Skateboarder Nicole Hause gears up for X-Games and Aquatennial honor

X Games pro skateboarder Nicole Hause's first Aquatennial Parade should be memorable.

She is grand marshal of the 2018 CenterPoint Energy Torchlight Parade. As a child in Stillwater, she "never imagined" that she'd star in this premier Minnesota event. "Not something I ever expected. I have never been there. This will be a first-time experience and I'm excited. The things I've heard about it have been really cool, and it's at night so that will be cool," she said.

Hause is also geared up to be part of ESPN's X Games when they return to Minneapolis July 19-22. She missed her 2016 high school graduation to compete in her first X Games. By the way, her surname is pronounced like Pause with an H — but Hause is super mellow so she rolls with all pronunciations.

Q: Do you have any idea how scary it is to watch the X Games for people who have issues with heights? I am not afraid of heights; I have a fear of broken bones.

A: [Laugh] Yeah, I imagine. My mom gets scared, my aunt gets scared. A lot of people definitely get scared. You don't have that much time to think. You're five feet in the air for three or four seconds. You can think about it, but you've already taken the fall, taken the slam.

Q: When was the last time your were shooed off a piece of property for skateboarding?

A: It was actually ... March, no, April. I was in Seattle. Got kicked out of a spot by some guy who thought he should tell us we shouldn't skate there.

Q: Describe the locale.

A: It was like a park in Seattle, and this guy just came out of nowhere and told us we couldn't skate there. There was a big ordeal. We were so confused. We were like, "Do you work for the park?" He was like, No, no, no. We were like, "Then why do you care?" He called the cops and we had to get out of there. I'm sure they didn't care as much as he did.

Q: Were you able to suppress the urge to say: Don't you know who I am?

A: [Long laugh] Of course. I was pretty quiet. The rest of the girls, they're all famous, were yelling at him. I was like, "Let's just get out of here.''

Q: Was Stillwater friendly for skateboarders?

A: No one really skated in my high school. People knew I skated, but I don't think they knew what it really was so they didn't have an opinion about it, I guess.

Q: Will you do 50 tricks on your 50th birthday like Tony Hawk?

A: Right. You never know. It's a possibility. I watched that; me and all my friends. Just the tricks he does at 50 are insane.

Q: Do you need career aspirations when you are an X Gamer? In other words, what do you want to do when you grow up? I ask right after a Tony Hawk question.

A: Right, right. I'm planning on skating for probably the next 10 years. After that, I will probably still be involved in skateboarding in some way. Maybe start a lifestyle, skating clothing brand or something along those lines. I'm also really interested in real estate and investing in real estate as well.

Q: You told WCCO-TV nobody in California knows what you mean when you say "Uff da," so have you stopped using that exclamation?

A: [Laughter] No, I still say it quite a bit there. Some people are like, "What? What does that mean?" and I'm like, "Wait, what does that mean?"

Q: Are you living on your own or with your parents?

A: I'm living with my boyfriend and one of my other friends; she's a pro skater, too. She's probably more famous than me in the skate world, Nora Vasconcellos.

Q: When you return to Minnesota and stay at Mom's, what do you ask her to cook?

A: We joke about that. My mom is a wonderful mother [Missy and husband, Jeff, have been married 33 years] but she doesn't cook much. The one thing I do request is beef stroganoff.

Q: Is it OK for you to sleep in the same room as your boyfriend at your parents' house?

A: Yeah. They've accepted it.

Q: Wow.

A: I know.

C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count.