Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff Mom Never told you from House top
Speaker 1: boards dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Kristen and I'm Caroline, and welcome to part two of
Speaker 1: our Women in Skateboarding to part yes, part what has happened?
Speaker 1: And and now we're into part two. Now we're into
Speaker 1: part two and we're having a great time. Yeah, we're skaten.
Speaker 1: We're falling, as as we established very well to our
Speaker 1: audience in part one. Caroline and I not skateboarders, No,
Speaker 1: it's it's funny. How automatically my brain as soon as
Speaker 1: I hadn't even put my weight full weight on the board,
Speaker 1: I just put a foot and and considered lifting my
Speaker 1: second foot off the ground. My whole body was like, nope, nope, nope, unnatural.
Speaker 1: You're about to fall. You have no natural balance. What
Speaker 1: are you thinking getting on this small piece of cardboard
Speaker 1: with wheels? And so I sat on it and rolled,
Speaker 1: which was adorable. It was the only thing I could
Speaker 1: do to be safe. And I think it was also
Speaker 1: quite entertaining for the other tenants in our office building
Speaker 1: because we were just in the parking lot um halfway
Speaker 1: making fools of ourselves. But that was the fun of it.
Speaker 1: I hope it was entertaining. Yeah, well, we still have
Speaker 1: a lot of ground to cover about women in skateboarding
Speaker 1: today and into the future. But first we kind of
Speaker 1: want to do something a little bit different and do
Speaker 1: a little bit of stuff mom never told you. Listener
Speaker 1: mail At the beginning of the show, that's right, we
Speaker 1: heard from two amazing ladies about their experiences getting into
Speaker 1: skating growing up. First up, we've got listener Jessica, who
Speaker 1: discovered the hard way that maybe you shouldn't put two
Speaker 1: people on a skateboard. And then following that up we
Speaker 1: have Tara, who was obsessed with skateboarding as a kid
Speaker 1: also made her own ramps, all of which was employed
Speaker 1: to get girls to come over and play at her house.
Speaker 1: Back when I was in college, I bought a longboard
Speaker 1: to skateboard that's longer, obviously longboard, so I could skate
Speaker 1: around campus and get to classes. And one weekend, it
Speaker 1: was a long weekend and my roommate decided she wanted
Speaker 1: to skateboard too, but she didn't want to go by herself.
Speaker 1: She wanted to go together. So then both of us
Speaker 1: are standing on this longboard at the top of a
Speaker 1: little hill, I decided to just go down it, and
Speaker 1: we didn't get very far before we just totally crashed
Speaker 1: and burned and foiled out all over the sidewalk and
Speaker 1: skin our knees, scraped our elbows. Um, I didn't give
Speaker 1: up skateboarding, and it was a really good bonding experience
Speaker 1: and she's still one of my really good friends to
Speaker 1: this day. Alright, skateboarding, skateboarding, not really planning this that,
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of going for it, all right. I
Speaker 1: was obsessed with skateboarding when I was a kid. Um,
Speaker 1: And I grew up in a suburban a white suburban
Speaker 1: community that did not focus on diversity at all, and
Speaker 1: so I was a little queer kid, a little queer
Speaker 1: girl kid, growing up obsessed with skateboarding, always being pretty
Speaker 1: bad at it because there was no access. There was
Speaker 1: no outlet, there was no skate park, and there was
Speaker 1: certainly no skatepark that my parents would drive me too.
Speaker 1: So I made ramps in my backyard out of old
Speaker 1: pieces of plywood, and whenever I could get friends to
Speaker 1: come over, which was not that frequently because I was
Speaker 1: not that popular, UM, I would force them to skateboard
Speaker 1: and learn how to ride skateboards because I, at a
Speaker 1: young age, was so upset that skateboarding was such a
Speaker 1: boy sport. You know, all I heard about was Tony Hawk,
Speaker 1: which was great, but you know, girls are awesome, and
Speaker 1: I wanted the girls that I thought were awesome in
Speaker 1: my life to know how to skateboard. Unfortunately for me,
Speaker 1: that turned into a rather socially awkward experiment that I
Speaker 1: didn't really recognize until I was much older. Um, but
Speaker 1: that's my history of skateboarding. And I love that you
Speaker 1: guys are talking about this for whatever reason. Good luck,
Speaker 1: love following your blog, Have a good day. And I
Speaker 1: gotta tell you, Caroline, I've been loving hearing our listeners
Speaker 1: stories but also like actually hearing their stories. It was
Speaker 1: so cool that people sent us audio files of their
Speaker 1: experiences with skateboarding, because we get so many letters, but
Speaker 1: hearing them spoken is so different. Yeah, we love, we
Speaker 1: love letting you guys tell your own story and being
Speaker 1: able to share them. It's great. Yeah, so thanks to
Speaker 1: everybody who did that. And if you want to send
Speaker 1: us an audio story, just record want an audio file
Speaker 1: and email it to us mom staff at how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. But now we want to talk about
Speaker 1: how many Jessica's and Terra's are out there today skating?
Speaker 1: Because in part one we established the history of women's skateboarding,
Speaker 1: we've been doing it since this, since sidewalk surfing was
Speaker 1: first invented. But what does the skateboarding landscape look like
Speaker 1: four girls today? And before we get any further, let's
Speaker 1: offer a few stats, as we love to do. It's
Speaker 1: time for some stuff. Mom never told you stats Mark,
Speaker 1: Stats Corner, Stats Corner, Stat's come, welcome to stats Corner.
Speaker 1: We will serve you a percentage of what you want
Speaker 1: to hear. Yes, I love it. That's our new motto.
Speaker 1: So the Skate Park Association of America estimates that there
Speaker 1: are between eleven and fourteen million skateboarders in the country,
Speaker 1: but it is growing. It has grown from two point
Speaker 1: one million in nineteen to more than thirteen million in twelve.
Speaker 1: So it definitely is not even though it certainly does
Speaker 1: still have its underground and subculture connotations, it is certainly
Speaker 1: not an underground subculture thing anymore. And of course we
Speaker 1: want to know, if there are that many millions of
Speaker 1: skateboarders in America, how many are girls. Well, according to
Speaker 1: the National Sporting Goods Association. Girls make up twenty five
Speaker 1: percent of skateboarders, which ain't too shabby. This idea that
Speaker 1: girls were some invisible minority in skateboarding, like, uh no,
Speaker 1: I mean is well, it's I don't need to explain
Speaker 1: to people how much Okay, a quarter of the poe
Speaker 1: I was about to put it in pie terms and
Speaker 1: a delicious, delicious pie. Or if you're more of a
Speaker 1: cake person, it can be a quarter of a cake
Speaker 1: to a cookie. Oh yeah, I probably should pizza. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true. Um, but I just wonder, and I wish
Speaker 1: we had this information. But I wonder, since women have
Speaker 1: always been a relative minority in in skateboarding, I wonder
Speaker 1: what the stats were in the early sixties, mid sixties,
Speaker 1: when it was way more seemingly cultural, culturally acceptable for
Speaker 1: girls to be a part of it. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it definitely seems like from what we've read that they
Speaker 1: were probably never it was probably never fifty fifty exactly,
Speaker 1: but fairly close. I mean, in at least not in
Speaker 1: such an exclusionary kind of environment. Because even today, while
Speaker 1: I mean, a girl skateboarder doesn't seem like such a
Speaker 1: revolutionary idea as it might have in say the eighties
Speaker 1: or nineties or even even the earliest of the two thousand's,
Speaker 1: girls still have to shred some stereotypes because they abound.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you talk to any skateboarder who identifies
Speaker 1: as a femail like, it's always, always, always stereotypes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that you have to that you're not going to be
Speaker 1: nearly as good, You're not going to be as talented,
Speaker 1: you're going to be afraid of hurting yourself for getting dirty.
