ARTICLE BY NATALIE HARPER

With all the recent conversation in skating around mental health— whether that be with Pushing Borders, Vent City, Quell Party, Skateism, or the ongoing work of the Ben Raemers Foundation— there is a potential now to introduce a new topic to the mix. So far the discussion has centered largely around anxiety, depression, and suicide prevention; however, I believe you cannot talk about mental health without talking about neurodiversity. 

Neurodiversity is a term used to describe the natural variations that can exist in human brains. Someone can fit the label of neurodiverse if they are autistic, or have conditions such as dyslexia, ADHD, bipolar disorder, OCD, DID, as well as many others. However, it is entirely up to the person whether they choose to use this label or not. 

As a disclaimer before we begin, this will not be comprehensive for all neurodivergent people, or even those who share my neurotype. What is to come was not created out of expertise, but out of necessity. Neurodivergent people are already very much a part of this community and yet there is little to no discussion of our existence, much less our needs, in skateboarding. 

If there was more awareness of this and the lives of neurodivergent people then we as a community could spend less time managing symptoms and more time addressing possible causes and triggers. 

I am an autistic trans woman with ADHD and OSDD 1a. I also have an anxiety disorder and experience depressive episodes. Oftentimes, as was the case for me, what may look like anxiety or depression at first is just a small piece of something more complex. 

While changing a society will take time, the skate community can take a more active role in this change by making our spaces more welcoming for neurodivergent people. 

SAY WHOSE TURN IT IS IN A RUN/LINEUP. 

There is a great deal of nonverbal language that occurs at a skate spot. If someone is a newcomer, regardless of neurotype, they may not understand all the eye contact, head nods, and pointing that goes into figuring out who’s turn it is to skate an obstacle. 

Many autistic people, myself included, have difficulty processing body language and facial cues, so the message you are trying to send with eye contact and a head nod might go right by us. Instead, try communicating verbally (and politely) whose turn it is. 

PLEASE TURN DOWN THE MUSIC. 

What may seem like a normal volume to neurotypical people can go from distracting to debilitating for autistic people and others with a sensitivity to sound. One solution to this would be, as has been done already at many movie theatres and restaurants, to set aside time when the music will be set (or capped) at a lower volume, or to simply turn it down the whole time. 

“One thing I have done at skate events in the past is create a "quiet room," quiet being relative... but we set aside our back room for anyone who needs to step away from the bright lights and loud noises of the skatepark,” says AJ Waters, founder/owner of Stronger Skatepark. 

“We set it up with some bean bag chairs, and bottles of water back there for anyone who needs them. Skateboarding is a very loud sport and it's really hard to minimize the sound, so having headphones and ear plugs available is a nice option as well.”

DO NOT STARE AT PEOPLE WHEN THEY STIM.

Short for self-stimulatory behavior, a stim is any repetitive movement used by an autistic person to either calm themselves down, build up focus or energy for a particular task, or express a strong emotion such as excitement or distress. This can include things flapping hands, rocking back and forth, leg bouncing, or hair twirling. 

Many autistic people attempt to “mask,” or hide, their autsitic traits in order to blend in better with neurotypical society. I regularly limit my stims when I am out in public to what I feel will go unnoticed by most neurotypical people. 

Masking can have an adverse effect on the person’s mental health, especially when it comes to stimming. Not doing so when we need to can lead to dysregulation and a build up of stress in the body. Autistic people need to know that in any space, whether that be at the store or the skatepark, we can stim without fear of getting odd looks from strangers in order to function at our best and truly be ourselves.

BE MINDFUL.

“I think the biggest thing I would want skaters to be aware of is the way they are taking up space. So many people at the skatepark skate super aggressively, and honestly most of the time skating that way is fine, but the way they stand on the deck, the way they jump at every opening to take a run, the way they yell when they are upset, etc... all these behaviors make the skatepark a super unwelcoming place to all sorts of people including neurodiverse people, who are more likely to experience anxiety,” AJ informs.

“So many skaters (especially men who have been skating a long time) just have no idea how their behavior, body language, skating style, etc. affect everyone around them.” AJ makes an excellent point that “by making skateparks more inclusive to beginners, queer people, women, etc, we are also making the skatepark more welcoming to neurodiverse folks.” Some of the work has already begun but these more established practices can be expanded slightly to help make skate spaces more welcoming for neurodivergent people. 

BE INTENTIONAL WITH YOUR LANGUAGE

I often see posts for skate meetups that say something like “all abilities welcome.” However, for a long time this phrasing confused me. I couldn’t figure out if it means “all ability levels welcome,” as I have also seen it written, or if it is meant to imply that you are welcome whether you are able bodied or disabled.

If it is meant to also passively imply that disabled people are welcome, then why not instead take a more active approach and change it to something like “All Abilities and Disabilities Welcome”? 

Of course, when inviting disabled people to an event or space, it is important that their accommodations be met. It is my hope that this article can be a small piece in that larger conversation that includes the work already being done in adaptive skateboarding and the wider disability rights movement within our community. 

On the reverse side, be aware of harmful language being used by others. “There is also still a lot of homophobia and transphobia in the skate community, and there is a huge overlap between neurodiverse people and queer people.” says AJ, “So going to a skatepark and hearing gay used an insult can make many neurodiverse folks feel unsafe.”

NAME AND PRONOUN CIRCLES. 

This small activity that is being used more frequently in skating can go a long way in helping a community that has long been stigmatized by society. People who have dissociative identity disorder (formally known as multiple personality disorder), OSDD 1a, or OSDD 1b may have one or two alters that enjoy skating. 

It can help people with these disorders be their authentic selves and feel comfortable even entering a space if they are simply asked in the beginning their name and pronouns or the name and pronouns of someone else who may switch in later. It is completely understandable if someone doesn’t feel comfortable sharing that information, but if they do then the least we can do is use the right name and pronouns— just as we would for anyone else. 

What I often hear is how important that sense of belonging is to so many in the skate community; How important it is to their mental health. In the previous piece I wrote with Quell, I spoke about feeling a small portion of this through watching other queer and trans skaters online, yet I feel a barrier between myself and other skaters I meet in real life due of a lack of understanding about neurodiversity in skating. For myself and countless others, neurodiversity and mental health do not exist in separation, but rather they compound one another. Exponentially.

What I am suggesting here is more than just some recommendations for some events. Many neurodivergent people don’t have anywhere else to go— don’t want to be anywhere else— and if skateboarding claims to be for all of those that society rejects, then I say prove it. Prove it to us that we belong here too. 

Article by Sarah Deiss

Skateboarding is a celebration of not following the norms, rules or authority and that should be applied within skateboarding media and organizations as well. Different outlets for skateboarding matter to the community, because not all skateboarding is the same, nor it should it be. Rachel Campbell and many more have taken it upon themselves to change how we gather in skateboarding.

Like many women in skateboarding, Rachel Campbell, who runs Skateburds in Glasgow, Scotland has been quizzed about her true interest in skateboarding. “Can you skate? Can you do this trick? Why do you hang out with all these guys?” Rachel replies from her own experience, “Well, it’s not really why it’s the one female that hangs out with these guys skaters– it’s more why do I not see more girl skateboarders?” 

In the last decade or so, skate collectives, communities and companies have been popping up all over the world for the less represented skaters. Skateburds is one of them, and Rachel has been running it since 2018. 

Rachel discusses the difference between some girls’ journey into the skate scene compared to boys. Documentaries or articles often touch on how skateboarding impacted famous male skateboarders’ lives, going down a hole of obsession the instant they learn how to ollie, and for less represented groups, like girls, do not always fall down that deep love of skating until months or years later into it. 

Rachel explains her experience in high school, “There were only two girls I had seen in Glasgow skating and they were quite older than me, and they weren’t treated any differently. But it was like, if you were a girl, or anyone outside the straight male norm, coming into skateboarding you became ‘one of the boys’ rather than it just being a neutral zone for everybody to be themselves.” This was at Kelvingrove, arguably the busiest skatepark in town, but the two girl skateboarders made Rachel feel like progression was really possible, it was skating right in front of her.

“My pals were all guys, and some would not do their schoolwork or patch a class to go skate and it was blamed on their hormones, while I was kept in because all my teachers were on my back constantly saying, ‘you’re acting out like those boys’ and I would be like, well yeah, so why are you on my back because you’re not on theirs?”

Skating for Rachel felt it came with breaking expectations that she feels have been engraved into girls. It does not break easily or without emotional burdens. “My pals were all guys, and some would not do their schoolwork or patch a class to go skate and it was blamed on their hormones, while I was kept in because all my teachers were on my back constantly saying, ‘you’re acting out like those boys’ and I would be like, well yeah, so why are you on my back because you’re not on theirs?”

Rachel admits, “In high school I was constantly fighting with myself deciding whether I should skate or not because when I don’t skate, people want to hang out with me more and don’t find me embarrassing. When I had my skateboard, less people would talk to me, more people would look me up and down.”

Rachel Campbell

Rachel’s feelings lead her to find Doyenne, then through word of mouth, Skateburds at age 16. At 17 Rachel was running it. “I grew up with this mentality that skateboarders are against the world. Because non-skaters were the ones always being pricks, which pushed me more towards skating once I got over fighting with myself if I should skate or not. I realized the ones that were on me about skateboarding were just people who did not accept me, and I have a community of all skateboarders that like me regardless. I can take the idea I want, what I believe will make a stake community better and see what happens. I just wanted everyone who wants to be involved, to be involved in skateboarding. I wanted for people to see the skateboarding community another way.” 

After starting Skateburds, Rachel often heard ‘I wish I had someone to skate with,’ or ‘I think I would skate more if I had someone to skate with’ so Rachel wanted Skateburds to be a place for anyone, to make it easier to get into skating without having to worry about what could go wrong, because there is space that will welcome you at any level.

“One of the main things I want to do for the skate scene is to make it more accessible for a wider range of people. No matter what starting something new is scary, and I know that if I were about to start another sport, I would be really anxious. I just want to make it easier for people and have someone who will be understanding to how they feel instead of feeling judged for it. I know at the beginning, it was heavily portrayed that Skateburds is only for women, especially in the name, but I’d like for them to see from the posts and the sessions I run that anyone can come. I didn’t start this wanting ‘more girl skaters, less boys.’ I wanted to teach people beyond girls my age who I wanted to be friends with, I want to teach toddlers, kids, old people, parents, queer people, or people who are anxious to start for whatever reason. Even to have people come sit and speak to people who are into skateboarding can get someone involved.”

“It’s about experiencing the skatepark for yourself and taking up the space you deserve. I don’t want there to be a stigma or stereotype that skateparks are cliquey and unwelcoming."

Taken by Rachel Campbell at the Transport Museum Glasgow

It is not a matter of being better than a skate park, it’s about addressing how a lot of girls who come to Skateburds meet up say, ‘I was too anxious to go to the skatepark’ Rachel tells those people, “It’s about experiencing the skatepark for yourself and taking up the space you deserve. I don’t want there to be a stigma or stereotype that skateparks are cliquey and unwelcoming,” Rachel adds, “because less people will not come to the park. But of course, if there are people being horrible, I want the skate scene to deal with that too.”

Rachel Campbell’s drive to influence to get more people to skate triangulates together, from supporting her community centers teaching skate lessons, organizing inclusive skate sesh’s with Skateburds, to helping the people she meets set up boards at her job, a UK wide skate shop, RouteOne. Rachel carries a welcoming, non-judgemental presence throughout Glasgow, building a larger skate community welcoming anyone interested. 

Article by Kylie Becker

Since skateboarding started to hit more mainstream media, the fashion and attitude of skateboarders has been sought after. Much of these attempts to emulate skater style come off corny usually, such as Vogue's Skate week. But like the community efforts in skateboarding, the style of skateboarders has grown by definition and so has the product market.

STYLE AT A GLANCE

Stereotypical skater style has grown since the origins of street skating in the 1970’s. Best depicted in Lords of Dogtown the California beach meets bowl aesthetic set the tone for what skateboarding looked like in media and in the minds of many.

California’s drought in the 1970’s left many pools empty which allowed local skaters to create DIY spots ideal for skateboarding. DIY culture blended into skateboarding through other cultural events happening in parallel such as surfing and punk rock. 

The 90’s gave way to oversized everything – silhouettes, branding, logos and shoes. Some of those styles we've seen mirrored in parodies such as Clueless and basically any stoner representation in media. 90's fashion has dominated every trend since 2010. We've seen so many variations on those trends evolve, but brand's that have come up in the 90's like Supreme and Stussy have absolutely dominated the modern "skater clothing" market. 90's silhouettes are often replicated in modern ways, like ASAP Rocky for Under Armour.

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FOOTWEAR REIGNS SUPREME

As fashion has evolved, so has the cultural conversation. Skateboarding has come a long way from the 1970’s and the cis male presence that once reigned over the sport. Inclusivity has been the topic of conversation since the women's and queer skate scene started exponentially growing in 2015.

Footwear has always been an integral part of the skate industry. As skateboarding has become more and more popular, mainstream brands have added teams to their roster. Adidas, Nike, Converse and New Balance all have gotten into the skate industry’s footwear game. 

Van's has taken a large stake in using their platform to uplift women and queer skateboarders. From the media landscape, they've covered beautiful stories through their Love Letter's series. From the fashion aspect, Vans has released dozens of collections with non-traditional skateboarders such as: Lizzie Armanto, Beatrice Domond, Cher Strauberry, Una Farrar, Fabiana Delfino, and Brighton Zeuner. Van's roster remains to mirror the trends of the industry. Each riders career dips into the varying fashion landscape of skateboarding while broadening the definition of what it means to look like a skateboarder.

In addition to Vans, major brands in the skate space such as Nike SB continue to provide leadership in the cultural conversation of inclusivity during recent times. Their film such as Gizmo or their partnership with Skate Like a Girl are just two ways they've integrated themselves into the non-traditional skate market.

