Being a Female on a Skateboard

It all started with the interest of watching extremely sexy, young men riding skateboards at my local skatepark. I rarely saw girls riding skateboards, maybe rollarblades or bikes with training wheels. The skatepark is mainly run by boys. I only knew a few boys who’d let me ride their boards for fun. The enjoyment of riding a plank with four wheels really gave me the desire to learn and do more. So I did. Through my coming of ages, I learnt to ride around on streets, getting comfortable with the speed and balance but facing the skatepark raiding with men was the bigger fear. It’s hard to be confident and ride without thinking what the guys would think. It took me about a year to drop in on a quarter pipe. I practiced over night where no one was around. I was able to ride the park casually but obviously without doing any tricks or using the ramps and quarter pipes. But it was a progress. I studied videos and pro skaters such as Tommy Flynn, Tyson Peterson, Kadar, Jake Phelps, etc, doing tricks, skating transition and skating on the streets. Through this I felt more confident to learn tricks I knew names of. I ran into a young handsome man, just one year older than me with a unique and funny personality at my local skatepark. He skates incredibly insane. I was in awe. We clicked and started dating. He began helping me and teaching me to do multiple tricks such as 50-50, 5-0, grind, rock n roll, rock to fakie, switch, ollie, 180, etc, within few months.Young kids started coming to both of us, asking for help on how to do this and that. That’s when I knew, I can skate. A girl that skates. I started skating at different skateparks and meeting new skaters. Eventually, girls who mainly go to the skatepark and watch the boys skate started noticing me. They told me that I inspired them to start skating at the skatepark because I could do it. And while dating my skater boyfriend, many other male skaters noticed me at the skatepark, found me on socials and began texting me. However, I’m glad to be with my current boyfriend because he liked me when I was weak and didn’t know much about skating. He taught me and brought me to who I am today. I guess the coin flipped. It was once a girl watching sexy, young men skate, now it’s sexy, young men watching a sexy, fabulous, hard working, young woman, me, skate quite fine. But I’ve realised my passion for skateboarding is much bigger than that. I feel at home when I’m at the skatepark, knowing handsome friends, being able to skate in front of them comfortably and understanding that women can skate if they jump out of their comfort zones and enjoy the sport without fear of who is watching.