Welcome to the first, of what will be many posts from our new series: Skate Pop.

We’re taking you through on this rocky journey of skateboarding through pop culture by recapping movies and TV that feature our favorite skaters. Kicking off the series, we decided to feature the most mentioned skate movie to us in recent history: The Skate Kitchen.

The Skate Kitchen Movie is so special to us because we’ve heard that it has inspired SO many women to start skating. It’s an amazing representation of our mission at Quell: visibility for women and non binary people in skateboarding. If you have not watched The Skate Kitchen it is streaming now on Hulu. Hope you enjoy the first Skate Pop.

---

First, we’re introduced to our protagonist miss Rachelle aka CAMILLE about to ollie a four stair. I’m on board for this solo sesh…until we get this BRUTAL fucking credit card scene.

I am so squeamish that this literally hurts me to watch this and has re instilled a fear in me that I can’t even put into words. The timeline seems insane because you would never get released from the hospital after having major vagina surgery that quickly and then just WALK your ass home but whatever let’s roll with it no pun intended.

So enter Camille’s mom who is my favorite Orange is the New Black character–and she has the reaction of every parent who has ever seen their kid skateboard and fall: promise me no more skateboarding. Okay mom…I promise. But Camille does NOT care. I’m kind of obsessed with the fake instagram and then like google maps transit view of LES because baby our real New York journey is about to begin!

Here we go! Enter Janay (played by Dede), Kurt (played by Nina) and Ruby (played by Moonbear). “I follow you on instagram” is my favorite introduction also. But lets stack these clips ladies. I wonder what they’re actually looking at on that camera honestly. But cut to a downtown montage that is literally making me so sad to be sitting on my couch doing this review. “Can you do an ollie?” is also my favorite introduction…fuck that guy. Who else has had that experience?

I also wonder how much of this is planned or acting - like the car almost hitting Nina aka Kurt etc. Anyway, I feel like they wouldn’t just leave her hanging like that but we had our first day skating with the ladies! Camille get her clip on “The_Skate_Kitchen” insta...fuck yeah bitch as Kurt says.

Day two of hanging out with the squad. Our ladies go to this amazing rooftop tennis court scenario and smoke weed in a beautiful sunset. Kurt brings up and incredible point about the Mandela effect. I am obsessed with this. Camille has to make up a reason to leave and it is SO awkward I am even hurt emotionally.

Still sad we have to hide that skateboard...which another thing, how is her credit card injury going ??
WHAT, was it her birthday all along??? is she vegan? 
Why is she doing the skateboard out the window if we saw her put it in the bushes?
I have a lot of questions clearly.

Now we enter a vibey montage of time passing and their relationship building. Camille states a very sweet sentiment about not feeling lonely because she’s found this group and it makes me really happy. I think it’s so important to have a safe space to feel comfortable with…I mean duh I do. Also, it’s so nice to actually have friends to be able to hang out with. I miss that feeling.

Complete side note but obsessed with this bedroom with a couch in it because WHERE in New York is this. Also I love supportive dads.  It’s so nice to know that this tampon fear has made it onto main screen. I do think I talk about this with my friends but I have to say that this is not what women sit around doing all the time . So then we move into the shitting on men portion and that’s my favorite thing to do with the ladies. The two sexual spectrums are outlined by Kurt- Do you like sucking dick or eating pussy? So Camille likes boys – not sure why we needed to state that but lets see where this goes.

Camille is late to get home and her mom takes away her skateboard. Fuck.

But, a new day is here. We’re at cooper and Charlie, the nicest person in this movie, has delivered a board to us so let’s set this up for the shredding montage. Enter trap music and said montage. Also enter another corona related depressive episode.

Camille sleeps over Janay’s house, and steals her tampons. How’d that go? We’re living our best life now, back having fun at fat kid until mom literally shows up to scream at her and actually hit her in front of her friends? So bye mom we’re leaving your ass and new jersey long island and shacking up with Janay.