Adidas made leaps in reaching skaters of all gender identities and expressions when releasing their fall 2020 line of gender neutral clothing and shoes in partnership with Unity, a queer-based skateboarding brand that focuses on creative outlets representing the queer community within the skate industry. 

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SHOPPING SMALL

While larger businesses take strides to update their products, smaller businesses have been gaining more popularity for their authentic approach to inclusivity.

Doyenne Skateboards, a women-run skateboarding brand located in Glasgow, Scotland is also pursuing gender nuetrality within the skateboarding and fashion landscape. Their clothing and initiatives promote equality and unity as they design clothes with the intention to suit all genders.  

Marissa Martinez has also taken matters into their own hands, or legs. Marissa is the founder of MamaSkate, clothing brand that makes unisex pants and shorts. On their website, Marissa describes her unisex pants and shorts design as an: eco-friendly limited run unisex pants and shorts with pockets so deep you'll ditch your purse. The skater-designed pants and shorts come in a variety of colors and are made to actually be the perfect fit and fabric for skateboarding. Marissa’s personal experience with fashion and skateboarding has opened new doors to the discussion and design of skater focused clothing within the skate world.

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INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCES

Social media has shifted the focus from brands and branded content, to skaters themselves– changing the way we view skateboarding as well as self expression. There have been some pivotal figures in the skating world that have opened the doors to a whole new era of how we view skate fashion. 

Victoria Taylor, better known on Instagram as Skatemoss shows off her fashion sense on a highlight on her IG page with many outfits ranging in various styles from very “feminine” to “tomboy.” Those outfits include extremely baggy jeans with boxers showing, oversized t-shirts, Nike high-top dunks, and a beanie or SnapBack to tighter, more “traditional” female clothing, such as crop tops, dresses, and boots.

With a four year degree from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and a signed model with Next Model Agency, Victoria’s creativity in the fashion world and talents in the skating world have merged into a unique combination of self-expression. Victoria’s authenticity on and off of her skateboard has also landed her a collection with Grizzly which included crop hoodies, joggers, bodysuits, sports bras, crop tees, and griptape.

Victoria represents a lot of individuals in the skate culture. She, like Marissa Martinez, represents many non-traditional skaters, including young girls, young adult women, and the LGBTQ+ community who are not visually represented as frequently in the skate industry. 

Another figurehead in queer self-expression in the skate industry is Kane Caples. Caples, an amateur skater popular on TikTok and Instagram, is the perfect example of skateboarding and fashion simultaneously having no limitations when it comes to gender and gender nonconformity.

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THE FUTURE OF FASHION

Each day gets brighter when major skate brands promote skaters and fashion trends that do not fit “the norm.” Mainstream brands like Vans, Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Thrasher, and Supreme have the stage to support underrepresented skaters and to promote a diversified outlook on skateboarding.

Pivotal brands and individuals as we've mentioned, have the ability to use their platforms to promote the changing landscape. These valuable communities (the queer and women's skate communities) have gradually been breaking down barriers to be more included in all facets of the skating world.

Overall, the views on and passion for skateboarding by these supportive brands and innovative individuals has left a long-lasting message for the skate community; it doesn’t matter the style of clothes that are worn, overall appearances, how someone identifies regarding gender, race, or sexual orientation - skateboarding is universal and it is for everyone. 

If you've been even vaguely curious about NYC skate history, without a doubt Harold Hunter's name has come up. Harold was a staple in the community during the early 90's. Since his passing, his friends and family have organized Harold Hunter Foundation in his honor. We chatted with with Jessica Forsyth – Executive director of Harold Hunter Foundation in Issue 007 of our magazine. Read the interview below, and get a hard copy here.

Photos by Gunars Elmuts

What is Harold Hunter Foundation?
HHF is a grassroots nonprofit skate community-based organization whose goal is to provide a network of support, resources, and advocacy for skateboarders in NYC (and beyond), so they can achieve educational, occupational, and personal success. We advance our mission, “to use skateboarding as a vehicle to provide underserved youth with valuable life experiences that nurture individual creativity, resourcefulness, and the development of life skills” by leveraging our credibility within, and the unique assets of, the skateboarding culture/community to provide organic mentorship, support, guidance, and workforce readiness training to a population that is among those least likely to participate in organized adult-led activities, to help them successfully navigate the critical transition from adolescence to adulthood.

How did you get involved in the foundation?
We grew up in the Lower East Side and my sister was Harold’s best friend. I remember the day they met right in front of our house on St. Marks Place in the late ‘80s like it was yesterday – I was watching out our kitchen window. After that day, Harold pretty much adopted our family and became a fixture in our house. He kind of made our house a personal clubhouse for him and his crew of Skate NYC skaters who would hang out at our house most days when my sister got home from school. He would often happen by right at dinner time LOL.

There was one summer when my sister was away working at a sleep-away camp and Harold came by to eat dinner with my family many nights a week, usually with Steven Cales in tow, even though my sister wasn’t there. He celebrated pretty much all major holidays and special events with us, we even had a Christmas stocking for him. My sister and Harold had a really beautiful friendship and he would often introduce both of us to people as his sisters.

When Harold died, some friends of his who were organizing his funeral created a gmail account that we use to this day: haroldhunterfoundation@gmail.com and a PayPal account to raise funds. When the funeral was over they came to our family and said that they wanted the foundation to be a real thing and they trusted us to make it a reality. The names on the incorporation filing for HHF are my sister, Ronald Hunter (Harold’s older brother), and Jefferson Pang. We had board elections in January 2007 and sent our first 2 kids to camp in 2007. I’ve been involved since the very beginning, but took on the lead role in programming starting in 2010 and officially took on the title of Executive Director in 2013.

What was Harold Hunter to New York?
Harold was a truly iconic and legendary figure both to the local NYC downtown culture and in the global skateboarding community. He was the funniest person in the world, he absolutely loved people and made friends with anyone/everyone no matter what their background, age, race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status. He loved without limits and would give his friends the shirt off his back. People who hung out with Harold for a few days considered him their best friend because he was that charismatic and engaging and loving. But he was also a really complex and imperfect person who struggled with a lot of pain. There’s really no way for me to do justice to the brilliance of Harold and his impact on NYC skateboarding and NYC in general with mere words. There is and will never be anyone like Harold.

What does the New York skate scene mean to you?
Although I am not a skater myself, I have been connected to the NYC skate community for over 30 years. I think the NYC skate community is the best in the world. It’s a diverse, beautiful, vibrant community of fearless, funny, brilliant, creative people from all around the world. Like Harold, it’s not perfect, of course. I have so much love and respect for this community.

How do women get involved with HHF on and off the board?
It’s been absolutely amazing watching the growth of the women/girls skate scene in NYC. Women and the Queer skaters are truly driving so much of the activism and community engagement that is happening in the NYC skate scene. In the last year, we went from me being the only woman on staff to have about a third of our staff being women, which is so exciting for us. We’re still a small, but growing, organization with a limited budget, so we don’t have a ton of jobs, but we’re always looking to connect with, support, and collaborate women in the scene who are making things happen as volunteers or in running their own collectives, initiatives, projects, and events. Women can reach out to us through our website if they want to volunteer, be a part of our programs, or get support from HHF for something they want to do for the skate community.

What’s the future of HHF?
We have a brilliant staff – each and every one of whom is a skateboarder (except for me, but I promised my 3-year-old son I’d learn to skate with him). Even our social worker and lawyer are skateboarders. We’re all working as hard as we can to grow and expand the organization and the support, resources, advocacy, and opportunity we can provide to the NYC skate community. The future of HHF will always be by skateboarders for skateboarders and I hope that in a few year’s time a skateboarder will be doing my job!

Article by Tyler Francischine | Photo Bryce Kanights

At an age when most kids are decapitating Barbies or chewing on Legos, Minna Stess was already competing at local skate competitions near her hometown of Petaluma, California, north of San Francisco. This May, the 15-year-old took home first place at the USA National Championships. If there’s one thing for certain, it’s that Minna’s star has only begun to rise. We asked Minna a few questions about what keeps her motivated through tough competitions and how she sees her place within the growing world of women in skateboarding.

Let’s start from the beginning. You started skating while still in diapers. Who encouraged you to get on a board for the very first time?

My brother who’s almost three years older than me started skating when he was four. I wanted to do whatever he was doing, so my parents got me a board and I started rolling around with him. I don't even remember learning how to drop in--I just remember knowing how to do it.

When did it become clear to you and everyone around you that this was where your passion and talent lied, and that you could pursue it as a full-time career? 

When I was around 12 or 13, I could see a career in skating for me, especially seeing other female skaters like Lizzie Armanto and Nora Vasconcellos coming up.

You’ve won several prestigious awards. Walk us through what goes on in your mind as you’re competing. Do you think about the judges, or do you go to more of an internal place within yourself?

I don't really think about the judges as much. I focus on wanting to land what I had planned and hopefully getting good results. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll be happy with myself knowing I did what I wanted to do.

To compete at your level must surely require a level of discipline. What’s your practice routine?

When I’m in Southern California with my coach, I'll spend 2-3 hours every other day practicing. When I’m home in Petaluma, I mostly have fun with my friends on my board. In 2012, we built a skatepark in my family’s backyard. It’s all concrete and still in really good condition. That’s where most of my friends come--we just skate my backyard.

"I don’t think it should be as big of a deal as it is to be a woman in skating, but I do think it is important to be a part of the progression of women in skating."

When you’re finding yourself hitting a wall, like perhaps trying out a new trick and finding it challenging or overwhelming, what do you tell yourself to push through?

I tell myself that if I commit, that will break the mental barrier. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t and I fall or bail.

It’s no secret that skateboarding is commonly thought of as a male-dominated world. What does it mean to you to be a young woman in skating?

I don’t think it should be as big of a deal as it is to be a woman in skating, but I do think it is important to be a part of the progression of women in skating. When I was younger, I would be the only girl at the park. Now, I see whole squads of girls at the park sometimes.

Are there any female skaters who came before you that you draw inspiration from?

Samarria Brevard is a really good street skater and she’s super nice. I admire Vanessa Torres. When I was younger and skating at KTR [Mesa in Mesa, Arizona,] Alana Smith was the only other girl skating. She was as good as the guys and I looked up to her then. I still do.

What would you tell other women and non-binary folks who want to get into skating but may feel intimidated by the lack of non-male representation?

Don’t worry about men. If they say anything to you, they’re just jealous, so it doesn’t matter anyway, right?

When it comes to building a community in skateboarding, we have a lot to learn from the directors of froSkate. Founded by Karlie Thorton, froSkate is a Womyn and POC–centered skate crew based in Chicago. It took less than an hour for me to be fully convinced that Karlie and her Co-Coordinator, L.Brew are the key to the future of skateboarding. While issues of racism in this country have come front and center this year, froSkate has not missed a beat when it comes to continually pushing and developing the visibility around people of color in skateboarding. Their voice demonstrates that authenticity is key in building a foundation of any initiative. As companies search for the answer to diversity in skateboarding–froSkate has rightfully taken up the conversation.

This article and photos appear in full exclusively in Quell Skateboarding Issue 006 – Buy a copy here.

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Where are you from? How did you start skateboarding? What inspired you to keep going? 

KARLIE THORTON: I’m from St. Louis, I started skating last year towards April 2019. I was always inspired by skateboarding and I had friends that skated, of course we all did. I would go to the indoor skate park and watch them skate but that was as far as it got. It wasn’t until I met OJ, my co worker and he introduced me to Tiffany Johnson. They pushed me to start skating, pushed me on a skateboard and really got me into it. I owe a lot to them. That’s really similarly how I started, and then started again. 

L.BREW: I am also from St. Louis and I started skating five years ago. I had a friend who did and I thought he looked super dope and thought I wanted to do that too My older friend gave me their board and I taught myself. He would take me to the skate parks now and again but I didn’t know how to do anything so I would hang out in the parking lot. I moved here and met froSkate and that’s really what helped me develop because I was with a community. I really love it and it’s just only gotten better since I found my people. 

So when was froSkate started? 

KT: froSkate was started a month after I started skating. The guys that would invite me to their nights were pro level skaters which was amazing to see but I felt like I was in their way. I’m trying to learn how to push and they’re doing the craziest shit...I wanted to learn with people who look like me and are on a similar level. I started to reach out to homies who were interested and we started to skate. People would hit us up and it got bigger and bigger so I made a separate Instagram for skating because it would be easier to post. 

Then we did events, weekly meetups and just hang out beyond the skate park. That’s really what established it to what it is today. 

What is the more typical froSkate programming?

 KT: It’s a lot more sketch now that COVID is here. We don’t have many actual meetups this year. If we did have one, it’s rare maybe once every other month. Now, everyone’s required to wear a mask, keep a distance. Or we’re having a civil engagement like outreach or the protest. We do have a group chat with the core froSkate members where we go skate random days together on a more intimate level but that’s what it’s looking like right now.

Obviously Karlie, you were mentioning in the beginning of froSkate, the community was built through your Instagram. How has your community changed between now and then?

KT: In the beginning, we started with three people. One of our members tweeted about us and it went viral. After a couple of months we basically would take over the whole skate park with like 30-40 people at the meetups. We had a meetup a couple months ago that we announced the day of and we had 40 people show up. We’re having a meeting next Monday so we’ll probably have maybe 60 people. Since the protest - we had a turnout of a couple thousand people. Our online presence in one month jumped from 4K to 10K. 

I think it’s so important everything you guys are doing. One of the things that drives us at Quell is visibility and obviously if you don’t see someone that looks like you or is doing what you’re doing– you’re less inclined to go after it. 

Why do you feel like it’s important that organizations like froSkate exist? 

KT: Representation really does matter. Kind of like you mentioned before, not seeing yourself can discourage you from doing it in the first place. Probably why I didn’t pick up skating in the first place. It’s just so important for people to go into skate parks and be a body in that way. I’m loving the other small groups that are popping up and other meetups in turn because it’s inspiring people to pick it up. 

