A small community with a strong force

Going to the girls night at the skatepark when I started off skating as a shy 14 year old in Gothenburg, Sweden, was the perfect introduction to the skateboarding world. It helped me form friendships, and as I improved and became more confident riding a board, it was a good transition for me to enter the park to meet that whirlwind without getting blown away.

After having tried most “normal sports” growing up, I realized that the pressure of being at a place at a certain time and having someone telling you what to do and how to do it, wasn’t for me. Skateboarding gives you the freedom to practice it whenever, however and wherever you want. When I started skating my mindset shifted from a focus on competition to a focus on growth, where I aimed to learn and become better than I was yesterday. I no longer felt that I had to be better than anyone else or that my ability was to be judged by results and points. As much as it’s an individual activity that provides a lot of freedom, skateboarding also has a really strong community. As long as you have a board and a passion for riding it, you are accepted.

As a teenager I went to the girls night at the skatepark every Tuesday night. It took me an hour to get there and it was a bit intimidating at first, but I was soon embraced by the open atmosphere and welcomed by the other girl skaters.

There was always a lot of discussion from the guys about the girls night. They couldn’t understand why they were excluded for these three hours out of the week and thought it was unfair. This issue came up a lot – in online conversations, at skate parties or when you post a skate video – …“Girls skateboarding”… good or bad? Everybody seemed to have an opinion about it, mostly referring to the level of skating and the physical appearance of a girl skater. In the end you just feel like “Why don’t we all just skate and have fun? No matter which level you are on, isn’t that what skateboarding is all about?”. Girls night was a bit of an oasis where you could practice tricks at your own pace away from opinions and judgements.

Usually, the girls I met shared a lot of  common interests outside of skateboarding. We would hang out and listen to music, talk about art and shoot photos. Photography was always an important tool as we wanted to capture the tricks we were doing. Skateboarding stimulates your creativity. Every skateboarder expresses themselves in individual ways as each one has a different style, sees different opportunities at spots, and does different tricks. It’s momentous, but if you film or photograph it, it will be captured forever. Skateboarding is an art form and capturing it on camera sees the creativity go full circle.

The girl skaters I met were always a bit different, but in a good way. They were girls who didn’t fit the mould of a typical teenage girl. I think that’s why we all got along so well. I guess we felt much like male skaters did back in the day, back when they were considered outcasts. This really helped us connect as a community and made it easy to bond with other girls who skated. After all, we were all doing this activity that very few girls were doing and that society felt was not a feminine thing to do. I think for that reason it was, and still is, very important for girls to connect with each other. I think it’s important for women in general, to stick together. Knowing there are more girls like you out there encourages you to keep on doing it. This doesn’t mean we didn’t skate or hangout with the boys, because we did, and a lot of my best friends who I skate with are guys. But a solid community of female skaters is a safety net and helps you feel like you’re a part of something. Although most of my favorite skaters are guys, when I see a girl doing tricks I get more inspired and encouraged and I think, “If she can do that, so can I!”

The female skate scene in Scandinavia is very organized and all the girl skaters are keen on traveling, organizing events and creating opportunities to skate together. Different groups developed—we had the “Westcoast Riders” where I was from and “Tösabidarna” down in Malmö, for example, and then an overall girls skateboarding organization called “No Limit”. Having these groups and organizations made it easier to get funding and sponsorship for the camps and competitions we put together. By going to these events, we connected with girls from other cities. The more experienced girls helped the ones new to skateboarding. It was always nice when a girl who just started off one year, would keep riding and developing her skills and then come back the next year. All of a sudden, your world grew bigger and thanks to Facebook and such it was easy to stay in touch.

When I moved to Spain at 19 the way of skateboarding changed a bit. It was partly due to climate but also because the scene in Barcelona was very different from my home city. Barcelona is a mecca in skateboarding where skaters from all over the world pilgrimaged to skate the amazing architecture of the city. Macba, Parallel and Universitat became my second home. Street skating was on the menu, and that was what the majority of the skaters were into, including the girls. I met girls from all over the world who skateboarded. Almost everyday you went out on a skate mission and it was also what you spoke about at night.

Being part of such a tight community definitely has it’s benefits and a skate sister in need, is a skate sister indeed. I witnessed the global mesh of the girls skate community when I first came to Australia with two other skateboarding girls, Sarah Meurle and Louisa Menke. Thanks to the network of female skaters, we all managed to have a place to stay when we arrived in Melbourne, even though we didn’t know anyone directly. Just because we were part of the same community, and had a lot of friends in common, other girl skaters opened their door to us. This is one of the beautiful things about women’s skateboarding. The community is small, but it’s worldwide.

In women’s skateboarding we are the ones creating the scene and the opportunities. Whether it’s girls skate camps back in Scandinavia, a girls skateboarding tour in Morocco or a girls skate trip to India, the girls themselves are creating it and funding it, because the big brands can’t see the profit in it yet. As a result, girls skateboarding can sometimes be more interesting than mens because it is more underground and driven entirely out of passion and a genuine love for skateboarding and the culture. It’s all about creating, exploring and connecting.

The world of women’s skateboarding has evolved since I was a teenager. As more girls band together and create more opportunities for themselves, we are finally seeing a shift in the industry. The half-naked girls that once featured in skate ads are slowly being replaced by real female skateboarders in action. The times are changing and it appears the future is bright for women’s skateboarding.