It’s so sweet to have this friend moment and hear Camilles story about her struggles with puberty and identity. I think it’s a really difficult grounding point in the movie and her relationship with her mother and the pressure to make these relationships work as you’re trying to know who you are growing to be. You shouldn’t feel that much pressure as a child and it’s so sweet to see someone listening and seeing Camille have that moment where someone is there for HER.

Anyway time to go fuck someone up. We’re back at LES! There’s a dreamy Clairo song playing while there’s just a full on altercation started by Kurt. Hi Jaden aka Devon, welcome to The Skate Kitchen. Fast forward to the grocery store where Camille and Devon both happen to work.

A small but important scene here, is when the girls are on the way to the party and they start talking about their past hookup experiences. Gaslighting is the worst thing possible. I hate having to hear how many shared collective horrible experiences we have with men. But this scene brings my favorite coming of age movie scene- putting lipstick on your friend to a Princess Nokia song. Fast forward through the scenes that probably make this a rated R movie.

I’ve noticed that this movie is really like just about these beautiful friend montages and a couple key plot points but just kind of feeling that emotion and without dialogue it gives you time to like bring it back to your own self. Is that too deep? I don’t know.

Anyway, Camille goes to hang out with Devon to take photos. My fear of heights is giving me insane stress in this moment but it’s clear that this kick flip photo shoot on the roof is a ~turning point~. Especially when he says: you’re the only girl i’ve ever brought up here oh FUCK that’s the worst sentence I have ever heard.

Camille goes back to her new home, aka Janay’s home and wants to skate this street spot with the girls. I feel the tension building. Janay is nervous and isn’t feeling respected which is culminates in a skate injury and a metaphorical riff in her and Camille’s relationship. Sad.

Camille tries to ask questions about boys to Indigo and we’re finding out the tea between Janay and Devon. Tension builds when Camille lies to Janay and hangs out with Devon. But at least we get another vibey montage of skating with the bros.

The next day, we hang out at Cooper. Literally what is good with this weed she is dead??? but Indigo just realized what is GOOD with Camille and Devon…uh oh. Fast forward, another day another Cooper scene. Janay comes back to the park to hang with her friends and also beat Camilles ass because suddenly learns about her “friendship” with Devon. Seems like this is not going to go very well for the future of The Skate Kitchen.

Not that this is the point of this scene but when Camille is mad as fucks her hair looks incredible. So anyway, Camille made her bed and now has to lie in it...and by her bed I mean this couch in the living room of Devon’s apartment until she literally gets in his bed instead. UH OH. I’m excited for this all to get better because now I am sad and I miss my mom.

And here we are, mom gives the best advice to just apologize. Squad scene, we are back. Let’s vibe it out a little more. I don’t know about you but I MISS MY FRIENDS.

---

This recap was written by Adrian Koenigsberg.
If you have a movie or show you want us to recap let us know.

Stay tuned for more Skate Pop and follow The Skate Kitchen's journey when Betty comes out on HBO May 1st.

We’re back for our second round of stretch videos with our guru, Steph Reid.
Follow Steph on Instagram to find her classes. Catch the stretch video for feet & ankles here.
Stay tuned for more from this series!

We fell in love with Fabiana, Breanna and Una when we briefly hung out with them during Wheels of Fortune last year. All rad skaters, their energy and dedication shines through everything they do. When we found out that Shari was filming with them for Vans, we were even more stoked, what a perfect combo. We’ve been fans of everything she’s done with Skate Witches and knew we could expect something great from this. Side note, as with all of the Skate Witches edits… music choice was on point! Read up about the making of the film and if you haven’t yet, give it a watch!

---

Just under a year in the making, Credits celebrates the diverse energy and personalities of the global women’s skate community. With a talented cast led by three underground favorites — Una Farrar, Breana Geering, and Fabiana Delfino —the film highlights the unique, individual style and expression of a group of friends that skate, hang and travel together.

