Girls Skate Barbados has a very simple and defined mission – to motivate, inspire and educate girls who skate in the Caribbean country. Set up by native Jade Niccolls in 2019, the idea came about due to Jade, herself a skateboarder, being the lone competitive skater at her local skate contest for the past 10 years. At the contest, which she did not compete in, she instead turned her attention to teaching a group of girls from Bathsheba (The East Coast of the island) and she saw a real following of girls who were interested in the sport and were keen to learn and develop – “I realised that I needed to do something for these girls and others like them”. From there, GSB as a concept and idea was born.
Words by Nathan Tuft
Being an active child and teenager, Jade was always interested in sports from surfing, football, cricket and table tennis. In 2001, her father took her to an event which promoted skateboarding and rolling blading and was enthralled; “I was so fascinated by it that I tried skateboarding for the 1st time and later on that year, I asked my dad to get me a skateboard for Christmas and ever since then I’ve been in love. I taught myself how to skateboard around the house using my sister’s stroller as she was still a toddler and once l was confident enough to skate on my own things progressed”. However, growing up on an island with not many girls skateboarding, it wasn’t always the easiest thing to pursue but she persevered as there was a “sense of freedom” when she was alone with her board.
In her early years, she looked up to Tony Hawks and Vanessa Torres, who was the 1st woman she ever saw in a skate video – primarily 2005’s ‘Elementality’. The visibility around female skaters was almost non-existent in this time period and compared with today’s scene, shows a clear lack of representation. In today’s climate, Jade looks to contemporaries and collectives such as Sasha Senior, Melaney Stanberry, Propergnar, Black Girls Skate, FroSkate, Kayla Wheeler and Stephanie Battieste for inspiration.
“Right now, there are so many girls around the world and once we can have programs educating women and introducing them to skateboarding, more women will become interested”
The Bajan skate scene has also changed over the last 15 years. Utilizing street spots and DIY equipment in her early years, Jade and her friends were regularly ejected from sessions within a matter of minutes. From her travels, she saw an alternative take to street skating and skateboarding in general, referencing a 2019 trip to Canada; “I was up there for Go Skateboarding Day and it was such a phenomenal experience, we skated all over the streets – literally 300 skaters all at once shredding and security couldn’t even manage the skaters so they just let us skate until we left. I’d love to see something like that happen in Barbados to spread skateboarding across the island – even if we get permission to skate or we just meet up and skate the streets”. This seems to be improving as well with the opening of Katif Skatepark, the first ever skatepark in Barbados.
“Now that we have a skatepark it definitely leaves room for growth before we didn’t have a place to call home and it was very challenging to get where we are today. I’m longing for the day that we have just as many skateparks in Barbados as we do basketball courts. I have full confidence that skateboarding will continue to grow and continue to change peoples lives”.
Jade also reflects that being a girl who skates in Barbados can be very intimidating because people aren’t really used to seeing girls on a skateboard. While the opening of official skateparks have been great for Jade specifically because she knows everyone, that’s not the case for other girls. In response, a main priority for Jade and GSB is working on having a safe location for the girls so that they don’t feel shy or intimidated when they are skating. Utilizing her own personal experiences, she wants to promote inclusivity at the core of everything she does; “we live in a world where it may seem that skateboarding is only for people who are Caucasian but that isn’t the case, skateboarding is for everyone. We can skate too! Show the world what we are capable of and strive for nothing but success no matter what others say and what obstacles are put in your way. Stay true to yourself and never give up!” This message is something of a mantra within GSB and by acting as a positive role model, Jade hopes to lead from the front.
Last year, in December 2020, Girls Skate Barbados ran a physical event entitled ‘Push & Go Thru’, named after local Bajan artists Damian Marvay song of the same name. The name was not only fitting in terms of his local connections but also looked to inspire the group of 25 girls that they could keep pushing through regardless of the obstacles ahead of them. The skatepark was exclusively open to the girls for two hours and had girls of all ages and races skating together, socializing and having fun. While the event was a stressful one, with ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, it marked a real milestone for Jade who for the first time in the 19 years she had been skateboarding, had seen girls skating together in her home country – “my dreams had become a reality”.
With her first event under her belt and the movement continuing to grow on social media, the sky’s the limit for what GSB can achieve. Jade has previously spoken about representation at the Olympics for Barbados in skateboarding through creating programs and having a safe location to learn, she hopes to be cultivating the next generation of talent within skateboarding. – “once the girls have access to a definitive space, safety equipment, skateboards and the right guidance, anything is possible in the future. Going for something like a gold medal at the Olympics will take time but once the girls are willing to put in the work and understand what it takes, I believe that it will happen”. However Jade is keen to walk before she can run and the next 12 months will truly be a testament to her hard work – with plans to secure an indoor location, launch new merchandise and products to help support the girls skateboarding community and once restrictions have eased, allow for more events, pop ups, meetups and collaborations.