LB: Representation is a huge part. One of the biggest things that got me into skating is that I didn’t see people who looked like me and I tend to be drawn to situations and spaces where I feel like someone has to start that work. At the point we are now, I feel like we have created this image so that there are younger people who look like us who can see us and know they can have that. I didn’t have that, I didn’t see Black and brown female skaters growing up what so ever. I think froSkate has done a lot of work in making that representation visible so that younger generations have people to look up to. 

Totally, and I think it’s paying off. I know obviously you, L.Brew, found froSkate after the fact. What drove you to go to froSkate events as someone who wasn’t initially part of the organization?

LB: I moved here about three years ago and I was skating around the city myself. I think the most important thing about froSkate was that there was space made so that we could all congregate. We were all over the city but we never came across each other. My brother actually just randomly sent me their Instagram and was like, “Yo have you seen this? There’s a Black girl skate crew here.” I DM’d them and went to the next meetup. It was kind of nerve wrecking for me at first because I’m a shy person. I showed up and was like ‘Damn, all of y’all have been here the whole time?’. That was massively important to me. I really feel like it filled this hole, I don’t want to be too dramatic but I found people who looked like me, had the same interests as me, that was just something I haven’t had until froSkate. 

That’s so incredible. Were you usually going to the same park that the meetups were or was it more random? 

LB: I never went to skate parks before froSkate. I very much was a street skater and high key a big part was where I could find that I could be unseen. Every time people would see me on a board they would say something. There was this one guy, I was stopped at a red light and he asked me what I was doing. I said what are you talking about? And he’s like I’ve never seen a vw girl on a skateboard. It was very hard for me to feel like I could be seen without being judged. 

Yeah I mean even as a beginner, it’s so difficult to show up to a skate park even if you don’t know people. To you Karlie, we both started our organizations as beginner skateboarders and know how important it is to make that space comfortable for all levels of skateboarders. How does froSkate create that space? 

KT: We get SO many DM’s about being beginners. Everyone will teach you. I think since the beginning, a lot of us are just very nice people and we’re able to relate on a whole other level to beginners anyway. 

Do you feel as women, that comes more naturally? 

KT: YES. That definitely does help. I feel like your community is very parallel to ours in which beginners help beginners. Everyone is willing to step in and communicate. 

It feels like there’s a deep want for everyone to succeed in and out of skateboarding, but skateboarding is always the catalyst. 

KT: You get that support from us but also froSkate has helped me realize that everyone else at the skate park wants to help you succeed and not judge you for being a beginner. They think it’s so dope you’re just pushing or trying to ollie. You just realize all the fear was in your head...unless you’re at a douchey skate park. Somehow fourteen-year-olds are the meanest people alive. 

I wanted to talk to you guys about a couple of your quotes that I see pop up a lot in your feed and posters. One of them being: “Falling is easier when it’s with friends.”, That’s such an uplifting message of community. What does community mean to you? 

LB: The falling aspect is 100% is having a community that’s there to support you. I think one of the biggest things is that people are scared to fall or how they’ll look. No matter what level you’re at you’re going to fall– if you just started or you’re Tony Hawk. It’s just the aspect that having a community who you trust with the addition of people who look like you who can help you stand up when you need to. 

KT: Just like L.Brew said, it’s just like support and having the community there to push you to be your best self. Beyond the skate park and skateboarding we are there for each other and push each other to use our skills in the best way we can. If you’re a DJ...okay how about you DJ one of our events. Just like L.Brew, oh you’re a writer...write our emails and now you’re our Co-coordinator. 

I couldn’t agree more. It’s really powerful and seems so organic to talk to you guys about this community you’re building. The power of the community that you’ve put together through skateboarding is so strong. I wanted to ask from another vantage point, how can white skaters support the development of communities of Black and brown people in skateboarding? 

KT: I think definitely through supporting us. Buying our merch when it drops. Rocking our stuff. People have asked me if I’m white and I wear a Black skaters matter merch or support your crew. That’s helping us. In certain areas we do need white allies, so it’s also being there for us. Making space for us at the skate park. If you see someone getting harassed and you in your soul feel like that doesn’t sit right that is not sitting right with the person experiencing it and sometimes they can’t speak up for themselves so it’s using yourself to be that body if they want you to speak up for them...but ask permission first. If we ask, teach us. Be yourself and friendly but just don’t be racist. Include us, invite us into your spaces. 

Chicago has become such an epicenter for the protests against police brutality sparked from the tragedies of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. What does the Black Lives Matter movement mean to you?

KT: Well I think that as Black people the movement is very personal to us. It was all sparked at a very important age for both of us. I was 12 when Treyvon Martin was murdered. There is the addition of being from St. Louis living so close to Ferguson where Mike Brown was killed...you can’t really ignore that. I don’t know if there’s any person in St. Louis who doesn’t remember that. 

LB: It’s a hard question for me to answer because it’s something we deal with all day every day and our ancestors have dealt with for a long time. I’m happy that we’re finally uprising and that people are finally “waking up”. I’m happy to see that we’re fighting back and not being so comfortable and thawe’re being educated on what’s going on. We’re trying to dead bad habits and generational trauma. We’re dissecting and changing things. I love that but there’s a large part of me that feels it’s performative and that angers me. We’ve been telling you for years that this has been happening. 

First of all, thank you both for sharing that. I know it’s really important to make this space to actually hear what people of color have to say about these things. I have my own platform through Quell and we have the ability to step back and actually listen and learn how to be better allies, people, skaters. The power that you guys wield is amazing. I wanted to talk more about the protest too. You mentioned earlier thousands of people showed up. How did you start organizing that and what drove actually planning a protest? 

KT: I have always been involved in social justice issues. I have attended quite a few protests that were led by Black Lives Matter Chi, Black Abolitionist network and other organizations. I was able to witness what a protest should look like and learn from them. I really wanted to make sure that months down from when everything popped off that people continue to protest. We saw there was a rolling protest in Pittsburgh and I was like oh I guess we could but I want it to be intentional. 

LB: I feel like a big aspect of my desire is person but also just caring for people and wanting to do whatever I can to make a difference. I have always been very adamant about jumping in to do whatever I can do to help. I used to get in trouble for being at protests super late. I remember the day before I was supposed to leave for college moving to Chicago I was at a protest. When everything was happening she was like ‘you better not go’ and so when Karlie mentioned planning one I was like I don’t have to go to one, I’ll just plan one. 

KT: We’re also both very passionate about defunding the police and the abolishment of the prison system. Especially the defunding of the Chicago police... which is 40% of the budget. They defund schools, they receive $5 million dollars a day. Some programs only receive 1 million a day. We’re huge on defunding the police and reinvesting the money on community health programs and CPAP...like if you’re in a domestic violence situation and someone in the community is better equipped. We’re also obviously big on making sure Black lives, and Black trans lives are represented and funded. 

100% agree. We don’t need to put ourselves in these situations where you could have mental health professionals being the responders. Elijah McCain is the perfect example. There are certain jobs people should have, and certain jobs that should be replaced.

LB: It’s the simple fact that if we’re looking to lower crime, investing in the police department isn’t going to do that. It’s investing in health care, schools, businesses, housing, recreational, food. Stuff that matters. 

KT: To bring it back to skateboarding, we could use that money to aide in bringing skate parks to the South and West sides [of Chicago] as an outlet. 

I do think though what you mentioned before it is so important to plan things correctly and intentionally. It’s important as an ally to think about the situations you’re putting people of color in when organizing events. What would your advice be to white skaters when they witness racism in their community? 

KT: Call it out right then and there. White people don’t listen to people of color like they listen to their own kind. Having conversations, challenging people. Before you do any of that, educate yourself. A simple Google search will lead you to so many resources. There are so many resources online. Don’t ask people of color to educate you. That’s asking the person you traumatized to give you therapy. Sometimes as a person of color you can’t say how you feel...it might be your boss or whatever. Just think, would you want someone to do this to you?

LB: People always tend for the one person of color to speak for the whole community. 

KT: It’s also incorrect. Talking to me five years ago, I would have said so many wrong things. We all have different experiences and the Black experience is not synonymous with everyone. Also, we can’t speak for everybody. It’s important to do your own education. 

Even having this conversation, listening is so important and it’s great to not assume you’re not the smartest person in the room or the best ally in the world.  Changing the subject– all these initiatives you have whether it be protests, watching a movie, everything you guys do really builds this community and it’s so ingrained in your DNA. What are you looking to do in the future with FroSkate? 

LB: Our drive comes with naturally wanting to hang out beyond the skate park and be a family. We love each other. We have people who want to support us who don’t skateboard or are white-cis men. We want to create those spaces where we are supported. We just want to do fun cool things and I am not sure about too many other POC skate crews so there aren’t really rules or boundaries to what we have to do. We make up the rules as we go. We’re going to be having a mural project that we’re painting on the South side. We’re hoping to have an even there, pop up skate park. 

KT: We want to go to Japan, we’re all taking Japanese classes. We’re trying to get a legitimate indoor space and skate parks on the South and west side. We’re about to do a zoom discussion with a bunch of other skateboarders who are BIPOC, queer and trans and talk about how we can stay a community and make skateboarding better overall. 

That’s really incredible. I think hopefully people read how you’re developing such an open dialogue because it really seems like the key. 

KT: That’s one thing I love about skateboarders. People argue about skateboarding always being inclusive which in some ways it is true. It doesn’t matter what you look like but we are very familiar with fighting back to rules and rule breakers. We push societal norms and cheer people on. There are a lot of people who are open minded and who are actually down to figure out how and when and where they can make skateboarding and the world better. 

How can anyone reading support froSkate? 

KT: We have said before, monetarily that helps. We’ve met so many people who have talents and connections that if you feel like you can help us, send us an email with specifically what you can do to help us grow. If you can connect us to someone who can help us get one step closer to a goal we’re trying to reach... connections are more valuable than money. 

LB: Support. Sharing with the world that we are here. Educating people on ways skateboarding hasn’t been inclusive and people who have been excluded. Letting the world know we need and deserve to be seen. 

KT: Highlight us. I want to see more parts of Black skaters on major publications. We follow a really good amount of amazing skaters that there’s no reason your feed should be white cis, white cis, white cis. If your feed doesn’t look diverse, you’re the issue. 

 Even showing skaters of different levels is encouraging. 

KT: Oh that’s a big point. Diversity of levels. A lot of people get so upset about ollieing. It’s hard for me to not get discouraged because I have been trying for a year. Sometimes I see people jumping down the craziest stuff and I’m like ugh what is the point, not really but. 

LB: That’s 100% where representation comes in too. We’re out here developing. It’s not about the intensity on board or how long you’ve been skating for. 

There’s proximity, community, resources, accessibility. Everything is full circle. Funding, accessibility. Lastly, what would you say to someone who wants to start skateboarding? 

KT: Do it. Try to be consistent. The biggest thing for me is that I am a quick learner but skating is the one thing for me that has taken ages to learn. 100% of the time you’re not going to get something in one day but tracking your progress is huge. It takes months to even start to feel comfortable or even start having fun.

 LB: Try to invite friends even if they’re not interested in skating to just come and hang out. Sometimes they’ll start to skate with you. Maybe post on social media or like in Betty print out flyers and have a meetup. Don’t take it too seriously. Skateboarding is about having fun. I’m not trying to go pro. That’s fine too. We’re trying to dead poser culture. If you push on a skateboard, you’re a skateboarder. 

KT: It’s mad important to drop all that shit. Everyone starts somewhere. It’s never too late. 

As more countries build skateparks and open skate shops ahead of the 2021 Olympics, we're seeing how skateboarding touches all communities differently. While skateboarding is just an activity for some, in other countries it opens up an entirely new way of life. For many girls in India, skating provides freedom from gender and class norms. Vandana K takes us through the experiences of different skaters and how skateboarding has changed their lives.

Article by Vandana K

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Skate culture began to emerge in India only a decade ago. In 2009, British skater Nick Smith built a skatepark in his backyard in the coastal state of Goa in western India but it was soon shut down. He then built the first commercial skatepark for the sports complex Play Arena in the city of Bangalore in 2011. After a glitchy start and a demolished skatepark, Holystoked, a collective and company of skateboarders built a free skatepark in suburban Bangalore in 2014. The skate scene which started off with a handful of people has expanded to include an estimated 5,000 people and seen the construction of over 17 skateparks across India.

Atita Verghese’s, journey began in 2012 at a skatepark in Bangalore. “In the beginning, I knew only two other girls who were skating but the number has grown since and now I can't keep track. A lot of young girls who are skateboarding in India are really good at it,” she said. Atita, now 27, a formerly sponsored skateboarder and surfer runs the Girl Skate India Instagram page to bring awareness to India's skate scene.

Nani Waii Sonam and Mopi Hailey are “skating friends” from the Himalayan state of Arunachal Pradesh located in north-east of India, a region that is characterized by its remote hilly terrain, largely indigenous population, a history of political instability and lack of development. Many youth from the north-east migrate to big cities in ‘mainland’ India for higher education and employment. They often face harassment because of race, gender and cultural differences.

Nani, 24 is from Papu Nalah, a village close to Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh. She belongs to the Nyishi tribe. She clearly remembers the day she took her younger brother’s unused skateboard and went to Benjiloma, a local skatepark she had seen on Instagram. 

“Everyone laughed at me because I had such a small skateboard but I was so excited,” she said. In March 2020, India went under lockdown and Nani who runs a small restaurant had plenty of time, so she “skated like hell, everyday from morning to evening - at the park, sports ground, the highway, whatever place I could find.”

Skateboarding opened new doors for Nani. She was featured in a music video in which she cruised down a hill. “I used to have a small circle. I met a lot of people because of skateboarding. Now I have a lot of friends,” she said. The first customer at Nani’s restaurant after the lockdown was a skateboarder.

Mopi considers herself a beginner skateboarder. The 24-year postgraduate student, who is from the Puroik tribe learnt skating from her boyfriend in 2019. “Skating with friends is very cool and I find it stress relieving,” she said. 