Speaker 1: All of these like super like gender one oh one
Speaker 1: stereotypes that women and girls face all the time anyway,
Speaker 1: and that whole idea of they're not real in quotes skaters,
Speaker 1: You're not going to skate as as fast or as hard,
Speaker 1: You're not going to go for the hardest tricks, you
Speaker 1: won't be able to land the hardest tricks, and so
Speaker 1: you're just I mean, you're really just a betty on
Speaker 1: the sidelines. Yeah. Case in point, Thrasher did an interview
Speaker 1: with top pro skateboarder at Nigel Houston, who said the
Speaker 1: women do the downhill stuff because they think it's like
Speaker 1: sidewalk surfing. They don't realize how dangerous it really is.
Speaker 1: I personally believe that skateboarding is not for girls at all,
Speaker 1: not one bit, And to that, I have a sneer
Speaker 1: for you, Mr Houston. And I also just think that
Speaker 1: that says way more about him and what pop culture
Speaker 1: has been telling us for a couple of decades than
Speaker 1: it does about any actual women or girls who were
Speaker 1: actually skating. Oh absolutely, And there was so much hugh
Speaker 1: and cry over him saying that that he eventually had
Speaker 1: to backpedal or whatever the skateboard version of that would be.
Speaker 1: He had to roll himself backwards and offer, you know,
Speaker 1: very like pr friendly kind of apology. But I have
Speaker 1: a feeling it's when when those kinds of statements are made,
Speaker 1: there is no gray area in it. You're saying explicitly,
Speaker 1: I don't believe skateboarding is for girls, so you're, you know,
Speaker 1: you're your friendly apology. I feel like it's a little
Speaker 1: bit too little, too late. And that quote too, was
Speaker 1: something uh called out by Catherine Sierra in that Wired
Speaker 1: magazine piece in which he goes on to talk about
Speaker 1: how she skates like a man is still the top honor,
Speaker 1: like it's the best thing a skate a gruel skateboarder,
Speaker 1: And I hate even using that qualifier can be called,
Speaker 1: you know, to be like, well you skate like a dude, bro,
Speaker 1: whoa Yeah. It's like it's like we're even farther back
Speaker 1: than women were at the dawn of skating. Even I
Speaker 1: mean back there was no like, oh, cool, hey, you're
Speaker 1: awesome because you skate like a man. It was just like, no,
Speaker 1: you're you're a great skater, you're an amazing freestyler, or
Speaker 1: you know whatever that the case. Maybe looking at handstand
Speaker 1: you just did. It wasn't about being a great skater
Speaker 1: for a girl. There was no such thing. But it
Speaker 1: seems like now we're having to dig ourselves out of
Speaker 1: that trench. Well, something interesting that jumped out is the
Speaker 1: conversation around skater Alana Smith, who is a certified pardon
Speaker 1: my French badass, I mean the squirrel, became the youngest
Speaker 1: X Games medalist ever. She has a Guinness World Record
Speaker 1: for this at the age of twelve. What was I
Speaker 1: doing it? I was probably sitting on my skateboard being
Speaker 1: told by my dogs. I was reading Little Women and
Speaker 1: pretending to be Joe Marsh Was I a little too old?
Speaker 1: I don't care. Yeah, let's be honest. I was probably
Speaker 1: reading Black Beauty. Um. But yeah, so Smith was the
Speaker 1: first female competitor to land a MICK twist, which I
Speaker 1: didn't know the definition of this, but it's an inverted
Speaker 1: five forty degree mute grab aerial, so basically okay. First
Speaker 1: of all, side note, when I read MC twist, I
Speaker 1: thought about mcflurry. Maybe you want to milkshake big so bad,
Speaker 1: so lactose and tallerant caroline are very hungry right now
Speaker 1: in the podcast studio. But the MC twist is. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's really cool. It is exactly what it sounds like.
Speaker 1: You shoot up into the air and you crouched down
Speaker 1: holding onto your board, and you spin five and forty degrees.
Speaker 1: For people who aren't great at math, uh, welcome to
Speaker 1: stats corner. That's more than more more than a full circle. Um.
Speaker 1: I watched Tony Hawk. I actually replayed this video of
Speaker 1: Tony Hawk doing this McK twist a few times because
Speaker 1: it was mesmerizing. So yeah, Allana did it. And I
Speaker 1: believe she was twelve when she was already landing a
Speaker 1: MC twist. And she she said once when people see
Speaker 1: girls skating, they don't see us as skaters. They don't
Speaker 1: think we take it seriously and are willing to go
Speaker 1: all out and being too much of a case in point,
Speaker 1: in this espn W article about Alana Smith, Uh, they
Speaker 1: talked to pro skater Lindsay Adams Hawkins Pastrana, who says
Speaker 1: about Alana Smith, yeah, she skates like a dude and
Speaker 1: that is a big compliment. Yeah, well, skating like a girl,
Speaker 1: according to Lindsay Adams Hawking Hawkins Pastrana, is a bad thing.
Speaker 1: And she was talking about how what people think of
Speaker 1: as girls style indicates that you weren't taught properly or
Speaker 1: you didn't learn properly, and she says that it's a
Speaker 1: certain way we in that just shows that you didn't
Speaker 1: have good instruction or whatever. She also said that it's
Speaker 1: cool that Alanna doesn't limit herself to being the best
Speaker 1: female skateboarder, but she must to be the best overall.
Speaker 1: And yes, that is good, but when you pair it
Speaker 1: with the whole thing of like, she skates like a dude,
Speaker 1: becomes sort of a backhanded yeah, well it's a whole
Speaker 1: not like other girls trope or good for a girl
Speaker 1: backhanded compliment. Um. And it jumped out to me too
Speaker 1: that the headline for that espn W article about her
Speaker 1: was Smith Blur's skateboard gender Lines, and when I saw
Speaker 1: it out of context, I thought I was going to
Speaker 1: read about a transgender skater, because today when I hear,
Speaker 1: you know, read blurring gender lines, like okay, this is
Speaker 1: what's gonna be where it's like, oh no, blurring gender
Speaker 1: lines means someone is skating simply at the top of
Speaker 1: the game, period, which is I mean that that to
Speaker 1: me goes to show how entrenched it really is. And
Speaker 1: anytime you watch these videos about like highlighting really amazing
Speaker 1: pro female skaters or you know, showcases of female skaters,
Speaker 1: a lot of times, like the glowing interviews that are
Speaker 1: interspiced with it, are people being like, I mean it's amazing.
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe how it's so phenomenal. Like there is
Speaker 1: always this just shock from people whenever girls are skating well,
Speaker 1: which is like, but they're not not the same as
Speaker 1: like oh yeah, I mean like he skates really well,
Speaker 1: that's cool. Well it's not like it's been I mean people,
Speaker 1: where is the institutional memory. It's like people completely forgot
Speaker 1: about Patty McGhee or that women like her even existed. Well,
Speaker 1: Patty McGhee. She's not authentic. She's not a real skater
Speaker 1: by today's terms. And also I think I should be
Speaker 1: using the term she rides well, not skates well. But
Speaker 1: that also goes to show how I'm you know, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm definitely not a real skater. No, I didn't skate,
Speaker 1: I rode and I was being pulled by animals. Because
Speaker 1: that's how that's Christen, that is how I roll. It's
Speaker 1: true and uh, fittingly for stuff I've never told you.
Speaker 1: We're now going to lead listeners from stats Corner to
Speaker 1: Study Corner. Let's go to Study Hall. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1: Shall we go to Study Hall? Because there have been
Speaker 1: some academic studies on gender within skateboarding culture, and we
Speaker 1: found a really fascinating one in the journal Gender and Education,
Speaker 1: which was published in two thousand five, so a little
Speaker 1: bit dated, but still really relevant to our discussion today.
