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USA Skateboarding placed executive committee member Neal Hendrix on interim suspension Wednesday amid allegations that he had improper sexual contact with an underage skateboarder.

According to ESPN's Alyssa Roenigk, 25-year-old professional skateboarder Julie Lynn Kindstrand Nelson alleged that she performed sex acts on Hendrix upon his request when she was between the ages of 14 and 15.

Hendrix, who is now 45, was in his early 30s at the time of the alleged abuse.

Per Roenigk, Kindstrand Nelson detailed the allegations in a six-page letter to the Costa Mesa Police Department in California on Oct. 11 before also providing the letter to espnW, the U.S. Center for SafeSport, the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Hendrix is now under investigation by the Costa Mesa Police Department.

In the letter, Kindstrand Nelson wrote that Hendrix "masturbated in front of her, photographed and took videos of her while she was naked and showed her pornography involving underage girls."

She went on to write that Hendrix began bringing her back to his apartment for what he called "sex lessons" after meeting her at a California skatepark in 2006 and becoming her skateboarding mentor.

"I wanted to make sure that everybody in the skateboarding community is aware of what's going on," Kindstrand Nelson said. "For so long, so many people turned a blind eye."

She also offered a word of warning to young girls in sports:

"My experience with Neal was very traumatic. It has taken me several years to process what happened to me and many more years to find the courage to stand up and say something. I hope that other young girls who dream of being competitive athletes do not suffer the same fate. As young athletes, girls are very susceptible to sexual predators."

Kindstrand Nelson turned pro in 2007 under the name Julz Lynn, and she is planning to continue competitive skateboarding.

During her career so far, she most notably won bronze in skateboard park at the 2013 X Games.

Hendrix began skateboarding professionally in 1991, winning five career X Games medals.

Currently, Hendrix is the worldwide brand manager for action sports company Camp Woodward, but he has been placed on administrative leave amid the investigation by Costa Mesa police and SafeSport, an organization that helps sports entities with handling allegations of sexual abuse.

To celebrate his 50th birthday on Saturday, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk made a video in which he did 50 tricks that he created over the years.

As seen in the following video, courtesy of RIDE Channel, Hawk did all 50 tricks in succession and celebrated by tossing his helmet at the end:

While Hawk was clearly exhausted, he proved he could still get the job done 36 years after turning professional.

Hawk is arguably the most popular and recognizable extreme sports athlete of all time. He completed the first known 900 (two and a half turns) in the sport.

He is also a hero to millennials due to his Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video game series, which debuted in 1999.

Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Koxa has been crowned with the honour of riding the biggest wave ever.    

According to the Associated Press (via ESPN), the World Surf League confirmed on Saturday that its judges measured the wave Koxa rode on Nov. 8 in Nazare, Portugal, at 80 feet in height. He bettered American Garrett McNamara's 2011 record by two feet. 

Per the AP's report, the World Surf League made the announcement at the Big Wave Awards in Santa Monica, California, and it said: "Not only did Koxa win this year's honor [for biggest wave], but he now holds the Guinness World Record for the biggest wave surfed."

SURFSlab provided a stunning image of the record-breaking wave:

Congratulations Rodrigo Coxa, winner of the XXL Biggest Wave Award Photo: @rfarinox #surf #gobigorgohome #bigwaves #bigmama #surfing #BigWaveAwards #surfers #wsl pic.twitter.com/z64SMUYt4i

— The Surf Slab (@SURFSlab) April 29, 2018

Koxa said the award was "a dream come true."     

Samarria Brevard is many things. The 24-year-old SoCal native is a top female skater, an emerging style icon and a history-changing figure in a sport that has not always been kind to outsiders.

The “Serena Williams of skateboarding” can make a half-cab (aka Ollie 180) off a nine-stair look easy, make your grandma's bucket hat feel cool and make her way to the podium at the X Games, where early this year she became the first African-American woman to medal in the contest's 22-year history.

It was a monumental, career-making achievement. And as we approach the end of 2017, things don't appear to be slowing down for Brevard.

Last week, she turned pro for Enjoi—a seminal skateboard company founded in 2000 by street-tech genius Marc Johnson. The week before that, iconic shoe company Etnies welcomed her to its heralded skate team and announced a Samarria Brevard signature shoe. These are all firsts for an African-American woman.

What could possibly come next? Bleacher Report caught up with the hard-training, overalls-donning pro to talk high tops, professional pressures and what it's like to be a black woman in a sport historically dominated by skinny white dudes. 