Although the number of skateparks in India is on the rise, finding a spot to skate can be a hurdle in a city, with skaters often using public spaces such as public parks, shopping complexes and metro station exteriors as their playground. Mopi recalls “fights with roller skaters” who didn't want to share the space with skateboarders at the public skating rink in Deer Park in Delhi.

Being a woman in India is tough. But being a woman who comes from a Dalit or indigenous community with a rural and impoverished background compounds the number of challenges one faces when taking up an unconventional sport.

When Shraddha Gaikwad used to sit in the back row of the classroom some years ago, she could not predict that she would be skateboarding one day. Born in the Mang community, the 15-year old was raised in the small town of Parli Vaijnath in Maharashtra, a state in western India. 

The Mang are Dalit, a term used for communities at the lowest rung of the archaic and brutal caste system that is still practiced in India. Shraddha recalls how she and other Dalit students in her school were subjected to a modern form of ‘untouchability’ - they could not stand next to children from upper castes, nor were they allowed to sit in the front of the classroom.

Three years ago, Shraddha and her family migrated to the city of Pune in search of a better life. Her father got a job as a security guard at Decathlon, a major sporting goods store. Shraddha would bring him lunch everyday after she finished school and that was when she first saw a young employee of the store skateboarding. 

“It looked like fun and I wanted to try it out but I was too afraid to ask for help. There was a trial skateboard in the store and I began to teach myself how to use it on the basketball court outside the store,” she said.  The employee saw her skating and realized she was good, so he began to give her free lessons. Today Shraddha is a sponsored skater who competes at events. She is one of the growing number of girls and women who are skateboarding in India.

Asha Gond, 21 is a skateboarder and aspiring rap artist from Janwaar, a village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. She is from the Gond community. The Gonds are Adivasis, a term used by many indigenous and tribal communities to identify themselves in India. The adivasis have been traditionally relegated to the margins of the society like the Dalits. 

Asha dropped out of school in 9th grade because of her family’s financial difficulties. After Rural Changemakers built a skatepark in her village (Janwaar Castle) she began to skate there. She remembers the shaming she faced from people in her village when she began skateboarding as a teenager. People wrote obscene words about her on the walls of the skatepark. “My relatives would discourage my parents from allowing me to skate by saying things like I needed to learn household chores like other girls and stop hanging out with boys,” she said.  

“If I didn’t skate, I’d be married and have had kids by now. Whatever I am today is because of skateboarding.”
- Asha Gond

But Asha persisted and even convinced her parents to send her on a study abroad program in the UK sponsored by Rural Changemakers. “My mother began to trust me more after I went to London. Now she is the one who stands up to people.” Nowadays Asha studies over 6 hours daily online and with the help of tutors so that she can appear for her 10th grade exams. She is also a co-founder and volunteer at The Barefoot Skateboarders, a young non-profit that encourages kids in her village to skateboard and study. “If I didn’t skate, I’d be married and have had kids by now. Whatever I am today is because of skateboarding,” she said.

Asha is not the only one who managed to escape an early marriage. Shraddha’s voice was choked with emotion as she talked about her teenage girlfriends back in her village. “They have been married off by their parents and also have children,” she said. Shraddha also said that many have been sent to work on sugarcane plantations, known for their extremely exploitative work conditions. 

“I want to be very good at skateboarding so that I can tell the people back home that girls can do everything. Don't marry them so early. They have dreams too,” she said. 

Shraddha’s father lost his job in the lockdown and now runs a coconut water cart. Every weekend, he wraps up his cart and takes her to a few spots in the city where spends afternoons skating with her local crew at Pune Skateboarding. It is far easier to buy a skateboard in India than it was a decade ago but access is still a barrier for those who would like to try out the sport. “Skateboards are expensive. I had to use all my pocketmoney to buy my first board,” said Mopi. A skateboard for adults costs anywhere between 5,000 ($68) to 15,000 rupees ($206). 

There are a few Indian skateboard brands but skate clothing and gear tailored for women’s needs remains missing. Atita recalls requesting the father of one of her students to get protective gear for herself from a trip to Singapore. “The need is there. As more girls skate, women-centric skateboarding brands will emerge in India in the future,” she said.

Buying your first setup is a huge milestone in your journey into skating. We often get asked what parts are required to set up a board and know how daunting it can be to step foot into uncharted territory. We put these thoughts into words to help expand your knowledge of the board. We'll be posting a follow up about setting up the board once you've acquired all the parts. 

Do you want to shred pools and parks– or just simply cruise around? Depending on how you answer those questions, figuring out the ideal set up can become a bit easier. 

By Johnna Artis

When shops sell “completes” they think of an overall six components for each deck: 

1. THE SKATEBOARD: The wooden deck

2. THE TRUCKS: Two needed

3. THE WHEELS: Come in a pack of 4

4. THE BEARINGS: Metal part that goes inside the wheels to have the spin on the trucks

5. THE HARDWARE: What attaches your trucks to the board

6. THE GRIPTAPE

1. THE DECK

When you are asked about size for a deck, you are being asked how WIDE would you like your board. The wider your board in comparison to the width of your feet, the more stable you will feel while skating. The range of sizes for skateboards is vast but generally an adult with a size 8 women's shoe would go with a 7.75–8.25. You can “size up” or “size down” at any time until you figure out what is best for you and your found style.

You may also be asked what style of deck you are looking for:

• Decks that are “Popsicle shape” have mirroring Nose and Tail

• “Pool” shapes tend to have a squarer almost flatter tail and a rounded nose

• Cruiser decks can be any shape essentially but is often a term for a shorter board (Think Penny or Zip Zinger) or rather wide decks. Most times, you can shift your standard shaped board to a cruiser by adding larger soft wheels (Oj’s or Ricta Clouds, or Slime balls).

Some board companies we love are: Proper Gnar, Housewife Skateboards and Meow Skateboards

Below we've curated a size chart for boards according to shoe size and deck size. 

Shoe sizeDeck range TrucksWheelsBelow 86in - 8 inKrux: Axle width 7.6- 8
Independent: 129- 13950mm-53mm8, 9 8in, 8.125, 8.25, 8.38

Krux: Axle widths 8, 8.25, 8.5

Independent: 139,149,

53mm-56mm9 and Above 8.5, 9.0, 9.38, 10 Krux: Axle width 9
Independent: 169, 21556mm- 70mm

2. THE TRUCKS

When purchasing trucks, the size should correspond with the width of the deck. No matter what brand or size board, each company has a guide that helps you make sure that your trucks “fit”. What fit means to us is: you want the outside edge of your wheels (when connected to the trucks) to be aligned underneath both sides of your board.

If your trucks are too small or too large for the deck turning may cause the wheels under you to get wheel bite. Wheel bite is when the edge of your board scrapes along the contact patch of your wheel causing you to stop abruptly. For a skateboard, when you assemble your trucks be sure that the kingpins are facing towards each other or inwards → ← . 

We’re huge fans of Krux Trucks. If you're going for a longboard/cruiser setup, check out Paris Truck Co.

3. THE WHEELS

One of my favorite things to pick out when I want to switch up my ride and unlock a new trick. Wheels vary in hardness but most skate wheels are made out of some formula of polyurethane. The soft - hard scale has to do with how much grip your wheels have to assist in the rotation ability on the surface you are traversing. The softer wheels are suggested for cruiser boards and can be great on rain decks, bombing hills, getting to places with a fast smooth pace. 

The harder wheels resist the surface you are skating on a bit more allowing for a faster understanding of how the areas you are skating are built and giving you a hand with manipulating your wheels, truck, and deck. Hard wheels are used mainly in skate parks and street skating as well as simple pushing.

For mid range setups (7.75 and on) you may see wheels around the sizes 53mm - 56mm; for cruisers and longboards you can find 56mm - 70mm. The larger the wheel number, the higher from the ground you will be.

We love Dial Tone Wheels and Spitfire Wheels SLAG collab!

4. THE BEARINGS

These are the metal inserts of your wheels. They are what allow the wheels you ride on to have the full equal rotations throughout your ride. There are a few things to think about with bearings, they are all very similar, they commonly have 8 ball bearings inside; some may have 6 “Big Balls” as some know them. There are 8 bearings sold in a pack one to be inserted with pressure or tools into either side of your wheel. Your wheels should have two bearings in each of them, one inside and one outside.

Check out Bones Bearings.

5. THE HARDWARE

To secure your truck to your deck you need to have eight bolts and nuts. Hardware is sold at different lengths mostly ⅞ of an inch, 1 inch, 1.5 of an inch. When choosing your bolts make sure the bolt can pass through the top holes of the deck, the truck, secure the nut on the end and have a little extra threads to extend beyond  and you are good.

The vibrations of riding a Skateboard can loosen your nuts and bolts to any degree; checking your setup before each session is a sure way to avoid losing any screws along the shred. 

Two smaller brands we love: 88 Hardware or Hungrybear Hardware Co. 

6. THE GRIPTAPE

The Grip provides friction for your feet to grip and manipulate the wooden deck underneath. Grip tape is a vital component to your skate setup. They tend to have a measurement of 32 in-35 in in length to account for the length of the skate deck; the width tends to be somewhere between 9inches and 10inches. There is an adhesive side and a rough side; grip tape is like a gigantic sticker that you want to apply to the surface you will be standing on. Some grip tapes have technology to assist with creating no air bubbles. They come in different colors, patterns and transparent. 

We love Tomo Skate Co., Trophy Griptape and Cloud9

Here at Quell, we often talk about Liv Collins and her work with Sk8babes, but when putting together an issue about community there was no one who better defined building a safe and uplifting space in skateboarding. We sat down with Liv to really dive deeper into some of the areas in skateboarding she's most passionate about.

PHOTO BY JAILENE

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 How did you start skating, and where did you grow up?

I grew up in Milford Connecticut. When I was 18 or 19, my best friend Ang and I decided we really wanted to start skateboarding. In our town, there weren’t any other girls that were skating so it was a scary journey we were facing together. During it we started an Instagram account called Sk8babes and we were able to meet other girls all over the world. We used our page to connect to other skater girls. 

Eventually our followers asked us if we make merch and Ang is a graphic design major and then we made shirts. We used the money to have our first skate clinic to invite all the girls we met on Instagram to skate together. We then started to use the platform to continue that and give other people a platform to give other people recognition.

It’s interesting to hear that so many people start from an Instagram. Social media really changed the game. Quell is like the same way but it’s so crazy to see where you start shipping or who contacts you. How do they even know about this?

You talked about how everything was really organic. Was it your intention to start a business?

That wasn’t my intention at all. I was just posting videos on Instagram and I did not think people would like me like that. Ang and I are both art students and having our own aesthetic and creativity is so much fun.

How would you describe Sk8babes? What is your mission?

I guess Sk8Babes could be considered a “brand” now, but I see it as a platform that I use to encourage, empower, and continue to show the progress being made in not only my own skateboarding journey, but with everyone’s. From people who have just started to the ones skating their whole life. 

When you started meetups, when did that take shape into a place that you’d be teaching beginners?

It was a mix. We wanted to make sure we made it clear that it was all skill levels so I think we were trying to teach people. A lot of people were intimidated by skating at skate parks so we wanted to give them that chance. On the other hand we wanted to link with the other skater girls we met.

Ang and I made so many friends just through our Instagram and we all had something in common which was that we wanted to skate without feeling judged or like the outsider. By the time we threw our first clinic we had only met about a handful of other girl skaters in person, yet we had met thousands on Instagram. We decided it was time we brought everyone together and have a day where we can all be at the park feeling free and comfortable, finally getting to skate with people we relate to and not just the cis boys at the park.

I have no idea honestly why we went because I literally never leave my house as you know.

The first was mostly people from New York and Pennsylvania. 

Oh yeah we went to literally the first one. I’m so happy we went because it’s been like three years.

Right after that you had a sesh at 2nd Nature!

Right. That’s crazy that that was your first one. There were so many girls there in comparison to who was actually in your Connecticut skate scene. 

The first skate clinic was the first time I had been around that many skater girls...but the Quell one. So many ages just killing it and girls everywhere.

It’s interesting how many times like these themes of community and Instagram. I don’t know what compels me to go to Connecticut at 5am but I just did and I feel like so many girls will come up to you at your events and be like I’ve never skated in my life and now I’m at your event.

We’ve hosted many events together and you’re always so positive and uplifting.

What do you look to do when hosting skate events?

I just want everyone to have fun and leave feeling like they were at least a little bit better than when they came in. These events are the perfect opportunity to be yourself and try something new without the anxiety that comes from being at a crowded skatepark on an average day 

I wanted to talk to you as a NY resident how that’s shifted your mentality as a business and in skateboarding.

In 2018 I started coming to New York on the weekends. It’s so different but in NY every park I go to there are girls there. I have so many friends here now. It’s so much more of a progressive state. I don’t deal with as much bullshit or people don’t let things slide. I think Connecticut will always mean a lot but it was holding me back. 

To your point, people are so accepting and nont racist or homophobic.

I haven’t seen any trump stickers around here but in Connecticut even my neighbors have them.

I imagine the difference in being able to express yourself is so much better.

I don’t think I get harassed as much here. There are so many girls who have my back here. 

You do use your Instagram to call people out and speak out. I think it’s so important to hold people accountable.

I know I have a good sized platform. I know people see it. I’m so over just letting ignorance go at this point. I don’t want other people to experience the things I’ve experienced in my early days in skateboarding. Misogyny, harassment. If I can protect some girls, I would do it.

How do you translate that to like events or safe spaces?

No sus people are allowed. I have gone out of my way to make sure people do not show up. I want people to know that they’re safe there without judgement. 

I think that comes through. You can tell with Sk8babes stuff that we’re all here for each other. If I’m taking up space I get support and if someone else is taking up space, they get support.

Everyone’s struggle is different but we all have similarities in our struggles. 

It’s crazy that we’ve talked about so many things but the catalyst of every relationship is through skateboarding. You have a whole business that you don’t have to skate to support. Skateboarding builds friendships.

It’s the coolest thing in the world.

I wanted to talk to you about your list of Black skaters.