Speaker 1: And it's called Skater Girlhood an emphasized femininity subtitle you
Speaker 1: can't land an Ali properly in heels, Yeah, subtitle, which
Speaker 1: was actually a quote from one of the girls interviewed
Speaker 1: for the study. But it's a fascinating look at gender
Speaker 1: and femininity and girls using hobbies like skating, which are
Speaker 1: not considered to be traditionally feminine, as a way to
Speaker 1: define themselves and their own sort of brand of femininity. Um,
Speaker 1: and how skating can be positive because it's fun, it's
Speaker 1: an adventure, it brings you confidence, it allows for nonconformity.
Speaker 1: But and you know how how growing skills and breeding
Speaker 1: your skills breeds confidence also, which is all positive, but
Speaker 1: sort of the unfortunate thing that I was thinking about
Speaker 1: as I was reading the study is that all of
Speaker 1: the femininity discussed in the study is in terms of like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not like other girls. I'm sort of leading this
Speaker 1: alternative girlhood. And it's like, well, while alternative girlhood and
Speaker 1: femininity is wonderful and fine and great, so are other
Speaker 1: types of femininity. And it seemed to be that skating
Speaker 1: was a way for a lot of these girls that
Speaker 1: the authors talked to to sort of navigate their way
Speaker 1: in a world that wants them to wear pearls and
Speaker 1: a high heel when they would rather wear baggy skating
Speaker 1: clothes and go out and get hurt and get dirty. Well,
Speaker 1: and it makes sense though that they might veer toward
Speaker 1: the not like other girls line of thinking when you're
Speaker 1: dealing with a subculture that is very much like entrenched
Speaker 1: in masculinity, it's like an oppositional kind of masculinity that
Speaker 1: still elevates itself above femininity. I e. Oh, you skate
Speaker 1: like a girl. You skate like a girl. And so anytime,
Speaker 1: and it's very clear in the interviews like with these
Speaker 1: girls um that any time they transgress that and kind
Speaker 1: of violate those boundaries and enter into that subculture, they
Speaker 1: do have to their continually having to defend themselves. And
Speaker 1: so it is like, well, you know, no, I'm not
Speaker 1: I'm not just a girl. And obviously, based on the title,
Speaker 1: they do talk a lot about this thing called emphasized femininity,
Speaker 1: which is another way of saying women's compliance with subordination
Speaker 1: to not only men, but to what is the culturally
Speaker 1: valued type of femininity that we're sort of led to
Speaker 1: believe we need to be a part of. Yeah, wearing
Speaker 1: high heels and all of that fun stuff. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: the others do talk about how the girls that they're
Speaker 1: interviewing usually learned the basics in private and gradually ventured
Speaker 1: into public skating spaces where they usually end up being
Speaker 1: confronted by boys. Asking why they're invading their skate space,
Speaker 1: which again is just like the whole geet girl or
Speaker 1: game or girl conversation. Yeah, I mean, and I think
Speaker 1: pretty much any female skateboard you talk to will have
Speaker 1: an experience where that happened. Um. But what's really interesting
Speaker 1: to see too among this group of girls, and these
Speaker 1: were younger girls too that they were talking about, I
Speaker 1: think it is important to point out that there was
Speaker 1: a lot still of girl on girl policing for their
Speaker 1: motives for aiding and their level of expertise. Um. This
Speaker 1: in so many ways to me mirrors fake get girl
Speaker 1: and gaming culture, because the girls who really prided themselves
Speaker 1: the most on resisting that so called emphasized femininity were
Speaker 1: the ones who were most on guard of You know,
Speaker 1: if another girl rolls up to the skate park, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: are you here? Are you here just to impress the guys?
Speaker 1: Are you here because you want a boyfriend? Do you
Speaker 1: really know how to put your skateboard together and take
Speaker 1: it apart and take care of it? What do you
Speaker 1: really know? Because there is I mean, it does seem
Speaker 1: like you kind of have to overshoot and overcompensate. Um.
Speaker 1: Maybe because you aren't going to just be accepted off
Speaker 1: the bat as like hey, I'm a I'm a cool
Speaker 1: person and I want to learn how to do this.
Speaker 1: Let's be friends. Like, no, that's not how it works.
Speaker 1: But fortunately there are those women and girls out there
Speaker 1: who are advocating for other women and girls to sort
Speaker 1: of to get in the game and actually learn how
Speaker 1: to skate and skate safely and skate well. Absolutely, because
Speaker 1: it seems like the you know, the pros who are
Speaker 1: coming up even in the seventies and the eighties, and
Speaker 1: of course like people who are skating today and or
Speaker 1: who are relative like newbies, are so fed up with
Speaker 1: all of this gender nonsense because it really is nonsensical.
Speaker 1: That there's been a lot of advocacy, really starting in
Speaker 1: the early and mid two thousands, of women helping other
Speaker 1: women and girls and even carving out their own spaces
Speaker 1: to be like, all right, you know what, you can
Speaker 1: have your skate parks or you're abandoned building, whatever, We're
Speaker 1: going to set up these spaces where it's safe for
Speaker 1: girls to come and learn to skate and be able
Speaker 1: to skate together and not have to worry about all
Speaker 1: this other stuff. Well, Cindy Whitehead, who we mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: started the group Girl Is Not a Four Letter Word. Uh.
Speaker 1: White had actually went pro in the seventies at sixteen
Speaker 1: years old and was endoored by Puma who shooes I
Speaker 1: do love as well. But her professional career ended when
Speaker 1: skate parks died. When that whole fad started dying out,
Speaker 1: insurance rates went up, skate parks started closing their doors,
Speaker 1: so she transitioned then her pro skateboarding career into sports styling,
Speaker 1: which long story short, led her to a collaboration with
Speaker 1: skateboard manufacturer Dwindle, Inc. She designed this line called Girl
Speaker 1: is Not a Four Letter Word specifically for girls, and
Speaker 1: she I mean, you know, if you have this company
Speaker 1: going on, But it's also a form of activism as well.
Speaker 1: She's done a ted talk about this. She's always stumping
Speaker 1: on behalf of girls getting involved in the sport and
Speaker 1: and part of the Girl is Not a Four Letter
Speaker 1: Word proceeds support Longboarding for Peace and Girl Writers Organization.
Speaker 1: So City White has definitely been one of the most
Speaker 1: visible and vocal women really kind of starting this way
Speaker 1: of advocacy that was has also been picked up by
Speaker 1: highly influential skateboarder as well, Mimi Noop. Yeah, she went
Speaker 1: pro back in two thousand three and ended up taking
Speaker 1: him a handful of X Games medals, And she has
Speaker 1: acknowledged the importance of seeing other women skating. There's that
Speaker 1: visibility issue we talk about time and time again, but
Speaker 1: that the industry does treat men and women differently. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the way that it markets to them, the
Speaker 1: products that are even available, Um, how competitions are set up,
Speaker 1: and how much you know, the winners of competitions get
Speaker 1: depending on what division they're in. So she co founded
Speaker 1: Hooplus Skateboards, which includes a team that Alana Smith for instance,
Speaker 1: our Golden Girl is on and uh. It also offers
Speaker 1: products specifically for female skateboarders. And she also co founded
Speaker 1: alongside Caribeth Burnside, and nonprofit called Alliance, which provides a cool,
Speaker 1: active voice for women in action sports, which was influential
Speaker 1: and bringing up from Brazil a skater Letitia Buffoni, who
Speaker 1: was actually the first female skateboarder Nike signed to its team.