Credits marks an important milestone for the women’s skateboarding community, exposing a title that in jest challenges the idea that women have often only been showcased in the “credits” section of skate videos. Here, in stark contrast to the former status quo, Una, Breana and Fabiana emerge, gracing the screen with full, complete parts in their own major video. Being directed, filmed and edited by Shari makes this extra notable as some brands have put out an all non-male video, they haven’t had a woman filmer.

Fabiana Delfino

Shari White by Norma Ibarra

“Everyone had the opportunity to film their best skating over the past year, with their homies cheering them on,” film director White said of the project. “That is what skateboarding is all about! The laughter and friendship, along with the battles—I hope viewers get a sense of that feeling.”

The film includes cameo appearances from Vans team riders and friends, Beatrice Domond, Cher Strauberry, Clara Solar, Poppy Olsen (who also serves as the film’s art director), Helena Long, Adelaide Norris, Dayana Young and director Shari White herself.

“Credits is just some best friends having a good time and making a skate video,” added Geering. 

Una Farrar

Fabiana Delfino by Norma Ibarra

Credits was shot in 4:3 with a mix of HD and Super 8, with footage captured across the US and Canada, in addition to Melbourne, Australia and Barcelona, Spain between April 2019 and March 2020.

Watch Credits on Vans’ YouTube channel as well as a Q&A with the director and main skaters from the film.

Jaime Reyes is arguably one of the toughest people in skateboarding.

At the height of her skateboarding career in the mid 90’s, you could catch her breezing down Lafayette with the Supreme squad, or doing kickflips in the Rookie loft with Lauren Mollica and Lisa Whitaker.  We had the pleasure of interviewing Jaime Reyes on our podcast about her skate beginnings and career in the 90s and early 2000s. After getting to know her more and more since the podcast, we wanted to catch up with Jaime on what skateboarding means to her now and her plans for the future.  We invited Jaime to Brooklyn for a whole weekend to find out.

While we already know Jaime is a badass, we were impressed when we witnessed her push through a stomach bug (we’ll spare the details) on a humid, 95 degree Saturday. She busted out a pivot to fakie on a crusty bank and promptly re-named it the ‘puke to fakie’ - a true legend.

Jaime played a little backseat DJ, made a necessary fried chicken stop a la Harold Hunter and never missed a Yankee’s score update. She even admitted she has 23 blue Yankee’s fitted hats (the brim color changes, obviously). But what stood out to us even more, was that Jaime made sure we felt as good about skating the spots as she did, even pushing us to land our tricks before moving onto the next spot.

---

Kristen Scalise: I don’t want to call it a comeback, but it feels like you’re making a comeback to skateboarding. I don’t know if that’s more because of social media. Have you been actually skating more recently?

Jaime Reyes: I’ve been skating for the last three years. I went on a seven year hiatus. 2009 I just went into a dark place after my pops passed away. When he passed away I completely stopped skating. I had been miserable for seven years. Three years ago, I was like ‘you know, I need to skate because that’s what always made me happy.’ So yes, I’ve started skating.

KS: And do you feel happier?

JR: Fuck yeah. Relearning some stuff gets frustrating but hey if I did it before I can do it again. It’s all part of skateboarding and I love you skateboarding.

KS: It doesn’t matter.

JR: It doesn’t matter because I fucking threw down some shit.

KS: Laughs you paid your dues.

JR: It’s like being in a union. I paid my dues and I fell today hard. Still paying dues. 

KS: What’s the union?

JR: The skate union. You know, like union workers.

KS: Get that insurance.

JR: No yeah, I love skating. Trying to be the best I can at it. I’m slowly getting all my stuff back. Flipping the board, jumping on ledges. I’m not going to jump down handrails and stairs anymore.

KS: What tricks are you trying to get back next? 

JR: Everything, I just want to skate. Darcy [Jaime’s Partner] said I was way happier now that I’ve been skating. I mean I built a fucking mini ramp– sweat, blood, tears and empty pockets!

KS: Does she skate?

JR: No. She’s the complete opposite of me. I am so much happier and better of a person when I get to skate. 

Adrian Koenigsberg: What about skateboarding really makes you feel that drive and that love?