Since I started skating, I remember being a young skater girl on Instagram and there were a few girls skate accounts and some are really popular and a lot post these girls to capitalize off them to get their views and likes. One thing I have noticed is that there’s a lack of representation of Black girls on these skate accounts. It’s just crazy to me especially in NY that I know more women of color skating than white girls. So many Black girls are out here killing it and we’re not getting that representation. These accounts have such a huge platform and can make such a huge impact and they chose not too. So I made a list because people weren’t showing them and I wanted to use my platform to make sure they can also have a platform.

That really inspired me to check what we do here and make sure who we’re following. Are we just posting the same three people too? That’s not diversity either. That list really helped me to make sure as someone who runs these platforms that we don’t post the same things again and again. 

I’ve always felt this way about girls skater accounts. The lack of representation was not even there until recently like two months ago. I know there are some accounts that have always been diverse. We see you. 

I’m white, I have a lot to learn and we have to be accountable to not fall into patterns and these last two months or whatever it is so important as anyone who runs literally anything. Look around you. I am trying really hard not to move forward in life as someone who isn’t aware.

I don’t feel like these accounts were even aware of this situation. Just based off how society is, they may not have even realized they only pick people who look like them. It’s not that great when you have a big platform. 

If you don’t see something that looks like you, why would you pick it up. It takes a lot of internal power-which is why I admire you. You didn’t have people around you that did that.

I was definitely sad sometimes about the lack of feminine energy. I love skateboarding so much. There are no more excuses to have a lack of diversity. I know this community is insanely diverse.

To your point, so many people we’ve featured in this magazine aren’t in like New York or LA. They’re making it happen in these not “big skateboarding cities” so there’s no excuse.

I really wanted to empower others because I didn’t have such a welcome experience in skateboarding. There were some points in skateboarding that I was so sad and down on myself. 

As we keep talking about community it's just like friend groups. Not every time you skate is a skate meetup. It could discourage you from skateboarding unless you have friends or someone to skate with.

I love hyping people up. I think a lot of these skater boys forget that it took them a long time to get to the point they’re at now. A lot of them forget we weren’t encouraged to skate at a young age like they were. Skateboarding should be about having fun and every time you skate you’re better than the last time.

There’s so much that can stop you from skating ever again.

Can people stop acting like skateboarding is not hard? It obviously gets easier as time goes on and you progress but it’s not an easy thing to do.

You didn’t just wake up like you got this ollie today and this kickflip tomorrow.

People who are really good at skateboarding put in so much effort to be where they are now.

What do you feel like the future of Sk8babes is?

I want to continue to have meetups and put out merch. Ang and I have a lot of ideas with our next line. I want to keep using my platform for good. Keep skating and encouraging others to do their best.

What advice would you give to someone that wants to start skating?

Know that you probably will be intimidated. You might be scared because everyone has to start somewhere. 

If anything 2020 has taught us we can all do a better job supporting Black owned businesses. With many resources such as The Black List going around the skate community, one brand that always stood out is Proper Gnar. Latosha Stone's artistic point of view bring a fresh and powerful perspective to both skateboarding and the way women of color are depicted in artwork.

This article and illustrations appear in full exclusively in Quell Skateboarding Issue 006 – Buy a copy here.

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Where did you grow up?

I grew up in the midwest in a really small, honestly a hick town. I was one of the only Black families there until high school which definitely had an effect on my life. When it comes to skateboarding I started in 6th grade and was the only girl on a block of all boys and my neighbors had a penny board and I just went from there.

I always feel like that’s how it happens. 

I also played the Tony Hawk games and stuff. I had the N64 and it was one of the first games.

I’m excited to see the new one.

I have been seeing so many screenshots and stuff for this. 

So many people also say that’s how they got started in skating. I guess there are two questions. You design clothes and graphics for skateboarding. What came first, drawing or fashion or was that all a natural progression.

I started with the clothes first. I have been an artist for as long as I’ve been skating but I didn’t get the idea to put it on clothes until later. When I started I was like let’s just do clothing that is streetwear skater inspired and then the decks came afterwards.

I think my line is both skateboarding and streetwear now. Within the last year it’s been more boards than clothing.

I saw one of your graphics on Instagram that is like you came here for the boards but the clothes are cool too.

Yeah that’s because I’m so behind on getting decks out so just buy the clothes for now so I can get caught up.

You’ve been mentioning that you’ve gotten a lot of publicity lately and when I first was thinking of what to ask you I was going to say how is COVID 19 affecting your business but then I thought more and was like that’s absolutely not the right question because you’re doing so well that it’s almost detrimental.

It’s affecting it in a good way. Skateboarding all over is blowing up right now. The guys who print my decks are so far behind. I have barely been able to get restocks for the holidays because the whole industry is growing so much because of COVID. It’s not just me, it’s everybody.

One thing that’s happened to me, every interview has brought up Beyonce

I was going to bring it up only from the standpoint that it’s more interesting because I remember you mentioning how that’s affected your production and how publicity has really had an affect on your business. Not like what do you think of Beyonce? What is going to say about Beyonce.

It’s so weird how many meetup requests we’re getting too. We’re still in a pandemic but it’s such a crazy time that people are discovering skateboarding and brands like yours.

I’ve had the same thing with events too. We were doing monthly events and this year we haven’t done any. I have one in a couple weeks with Black Girls Skate and it’s the first thing I’ve done in months.

I know other people that are hosting things but I’ll let you be the gate keepers. Obviously your platform has grown so much. When you start posting these events hopefully that gets more of a turn out but also the pressure is big because of the pandemic.

I definitely don’t want to get anyone sick.

I wanted to talk to you more about the skate scene in Dayton. I love that there are communities popping up everywhere.

Where I grew up there wasn’t much of a skate culture. We had to work so hard to get a park here and even still I never have been able to do an event in my hometown because the city is so against it. Rob Dierdeck is from Dayton so we have really nice parks. When it comes to the culture it’s not as diverse as other places but very cool. Still mostly dudes though.

When we first spoke, we talked about acknowledging beginners in skateboarding. How do you encourage beginners to keep skateboarding.

I just try to keep having the events and like the way I interact and encourage people at the park. Showing them that it’s okay to be a beginner. You’ll go to skate park and you’ll have people look at you to see if you can really skate. Just be nice to other people.

It’s way more underrated to not pass judgement. I know you also sponsor skaters, how do you choose these people to sponsor?

I don’t really do contracts or anything like most major brands. Part of it is how good you are but also your personality and what you do in your community. Most of the girls I partner with have their own skate clinics in their own area. That really caught my eye. 

It’s so important as a brand that the people you give things to are representing your brand.

I also try to sponsor women of color for sure. I know a lot of brands care about followers, but I don’t really care about that. It’s really about them as a person.

That shows much more authentically. Between your artwork and brand, I haven't seen the ways you highlight and uplift Black and Brown women in other brands. I wanted to talk to you more about how important that representation is and how you develop and grow that relationship with Proper Gnar?

It’s super important. It’s one of the biggest inspirations behind what I do and why I keep doing Proper Gnar. As far as I know there are really only two Black women professional skaters and I am trying to work to change that. Just women in general, a lot of skate brands have women naked or in a bikini and I try to show women doing different things. I have gotten that so much lately with moms and younger women that they are happy with our representation. I want to keep that going.

Your style obviously pulls from anime references in a lot of ways. With the brand hookups for example, that’s not empowering to women. It’s night and day to your style. It just shines a better light than sexiness.

I do like hookups but I totally know what you mean. I have my anime style drawings and I also have my portrait style drawings.

How has your style changed since you’ve started?

I feel like I’ve gotten better at art. I don’t really even like our older designs. I definitely have come into myself as an artist. I am refining my style and I have started doing what I want to do instead of what I thought people would like. I put what I want to see on clothes and boards.

I’m sure that resonates so much with other people because they see that passion. What are some of your favorite things to create?

I love the fantasy type stuff that I draw.

You have such a variation of style but such a clear point of view. There’s something for everyone that’s interested.

I have a lot of different styles. I am always experimenting with new styles.

What are some of the challenges you’ve learned from owning a business?

I think my main thing would be not giving up. There have been so many times I have thought about quitting and what has happened in the last couple months wouldn’t have happened if I had quit any of those other times. There are so many different aspects. When I started I wanted to help women skaters but also wanted to live on my art. There is so much more work when it comes to the business side and as an artist I don’t want to do that, I just want to do the art. I have had to find trustworthy people to hand this stuff off too.

I ran everything myself up until two months ago and I have a team of three other people.

I’ve heard interviews before with brands that celebrities wear and then they grow from like in your example, 20K to 60K overnight. That can almost kill your business. 

You have to be ready. I’ve seen that a lot in my business groups on facebook. They always say don’t pray to go viral if you can’t handle it. It’s super stressful.

But it’s really awesome that you can grow and maintain that because we need brands like your brands with a different point of view in skateboarding. How do you see your brand in comparisons to other brands that are out?

The art, the owner, the support, the demographic of people that I support and work with. 

What are some future projects that you’re creating?

I have a collab with Black Girls Anime coming up. I’m also collaborating with other artist friends. It’s just all of my favorite things in one. I’m also trying to do a halloween collection. I’m always trying to expand the girls that I sponsor and adding more people to the team. A girl in LA and I are working to set up clinics out there for Proper Gnar as well as in Dayton.

That’s awesome. It’s definitely expanding and growing. Do you find that there’s a connection to artists and skateboarding?

Yeah definitely. Every skate brand has their own style. So many people do insane grip jobs, and like I don’t know why it goes together but it just does. Every skate event I’ve done here we’ve also done an art gallery.

What is your favorite anime?

That’s such a hard question. I would say Jo Jo. The guys are really hot. The artist style and colors, I love that. Elvin and Lead is one of my favorites. Darling and the Franks. Sailor Moon, I grew up on that. 

What brand did a whole Sailor Moon thing?

Primitive! My finance bought one of the shirts for me. I got my daughter into anime and I have Sailor Moon VHS’s as well.

What advice do you have for someone that wants to start skateboarding?

Don’t let people discourage you. Just because you look a certain way or are a certain gender doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be good at it. If you’re nervous, watch some videos and practice out back. Don’t give up on it. 

And buy a Proper Gnar board for your first skateboard.

We’ve mentioned this adage time and time again: When you see someone who looks like you, doing something you want to do it gives you that wave of acceptance to go for your goals. Black Girls Skate is more than an Instagram. They’re re-defining representation and access in the skate space. Whether it’s traditional skateboarding or ice skating, their feed is full of inspiration. We sat down with DJ Gooden and Nicole Humphrey to learn more.

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What inspired you both to first start skating?

DJ Gooden: Rocketpower, I loved it when I was younger and I bugged my mom when I was eight to get me a skateboard. A landlord came over one day and came outside and taught me how to ride it like it was nothing. I wanted to be that cool since I saw that.

Nicole: I started cruising about five years ago and was introduced to an ex partner who was excited about it and bought me a skateboard. For the tour we did, I got an actual skateboard and picked up a couple months ago.

Aside from seeing the guy skate, how else did you start progressing? Were you watching videos or going to skateparks?

DJ: Okay so for childhood it was skating around riding for transportation. Recently, I moved to LA and when I lived out there I would get advice from others at the park. I was watching videos and noticing people had different equipment than I had. So then I started to get the right equipment for the skating I wanted to get into for riding bowls.

I wanted to create a place where we could celebrate ourselves

How did Black Girls Skate form?

DJ: Right before I left LA there was a really nice community out in LA who skated– not a lot of people who looked like me but still very friendly and inspirational. When I was looking up what I needed for bowls, I came across Samarria Brevard and was like wow why did it take me so long to stumble upon these professionals. So I started to question, ‘where is the equity in this?’ and I wanted to create a place where we could celebrate ourselves.

I started a social media where I could highlight all these Black and Brown skaters and then earlier I asked Nicole if she wanted to hop on the team. Nicole joined in and it’s snowballed from there.

That’s so awesome. So what are some of the things you guys do with the platform and in person?

DJ: We have Skaters Speak which is a 30 minute conversation where we have skaters to talk about some of the nuances they face in the skate world as well as some of the stuff that they bring to skate to have a positive experience. We also have our care box initiative which is an activation for certain skaters of different levels. It may be a token of appreciation or something they need.

How did the Skaters Speak panel get started? 

Nicole: It started three or four months ago. The idea was to build the audience around the platform we have. We were beginning to organize with our seventeen ambassadors and thought it would be cool to create a dialogue between them and some of the other folks that follow our account. What put the fire to it was getting a Reebok representative to activate a campaign around us all about legacy and we were able to use that platform to provide a budget to get guests on and have a conversation. Once our ambassadors got excited about it, we started to plan how often to do it. 

With the tour, we’re back to once a month but it lives on IG live as a 30 minute conversation series. We want to grow it into its own series in physical form in a panel with skaters all around the world.

Being able to hear from your ambassadors and speak in your own words is such a powerful step that is missing when you’re just reading an Instagram caption or something like that. How do you pick ambassadors? What does that look like?

Nicole: We launched our ambassadors through an open call on our social media platform. We didn’t know initially what we would do but we wanted to add to our service. Our goal was to pick fifteen and we got over fourty applications. We settled on seventeen out of all the applicants. The ideas were content based but when we started to connect monthly, things started to get really heavy around the world. So we just started to have check-ins and see how everyone was doing and feeling. Some folks were skating, some weren’t. Specifically because we didn’t know how safe everything was. We have an ambassador in the UK, France, all around the world. The goal is to have them to continue our programming.

That’s so cool, I can totally empathize with not understanding where to go next in this environment. I think there are a lot of eyes right now on the Black and Brown community of skating so it’s really cool to have so many perspectives through your platform. What kind of things are in your ambassador boxes? How did you create that idea?

Nicole: DJ wanted to do a meetup for our one year anniversary. Of course with the pandemic we thought more about what we could do now since we couldn’t come together. We thought a lot about the virtual events and we started to think about the educational component: How could we send you gear and have an online event where we teach you how to assemble it? Long story short, that was too much to manage and make it fair to distribute. 