Speaker 1: So she's also a big name right now in the
Speaker 1: sport as well. But you mentioned the amount that a
Speaker 1: winner would earn based on what division there in Kristen
Speaker 1: Andnope and Burnside together did lobby the X Games for
Speaker 1: more prize money for female winners, and in two thousand nine,
Speaker 1: partially thanks to their efforts, the X Games did start
Speaker 1: awarding equal purses to men and women, and that was
Speaker 1: echo two in our Women in Tennis episode. And one
Speaker 1: other woman who's playing a role in trying to get
Speaker 1: more girls attracted to the sport and provide resources is
Speaker 1: Lisa Whittaker, who founded the website Girls Skate Network. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Girls Skate Network has been really influential for providing
Speaker 1: a platform and community for girls skaters around the kind
Speaker 1: treat to just, you know, if they're in a small
Speaker 1: town and they might be the only girls skating around,
Speaker 1: they can go online and they can see other girls
Speaker 1: doing this, they can share their own videos, um they
Speaker 1: can find resources for themselves. So that's been a highly
Speaker 1: influential space for for girls too. But there's still some
Speaker 1: challenges to retaining girls and skateboarding as they grow up,
Speaker 1: which is something usually echoed in any conversation about girls
Speaker 1: and sports, and this was something that Jennis Selby, who's
Speaker 1: a co founder of the all girls skate company Rogue,
Speaker 1: talked to huck magazine about Yeah, she wrote, one thing
Speaker 1: we noticed in the UK scene, especially when I was younger,
Speaker 1: is that there were younger girls with amazing skills who
Speaker 1: would hit their teenage years and sort of disappear due
Speaker 1: to outside pressures like what their friends are doing and
Speaker 1: what magazines were telling them to do. So yet again
Speaker 1: we see a pipeline issue, this time in sports. And
Speaker 1: that's why a lot of these professional skaters and community
Speaker 1: organizers who are really invested in getting girls and women,
Speaker 1: adult women skating think that visibility and role modeling and
Speaker 1: mentoring are essential to ceiling that leaky pipeline because we
Speaker 1: see it over and over and over again. Like if
Speaker 1: if you're not seeing it, it's not it's not as inspiring.
Speaker 1: I mean, media makes a big difference. Well, I get
Speaker 1: some firsthand insight on this and really get to know
Speaker 1: someone who is doing this work to get more girls
Speaker 1: into skateboarding and to make skateboarding itself a friendlier place
Speaker 1: for girls and women. We talked to Kristin Ebling, who
Speaker 1: is a skateboarder who also worked for a really cool
Speaker 1: organization called Skate Like a Girl. Yeah, so let's hear
Speaker 1: from Kristen my name is Chris Nebling. I've been skateboarding
Speaker 1: UH for over sixteen years UM, and when I was seventeen,
Speaker 1: I've been skating about four or five years. At this point,
Speaker 1: I went out and UH did a skateboard competition UM
Speaker 1: that was supposed to be for all girls, and I
Speaker 1: remember thinking, I'm the only girl skateboarder right now. So
Speaker 1: I showed up and my draw before when I saw
Speaker 1: like twenty girls like ripping around the park doing tricks
Speaker 1: I never even tried before UM, and I was just like, WHOA,
Speaker 1: what is this? And you know it was skate with
Speaker 1: the girl that was putting on the contest. So I
Speaker 1: always tell everybody that at that point I sold my soul.
Speaker 1: I was like, sign me up. I want to be
Speaker 1: a part of this. I want to be included. I
Speaker 1: want to be treating with other women. And you know,
Speaker 1: about eight years of volunteering later, I got my job
Speaker 1: last summer and the more or less of the chapter
Speaker 1: director of the Seattle Chapter of Scaleing sprill UM. I
Speaker 1: primarily focus on programs, so right now my title was
Speaker 1: officially program director of Scalely Kid Girl UM. But I
Speaker 1: do everything from Cotoon Cave to one on one lessons,
Speaker 1: I oversee a team volunteer programs, so I we change UM.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm so propersional athlete on side, so
Speaker 1: I compete and UM have some sponsorships and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: travel the world to ride my skateboard and kind of
Speaker 1: spread the love of skating. Can you tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about how Skate Like a Girl started and
Speaker 1: sort of what its mission is? Why? Why, for instance,
Speaker 1: when you came up when you were seventeen, were all
Speaker 1: of these girls skating together? Well a Girl was started.
Speaker 1: Get Like a Girl was started in Olympia in around
Speaker 1: your two thousands. UM. Definitely influenced by by so like
Speaker 1: that astness of like Riot Girl UM, sort of like
Speaker 1: the embers of like the d I Y culture down there.
Speaker 1: I don't if you're Heart of Slee or Kinny Kill
Speaker 1: Captain Han, like that whole rad right girl movement. They're
Speaker 1: definitely influenced by that. UM. And they were the founders
Speaker 1: Halleen Flur. They were UM students at Evergreen and had
Speaker 1: been living in Olympia, influenced by that culture. And they
Speaker 1: they are actually snowboarders UM. But it's really expensive and
Speaker 1: inaccessible to get women up to the mountains. But they
Speaker 1: wanted more women to be involved in board sports because
Speaker 1: it was such like a boys club. And so they
Speaker 1: came up with Skate like a Girl UM and started
Speaker 1: hosting like knics. They had no idea what they were doing,
Speaker 1: but they didn't chare UM and they went out there
Speaker 1: and you know, started getting women together to skate, and
Speaker 1: over the course of a couple of years, it went
Speaker 1: from just being sort of this loose knit thing to
Speaker 1: be a little bit more organized, hosting camps, working with
Speaker 1: younger girls, women of all ages and abilities, Hosting a
Speaker 1: contest where professional athletes, you know, athletes were coming from
Speaker 1: like California and organ and all over to compete and
Speaker 1: take part in their event. So that was kind of
Speaker 1: the first couple of years UM and the founders moved
Speaker 1: up to Seattle. That's when they started getting way more official.
Speaker 1: So they met up with other folks Nancy Chang, who's
Speaker 1: our current board chair, who really pushed making Scale Like
Speaker 1: a Girl an official Bible one three uh, and that's
Speaker 1: kind of where I came on board. But we were
Speaker 1: still really only serving girls and women, UM really focusing
Speaker 1: on that end. UM. There was no paid staff at
Speaker 1: that point. UM, and that's that's kind of where I
Speaker 1: came on board, Like I was really excited about all
Speaker 1: the stuff we were doing. UM. Nowadays we do a
Speaker 1: lot more stuff with Coen's Boys and Girls UM, and
Speaker 1: we're definitely have more i'd say, of a business model,
Speaker 1: UM where we're able to subsidize free and low cost
Speaker 1: programs by hosting sea based programs. And just kind of
Speaker 1: the idea of why should girls in particular learn a skateboard?
Speaker 1: What's you know they could do so many other things.