JR: It’s a feeling you can’t describe.

KS: I can’t imagine trying to describe that too. You’ll know it.

Abi Teixeira: It’s just you on
that shit. 

KS: That’s something I love about skateboarding. You go and do something by yourself but with your friends.

KS: Do you think your love for skateboarding grew over the years, or was it love at
first sight?

JR: I think it was love at first sight. When I stepped on a skateboard I was like dude I love this. I ate shit, I still love you. It’s like my best friend. I call it my purse because I carry it everywhere.

AT: How long have you been
skating for?

JR: Since ‘92. Before you were born probably. I got the cover [of Thrasher] when you were in your dad’s nut sack.

AT: What year? 

JR: ‘94.

AK: That’s the worst way to phrase that. Laughs.

KS: Jaime what are you
scared of?

JR: I don’t know. Disappointing someone, or people.

KS: That’s a real fear though. Not as good as butterflies [Adrian’s fear]. I’m also afraid of that.

AK: Yeah I’m all about the crippling anxiety of disappointing people.

KS: You probably have it worse than I do. Laughs. This is an out of the blue question: Max Fish then versus now.

JR: I miss the old Max Fish, but I am grateful it’s still around!

KS: I feel like Max Fish is not only a bar but a spiritual place.

AT: What’s different about it?

JR: To me it was more of a dive bar. Now it’s a little more clubby. For the most part the peeps are the same. I love going to Max Fish when I am in town!

KS: I can’t think of any other place that is a more open arms place to skateboarders. If you’re a skater you have a home at Max Fish.

JR: When I go to Philly I go to Tattooed Moms. It’s just like that.

KS: What do you think about the skate scene in Richmond? [Where she currently lives]

JR: In Richmond I go to my friend’s house called The Lost Bowl, and it’s awesome because he has a transition park in the backyard and the front yard he has a slappy curb. Thank you Pat Lowry. I learned how to slappy on that curb, it’s awesome. There’s a planter on the front curb. He built all that stuff. Look up #TheLostBowl.

KS: Why did you like the Seaport Ledges so much?

JR: I don’t know, they were dope. There were the old wooden benches and they put the metal corner coping on the ledge. The ground was so smooth.

KS: What’s your favorite trick you got on that ledge?

JR: The switch backside 5-0 and the switch back tail line. That was probably my favorite.

KS: What do you think about skating in Brooklyn?

JR: Everything is all new to me here. Obviously these spots weren’t here when I was skating back then. It was cool.

AK: Do you feel like a lot of Manhattan spots have changed since you skated them?

JR: Hell yeah! There are like 20 Manhattan spots parks now. Back in the day it was just Riverside and the one on the West side and like Canal Street. Before they re did the LES park, it was so bad before. 

KS: Do you use wax?

JR: We talked about this. I shellac a curb.

KS: What is that?

JR: I buy these spray paint thing, and when you gloss up the curb it’s so much better.

AT: You don’t need that in New York, with the metal and shit.

JR: Yeah but did you see that spot where I did the nose slide? That has so much wax on it.

KS: People love wax in New York City.

JR: Jaime points to a three inch scar. This is why I don’t like wax.

KS: What happened?

JR: Someone waxed a
metal curb.

KS: Oh cool.

JR: Metal. Angle. Curb. I slid out and caught the corner. I had to get 20 stitches and 5 internal stitches. This was recently.

KS: I’ve never heard of internal stitches.

JR: Go look at the photo.

KS: I don’t want to look at your injuries anymore.

JR: It was so bad that the doctor thought I got bit by a dog, and I kept skating, drove home and I told my girl that I had to clean my arm up… I didn’t know. It was cold, so it must have been the fall and then blood started dripping down my arm. As soon as I took my long sleeve off, she was like you have to go to the ER now.

KS: Oh my god.

AK: Is this going to make me so nauseous?

KS: This looks a lot like the steak picture next to that post.

JR: That’s a prime rib by the way, that I cooked to a perfect medium rare, it was delicious.

KS: You earned it with those
stitches yo. 