The world started to open back up this Summer a little and with that, we felt comfortable to define our own safe social distance practice to distribute these boxes. We didn’t feel like a meetup was safe but we wanted to figure out where to pass these out. Additionally, every supplier was so backed up and it was really difficult to figure out what to offer up. So we thought about PPE and other types of accessories that go with skateboarding. 

We really wanted to focus on a wearable, something to inspire you to skate, a Thrasher magazine “Black Skaters Issue”, a face mask. It was a combination of things but it was an idea to create a continuous care box program. We could ship out these accessories and hardware or equipment.

I think that’s such a great idea. The whole root is accessibility and to your point, it’s more difficult to send it out. I’d love to see how that progresses. Specifically this time it was in a tour setting. What was the inception of that?

Nicole: So basically once we decided that we could have a safe way to give stuff away, we started to arrange pop-up events to create a moment in these cities. We were able to drive and use our ambassador crew in various cities to partner with a shop or community group and then name a skate park to take over for some hours. So quickly in New York for example, we did our event at KCDC and they also donated things and let us use their space. We made it collaborative but we had a goal of 100 boxes to give out.

So aside from NY where did you go?

DJ: Atlanta, New York, Philly, Dayton, Chicago

Obviously you picked them surrounding your ambassadors, was that mainly because you were driving or how did those cities stand out?

DJ: I live in Atlanta and Nicole lives in Chicago so those were easy. Then the other cities we had a big ambassador presence. We also did an event with Proper Gnar in Ohio.

What are some of the things you guys are working on for the future?

Nicole: We’re digging in internally. We were able to reflect from the tour on our strengths and areas of opportunities. For the next 4-6 months we’re going to update our roles and our budgets. We can set ourselves up for annual success. We are in the process of the software and hardware side of development. We want to launch products and merch.

We’re also re-defining our ambassador program to bring new ones on. We want to be able to duplicate our programming all around the world.

That’s so important and the fact you can define that is really powerful. When you build that foundation you can action it and it’ll build from there. The boxes are so unique, especially in the women's space as well.

How can people not necessarily in the skate community get involved or support BGS?

DJ: Comments, likes, shares, reviews are so helpful. Financial contributions and networking help. Reaching into our DM’s are ways to reach out and support us whether you're a skater or not. Our needs, wants and goals are evolving so we’re in the process of defining what that looks like too.

We wanted to share all skate styles, not just skateboarding as well. A skateboarder could pick up rollerblades, you never know what is inspirational to them.

There are so many different accounts that are coming to terms with the fact they’re not diverse. You’re obviously doing this from a place that is not performative but impactful or uplifting. What do you look to post on Instagram?

DJ: I look for anything that amplifies someone or is inspirational. 

Nicole: We wanted to share all skate styles, not just skateboarding as well. A skateboarder could pick up rollerblades, you never know what is inspirational to them.

I really liked that it’s the definition of skate. Obviously our content surrounds skateboarding but the breadth of everything you post is so cool. How does that translate to the boxes you produce?

DJ: That was some of the obstacles we initially ran into with the sizes of wheels because some wheels go towards certain skaters. As we define our program we can better organize which box goes to which skater.

Why do you feel like it’s important that groups or pages like BGS exist?

DJ: For me, I felt a need for a place to amplify and celebrate ourselves and our accomplishments. A lot of times minority groups go unnoticed. I think it’s very important to let our peers and people outside our communities know these things are happening. I want the younger generation to see that and see people who look like them are doing this and they could do it too and even greater. 

Illustration by Rachel Hess

Injuries in skateboarding are inevitable. The recovery process is one filled with anxiety and impatience because we all want to get back to what we truly love. But as we're sidelined from skating, we all deal with it in our own way. Hannah Lee discusses a different approach to curing the mental blocks of healing.

I’ve always found skateboarding to be a form of meditation. During the summer months of COVID-19, I’d ride my skateboard for long stretches of time, focusing only on my breath and the present moment to cope with stress. The more I moved the calmer my mind seemed to be. 

That is, until I fell.

I was speeding home to beat the rain when my skateboard came to a very sudden standstill and my body did what high school physics taught me as the only natural result – it went flying. After a trip to urgent care (where the doctor rather unprofessionally gasped with mortification at my wounds), I hobbled back home with bandaged legs and a recommendation that I see a plastic surgeon.

Over the next few days, I kept replaying the accident in my head, thinking of how I might have avoided it. I bounced between strategizing how I might heal faster and despairing at how permanent the damage could be. Illness, injuries, and other physical setbacks can force us to zoom in on the limitations of our health and the vulnerability of our wellbeing. When I realized that the state of my mind was contributing to the pain of my injury, I turned to my Buddhist practice to heal myself both physically and mentally. Here are some Buddhist principles that helped me cope.

BREATHE

Every time I had to clean and re-dress the raw skin on my knee and leg, I would swallow a scream and wince at the piercing pain. Control of my breath, a practice that is at the heart of meditation, helped me resist the urge to give that pain complete power over me. We may not have control over many different sufferings in our lives but we will always have control over our breath. 

Meditation and breath work also helped me process negative thoughts and feelings of disappointment, frustration, and sadness that came with my injury. By focusing on every conscious and intentional inhale and exhale, I was able to simply observe what I was going through and recognize there was room to be kind and patient with these emotions.

REDISCOVER YOUR COMMUNITY

In the days following my accident, I found myself obsessed with doing everything in my control to heal faster and get back to skateboarding as soon as possible. I’d stay up late searching Youtube for videos on –

“How to heal scars quickly”

“How to dress deep abrasions” 

“How to avoid infection from open wounds”

The videos were helpful but it was the comment section of each video that lifted my spirits. 

“Completely scraped my back from a motorbike accident! Thank you for the helpful tips.”

“I got road rash from falling off my skateboard. The pain is a real bitch!” 

“So scared that I’ll have scarring from my bike accident :( Thank you for sharing this video.”

I had turned to Youtube for hacks on how to undo the damage of my accident. Instead the comments helped me grow more comfortable with the prospect that my body could sustain permanent damage, and knowing that others are going through similar experiences. Buddhism reminds us that we are never alone in our sufferings. Our pains are never unique and we can take comfort in knowing that we can turn to a community of people who have experienced the same thing. 

REMEMBER THAT CHANGE IS CONSTANT

In Buddhism, we are continually reminded that change is constant. While we may be suffering in the present, that state of suffering will change. As it relates to injuries, our relationship with our physical pain will not be the same months or years into the future. Our attitudes will change. Our lifestyles may change. Even our injuries may change as a result of time. In short, nothing is forever. 

Three months later, when I got back into the rhythm of skateboarding again I found that I was much braver than I had been before. I was a lot more conscious of my surroundings, my body, and my mind. My injury taught me to trust myself again and I found a new desire to skateboard more consistently and confidently. 

Like Buddhism, skateboarding is a practice. The more you do, the more you learn and grow. In the act of practicing, you can face challenges and setbacks but it is important to remember that these contribute to a renewed appreciation of the process and a better understanding of your own self. Don’t get me wrong, injuries suck. However, in skateboarding – they’re inevitable. And yet, we can shift our perceptions so that they don’t define our experience or impede our joy. 

This entry was submitted to Quell by Hannah Lee

Want to write for Quell? Email us at submit@quellskate.com

When we met Joana Fongern a couple years back, we were instantly captivated by her warm and friendly energy. It wasn't until we started seeing her beautiful color blocked designs at the park that we had to dig a little deeper. Those designs were part of Joana's line, Nayf and Wavey, a clothing line as individualistic as the founder.

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Where did you grow up?

I grew up all over the place, mainly in Germany and Austria. I was born in Frankfurt, but my parents and I moved to the south of Germany when I was 9 years old. That didn’t last long and our journey led us to a small town in Austria. That’s where I actually grew up because we lived there for the next 10 years.

How did you start skateboarding?

When I turned 25 and I moved to New York City I finally decided to pick something up I always wanted to do –skateboarding. I had never skated, because of a) I was afraid of doing it by myself or b) I didn’t know anyone that did it. I started watching the X Games on my lunch break, listened to Nina Moran's Ted Talk, and followed The Skate Kitchen on Instagram and finally got the courage to a skateboard.

Everything got me so hyped that before Christmas, I went to Labor Skateshop and bought my very first set-up. One thing led to another, I met my best friends at The Skate Kitchen event, became part of Late Skate.

What made you want to pick up the skateboard?

Skateboarding had always something very intriguing, creative, charming, and provoking to me. I remember when I did my exchange year in an American high school all my male friends were skaters. I was so intrigued by it because I wanted to learn it too, but I did not know-how. Someone even gave me his skateboard as a present and I pushed on the front porch of our house, but I stuck to playing soccer because that’s what I was good at.

Moving to my dream city, New York, was a new chapter in my life. This meant: trying out long desired dreams. As I said before, skateboarding has always been something I wanted to pick up. Everything spoke for itself (laughing). The boss I interned for, was a skater from back in the day. As I mentioned I watched a lot of X Games footage, saw a bunch of people skating down the street, one of my friends I met told me about The Skate Kitchen AND they happened to have a girl’s skate meet up exactly on that day when I looked them up. I mean, what are the odds (laughing).

The feeling of freedom and curiosity were definitely the reason why I picked up the board.

I always wondered how it must feel to skate down New York City’s streets with a bunch of people - and man I can say, this is one of the best feelings I’ve had. The feeling of freedom and the feeling that the world belongs to you - INCREDIBLE.

If it wasn’t for skateboarding I wouldn’t have all the amazing and creative people around me, I wouldn’t know what empowerment and community feel like. Skateboarding gave me friends, confidence, and a feeling of belonging.

What inspired you to keep skating?

I can definitely say that the feeling of freedom and community are two of the main reasons why I still skate. If it wasn’t for skateboarding I wouldn’t have all the amazing and creative people around me, I wouldn’t know what empowerment and community feel like. Skateboarding gave me friends, confidence, and a feeling of belonging. It gives me a purpose in life to pass on this feeling and it definitely created a lot of possibilities for me. 

We met because you skated with Late Skate. How did you meet them? 

I met Natalie, Aryam, Liv, Skylar, and Luna at my very first girl’s meet-up and they were all so welcoming and loving. We exchanged numbers and soon Natalie invited me to go skateboarding with them at Fat Kid. I was SO NERVOUS because this was my first time being in a skatepark.

At Fat Kid, I met other members of Late Skate and from this day on we hung out all the time. I am still so happy that I went to the girl’s skate night because man those ladies are some crazy and creative people with the best personalities I wouldn’t wanna miss out on.

How has being part of a community influenced your skating?

First, I have to say that I have never really skated outside of a skateboarding community because I was lucky and met incredible people. Second though, due to the pandemic, I skated by myself a few times and I can definitely say that my skateboarding didn’t improve. So, I think that the element of community has influenced my skateboarding in so many ways. Through the community feeling, I dared to try new tricks and conquer my fears which I would have never done if I skated by myself.

Also, it has influenced my creativity of skateboarding - I have some friends that push me to think a bit more creative when trying to skate new things or a line. That makes me really happy.

How did you get to New York?

After I graduated with my Masters, I applied for a lot of fashion design internships in New York City. Half a year later, I got an internship, received my visa approval and was able to move. I only planned to stay for 6 months, but I got another internship approved so I stayed a little over a year. 

You’re an incredible fashion designer. How did you start designing?

AWWW! Thank you so much! During High School my friend and I started to draw clothing designs but I didn’t imagine that this would be my livelihood someday. I would say I have always enjoyed fashion, loved to sketch and illustrate, but did I know how to use a sewing machine (not to mention a hand needle)? NO (laughing). This led me to my decision to study fashion design and through school I learned everything from scratch. I developed my skills throughout my BA and MA.

How did you start your line, Nayf and Wavey?

The journey started with my master’s collection but under another name. It was more a project than a serious business at that time. One, because I wasn’t at this point where I could a 100% identify myself with my project. And two, I moved to New York City after my program was done to gather experience. Hence, I paused my brainchild.

After I have returned from the Big Apple, I finally found myself, my ‘style’, and the missing identification for Nayf and Wavey. The whole New York City journey, the people, and skateboarding inspired me to start my project. 

I want to create beautiful pieces for everybody to feel comfortable and empowered in it - express feelings, tell stories with it but also give room for people to speak up.

What is your goal with Nayf and Wavey?

Nayf and Wavey is a multicultural womxnswear brand that celebrates intersectional feminism through diversity, inclusivity, and gender self-determination. My goal is to empower my friends, womxn, non-binary, and their peers. It’s for everybody. I want to create beautiful pieces for everybody to feel comfortable and empowered in it - express feelings, tell stories with it but also give room for people to speak up. In the future, I would love to have another side project with Nayf and Wavey that focuses on teaching skateboarding young kids, create creative workshops, and build a platform that creates room for socioeconomic, political, and social-critical topics that educate and break boundaries.

 How has COVID19 impacted your business?

COVID-19 has luckily not impacted my business in a bad way, as my brand is still a side project and I can’t fully live off it – yet. The pandemic to a greater extend led me to the production of community masks with the donations of 1€ per mask to great humanitarian organizations. The past three weeks have been crazy with taking orders, sewing, packing, and sending out as I am a one-woman business.

You’ve been making masks for your community. First of all, that’s so awesome. Second, do you feel like you have a responsibility to do that? How did that idea start?

I did not feel like I had the responsibility to sew community masks, but with my sewing skills, it would have been dumb not to take action! As a matter of fact, my friend and my parents actually led me to the idea as I lost both of my jobs due to COVID-19. The community masks are not only a good income source to invest in my brainchild, as this allows me to work on new ideas and projects, however, it also allowed me to collect donations for humanitarian organizations that help people in need. 

Do you feel like there’s a connection to artists and skateboarding?