Speaker 1: Why skateboard? Well, I think skateboarding is you can learn
Speaker 1: so many life lessons from skating. UM. I think also
Speaker 1: there's something empowering and life altering it's a girl tries
Speaker 1: skateboarding versus something that is more gender neutral or that
Speaker 1: they're in cur used to do. I think trying a
Speaker 1: sport that everyone tells you is dangerous. Not only is
Speaker 1: it male dominated, but a lot of times girls are
Speaker 1: told you can't do that. Like I have a lot
Speaker 1: of girls in my programs They're like, my dad told
Speaker 1: me I can't do this, and I'm like, well, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna tell you that. UM. Like it's that, like,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of parents are really anti. But
Speaker 1: then I think about other sports where women are totally
Speaker 1: included and are seen on a world like scale as
Speaker 1: you know, professional in that field. Like I'm thinking gymnastics,
Speaker 1: like ice skating, like they're doing like flips and spins
Speaker 1: and all this crazy stuff. Like why is skateboarding such
Speaker 1: a voice club doesn't make sense to me in terms
Speaker 1: of like a danger or like girls you know, shouldn't
Speaker 1: move their bodies in those ways. Um, And so I
Speaker 1: think I think if a girl tries skateboarding, which there's
Speaker 1: all that baggage, like you're not supposed to do, it's
Speaker 1: not for girls, and they try it, and you know,
Speaker 1: maybe they don't skateboard past that one day they did
Speaker 1: a clinic with us, to me, that doesn't matter. I
Speaker 1: think one girls and women try things that they're told
Speaker 1: they're not supposed to and they have a little bit
Speaker 1: of success with it, that is a life altering. They
Speaker 1: could leave our clinics and and when we you know,
Speaker 1: teach them, like, well, tried skateboarding today, Tomorrow I'm gonna
Speaker 1: apply for my NBA program, like you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 1: I feel like we build ourselves up by little successes
Speaker 1: and if we can create a fun, successful experience UM
Speaker 1: for a girl or a woman. UM. With skateboarding, I
Speaker 1: think you know they're going to go on to be
Speaker 1: a better person and take on more risk and challenge
Speaker 1: themselves in the future. UM. And obviously if they keep skating,
Speaker 1: it's going to continue to build a culture within skating
Speaker 1: that's more gender inclusive, UM and also inclusive in other
Speaker 1: ways as well. And I mean along those same lines.
Speaker 1: One thing that jumped out to me in a skate
Speaker 1: Like a Girl video I was watching yesterday was this
Speaker 1: girl who was maybe ten years old talking about all
Speaker 1: the reasons why she loves skateboarding and the organization, and
Speaker 1: one of the things was how it taught her the
Speaker 1: importance of failing and how how it's okay to fail
Speaker 1: and how like if you fall down, you can get up,
Speaker 1: and if you get a little bumped and bruise, that's okay,
Speaker 1: and that like I hear that advice sometimes from like
Speaker 1: you know, adults are like at some point learned to fail.
Speaker 1: But hearing that from a kid, especially a girl, was
Speaker 1: really eye opening for me. So that's kind of a
Speaker 1: revolutionary message for girls in particular to hear, maybe because
Speaker 1: usually it's like, oh, girls, you know you follow the rules,
Speaker 1: stay prim and proper, all that stuff. Yeah, definitely. Like
Speaker 1: Mary was saying in that video, UM, that you're referring
Speaker 1: to is that you know you have to fail failure
Speaker 1: as part of the process. You get it right the
Speaker 1: first time, not only is that not rewarding but not
Speaker 1: really real. That's almost like an anomally when you do
Speaker 1: something perfect the first time. UM and skateboarding. That's one
Speaker 1: of the huge life lessons I was talking about that.
Speaker 1: You know, it naturally teaches you you have to be resilient,
Speaker 1: You have to be able to fall down and get
Speaker 1: back up. You have to let yourself be scared and
Speaker 1: work through that fear, walk down that hall. That's you
Speaker 1: don't want to UM, but you know you want to
Speaker 1: be success, so you know you want to learn how
Speaker 1: to drop in and learn how to ali and you
Speaker 1: don't know how long that failure is going to be
Speaker 1: till you get it right. And I think that's huge too,
Speaker 1: is walking in the unknown and taking those steps towards
Speaker 1: what you want without knowing for sure exactly what that
Speaker 1: looks like, and knowing that your path is gonna be
Speaker 1: different than the next woman Um, there's just all kinds
Speaker 1: of things you can think of in terms of skating
Speaker 1: and applying that to like life challenges just in general. Um. Yeah, Definitely,
Speaker 1: failure is a part of the process, not the outcome
Speaker 1: or not a possible outcome. And it seems like too
Speaker 1: in terms of what you're saying about kind of walking
Speaker 1: into the unknown. If we're talking about the context of
Speaker 1: skateboarding with girls walking to a skate park where they
Speaker 1: might be the only girl, might be one of those
Speaker 1: unknown So could you talk a little bit about sort of,
Speaker 1: at least maybe for you personally, Um, the difference of
Speaker 1: what it's like to skate with other girls as opposed
Speaker 1: to skating with a bunch of dudes. Definitely, being the
Speaker 1: only girl at the skate park is probably one of
Speaker 1: the worst things. Um. But I feel like of all
Speaker 1: the crazy things guys have said to me and all
Speaker 1: the things that have happened to me, being like, you know,
Speaker 1: the only girl for so long really helped me build
Speaker 1: build a mindset that I think has made me perfect
Speaker 1: for the position I'm in with skate like a girl,
Speaker 1: Like I understand what it's like to be the only girl,
Speaker 1: and I'm very passionate about making sure that other girls
Speaker 1: and women don't have that same experience, or if they do,
Speaker 1: it's not as bad and they know how to deal
Speaker 1: with it. Um. I'll give you a couple of examples. UM.
Speaker 1: Not that I want to project any of these ideas,
Speaker 1: but I think it's important for their girls and women
Speaker 1: to hear like what I went through. Um at the
Speaker 1: skate park. A lot of times the guy like if
Speaker 1: I landed a trick before some other guy did where
Speaker 1: we were trying it, but a lot oftentimes I would hear, well,
Speaker 1: you're just a girl, doesn't matter. UM. I got that
Speaker 1: a lot. UM. I also, right when I started to
Speaker 1: go through Pure You're on like thirteen fourteen, like um,
Speaker 1: Like they would comment on my butt and my boobs,
Speaker 1: my body like pretty often like hey, like do you
Speaker 1: have a load in your pants? What's up? Like just
Speaker 1: the worst things. UM. I would get excluded like really
Speaker 1: often to like all the guys who going skate street
Speaker 1: spot and they would just be like, oh yeah, cool,
Speaker 1: we'll be right back in five minutes, and they would
Speaker 1: just like bitch me. UM. And one of my favorite
Speaker 1: things is that I worked really hard for a sponsor
Speaker 1: me tape. So I filmed all these tricks and I
Speaker 1: worked really hard and I was trying to get sponsored
Speaker 1: by this indoor skate park and I turned my video in.
Speaker 1: I didn't hear back then hear back. So I went
Speaker 1: right up to the team manager and I said, hey, um,
Speaker 1: you know what's up? I turned in my video like
Speaker 1: you know, as it a year and may like you know,
Speaker 1: which was varying their wrecking. For me, I was like
Speaker 1: seventeen years old at the time, maybe sixteen. This is
Speaker 1: what force like a girls sixteen um, And I was like,
Speaker 1: what's up? And he goes, heal Christ and your footage
Speaker 1: is really great. But we sponsored girls that are good,
Speaker 1: good looking, not just girls that are good. UM. So
Speaker 1: that was like a huge wall. Was like whoa, like
Speaker 1: I have to be currently like I had, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? And that was so hard to hear. UM.