Bleacher Report: The big news is that you just officially joined Etnies. These days, that team is so talented it's comparable to the Chicago Bulls in the '90s.

Samarria Brevard: Yeah!

 

B/R: And now you're a part of it.

SB: Etnies was one of the teams I wanted to get on as a kid. It's legendary. Their shoes always fit well and had STI foam padding [Etnies patented insoles] and all around were just really good shoes. Right now, the whole team is epic. Ryan Sheckler. Nick Garcia. Chris Joslin. Matt Berger. The team is stacked right now. All those dudes are so, so good.

 

B/R: Let's set the scene. When did you get the call?

SB: When I was back at home after the X Games. On my last run, I landed a Tre Flip [360-degree/full-cab kickflip] down the eight [eight-stair drop]. I was really pumped on that one, and ended up in second place. I made it home and they called that week.

 

B/R: Now you get to work with the Etnies STI lab to help design your own shoe. Any ideas so far?

SB: On my signature for the shoe will be my name and a dragonfly.

     

B/R: A dragonfly? Not exactly a gnarly skate symbol, like a hawk skull or a bulldog's head or a pentagram or something.

SB: I chose the dragonfly for my symbol because they're so colorful. I feel like they embody the aura of my soul.

 

B/R: Any other ideas?

SB: We have worked on some colors and a signature insole for a new team model coming out in 2018. It's pretty similar to the high top and I'm thinking cream or something having to do with red. It's a new mid top coming out in the spring that's probably most similar to the Jameson Vulc in a cream color. It'll probably be similar to the the Vegan high top I always skate, the Jameson HT.

 

B/R: And speaking of the HT—you seem a big fan of high tops, even when low-cut shoes are ruling the skatescape.

SB: [Laughs.] Yes!

 

B/R: Why high tops?

SB: I just personally like anything that's got a higher cut. Plus, I like basketball shoes. Right now, my favorites are the [Etnies] Jameson high tops, the Begans. Those shoes are super dope. They fit real nice on my foot, and there's the higher ankle support, plus you've got another barrier of protection, which is good. I've rolled my ankle a bunch, and it hurts.

 

B/R: The first hightop era stemmed from '80s basketball. You hoop, right?

SB: For eight years, four years before I started skating.

 

B/R: Is there any overlap between basketball and skateboarding?

SB: Footwork. At practice, we'd focus on ... where our feet should be. That's translated over to skating pretty well. Also, being flexible. Allowing your muscles and joints to stretch helps reduce injury. Every day, every practice, we all line up and stretch together.

 

B/R: Do you have a training regimen outside of skating?

SB: Yes. I have a trainer now, and we focus on strengthening my legs, so a lot of jumping exercises.

 

B/R: What did you wear to the gym? Basketball sneakers? Cross trainers? Not skate shoes?!

SB: I work out in Etnies Betas. They're super light with really comfortable padding for your feet. But back in the day, I didn't have other workout shoes, so I'd wear some Lakais.

 

B/R: There's a great shot of you flying over a nine-stair wearing red sneakers and a matching hat. Do you think about what to wear when skating?

SB: Oh, yeah. Whenever I film, I'm always trying to look the best I can. And I definitely don't know what my style is, but I want to look as cool as I can, at least to myself.

 

B/R: You're the first black woman on the Etnies team, so that's obviously new, but simply as a female skater, did you always feel a little on the outside?

SB: Growing up, I was definitely the only girl doing it. Going to new parks, it wasn't hard because I had my brother and his friends. Usually, people were surprised, but in a good way, like "Oh, she actually skates. That's dope."

 

B/R: Things have changed, haven't they?

SB: The amount of support that's coming out right now is amazing. Girls are skating a lot more. The stands are starting to fill up, and even just cruising around, you see girls a lot more. They're choosing to skate, and they could choose anything, like a bike or scooter. But they're choosing a skateboard. It's definitely growing in all types of ways.

 

B/R: Did you ever feel different because of your ethnicity? There are black skaters, and female skaters, but not a lot of black female skaters.

SB: If anyone ever had a problem, they never confronted me about it. Riverside has a good cultural mixture. There's a little bit of everything around here. The people that I came up around, we were a good group and it was just all about the skating.

      

B/R: It's a cliche that turning pro at anything—art, music, sports—can be both a dream and somewhat of a nightmare. What's it like to be a professional skateboarder?

