarding and a very special feeling. Overall, that's my favorite part about the whole process. Can we expect more from you in 2028? Are we thinking about another Olympics in the horizon? I would love to skate 2028. I'm really stoked that it's in LA, basically my hometown. I mean, I've spent so many years living in LA. I live in Laguna Beach now, but just got rid of my LA place a year ago. Spent so many years living up there, so many friends up there. Probably spent more time throughout my life street skating in LA than any other city in the world. And the reason why I'm so stoked that it's there is I need that extra motivation to be like, all right, I really want to qualify for this. Because the whole qualifying process, it's a mission. It takes a while. It's about to start up actually next month, the first one is in Rome. So it's like a whole couple years of skating these events and battling against all the little young guys. The little young guys, I love it. All right, what's the number one question you get in your DMs from your followers? I get very often just people asking if we could just meet up and skate. Which I think is cool because it goes to show how casual the skateboard scene is and how people even feel comfortable enough to ask that. And it makes sense because I'm often posting about how I'm more than willing to go to some random skate park that I've never been to. Even by myself, I'll go to skate some random park and just hang out with the locals and cruise around. Also at skate spots, like I was just doing that yesterday at UCSD, just like saying what up to random kids and stuff. And I think that's a really special part about the skateboard community is, I mean, you don't see that very often in other sports. The biggest guys just like hanging out with their fans at the local spots. Oh, that's very cool. Yeah, something that I'm proud of as a skateboarder. And let's talk about, you have a deodorant line. I want to hear all about that and how that started. Yeah, deodorant line, brand new, just launched about a month ago. It's called Out There. And let's first get into the name. I had a lot of involvement with everything as far as the brand goes, but especially the name and the vision and the lifestyle of the brand. As soon as we locked down that name, I was so stoked on it because it really matches me well as a person. It's trying to influence more people to, you know, get outside and be active and make the most of their daily life. And that's not me saying that you have to go out there and skate some massive handrail and crack your skull like I did. I mean, like whatever makes you more simple than that, right? Yeah, it can be more simple. But whatever makes you stoked in life, you know, just really encouraging, especially this up and coming generation to spend less time on phones, on screens, like even just getting out and going on a nice walk and going on a hike or picking up a hobby. It can be anything, but just spending time outside, you know, using your body, being thankful to be healthy and be able to move your body and work out and whatever it may be. So yeah, that's really the inspiration behind Out There. And then you also got, let's say like three years ago is when I started realizing kind of that almost every product that we were using is bad for us. I feel like it was kind of that time where everyone started catching on. And deodorant was one of the last things where I was like, oh, like I never would have even thought that this would have been harmful for my body. And then we had a couple scent meetings where we'd get the whole team together and go through like every scent you could think of. And the ones we landed on are so solid. Like I'm really proud of everyone. What are they? What's your favorite and what are all the scents? All right. So my personal favorite is called Tonka Amber. It's kind of like a woodsy smell, but also has that amber vibe to it. It's one of the more like manly scents. We have five total. One of them is a Japanese Shiso Moss. That one's like the most unique one, definitely unisex. And then Pinewood Mint is another favorite. That one's just like more of a classic, very like fresh, clean vibe. We have a Santal. And they're all aluminum free, clean, and they actually work and smell great. It actually works and it's good for you. I mean, the aluminum wasn't an option for me because like I said, the past few years I've been on my little health journey where I take all my vitamins every day. I'm switching up all my products all the time, looking for the healthiest stuff. So I wouldn't have been down for the aluminum. My favorite part about out there and really being a part of this brand and backing this brand and having it be my own is the vision behind the brand and really encouragement of getting people outside and living a healthy, full lifestyle. But yeah, aside from that, I'm really proud of our product. We're going to play a game called Go Bag and you're going to tell me three products you're bringing to each of these events. The 2028 LA Olympics Training Camp. What are three products that you're bringing? Training Camp. Okay. So I'm going to go with some headphones. What kinds? Some AirPods. I actually still use the classic old Apple AirPods. Do you? Yeah. For some reason they fit in my ear so well. Okay, great. Yeah. I guess I'd have to say my muscle gun. Yeah, you're going to need that for training camp. Yeah, I'm going to need that. And then let's go with wax, skate wax. That's how you make things slide and grind better. Three products you're bringing to a secret street session in Rio de Janeiro. So for the street session, we're going to bump up the sound and we're going to have like a solid Bluetooth speaker. Oh, okay. I'm serious. Yeah. Street session out in Rio, skating all day. We're definitely going to need some out there. Oh, yeah. I'm going to have some deodorant on deck for that one. What scent would you bring to Rio de Janeiro? Rio, I'm going to go with the Pinewood Mint. Nice. Yeah. I feel like that one, like the cleaner, fresher scent makes more sense for the really hot weather. And then a third one, I'm going to bring a backup disorder skateboard. Okay. Yeah. Just in case, you know, those boards get messed up fast. They break sometimes. So gotta be ready. Three things you're bringing on a cross-country flight. iPad, eye mask. What kind of eye mask do you use? It's just like a random like silk one from Amazon. It's nothing that special. This question is fresh since you're just off the plane. Yeah, true. I mean, I guess I'm going to have to say snacks because like I always got like a cookie or like dark chocolate or something on my flight. I always stop at Air One before my flights. So I always got like some solid snacks. Nice. Some fruit. Yeah. And then final question, three things you're bringing to Coachella. Sunglasses, phone charger, power bank, and chapstick. Chapstick? Yeah. I'm going to get dry out there. I'm going to need that. That's a good point. All the essentials. Yeah. It really is though. Thank you so much for joining us today. This was so fun and it was so great to chat with you about everything you have going on. Very excited to see where you go next. Thank you. Appreciate it. We've linked Nyjah's go-to products below so you can explore them for yourself. And if you want more conversations like this, hit subscribe and join us for the next episode of Forbes Talks Shop.