Speaker 1: So now, like I feel like it's definitely different, especially
Speaker 1: in Seattle with so many people girls, men, boys, girls
Speaker 1: learning how to skate ball together through skate like the
Speaker 1: girl programs. Um. That culture I'm hoping is shifting for
Speaker 1: women and no one has to see here those things
Speaker 1: that I heard like ten year ten fifteen years ago
Speaker 1: when I was starting seating UM. But I think it
Speaker 1: definitely is still hard. I think most of the times
Speaker 1: when I go to the skatepark, I go by myself,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe I'll see one girl one other girl,
Speaker 1: which I think is better than most places. But um,
Speaker 1: I think generally guys in Seattle know about scala ares
Speaker 1: all to know about what we do and it's participated
Speaker 1: or know somebody that has that. We have a level
Speaker 1: of like legitimacy that you know, people are starting to
Speaker 1: change their minds about who can participate in skating. But
Speaker 1: you know, I still definitely get some flacks sometimes, you know,
Speaker 1: and weird comments and us do you think that it's
Speaker 1: getting any better industry wise and marketing wise in terms
Speaker 1: of like how how the female demographic, if you want
Speaker 1: to call it, is treated like they try to put
Speaker 1: girls out there sometimes, and they try to get girls
Speaker 1: on the teams. And there's been like kind of some
Speaker 1: male allies throughout the years that you know, Ed Templeton
Speaker 1: is one that comes to mind, UM with Toy Machine
Speaker 1: Skateboards putting a list of Steamer on the team UM
Speaker 1: and really supporting her for years. But I think the
Speaker 1: general mainstream skate culture is never gonna be able to
Speaker 1: market to a way market women in a way that
Speaker 1: I feel like is authentic and that takes me at
Speaker 1: the end of the day of their market is like
Speaker 1: fifteen year old guys, and that is so that's such
Speaker 1: a different market. Um. And I'm pretty outspoken, um the
Speaker 1: girls and women, uh in particular, just about you know,
Speaker 1: you can see here and complaint all day about how
Speaker 1: we're not sponsored, we don't get coverage. You open a
Speaker 1: transld magazine, Thrasher magazine, you don't see any girls that
Speaker 1: you do see a girl, she's like half naked with
Speaker 1: a skateboard over her boob. Um, We're gonna continue to
Speaker 1: see those images unless until, like we step up and
Speaker 1: make our own media. It's like Tony Hawk. I've recently
Speaker 1: wrote this in a small editorial I did for um
Speaker 1: uh this Heat, which is this is a vene that
Speaker 1: my friends and I put together. UM And I basically said, like,
Speaker 1: you know, Tony Hawk doesn't call it port illustrated and
Speaker 1: get pissed that he's not on the cover. You know,
Speaker 1: 'ts illustrated is catering to a dominant like mainstream sport. Um,
Speaker 1: like audience, right, Like skateboarding magazines are catering to male
Speaker 1: participants because that's who's primarily participating. UM, and so as
Speaker 1: girls and women, I feel like we need to make
Speaker 1: our own content, our own media, our own We didn't
Speaker 1: have our own photographers, our own videos, and one day
Speaker 1: it'll come to a point where those cultures can mesh.
Speaker 1: And I think there's overlap between the mainstream culture and
Speaker 1: what we do. But I think, by and large, like
Speaker 1: I've been so bummed on pretty much anything that um
Speaker 1: mainstream skate media puts out, like your average photographer writer
Speaker 1: in the magazine, like just it's just the worst stuff,
Speaker 1: like um, like even if a girl is really good,
Speaker 1: it's it's something that's like, Wow, the girls are really
Speaker 1: stepping it up this year. It's like wow, we've been
Speaker 1: stepping it up, like just because you just noticed, like
Speaker 1: now we're stepping it up, and uh, you know there's
Speaker 1: stuff like yeah, here's Lucy Baker, she skates, dude, she's
Speaker 1: got some six style, you know, So again downplaying and
Speaker 1: like it's just I think the nicest why I can
Speaker 1: put it is that it's inauthentic and it doesn't speak
Speaker 1: to me as a female skateboarder and it's you know,
Speaker 1: for the most part, makes me just inspired to create
Speaker 1: my own media. Well, back to Skate Like a Girl. UM,
Speaker 1: can you tell us a little bit why said that
Speaker 1: dudes can skate too? With Skate Like a Girl. Can
Speaker 1: you talk a little bit about how the organization is
Speaker 1: focused not only on cultivating girls skaters, but also it
Speaker 1: seems like diversity among skaters and why it's important. Yeah. UM,
Speaker 1: So we have a we have a T shirt that
Speaker 1: we put out UM and it just says this is
Speaker 1: what a skateboarder looks like. And I think that's kind
Speaker 1: of the the easiest way to put it is that
Speaker 1: overall organization is a girl friendship organization. We're always constantly
Speaker 1: going to be thinking about how can we make space
Speaker 1: for girls and women um in our sports UM, but
Speaker 1: also understanding that anyone can participate in that, anyone can
Speaker 1: be a skateboarder, regardless of ability, age, um, in any
Speaker 1: other factor. UM. And we want to kind of break
Speaker 1: down in walls that there are access so UM, I
Speaker 1: will tell you. I'll tell you first about a little
Speaker 1: bit how kind of organically we started serving guys because
Speaker 1: I was never our intention like I said, back in
Speaker 1: two thousand five when I first got involved, the only
Speaker 1: good stuff with girls and women. And what was happening
Speaker 1: was we were hosting like a girls twelve and under
Speaker 1: skate clinic and Phil and Sol's little brother wanted to
Speaker 1: join in, and at first we were like no, But
Speaker 1: then that wasn't the first little brother. We had dads,
Speaker 1: and we had older brothers that wanted to help volunteer,
Speaker 1: and we sort of looked at ourselves and we said, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is sort of a crossroad. Do we only serve
Speaker 1: girls and women and we continue to operate in that
Speaker 1: what I would call like a silo and we make
Speaker 1: like a bubble around girls, they say this is for
Speaker 1: girls only, and then knowing that that girl probably isn't
Speaker 1: going to skate outside of our program, or do we
Speaker 1: start to include brothers, dads UM and other siblings UM
Speaker 1: into our community. And we sort of decided that, hey,
Speaker 1: these people need to be served too and want to
Speaker 1: be a part of our culture. Why not. And kind
Speaker 1: of after we started doing this UM and serving like
Speaker 1: Phil and Sol's little brother, and you know, we started
Speaker 1: getting a fair amount of boys UM and interest from
Speaker 1: then as well. UM, we sort of decided like wow,
Speaker 1: like what is not revolutionary about a little boy learning
Speaker 1: to escape from a girl. We're still starting to change
Speaker 1: and ship at culture. And just because we're serving boys too, UM,
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that girls can't be served in that same space. UM. So,
Speaker 1: long story short, we still do some girls only girls
Speaker 1: and women only stuff. So, for instance, our Ladies Nights,
Speaker 1: some of our camps are girl specific just because there
Speaker 1: are some girls that will not participate and we'll feel
Speaker 1: excluded or intimidated in the environment where guys are included
Speaker 1: on any levels. So we do want to continue to
Speaker 1: stay true to that and be able to provide that opportunity.
Speaker 1: But by and large all of our programs are co
Speaker 1: ed these days. UM. So we have male and female staff. UM.
Speaker 1: We operate a te volunteer program called Youth Employment Skateboarding
Speaker 1: where teenagers learn job skills, financial literacy, uh SEPT, first
Speaker 1: aid trainings and stuff like that, and they volunteer for
Speaker 1: us over the summer. And that program is primarily guys,
Speaker 1: not only the primarily guys. We have like some of
Speaker 1: the best local amateur writers that are a part of
Speaker 1: that program. UM. And so it's super cool that we're
Speaker 1: take being the dominant culture. So the guys that are
Speaker 1: really good, the youngest skaters that are just ripping and sponsored,
Speaker 1: and they're coming a part of our organizations starting to
Speaker 1: teach young kids how to skateboard and be included in
Speaker 1: our culture. So I think that's probably one of the
Speaker 1: more revolutionary things that we've done. Um just because now
Speaker 1: the girls and women and kids that are part of
Speaker 1: our program and being served by our programs are working
Speaker 1: with the volunteers that have the highest skill set. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna show up at the skate park leader to practice,
Speaker 1: they may see, oh, hey, that's my instructor from a weekend.
Speaker 1: Hey what's up. And we're starting to bridge that community
Speaker 1: between ability levels and lengths of time people have hated, ages,
Speaker 1: genders and all that good stuff. Um So just in general,
Speaker 1: we're just trying to change who can take part in skateboarding.