SB: It's a new realm. There's definitely pressure. I'm not going out with friends as much to film—I'm going with the Etnies dudes and meeting people from the company. And that's because you have to get stuff done, you have to film. There's deadlines and all the pressures that come with that. But it's not pressure to a point where I can't handle it, because it's something I've done all my life. It's all about your work ethic. As long as you're doing what you need to do, the pressure's not gonna get to you.

 

B/R: You're training every day, but not at skateparks, which are ubiquitous where you grew up in SoCal.

SB: Honestly, I'm just over skateparks. I've been to so many, and they're fun, but it's nothing like the street. On the street, you have so many different dynamics that make it that much harder, but when you land a trick, it makes it that much more satisfying.

 

B/R: Let's end on what I know is a sensitive note. How do you feel about the whole "Serena Williams of Skateboarding" thing?

SB: I was not ready for that. It was something my friend put out there, and ESPN ran with it. I mean, am I really her caliber?

 

B/R: So how do you feel?

SB: Honored, obviously. It's Serena Williams. She's the greatest.

      

Cole Louison (IG) is a researcher at Bleacher Report and the author of The Impossible: Rodney Mullen, Ryan Sheckler, and the Fantastic History of Skateboarding.

Occasionally, a skateboarding genius or two could land something like an ollie inward 360 heelflip, but not off the drops (“hucking”) or high hips that Christopher “CJ” Tambornino favored. And never with the same hard grace as the red-bearded kid from the Twin Cities, a kid whose bright sneakers, big smile and lax posture seemed in tune with the pride and pleasure he and his audience felt as he rolled away, once again, from the impossible.

His unseen melding of tech chops, creativity and raw power was mesmerizing. His tricks were beautiful and often had a perplexing wait-a-second impact. Most people needed repeated and many-paused viewings just to start figuring out WTF they were even looking at.

“He had a wildness to his skating that somehow didn’t go with how technical his tricks were,”  Rodney Mullen tells Bleacher Report. One of sport’s founding fathers, Mullen invented the flat-ground ollie, kickflip and numerous other fundamentals. “The combination is what made him so special, along with how genuinely hard his tricks were.”

But this special skater, like so many young men—even young athletes—reached a common end.

Early one morning this summer, CJ’s father, John Tambornino, reportedly found him unresponsive on the sofa at the home they shared in Minneapolis. John called paramedics and the police at 5:32 a.m., and CJ was pronounced dead on arrival.

Two months later, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office in Minneapolis ruled his death an overdose of prescription drugs. Tambornino’s death certificate lists the manner of death as an accident and the cause as “mixed tramadol, alprazolam, and methadone toxicity.”

An opioid OD.

The crisis sweeping the U.S., from West Virginia to Florida to Washington, is, too, in the skateparks of Minnesota.

It’s unclear if Tambornino had a prescription for any or all of these drugs. Tramadol and methadone are both opioid narcotics (painkillers). Alprazolam is a benzodiazepine (sedative) often used to treat anxiety. The Minneapolis Police Department and the medical examiner’s office declined further comment.

Deaths from opioid overdoses have quadrupled since 1999, and more than half involve prescription drugs, according to the most recent full-year data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The highest death rate is among people ages 25-54.

CJ was 30.

He was born in Minneapolis on January 10, 1987, and started skating around age seven. It’s unclear when he got really good, or when his skating became his skating—a style all its own, with no-complies and flip tricks executed in and out of already hard stuff done at gritty street spots. Here came together the power and technical chops of guys like Mike Vallely, Stevie Williams and Lewis Marnell with the balletic creativity of skaters like Richie Jackson and Chris Haslam.

One early sectional clip features a crew-cutted redhead, rolling up, into and then away from an apparent no-comply into a one-footed bluntslide. A waterfall of comments followed the clip:

Well that was f--ked . . .

Is he from the future . . .

Who is that guy?

That guy was 21 in 2008, when an independent video called Boondoggle featured a full part of Tambornino ripping in the way only he could and introduced the world to a new young talent. More videos followed, and sponsors came calling. Soon he was riding for institutions like The Hundreds and Team Nike, with tech gurus like P-Rod and Marnell.

By then his skating had also caught the eye of Mullen, who invented the flat-ground ollie, kickflip, 360 flip and virtually every staple in the modern skateboarding arsenal. In 2003, he founded Almost Skateboards, whose small team of riders are the sport’s Navy SEALs. Soon, Tambornino was one of them.