JR: I didn’t know the whole time. The doctor was like you drove from Richmond to home, an hour, and back. Yeah, I didn’t take my long sleeve off. He was like ‘you didn’t feel that?’. He thought I was crazy.

KS: It is crazy! We skated around all weekend and you definitely skoached me.

JR: Yes, I would like to be an Olympic Assistant Skoach. Mimi Knoop, holla at ya girl.

KS: Can we start a petition? Like the Alex White Petition? It does make sense to have a park skoach and a street skoach.

JR: I would love to be a skoach.

KS: What do you like about skoaching?

JR: I just want to get people hyped.

KS: I think you’re really good at that. You really pushed me today, and I could see how you can push someone who really has skills. Laughs.

JR: I recently skoached some kids last weekend. That was fun.

AK: Do you feel like that just comes naturally because you’re interested in seeing other people skate?

JR: I am interested in everyone having fun. If they want to learn, I’ll skoach the shit out of you.

KS: Can you tell if people want it?

JR: Yeah. I hate “I can’t”. Fuck it, at least try. I think that’s probably the most important thing in the skoach. It’s not that I can’t do that, it’s I haven’t done it yet. You at least haven’t tried.

AK: I think that’s cool though, that that’s your approach to it. Especially because you don’t have to be that person.

JR: I can tell, if you want to learn, I will be your hype woman. I am going to be so hyped when you land it.

Abi T: It’s always good to have that one person.

KS: You’re hyped for yourself but you kind of feel like you did it for that person too.

AT: That shit does get me hyped. 

JR: You did a kick flip today!

AT: I tried.

JR: We all made you do a rock to fakie. 

AK: What is one of your favorite Skoaching memories?

JR: Having them land it. Everyone landing that trick. Their reaction is priceless, they’re so psyched. It doesn’t matter what the trick is.

KS: In the car, we were talking about music. Favorite song you’ve ever skated to?

JR: Gloria Estefan, Falling in Love.

KS: You said your friend Darin put the retrospective together. Who is Darin?

JR: Darin Lee is a dude I grew up skating with in Hawaii. He filmed 90% of my Hawaii stuff.

KS: What’s your favorite type of music?

JR: I like everything. Cage the Elephant. Modest Mouse. When in Rome. I loved Jay-Z’s first three albums. I used to always skate to the Pixies back in the day. Smashing Pumpkins were my favorite growing up. Let’s listen to Mayonnaise right now.

AK: How do you feel when people are making retrospectives of you? Or talking about your career in the past tense, even though you’re still here and still active.

JR: I guess it should bug me but I am just here to skate.

AK: I don’t mean to get in your head.

KS: If you’re here to skate and have fun, why should it bug you? Do you think social media has influenced skating?

JR: It glorified skateboarding. I don’t know if that’s the right word but you see more skateboarding now through social media period.

KS: Totally. Do you interact with skateboarding differently since joining social media? 

JR: I’m not sure. There’s a lot of good fuckers out there.

KS: Do you wish there was social media in the 90’s.

JR: No.

KS: I wouldn’t either

JR: I came up without it.

AK: The only reason I would wish there was social media in the 90’s is so that I could see better quality footage of the people that I really haven’t gotten to see.

JR: If there was social media in the 90’s, I think I spoke about this before, there would have been a lot more girls out there that we didn’t know about.

KS: Do you think there are more girls out there now because of social media?

JR: Oh yeah.

KS: What are some current skaters that are crushing it?

JR: Everyone’s killing it. Everyone. There’s too many to name.

AK: To go back to our social media question, do you think there’s a combined stoke that is pushing everyone?

JR: Yeah I think so.

KS: Do you think people are just as hyped to see it on social media as they are in person? Like I can see my friends land a trick in Australia.

JR: Yeah if you have a heart, you’re fucking stoked. You should always be stoked to see someone else land shit.

KS: This might just be because of my radar, but you’ve been at a lot more women focused events like Wheels of Fortune, or the SK8 Babes meet-up. Have you always attended women’s meet-ups? Is that something new?