Speaker 1: Like what does the skateboard look like? We're trying to
Speaker 1: make that, you know, as inclusive as possible. Very cool. Well,
Speaker 1: what has your work then with skate like a girl
Speaker 1: taught you the most? You're number one thing about skating
Speaker 1: light whatever kind of like, what is what has been
Speaker 1: like the biggest maybe um reward or life lesson that
Speaker 1: you've gotten from working with the organization. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the easiest way is for me to think
Speaker 1: about this is what would I Where would I do
Speaker 1: a scale girls didn't exist, and I think I sort
Speaker 1: of alluded to it earlier, Like I think I would
Speaker 1: have quit skating and I never would have continued to
Speaker 1: pursue it. I never would have had an excuse to
Speaker 1: because this is like I'm telling you when I turned
Speaker 1: When I first saw skateboarding when I was like eleven,
Speaker 1: I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I begged
Speaker 1: my parents for like a full year to get me
Speaker 1: a skateboard. And I don't know where that came from,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know what it was. I just
Speaker 1: was gravitated. I just gravitated towards it. And I've always
Speaker 1: had that stoke in that passion for skating. I think
Speaker 1: it's the coolest thing on earth. And I've tried everything,
Speaker 1: you know, I've done skydiving, I've a snowboard, I served like,
Speaker 1: but there's nothing like skateboarding. You know. I played every
Speaker 1: team sport you can imagine, and I'm a really athletic.
Speaker 1: I'm really good at sports. There's so like I think
Speaker 1: I probably could have gotten like I would have stuck
Speaker 1: with softball, I probably could have gotten like a college
Speaker 1: scholarships at all. But for whatever reason, skateboarding is what
Speaker 1: I love to do. And there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: structure in skating. There's not a lot of opportunity and
Speaker 1: for anyone, and an especially girls, we are excluded, un
Speaker 1: told we can't do things, and we're kind of funneled
Speaker 1: towards activities that are hockey dorry, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: like probably on the school soccer team, or being into
Speaker 1: like singing or acting or something like that. Um. And
Speaker 1: so I'm just thankful that feel like girls provided me
Speaker 1: and if you to continue to pursue my passion. And
Speaker 1: now at page twenty six, when my parents say, why
Speaker 1: don't you get in your nb A, you should go
Speaker 1: back to school and do law, I'm like, no, I'm
Speaker 1: leading lay in our profit and serving thousands of the
Speaker 1: people of my local community and creating real change like
Speaker 1: experiment people and getting people active and you know, introduce
Speaker 1: those them something that I've been passionate about for so long.
Speaker 1: H I definitely don't answer that with one thing, but
Speaker 1: know that's my best. Yeah, I mean that sounds pretty huge. Um.
Speaker 1: Those were all of the questions that I had for you.
Speaker 1: Is there anything else, um, you want to add that
Speaker 1: I didn't ask you about in terms of skateboarding girls,
Speaker 1: what you love anything like that, any kind of final
Speaker 1: final thoughts. Yeah. I would say that if you're interested
Speaker 1: in skateboarding for you, um, and there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot of people that tell you that it's not and
Speaker 1: you have to learn to not listen to those people. Um.
Speaker 1: If you already are a skateboarder and you want to
Speaker 1: give back and you don't live anywhere close to like
Speaker 1: a major city that's already hosting and doing rad things
Speaker 1: for the skate community, that you can do it. Um.
Speaker 1: When I first started being an instructor for like a Girl,
Speaker 1: we had no idea what we're doing. When they originally
Speaker 1: started to look people, they had no idea what they're doing. Um.
Speaker 1: Most skate comes needs have no idea what they're doing.
Speaker 1: So uh, don't be embarrassed or think that you're not
Speaker 1: good enough. Everyone can take part in making an inclusive
Speaker 1: culture through the vehicle of skateboarding. UM. And if anyone
Speaker 1: anyone who's interested please email Seattle at Skate Like a
Speaker 1: Girl dot com UM and we will get back to you.
Speaker 1: We'll give you all the resources you need to start
Speaker 1: Ladies Nights in your local community at twelve and under
Speaker 1: skate any type of instruction program. We love to help
Speaker 1: support anyone internationally to make rad skate programs happening. And
Speaker 1: we've been doing it for about fifteen years, so we
Speaker 1: kind of know what we're talking about, and we'd love
Speaker 1: to help the pore other folks to make change in
Speaker 1: their local community. Awesome. And what's the website folks can
Speaker 1: go to to learn more about the organization and you
Speaker 1: just Skate like a Girl dot com. And just so
Speaker 1: everyone knows, our Seattle chapter is our like UH headquarters,
Speaker 1: so that's where we have the most going on. It's
Speaker 1: our longest existing chapter. UM. We have paid staff and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Are Portland and San Francisco chapter is
Speaker 1: a little bit smaller. Portland's just started getting a couple
Speaker 1: paid staff and then UM. San Francisco is still all
Speaker 1: volunteer driven. UM. The we have some folks kind of
Speaker 1: running s satellite programs in other areas, but we definitely
Speaker 1: like we're the community. We want people to be a
Speaker 1: part of itself. Check us out scal dot com. I
Speaker 1: guess one more thing too, is like I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people say that they're they're not good enough
Speaker 1: for skateboard or they're not coordinating enough. Um. I get
Speaker 1: those emails all the time. UM. I had someone say like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm forty five years old, like there's no way I
Speaker 1: could do it. Within a year, Um, that person was
Speaker 1: learning how to drop in an ali and shove it
Speaker 1: and do all these cool tricks. But that's a forty
Speaker 1: six year old person. But she don't hear that a
Speaker 1: lot of forty six year old people trying skateboarding. UM.
Speaker 1: I also got an email recently from the girl. She's like,
Speaker 1: I haven't um been active in years, come overweight and
Speaker 1: over twitter pounds, like there's no way I could do it,
Speaker 1: And just recently like she was rolling down like some
Speaker 1: of the biggest ramps in the park and is just
Speaker 1: super inspired and stoked and like wanting to volunteer with
Speaker 1: us and be a part of our organization. So, um,
Speaker 1: you're never too young, never fat. Um, it's for everybody. Well,
Speaker 1: and thanks so much to christ and Ebling and skate
Speaker 1: like a Girl for taking the time to talk to us.
Speaker 1: And it's not the only organization out there either that
Speaker 1: is using skateboarding to fundamentally change girls lives. And next up,
Speaker 1: we want to talk about what happens when skateboarding has
Speaker 1: no preconceived gendered notions. But to do that we must
Speaker 1: travel to Afghanistan. Travel with us. Everyone, get your passports,
Speaker 1: teach your podcast passports. We're going straight to Cobble. Okay,
Speaker 1: it was a quick ride. We're here. We're here. Wait,
Speaker 1: we just got here. Yeah. The group Skateistan has been
Speaker 1: getting some major attention for bringing skate culture, positive skate culture,
Speaker 1: non gender stereotype skate culture to the young girls and
Speaker 1: boys of Kabbal, Afghanistan. Yeah. So, in two thousand seven,
Speaker 1: a skateboarder named Oliver Perkovic traveled to Kabble. He was
Speaker 1: following his girlfriend and he ended up staying and starting
Speaker 1: this ngo called Skateistan that you know, began in Afghanistan,
Speaker 1: but it's now expanded to Cambodia and South Africa, and
Speaker 1: I know he's trying to expand it in more spots
Speaker 1: around the globe as well. And the inspiration was seeing
Speaker 1: a lot of these Afghani kids who weren't in school.
Speaker 1: They were extremely poor, they had no access to education,
Speaker 1: and really no healthy recreational outlets. So he got some
Speaker 1: skateboards and started teaching kids to skate and using it
Speaker 1: not only to teach them skate practical skateboarding skills, but
Speaker 1: also to educate them in certain ways. Yeah, and writing
Speaker 1: about this, Fast Company points out that he was using
Speaker 1: skateboarding as a tool for empowering youth, to create new
Speaker 1: opportunities and the potential for change. So, you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of the kids who are in this group, like
Speaker 1: Kristen said, don't go to school, but almost half our girls.