“Over nearly 30 years, there are only a handful of skaters whose sponsor-me videos were so powerful that I called them personally,” Mullen says. “CJ was one of them.”

He was proving himself to be both a powerful tech skater and a creative force. A rare hybrid, his skating was growing harder, higher and faster, and all the while edging its way up to a level no one else could touch.

Then came 5-Incher. In 2012, Almost Skateboards dropped its first video in nearly 10 years. Not since 1992’s Questionable had a collection been so ahead of its time. And like that video, 5-Incher featured a level of skating so advanced that even people in the know seemed to have missed it. But for 34 minutes, those who didn’t saw the future of skateboarding.

One of those minutes belonged to Tambornino. His high-tech street lines set viewers up, but it was the flip tricks that knocked them down. To watch him skate was to rethink what was possible. Posters went wild. A video of highlights with extra tricks surfaced, along with a Facebook group dedicated to those 16 seconds. Debate went back and forth as to what the six maneuvers even were:

Nollie shuv-it 180 hardflip??? wrote one poster.

Fakie BS triple kickflip 360 (Cab Triple Kickflip only on Fakie), said another.

I’d say Nollie Cab, wrote another. But according to the Berrics there’s no such thing.

For the Berrics, the world’s most popular skate website, Tambornino filmed a tutorial for a nollie 360 inward heelflip. In skateboarding, it’s a maneuver comparable to the laser flip circa 1990; rumors aside, no one thought it really existed. And yet here it was, over and over, made to look maddeningly natural by the one kid who could do it, then do it again.

“Some of [his tricks] were years ahead of their time, which are now becoming part of the arsenals of top guys. He was that far ahead,” Mullen says.

In 2014, Tambornino was invited to participate in the Battle at the Berrics (BATB), the most famous competition in skateboarding, at the Berrics’ indoor park in downtown L.A., where skaters face off in the sport’s version of H.O.R.S.E. Past winners include P-Rod and East Coast wizard PJ Ladd.

There, Tambornino pulled ahead of Deathwish pro Moose, then lost on a fakie bigflip.

Almost Skateboards celebrated their 10-year anniversary at the Berrics. Tambornino showed up again, flowing the park with teammates Daewon Song, the newly pro Youness Amrani and Chris Haslam, the greatest all-around skateboarder in the world.

But soon after, his bright new star began to fade. Something started to feel different. Casual skating clips surfaced on his Instagram account, but over the last three years, at an age when so many skaters begin to peak, no full or even partial videos came to light.

One of his later Instagram posts featured three boxes of new sneakers—black Janoskis by Nike SB.

I like the dunks for the impact support, he wrote, responding to a poster. I just haven’t been huckin lately lol

Four weeks before he died, Tambornino sent an email to Mullen, titled “I’m sorry.”

It read:

I tried so hard. I fell of[f] a 30ft bridge and I'm finally at 85 percent. I just want to film s--t I have been thinking about 90% of my time. I don't need anything except a few decks to tide me over for summer.. I miss you guy! I get min wage 10 bucks a hour then taxes taken out. Do you have a shop or farm I can work on fields and just bac back on skating. I fell of[f].

 

Sent from my iPhone

Those who know what happened aren’t saying. In a single anonymous post on Reddit, someone claiming to be his cousin says Tambornino was in a car accident on June 23, but neither of Tambornino’s parents mentioned this when they talked to local press. Neither returned calls from Bleacher Report.

On June 24, John Tambornino found his son at home, dead.

Whether Tambornino's death was a freak accident or the product of an ongoing abuse issue we don't know for sure, but skateboarding as a sport is no stranger to loss and disaster. Steve-O, Guy Mariano, Andrew Reynolds and Pastor Christian Hosoi all suffered and emerged from the depths of abuse.

Some are still trying, like Antwuan Dixon and Mike Plumb (aka Lizard King), who marked two years in August.

Some just keep going, hauling the weight.

And then there are Jay Adams, Ben Pappas and Harold Hunter on the roster of talented skaters who never made it out from under those clouds.

“Of all skaters I wanted to see thrive, CJ was one of the most deserving of them all,” Mullen says. “He had a rare gift in his skating, and a rare goodness to him, that spilled into his skating, which is part of what made it so unique, so special and unmistakably true.

“He had everything it took in terms of talent—more, actually— to achieve his dreams. Or perhaps ‘our’ dreams, as skaters: to be with the guys we respect most, to travel, to not have to worry about money, and to get paid to thrive in what we love. Somehow, it remained just outside, as it does for so many.”