JR: I go to wherever, whenever, whoever flys me out. Thank you to those sponsors!

KS: Are you seeing more women’s skate meet ups as
of late?

JR: Yeah in the last few years, there are more women’s events than before. It’s definitely due to social media and it is a positive thing. I don’t care if you’re brown, yellow, green, dude, chick…just skate.

AK: I feel like if you feel comfortable about the people you’re with, it’s such a good feeling.

KS: That’s what really interests me about you [Jaime] and interviews with Elissa Steamer. You are two people that have just stuck out to me as like ‘yeah I’ve just always skated’. I think there’s a personality type that is you and Steamer that is like ‘I just love it so I did it.’  I really connect with that feeling. I’m just going to show up to the park and you can just wait for me, I don’t care about how slow I’m going, I’m learning. I think that’s super sick.
    Anyway, there’s been a few movies featuring skateboarding lately, such as Mid 90’s. How do you feel about how people are portraying skateboarding?

JR: I think that Mid 90’s did a great job. They didn’t glorify skateboarding. They showed both sides, that everyone has their fucking problems. It reminded me of when I was in the 90’s growing up skateboarding.
     We all were coming from fucked up backgrounds. There were only a couple of us whose parents are together. I identified with Mid 90’s. It was the crew I grew up with.

KS: I do think the perspective they took was cool.

JR: You know, skateboarding really brings all types of people together.
     That’s a beautiful thing. 

---

Photo by Erin O’Brien

We are so excited to introduce a new stretch series on Quell with our favorite Yoga instructor and skate queen, Stephanie Reid.

Steph teaches the perfect combination of poses to reach all the best stretches for skateboarding. You may have taken a class or two with Steph last summer at our takeover of the The General by Vans space or at Alo Yoga in Williamsburg. We wanted to launch the series with a little Q+A to learn more about Steph!

Watch the video after the interview and tune in next Wednesday, April 15th to a zoom class by Steph password Quell.

---

Photo by Erin O’Brien

Tell us about yourself! (Where are you from, any little bio information)

I was born in PA, moved to England for a year, then to NJ (where I primarily grew up), then AZ (where I went to the University of Arizona), and finally NYC. I moved to the city to be closer to my family and pursue a career in graphic design and now I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. Although, I really did love the desert- Arizona is such an underrated place.

How did you get into yoga? How did you get into skating?

I did gymnastics for 16 years and my coaches would often have us try different workouts- weight training, running, ballet, calisthenics, yoga and probably more (they got very creative when it came to conditioning). So the very first time I did yoga, I didn’t think much of it. But, when I blew out my knee and decided stop competing, yoga was recommended as part of my recovery. So, I joined a fitness center near my house and started taking classes with my mom. I remember feeling mortified when I walked into my first class and saw that I was the youngest person there by about 40 years. But, I rolled out my mat and focused on the teacher, thinking this is gonna be easy- I was a level 10 gymnast. Boy was I wrong! My arms were shaking in down dog and I left so humbled. The thing with yoga is, you could be in the best shape of your life, but if you’ve never used your muscles in the way that yoga engages them, it’s going to be difficult. 

As an athlete, I loved the physical challenge of yoga. But, I was completely unaccustomed to the practice's mentality. Yoga asks you to respect your body’s limitations, not compare yourself to anyone (including former versions of yourself) and strive for presence over perfection. I felt so liberated! I didn’t realize that my ego was as battered and bruised from gymnastics as my body. The more I practiced the better I felt. One of my favorite teachers in Arizona noticed my dedication to the practice and suggested I do a teacher training. I used to be so shy so, I dismissed the idea at first. But the more I thought about it, I began to realize what a cool opportunity it would be to share my passion and learn more about the practice that had transformed my life. 5 years of teaching and over 350 hours of training later, and I’m more in love with yoga than ever.