Speaker 1: This is something that I thought was so fascinating that
Speaker 1: when you go into a culture where, for instance, bicycling
Speaker 1: is not okay for girls to participate in, but you
Speaker 1: find that there is no preconceived notion regarding skateboarding, Suddenly
Speaker 1: boys and girls can participate in something active and fun together. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I mean getting these girls to skate to stand
Speaker 1: requires some extra effort. They had to u sort of
Speaker 1: directly meet with the parents and colmony concerns that they
Speaker 1: had about their girls doing this. A lot of times
Speaker 1: they will directly pick up and drop off the girls
Speaker 1: from their homes um, whereas the boys are freer to
Speaker 1: you know, come on their own um from school or
Speaker 1: from home wherever it might be. So it's taken extra
Speaker 1: effort but clearly paid off. And the photos of these
Speaker 1: girls from Skate to Stan have been going viral on
Speaker 1: the internet um over the past year. So thanks to
Speaker 1: a UK photographer named Jessica full For Dobson, who you know,
Speaker 1: went and spent some time and took all these captivating
Speaker 1: photos and at the time that we're recording this podcast,
Speaker 1: at least, they're currently on display in London's Stacci Gallery
Speaker 1: and it was neat hearing full for Dobson talking about
Speaker 1: you know why these images of these girls in particular
Speaker 1: have been so captivating UM. And one of them that
Speaker 1: she talks about was so she describes her as immaculate
Speaker 1: and she is standing there in this photo. She has
Speaker 1: a head scarf on and you know, her arms she's
Speaker 1: like holding her skateboard right up against her in her
Speaker 1: arms down by her side and her legs together. She's
Speaker 1: very you know, standing up straight and yet you know
Speaker 1: she she's holding a skateboard. There seems to be such
Speaker 1: contrast with that and she told the BBC she's only seven,
Speaker 1: but she seems to have such assurance for her age.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the things that the researchers in
Speaker 1: the Gender and Femininity and Skateboarding study found as well,
Speaker 1: that this activity can bring such confidence, especially among girls
Speaker 1: who take it so seriously that they do want to
Speaker 1: learn how to build, take a part and maintain their
Speaker 1: own boards. Learning new skills automatically just breeds a degree
Speaker 1: of confidence no matter what your hobby or pastime is,
Speaker 1: whether it's skating or painting. And that's true too of
Speaker 1: whether you are a girl skateboarding it seems like or
Speaker 1: if you are someone our age or older who's skateboarding,
Speaker 1: and that's something that skate like a girl's. Kristen Ebling
Speaker 1: really drove home when we talk to her about the
Speaker 1: organization and the impact that skateboarding can have on girls. So, now,
Speaker 1: fair listeners, we want to hear from you. Where are
Speaker 1: the skateboarders in our audience? I know you're there. Are
Speaker 1: you listening to us right now on a skateboard? Is
Speaker 1: that dangerous? I have no idea, Mom staff that how
Speaker 1: stuff works. Dot com is our email address, and be
Speaker 1: sure to check out skate like a Girl dot com
Speaker 1: to learn more about that huge things to Kristen with
Speaker 1: a K for talking to us, And if you want
Speaker 1: to tweet us, you can do that at mom Stuff
Speaker 1: podcast or messages on Facebook. And we've got a couple
Speaker 1: of messages to share from you right now. Well, I've
Speaker 1: gotta let her here from just that I want to
Speaker 1: share because she has one of the coolest jobs I've
Speaker 1: ever heard about ever, Caroline, So she writes. I've been
Speaker 1: listening to the podcast for several months now, but this
Speaker 1: is my first time writing into you, guys. I've slowly
Speaker 1: been catching up on the podcast archive, and I recently
Speaker 1: listened to both the Women in Archaeology and Women in
Speaker 1: Firefighting podcasts. I'm writing you because I wanted you to
Speaker 1: know that I do both. I work for the U. S.
Speaker 1: Forest Service as an archaeologist, and wildlife suppression is a
Speaker 1: required part of my job. You might be wondering what
Speaker 1: an archaeologist does on a fire. We're usually part of
Speaker 1: a team of resource advisors who helped the incident commander
Speaker 1: make smart decisions about the cultural resources that may be
Speaker 1: impacted by the fire. We direct bulldozers around archaeological sites
Speaker 1: rap historic structures and fire retardant material and make sure
Speaker 1: the retardant is not dropped on rock art panels. I've
Speaker 1: received all the same training as the other wild land firefighters,
Speaker 1: and I also must pass the same physical fitness test
Speaker 1: each year. It's not something that I ever thought I
Speaker 1: would do as an archaeologist, but I really enjoy it.
Speaker 1: So thanks for doing two excellent podcasts about what I
Speaker 1: do for a living. And thank you just because, seriously,
Speaker 1: that sounds so cool and yet another fascinating example of
Speaker 1: STEM careers. Well, speaking of jobs that people never thought
Speaker 1: they would end up in, I have a letter here
Speaker 1: from Abigail about her father, and this ties in our
Speaker 1: episodes Kristen on interior design and man Caves. So anyway,
Speaker 1: Abigail writes, I just finished listening to your interior design
Speaker 1: podcast and thought you'd like to hear about my father,
Speaker 1: who spent nearly thirty years as a police officer and
Speaker 1: who has turned to interior design and his retirement. When
Speaker 1: my dad retired from the police force in his late fifties,
Speaker 1: he suddenly had way more free time than he'd ever
Speaker 1: had in his life and didn't know what to do
Speaker 1: with himself. He worked security at a local community college
Speaker 1: to earn earn some extra cash and flip through their
Speaker 1: catalog one day to see if anything interested him. Interior
Speaker 1: design is what caught his eye and he enrolled for
Speaker 1: the next semester. I talked to him after his first
Speaker 1: day of class and he told me, yeah, it was
Speaker 1: a bunch of twenty something women and me the old part.
Speaker 1: The teacher actually approached me to make sure I was
Speaker 1: in the right class. My manly man dad enjoyed the classes,
Speaker 1: designing things like high end kitchens with indoor barbecues and
Speaker 1: an ultimate man cave with a pool table, giant TV,
Speaker 1: and several lazy boys. About midway through the program, my
Speaker 1: dad found a very interesting connection between his former days
Speaker 1: as a police officer and his new interest of interior design.
Speaker 1: Designing spaces with a goal of crime prevention. Designers focus
Speaker 1: on things like visibility, for example, facing reception desks towards
Speaker 1: doorways and ensuring nothing blocks the view out of windows,
Speaker 1: and also e grasp and ensuring there are multiple clear
Speaker 1: paths to exits in general safety like ensuring phones are
Speaker 1: nearby to call for help. He has now become a
Speaker 1: certified crime prevention design specialist and volunteers his time to schools, businesses,
Speaker 1: and even homes interested in designs focused on crime prevention.
Speaker 1: I thought you might enjoy this perspective. Well, thank you
Speaker 1: Abigail for tonning in so many of our episodes so well,
Speaker 1: and forgiving our listeners another career dea. Maybe we need
Speaker 1: to start the stuff mom Never Told You Ladies career
Speaker 1: directory for sure, and and retired police officer career directory.
Speaker 1: Yes indeed. Well, if you have any ideas for our
Speaker 1: career directory or thoughts on skateboarding, you know where to
Speaker 1: send them. Mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com
Speaker 1: is our email address and bri links to all of
Speaker 1: our social media as well as all of our blogs,
Speaker 1: videos including that his story interview with Patty McGee, and
Speaker 1: podcasts including this one with our sources. So you can
Speaker 1: learn more about the rad women of skateboarding, head on
Speaker 1: over to stuff Mom Never Told You dot com for
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com