Professional surfer Zander Venezia died at the age of 16 on Tuesday following an accident in the water on the east coast of Barbados. 

Per Matt Pruett of Surfline.com, Venezia was found "bleeding and unresponsive" after being pulled out of the water. He had been driven into the "shallow, rocky bottom" due to a large wave. 

Surf instructor Alan Burke explained to Pruett the situation leading to Venezia's death:

"I'm told that Zander get overturned by a closeout set [a type of wave that can block a surfer's path], where he likely hit bottom. Nathan Florence got to him first, then shouted for the other guys and started to perform CPR. Zander was bleeding, and he wasn't moving. They tried to get him to the beach quickly, which was difficult. 'Box by Box' is a tough place to get in and out of, even if you have the ability. There's lots of big rocks around, and some stick out of the water."

Zander Venezia, Barbados Junior Pro passes after tragic neck injury. Full story: https://t.co/BDJWfsXwaU pic.twitter.com/TU5pSxXrjv

— SURFER (@Surfer) September 5, 2017

Pruett noted Florence was part of a group of pro surfers who went to Barbados to ride the waves generated by Hurricane Irma.

Burke also noted Florence performed CPR on Venezia on the beach. He was "breathing, but not responsive" after paramedics got him to the hospital, Burke told Pruett. 

Burke also shared Venezia's last words before the accident with Pruett.

"He told Dylan, 'I just got the best wave of my life!'" Burke said. "Dylan was the last person to speak to Zander. Then that next closeout set came through."

 

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White suffered an injury over the weekend that required a trip to the hospital. 

"Not exactly the birthday I was hoping for," White wrote on Instagram Tuesday. "I under rotated a double flip that sent me to the hospital. The biggest scare was seeing blood in my urine but after the tests all came back looking good I was released to go home. Life's going to knock you down.... get up, learn from your mistakes, and you'll be better for it! see you back on the mountain soon."

White turned 31 years old on Sunday—when he posted an image on Instagram from New Zealand. 

It's unclear what's ailing White, specifically, but he sounds determined to work his way back to full strength soon as he aims for redemption on the Olympic stage. 

After capturing gold at in Men's Halfpipe at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics, White fell flat and finished fourth in the event during the 2014 Games in Sochi. 

"It had been a while since I lost a major event like that, and I felt crummy because I had the ability to win," White told USA Today's Rachel Axon in February. 

"It was just all those little things running into it. At the time, to be completely honest, I was getting a little burnt on snowboarding. It was just tough."

Assuming White's latest injury isn't too significant, he'll aim for a return to the podium at February's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. 

Surfer Mick Fanning had a terrifying encounter with a shark in 2015 and just escaped another close call at the this year's Corona Open J-Bay in South Africa.

After a brief delay, some of the world's best surfers took to the water.  The highlight was Brazilian sensation Filipe Toledo's back-to-back alley-oop which earned him a perfect 10 score.

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Legendary X Games skateboarder Bob Burnquist announced his retirement from the event Saturday after failing to medal in the big air event.

Congratulations on an absolutely amazing #XGames career, Bob Burnquist! pic.twitter.com/WkuIYEFc2R

— X Games (@XGames) July 15, 2017

Burnquist, 40, has the most medals in X Games history. He has not medaled in either of his last two appearances at the X Games. His last triumphant performance came as part of a brilliant 2015 event, where he brought home a pair of golds and a silver.

At age 40, Burnquist has undoubtedly had the longest sustained success skateboarding in history. His first medal came at the 1997 X Games, two decades ago. He's gone on to compete all across the world, becoming a big-air specialist and landing a 900—making him only one of a handful of skaters to ever pull off the feat.

"When you win a certain amount of times, you get to a point where you're like 'OK, is there anything else I can do?' I always want keep progressing. The youthful energy that these kids bring has given me a jolt to keep at it and riding with these kids," Burnquist said in 2015, per Ryan Wallerson of Sports Illustrated.

"I'm going to keep skating as long as I feel competitive and I feel like I'm giving them a hard time, but I love the energy of skating with these kids. They remind me of myself."

Burnquist competed Saturday with kids literally less than half of his age, many of whom grew up idolizing names like his and Tony Hawk's. As he steps away from the X Games stage, it's finally time for the new generation to step fully into the spotlight.

Meet the girl who's making waves on the asphalt and changing the game. 

Watch above.