Celebrating Girls Who Ride and Rip
There has never been a better time to be a girl on a skateboard. Just ask the women who just wrapped up the X Games, which for the first time featured both Women’s Skateboarding Park and Women’s Skateboarding Street events. The X Games are also one of the few competitions where females win the same amount of money as men for their sports. The performances were epic.
In its coverage of the X Games Sports Illustrated highlighted “the youth infusion in women’s skateboarding, an encouraging sign for the future of both park and street skating.”
Women are the fastest-growing segment of skateboarders. As more public skate parks are built and events to support girls grow, more girls are riding, ripping and representing.
This weekend Girls Riders Organization (GRO) will host their 10-year anniversary party with a girls skate jam at the House of Vans in NYC. You can follow the radness on Instagram and Twitter.
GRO is a nonprofit founded to inspire, educate and support girls through action sports to be active in life and confident leaders of positive change in the community around them. According to their website, “GRO has impacted over 10,000 girls in person through over 1,000 events covering 40 states through learn to ride workshops and major event partnerships such as X Games.” There are GRO Riders and GRO Crews that span coast to coast.
“Skateboarding is not just for young boys. From 2–62 years of age, girls are getting on skateboards and long boards and finding out they are capable and that riding has many positive effects,” said Courtney Payne-Taylor, Founder of GRO.
East Coast Customs — a company that specializes in surf-to-skate boards made with exotic wood and high-end trucks and wheels — sponsors more girls and women than men. Founder Shawn Arlock says he loves to see women shredding on waves and concrete. “Skating and surfing are sports ahead of the curve in recognizing powerful women and girls who are crazy good on their boards,” Arlock said. He noted that the top female surfer in the world skates and surfs.
The positive influence of skating on women is global. Australian skater Oliver Percovich started Skateistan — a project that combines skateboarding and education to bring new opportunities to 5–18 year-olds in war-torn countries. Percovich started the effort when he saw no signs of any girls playing sports in Afghanistan. He saw a connection between skateboarding, education and empowering girls to create brighter futures.
The skating culture is an incredibly supportive one with girls and boys, men and women cheering each other and offering advice. Skate mom Deb Duff was excited to get her daughters Juliana (10) and Callie (8) on skateboards this month. The sisters are at the park at least once a week, working on ramps, turns and ollies. Both girls have already attempted to drop in — one of skateboarding’s most intimidating maneuvers and a gateway to conquering all that skateparks have to offer.
“The girls love to skate and be with their friends at the park,” Duff said. “We were concerned that the skatepark would be overwhelming and that the better skaters would be intimidating — but exactly the opposite has happened. It’s a very welcoming place for boys and girls of all abilities.”
Just one more reason the world needs more skaters and skateparks.