Skating didn’t enter into my life until a little over a year ago. My sister, Christi, used to do it in high school and my other sister, Lizzi, picked it up after she graduated from Pratt, so it was always in my peripherals. When I moved to NY after college, I had a hard time figuring out where I fit in. It’s crazy how you can be so surrounded by people and still feel lonely. Lizzi related to that struggle and invited me to a girls skate meet up at Skate Brooklyn. She assured me that skating’s how she made all of her friends post college and figured my background would help me pick it up quickly. I was so self conscious at first, but was lucky to have Quell and Grl Swirl hosting meet ups for beginners all the time. Lizzi had also been skating for around 7 or 8 years by then, so it helped to be associated with someone who was so ingrained in the community. I fell in love with the adrenaline and the people! Now I can’t imagine my life without skateboarding.

Photo by Erin O’Brien

When did you start to combine the idea of yoga for skateboarders?

When I started skating a lot, I couldn’t believe how sore it made my body. I ride goofy, so my left achilles got super tight from pushing, while my right hamstring would get sore from balancing on my board. My hips felt tight from squatting and jumping for hours on end too, so yoga became an essential way to stretch off my soreness and prevent injury. I also noticed how applicable yoga’s mentality was to skating. Yoga trains you to quiet the mind and focus on your breath and movement, thereby increasing your proprioception. In skating, this prevents you from getting paralyzed by thoughts of all the ways you can get hurt by trying a new trick and trusting in your body awareness. Fear plays such a big role in skating- it did in gymnastics as well. You can get really hurt trying these tricks and not everyone is able to push past that possibility to fully commit- and that’s often when the worst injuries happen. So, yoga really compliments skating both the physically and mentally.

I started to progress really quickly and people were noticing! At first I just attributed it to my history as a gymnast, but then I realized what a big role yoga was playing. So, I started recommending skaters try it. Especially because I would hear a lot of them complaining of soreness and saying they needed to stretch more, but didn’t know what to do. Unfortunately, a lot of skaters were dismissive of yoga- either they didn’t think they would be good at it, couldn’t afford it or were intimidated to enter into a community that had never reached out to them. So when Quell approached me about teaching some classes at The General by Vans in Williamsburg last summer, I jumped at the opportunity! I was excited to curate a yoga experience specifically for skaters so that they could see how beneficial the practice is for them. 

What is your advice for someone who is first starting to practice yoga?

Leave your expectations at the door and be patient with your practice. Failure is part of any learning process and progression takes time. Just like with skating, start off with the basics- you’re not going to try a kick flip before you even know how to stand on your board, right? The same applies to yoga. That’s why I always offer variations of poses with props to help you on your yoga journey. Accept where you are at in the present moment and use it as an opportunity to better yourself for the future.
What is your favorite yoga position and what is your favorite skate trick so far?

My favorite yoga position is handstand- it's my happy place. My favorite skate trick is a fakie 360 kick turn (also known as a dizzy Lizzi). My sister makes them look so effortless and cool- I remember seeing her do it for the first time in a skirt on the mini ramp at Blackbear bar. She was the only girl skating and when she did that trick all the guys tapped their boards for her. I’m so stoked that I recently learned how to do it myself!

How are you staying sane during social distancing?

Lot’s of yoga and Netflix. I’m so grateful for my roommates and video calls with friends! Staying in touch with loved ones during this time of isolation is super important.

Anything else you want to add/share?

I am so grateful for how welcoming the skate community has become because I know it wasn’t always like that- especially for girls. So I want to shout out my sister, Lizzi, the girls from Late Skate, Quell, Grl Swirl and all you individual trailblazers (Yaz, Kava and Dee, just to name a few) for paving the way for girls like me! You created this incredible community of positivity and support in a city that so often chews people up and spits them back out. I feel so lucky to be a part of it and contribute what I have to offer- yoga, backflips, and of course skating. 

Where and when do you teach yoga– local to Brooklyn? (If schedule is staying the same post COVID 19?)

I teach Yoga for Skaters classes twice a month at the Alo store in Williamsburg. The dates vary month to month, so follow me on Instagram (@stephreid333) to stay tuned for upcoming classes!