Definitely! Most of the people that I know are artists and work in the creative field. I have friends that work in the fashion industry, are painters, graphic designers, or work in the film and music industry. Personally, I get inspired through skateboarding, and while I skate. I get a deeper connection and understanding of my creativity. Skateboarding not only is an outlet for creativity but it is also a tool to break boundaries and I think that most of the people take the influence from it, transfer it to their art, and bend boundaries through their projects. So yes, there is a connection between artists and skateboarding.

How do you express your creativity in skateboarding?

I express my creativity in the way how I dress while I skate and my style of skateboarding. Ever since I have started skating I can 100% say that I truly found my way of expressing myself.

Follow Joana to see more skating and fashion content
Shop the newest Nayf and Wavey here

2020 is showing us that it is important to have the tough conversations. Consent is Rad is a skater-led initiative promoting the discussions around asking for consent. Rapper, K-May is the latest one to lead the charge.

By Indigo Willing

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Rapper and filmmaker Kayla Cosgrove aka K-May is no stranger to challenges and real talk. She takes her music and performs lives regularly busking in the streets of Fortitude Valley in Brisbane, Australia, where locals like to party hard. She also skates in a city scene that has long been dominated by boys and men. Despite most of the dudes being super chill, women can still stand out and it is not always easy to speak out when things become sketchy, especially on the issue of sexual harassment, assault and consent. But for a rapper, words are Kayla’s magical superpower. Her killer-smooth rapping, and a background in filmmaking have both been activated for her recently released new single “Don’t Touch” and a campaign series of short films under the same title, done in collaboration with Consent is Rad.

Consent is Rad was introduced to skateboarders and researchers at the Pushing Boarders skate conference last year in Malmo, Sweden and launched the website to celebrate its first anniversary. The campaign features men, women, non-binary and gender non-conforming skaters of all backgrounds promoting the message #ConsentisRad. Always on the look-out for collaborations that can positively share healthy messages about consent cultures (and countering negative and harmful forms of rape culture) individuals are welcome to DM Insta @consent_is_rad.

With an educational focus and DIY philosophy, the campaign aims to normalise the topic of consent and how to communicate and practice it, rather than naming, shaming or blaming. Fostering a global approach, it was co-founded by myself, Evie Ryder, Tora Waldren, Millie Miljevic and other crew in Brisbane, Australia joining up various overseas collectives and individuals. This includes  Pushing Boarders, Girls Shred, Girl Skate India, The Skate Witches, Skate Like a Girl, Las ChicAZ, Girls are Awesome, Skateism, Lucy Adams, Ryan Lay, Rick McCrank, Bing Lui and Kiere Johnson, Peach Sorenson, Leyla G Leon, Annie Guglia and more.  

Kayla is the first time music has been included and the result includes the online single Don’t Touch (search for K-May on Facebook for links to it on Spotify, Apple and Soundcloud) and four short videos featuring interviews she filmed with musicians and skaters (incl. Jaiden Lal, Tom aka Prof Paul, Georgia Inch, Jashka, Danny Vincent, Adele Pavlidis, myself and more). The theme of consent, skating and healthy communication is something close to Kayla’s heart. Asked what she loves about skateboarding, she states, “The clarity it gives me honestly…I finally got on the board and after I just couldn't believe how clear my head was. It was like skating and being present in that time. Completely cleared my head full of all the anxieties and thoughts that were in it. I also just like being around like the girls and pushing barriers of fear too”.

“…You’re in this trusted space and you've started sending me like weird stuff. That, and the general patterns to leading to intimacy. At some stage they have to ask what’s OK”

-Kayla Cosgrove

 Explaining some of the overlooked issues of consent she explains, “a lot of women that go skating with somebody and then that guy or person hits on them. They can sometimes feel really disappointed, like I thought they were a homie. Or like yeah, you’re in this trusted space and you've started sending me like weird stuff. That, and the general patterns to leading to intimacy. At some stage they have to ask what’s OK”. She points to how projection can also be a problem explaining, “it can be all made up in your mind as well, like these fantasies and then like, bringing them into reality needs mature conversations around attraction and knowing your own and other’s feelings, and also boundaries”.

Kayla also shared her thoughts on digital recordings and intimacy, and abuse of that. When permission is not sort on photos and videos or if they are done coercively, then that it is non-consensual and a form of abuse. Offering advice to others, she points to how “If someone is really like trying to guilt trip me, like if they are playing with my emotions, then that's a huge red flag”. In terms of intimacy in general, she continues, “follow your intuition. Be absolutely OK with saying no, and even if you do feel awkard emotions, that's normal. You might feel bad saying no but you are doing the right thing”. She also proposes we could all do with more practice just communicating the issue, “Like what does consent sound like? Things like would you like to go further? Would you like this? What would you like? I like that very much. Or, I would like just a hug. Or I'm totally fine with this, and making sure the person is all for it”.

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 Catch her 4 part video series at her Insta @pronouncedkaymay

Photographer for Kayla Cosgrove pic:  Elliott Busch

Photographer for Kim Woozy, Rick McCrank and Attita Veghese : Indigo Willing

Photograph Indigo / supplied by author

Photo by: Marilena Vlachopoulou

We’ve always been huge fans of the brand Doyenne. Founded in 2017 in Glasgow, Scotland, the anonymous duo produces a genderless clothing brand while maintaining ethical and local production. Doyenne has trickled into the states a bit, and we’ve always been proud to support their pursuit of equality and unity. We sat down to talk to them more about what’s been going on on the other side of the pond.

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How was Doyenne started?

Doyenne started when we realized there weren't many skateboarding brands that supported skaters like us and there was a general lack of representation of womxn, LGBTQI+ and disabled skaters. We wanted to create a brand that would support the unsupported and represent the underrepresented, and so we did. 

What is the skateboarding scene like in Glasgow? 

It is a small and pretty tight scene, which can be pretty daunting if you are not a “local”. Since we have started Doyenne and organised our beginners session we have seen a massive difference in the scene, it’s bigger and more diverse now. Some started from our sessions and some other new skaters just saw others like them doing it and started too. We don’t realise how radical can be just only the act of being in a skatepark as a minority. 

How have you been able to expand your brand outside of your local community?

Doyenne is a community that anyone can belong to, no matter where they are in the world. Social media has been a very useful tool to expand our community and we have been traveling and organised events and skate sessions in many different places and hoping to do much more of that in the future. We also have worked with organisations and charities from Palestine to Cambodia, and we are in touch with many other communities around the world. 

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“The very existence of Doyenne is based on the need for inclusivity. “

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How does Doyenne establish inclusivity in fashion and skateboarding? 

The very existence of Doyenne is based on the need for inclusivity. 

We started our brand with minorities in mind on a mission to make clothing regardless of gender, whilst donating part of our profit to charities. Through our platform, we created a space where our community can feel empowered, connected, and represented. We understood that you can't have diversity without equal opportunities. That's where our free beginners' lessons came to be, providing a safe space for people to learn how to skate and meet like-minded people. Within the years, we have collaborated with a number of creatives coming from very different backgrounds and touching on the themes of sexuality, mental health, LGBTQ+ experience, and disabilities. From a fashion perspective, Doyenne is for everyone that shares the same value as we do. Our clothes are genderless, ethically produced, and our sizes are accessible (the next collection will have a XXS - 4XL sizing) 

Most of our campaigns feature friends and folks from our community, as we think that they are the real representatives of what Doyenne looks like.

Our brand establishes inclusivity by questioning ourselves and our environment, but most importantly opening conversations with our community and taking the time to listen.

Walk us through the beginnings of Doyenne to the brand now?  How has your focus shifted? What have you learned? What have you changed? 

We have started Doyenne focusing on womxn in skateboarding but very quickly understood that was not enough representation for other marginalised communities so we grew towards being more intersectional in everything we do. We learnt how to look at things from different perspectives and ask ourselves how, from our small platform, we can help with the problems that our community face. Mostly, we listen to people and learn from them.  We still have a lot to learn and we are grateful for all the people that promote awareness and talk openly about what is wrong that most of the time our privilege obscures.

How has COVID19 impacted your business? 

We’ve been home for a long time and we have not been able to organize any beginners sessions or events which are our way to bring people together. We tried to find ways to keep the connection with our Doyenne x Everyone Isolation project and with social media, waiting for the day things can go back to normal. We have been slowed down in production and collections have been delayed, but we still had great support from our community during these times which we are so grateful for.

Your color choices are always bright and seem very intentional. What is the emphasis on color if any?

You caught us, colors combination are definitely our forte. We think that colors are incredibly powerful tools to communicate and there’s so much potential to play with that. Since Doyenne represents who is often not visible in the community we felt that wearing something  that makes you shine brighter than anyone else is a pretty empowering move. You’ll see the Doyenne colors come through the grey concrete wherever you go. 

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“There are no such things as prejudice or judgment in nature and this allows a sense of freedom that is hard to find elsewhere.”

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Tell us about your new collection. What goes into the design process? Was there any specific design or graphic focus with this ?

Our new collection “Come as you feel”, as the title suggests, it’s an invitation to simply be ourselves unapologetically. The main inspiration for this season has been the natural landscape and the authentic spontaneity that comes with being immersed in it. There are no such things as prejudice or judgment in nature and this allows a sense of freedom that is hard to find elsewhere. Our design process took a lot from this sentiment, the collection features very earthy tones, paired with a brighter palette symbolising the rebirth of nature and prints promoting acceptance.

You’re producing your first series of Doyenne boards. How did that decision come about? What are the boards featuring? How was that process?

We have been wanting to produce boards since the start, we were trying to figure out how to do it locally and more sustainably. As a skater, the board you decide to skate is a commitment and we all want to skate boards and brands we support, and we feel the support should be reciprocal. One of the graphics on the boards is the illustration part of our Doyenne x Everyone project where we asked our community to design something with the theme of Unity during the COVID-19 lockdown, and picked the one we felt resonated better with the theme and brand aesthetic. It was great to see all the submissions and showcase them through our platform and be able to involve everyone in the design process. 

What do you see for the future of Doyenne? 

We see Doyenne growing and blooming, because us and everyone around us is growing and blooming too. This is a very new and revolutionary chapter for skateboarding and we are so happy to be part of it. We also see a more sustainable future, for the world and our brand will work towards it and alongside it. 

Photo by: Dominic Manderson

Tell us more about Across the board?

Across the Board is our brand giveback to the community. We have been organising beginners skateboarding sessions in Glasgow for three years now, donated to many charities and collaborated with many artists. Everything we put into our brand was in order to be able to give back, and so Across the Board is a project that will let us expand this more worldwide and literally “across the board”. 

Do you feel like there’s a connection to artists and skateboarding? How do you express your creativity in skateboarding?

Skateboarding is a creative engagement of the body and mind and art is the same. We believe that often art and skateboarding connects through the same feeling of freedom of creation and with seeing inventive potential in mundane objects to turn them into something completely different from the original purpose. Personally, we think that there’s been too many rules within the way people should skate (push mongo if you like it, fuck it!) and we think breaking those rules are creatively redefining what skateboarding can be. 

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Follow Doyenne Skateboards here
Shop Doyenne here

Okay so we are BACK. I had to finish off Season one of Betty on HBO. I kind of stopped posting on Quell as the tragedies of Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery started to come to light. Obviously it’s incredibly important to recognize that not much has changed with police brutality in this country. I do want to however celebrate the beautiful stories and opportunities Betty gives women of color in the skate community. No one asked for this, and probably no one cares but we’re going to give this season the send off it deserves.

Episode 04

We start off this cliffhanger of an episode with Kirt having no idea that everyone got arrested. Camille is being mad annoying in jail and arguing with Janay about how they ended up there. The mean jail woman calls out Janay and Camille for being asshole friends. Camille calls Bambi...who *spoiler* is absolutely useless. Indigo ends up bailing Janay and Honeybear out of jail with the money she owes for losing her drugs.

The girls absolutely drag Kirt for literally leaving them to get arrested even though she was the one who caused them to get arrested in the first place. “I’m sorry I’m lucky!” “No, you’re white.” I mean...that’s basically what’s the theme of 2020. 

The morning after, the ladies are taking stock of their day. Farouk calls Indigo asking for the money and obviously she just used it to bail out the girls. Indigo takes that modeling job from a couple episodes back. Camille gets out of jail and go finds her man who as I mentioned before, LITERALLY FORGOT TO BAIL HER OUT. We cut to a moody scene of her skating in Queens and ~*realizing things*~

Honeybear asks out Ash finally and we see a really cute date. We catch back up with Kirt who is with a girl who gives her shrooms. We end up at Cooper Park where we get a little clip of Janay skating the manny pad. She addresses the twin and wants to apologize to Yvette so they exchange numbers. Kirt finds them at Cooper and has a big idea to do drugs with them to make it up to them. They obviously won’t hear any of it and leave her. 

Janay asks the girls if they’re wearing bras...and we cut to them at the public pool. It’s all coming back to me, this episode breaks my heart. Janay gets in the pool and hears Yvette’s story about happened between her and Donald. Janay drops a bombshell when she says she knows she’s telling the truth because it happened to her.

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Episode 05

Janay starts talking to Honeybear and Indigo about her past trauma with Donald. This is a really beautiful moment of friendship and support for someone who has been through SA. Honeybear suggests saying something to him and Janay agrees. Cut to a super cute scene of them all holding hands and skating by the pier.

Camille is back with her friends drinking boba and they meet up with Honeybear, Janay and Indigo. They’re all friends now which we love to see it. Bambi comes back and starts acting like nothing happened. Janay destroys him for forgetting Camille’s bail and he obviously gets up and leaves. Indigo admits she took the modeling job and has to go. Camille ends up at Blue Park to meet Bambi after that little interaction. Camille is kind of watching for Bambi as he literally doesn’t pay attention to her. Then he starts to ignore her which really pisses me off personally. She calls him out on it and then he basically brushes her off. Camille kind of tries to bring it up later and realizes how mean Bambi is. Officially team fuck Bambi...don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Kirt takes the shrooms and hangs out at a pet store. The boys find her laying in the park with a rat she got at the pet store and she offers the shrooms to the rest of them. At this point, I don’t care about Kirt’s story. We’re mad at her. We cut to indigo at the modeling job and it becomes super clear how insanely problematic it is. There are lots of white women cornrows, and cultural appropriation like crazy.

