Livin' It

Is pint-sized Mitchie Brusco skateboarding's next big thing?

In the Seattle suburbs last year skateboarder Mitchie Brusco was throwing ollies and nollies here, pop shove-its and 50-50s there, arcing high on the concrete wall. He then skated out of the bowl and plopped in the lap of his mother, Jennifer. When she handed Mitchie grape juice in a plastic cup with a spill-proof lid, a 20-year-old skate rat sidled up to him and said, "Dude, if you can skate like that, you should get rid of the sippie cup."

Suddenly, Mitchie lost his cool. "Don't listen to him, Mom," he said. "I love my sippie cup." Mitchie was four years old.

Now five, Little Tricky is the enfant terrible of the rail grind crowd, a small guy with big air. Make that a really small guy--he weighs 43 pounds and is 43 inches tall. Mitchie already has an agent, a shelf full of trophies and seven sponsors. To put things in perspective: He was the only competitor at the 2002 Gravity Games who rode to the event strapped into a booster seat.

That he finished 13th out of 14 in the sport's amateur street showcase was mitigated by the fact that he was 10 years younger than the next youngest boarder. "Mitchie definitely has style and skill and enthusiasm," says pro Bucky Lasek, a gold medalist at the Gravity Games. "He may stop skateboarding tomorrow, but he looks like a real natural." --Franz Lidz

COLOR PHOTO: ELAINE THOMPSON/AP BOY WONDER Mitchie can't tie his shoes, but he gets big air.