Janay calls out Donald for everything. He obviously gaslights her for telling the truth. This scene is super triggering so if you’re somehow reading this before watching the show months later...be aware. It’s super problematic to see what Donald is saying about Yvette and how she’s basically lying for what happened. I hate to see this because he’s so clearly manipulating her. I think it’s so important though to have included this because at any age these things can happen and sometimes you don’t realize it was wrong until after the fact. It’s valid and okay to feel different about a situation after it happened.

This is the crux of the episode. Honeybear and Ash have a super cute date. Honeybear sees her Dad on the way to the ferry and she hides. She gets kind of defensive about it and ends things with Ash. Honeybear knows it’s wrong but leaves. She cries on the very home.

We cut to Camille crying and one of the boys comes to comfort her. He admits as a friend that he goes through the same energy that Camille has felt. We’ve all been there and that fucking hurts. Janay deletes her channel with Donald on youtube because she knows that at the end of the day she was right. Indigo can’t believe the insane shit that this guy’s photo direction is. She leaves the photoshoot in makeup and her red Gucci coat. We cut to the girls dancing with the coat and smoking  in Janay’s room. They kind of circle back to harassment and the topic of “me too”. The girls come back and Kirt apologizes to them. I guess we’re friends now. 

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Episode 06

We open with Camille skating flatground. This little girl sees her skating and she offers to let her try to skate. Kirt shows up and they teach her a little bit how to skate. Her dad shows up and starts to yell at them. They decide to host a girls skate meetup.

Indigo offers up her Gucci coat to pay back for her drugs. Farouk admits he was teaching her a lesson and she needs to be more careful in life. Indigo goes home and her mom kicks her out of her house.

Honeybear and Janay start making flyers for the skate event. Janay asks about Ash and Honeybear admits what happened between them. They all start to pass out flyers and there’s a little Jaime Reyes and Tony Hawk cameo. We’re back at the deli from episode one and she puts the all girls flyer on their cash register.

Donald finds Janay at the park and finally admits that he fucked up. But he asks for her help to be a better person. Janay is no longer having it and she basically tells him to grow up and take accountability for his actions.

Honeybear makes an apology video to Ash. Kirt is on her way to the meetup and gets hit with a car door. The meetup is POPPING off. All the ladies are at the monument. They’re so excited to see all the girls but no Kirt. They facetime Kirt and she’s in an ambulance. She tells them to go on without her. Then we get the beautiful montages of everyone skating over the bridge and down the street into LES park. 

All the guys are kind of shook which we love to see. Janay facetimes them all and they’re showing Kirt how many women have shown up the the event. Seeing this now made me tear up? Am I ok? We get a bunch of hand filmed footage mixed with everyone just having such a fun time. Then it cuts to Camille’s board outside the little girls house from the beginning of the episode and that’s a wrap on Season ONE.

We are SO stoked to see this collab between Unity x Adidas. It’s really special to see such a diverse community championed for the messages they’re spreading in skateboarding. We’re superfans of Jeff’s illustration’s here at Quell, and it’s truly a testament to Unity’s message to see them all over the apparel and shoes. The images from the campaign are beautiful too. Everything is available today on Adidas

Images by Sam McGuire/ @ samuelmcguire, video by LEO BAÑUELOS / @ bronquito

Tomorrow is the third birthday of Quell Skateboarding. While we’ve had many accomplishments this year, this is not a time for celebrating. Our community, our world, our people are hurting.

I cannot begin to know what it is like to be a black person in America. What I can do is listen, educate and be understanding. I personally am here to listen to you and educate myself. I am open to any conversations to how we can be better allies.

I am so fortunate to have a platform and a space where I hopefully can share some resources I have been turning to and donating towards.

RECLAIM THE BLOCK reclaimtheblock.org

Organizes Minneapolis community and city council members to move money from the police department into other areas of the city’s budget that promote community health and safety.

COMMUNITY JUSTICE EXCHANGE – NATIONAL BAIL FUND DIRECTORY

communityjusticeexchange.org/nbfn-directory

Regularly updated list of community bail funds that are freeing people by paying bail/bond and are also fighting to abolish the money bail system and pretrial detention.

WE LOVE LAKE STREET

welovelakestreet.com

A non-profit to help rebuild Lake Street’s small businesses and community organizations.

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION

ACLU.ORG

Provides legal assistance to wherever civil liberties are at risk.

COLOR OF CHANGE

@COLOROFCHANGE

Nation’s largest online racial justice organization.

ANTI-RACISM RESOURCES FOR WHITE PEOPLE

Google Doc full of incredible resources– from podcasts, books, websites etc.

We are going to take some time away from posting as we continue to share resources on our stories.

As always please reach out to Quell if you’d like us to share anything.

Rest in peace George Floyd.

Okay these episodes keep getting better and better. We’re back with a recap of episode three of Betty, Skate Kitchen’s HBO series. There’s not a lot to say other than: why are these episodes thirty minutes long? This one was JAM packed with so much information that I wish we got a little breathing room.

As the weather starts to turn, it’s so nice to see these summer skate scenes. Who know’s what this summer will truly bring…at least it’ll bring three more episodes of Betty!

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We open on the night after sleeping at the bottom of the bowl from the previous episode. Kirt, Honeybear and Indigo are at a diner and Kirt realizes it’s Janays birthday! Time to celebrate. Indigo realizes that she left her weed pens somewhere and Honeybear goes with her back to Chelsea to scout them out. Kirt starts smoking in the diner to distract them from paying the bill as she runs away.

At Chelsea we have a Zoe spotting! We get a vibey montage of Zoe and a guy skating and another organic title drop on the side of the bowl. Indigo starts to see these guys smoking her pens and yells at them to get them back. They’ve taken and smoked a bunch of them, and she realizes she’s about to be in deep trouble.

Her and Honeybear leave the park and Honeybear sees the girl that she had a crush on in the park the episode before. Indigo encourages her to go say hi but we later see Honeybear skate towards her to say hi and completely skates past her.

Afterwards, Honeybear is grocery shopping and realizes that Camille still works at the grocery store from the movie...that’s a funny plot to stick with. Honeybear grabs a bunch of shit and obviously goes straight to her check out lane. Camille attempts to apologize as she rings up the items. After Camille rings up everything, Honeybear says she only needs the water bottle, and they exchange “got cha” glances because that is honestly amazing revenge.

Janay is looking at our girl Jules “instagram” when she hears Kirt in the window. Jules aka Yvette is the girl who claims that Donald sexually harassed her. What are we plotting… Anyway, Kirt stole a balloon on her way to hang out with Janay for her birthday and brings it to her to celebrate. They go get their nails done and Kirt doesn’t understand why Janay is glued to her phone. Please note that Jules is with our angel Liv in these cutie fake boomerangs. Janay finally admits that Jules aka Yvette has been talking shit about her and Kirt agrees they should fuck her up.

Meanwhile, Bambi is at the Queens globe and asks fo get a clip with Camille. She loves the way he’s filming her. The other boys are hyped for her except Charlie who says some fucked up shit to her because he’s jealous that Bambi is paying attention to her. Bambi clarifies that he’s not just shooting her because she’s a woman and that she’s actually good. After skating, Bambi starts to talk to Camille about her style and she admits to love Charlie Chaplin. Bambi starts to do his walk and she feels super embarrassed. Do you feel the chemistry? Yikes.

Cut to Janay, Kirt and Honeybear pull up at the park trying to find Yvette based on nothing but Instagram. It’s New York city so I don’t know how effective this would be in actual real life. There’s some fun party where lots of Brooklyn friends make cameos dancing. Janay finally gives in and dances a little bit.

We get a dreamy synth clip of the gang skating down a street in Williamsburg. They all pull up to a spot where everyone went after skating and Farook finds Indigo. They go leave to have a drug convo. Janay is talking to Honeybear and starts judging Yvette based on her instagram and starts to justify why she’s going to fuck her up. We kind of travel through all these conversations and it really makes you feel the energy of being at a party.

Back in Farook’s car him and indigo start arguing and she leaves him to go her his money. Indigo opens one of those insane apartments where the elevator is street level. I’ve always wondered about those. We realize that indigo lives in a super nice apartment with her mom and that she’s pretty wealthy. Indigo asks for $3,000 and her mom obviously says no. She sneaks into her office and writes her check. 

Back at night Bambi and Camille are still walking around and he doesn’t invite her back up. Whats going on there? He asks her to go to “The Dome” in a hour. I’m starting not to trust this hoe. What is he doing to you Camille? Was he worth ruining your friendship with the girls over?

Everyone seems to be at the Dome. Honeybear makes Camille introduce her formally to Ash. They start to make awkward talk but Ash asks to get a drink with her and gives her her number on her board. Skater boys and girls, that’s a move I want to hear about in the future.

Meanwhile, Janay finds “Yvette” and starts screaming at her. Turns out though that Yvette has a beautiful twin who is ready to throw down for her sister. The real Yvette comes over and the girls start to get into an argument. Kirt pushes her out of nowhere and punches someone. Camille gets hit back and a huge fight erupts and then suddenly ends by a skateboard smashing the window.

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Catch our Betty recaps every week here!
If you have any suggestions or anything we’ve missed DM us @quellskate.

Kickflip by Josh Katz

Sam really embodies the hometown hero. When we first met her at 2nd Nature, we were instantly in awe of her skate style and incredibly kind personality. Sam is supportive and determined in and out of skateboarding. Whether it’s stacking clips for her sponsors, or painting beautiful portraits of her friends on old decks – we’re always excited to see what’s next for Sam.

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How did you start skateboarding?

I got into skateboarding through my older sister. I basically used to copy everything she did. I first picked up a skateboard maybe 13 years ago, but I’ve been actually skating and learning tricks since I was nine (so that makes 11 years!) I grew up mostly in Plainfield, New Jersey but moved to Elizabeth, NJ when I turned nine. Elizabeth is where I really started learning how to skate.

What made you want to pick up the skateboard? What inspired you to keep skating?

Seeing my sister skate really made me want to do the same. We did everything together when we were little. I stuck with it because I found skating to be really fun and sort of a sense of freedom. There are no rules to skateboarding so I really get to be creative with it.

When we first met you, you came to our mini competition with Trophy Griptape.
How did you get connected to them?

Wade, the owner of Trophy, reached out to me through instagram. My friend Nico had put in a good word to him. Wade seemed to like my skating and asked me to be a part of the team.

What is your relationship with sponsorship in skateboarding?

I do have a few sponsors. I’m flow for Fortune skateboards, and also ride for New Balance Numeric, Trophy Griptape, Rockstar Bearings, Travel Skateshop, and Hilyfe Shades.

Do you feel pressure to get sponsors in skateboarding or maintain these relationships?

Before having sponsors, I’ve never really felt pressure to get them, but now that I do have a few, I always have that feeling in the back of my mind that I’m not doing enough for them. I know this feeling is probably irrational, but it’s hard to shake the feeling. I don’t have someone to film me at all times so it’s hard to stack clips when I find the time.

Fakie Flip by Erin Patrice O'Brien at Barclay's Center

What do you see/wish for your future in skateboarding? 

What I see and wish for my future in skateboarding is progression. I have a list of a few tricks that I want to learn and goals I have for myself to achieve, and once I reach those goals I’ll make even more for myself. I just want to work on getting better, and whatever comes along with that is icing on the cake!

You paint these beautiful portraits on old skateboard decks. How did you start doing that?

I came up with the idea to paint these portraits with my girlfriend as a Christmas present for some of our closest friends. I thought it would be cool for them to have a picture of them skateboarding on a skateboard. It took a really long time but I love how they came out and hope that everyone who got one feels the same. 

Do you feel like there’s a connection to artists and skateboarding?

Yeah I think skateboarding and art go hand-in-hand. In a lot of ways, skateboarding is art. Like I said, there are so many ways to get creative on a skateboard. You can practice to learn all these very technical tricks or just mess around and do something that no one else has done. There really aren’t any boundaries. And I’ve noticed that people who make art are usually the type of skaters to do really unique tricks and find new ways to utilize a skateboard. I think anyone who skates is an artist.

How do you express your creativity in skateboarding? 

I try to constantly learn new tricks and push myself to expand as a skateboarder. I try to express my creativity with every trick I do and every obstacle I skate; through my style. Most of all, I think I do so by just doing whatever is fun for me. 

When I was younger, I used to stay out in front of my apartment complex with my sister and friends and we would skate all day. There were no skate parks close to us so we always had to come up with new things to do. 

Over the years I have learned that you don’t have to skate a particular way to have fun, nor do you have to skate a certain way to be perceived as a “real” skateboarder. I think that being able to do a little bit of everything really shows that you can be creative.

I really love that sentiment. Your style is so fun to watch. Speaking of watching, we’ve seen you posting more and more videos and edits lately. Are you getting into filming skating more? 

I’ve always filmed for my friends, but now since we’re all stuck in the house, I’ve been putting together clips more! As much as I love skating, I love to see my friends land tricks they’ve been working hard to land, and capture these special moments.

Noseslide by Rich Whitehead in Trenton

“Before you’re comfortable, you’re going to be uncomfortable.”

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start skateboarding?

To anyone who wants to start skating, I would say to not be afraid of looking “stupid” on a skateboard (for lack of a better term). Before you’re comfortable, you’re going to be uncomfortable. It takes a lot of practice to get used to the feeling of riding a skateboard, let alone learning tricks. Also, it helps to not care what others think about you when you’re skating. This is way easier said than done, but focusing on yourself and not everyone else will help your confidence in skating. More often than not, the other people at the skatepark are more worried about themselves than what you’re doing. And skaters know more than anyone else how much dedication it takes to learn, so I’d say to keep all of this in mind when starting. The fun of skating is definitely worth the effort.

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