Back in the late 90’s I used to go to a club called Discipline on Wardour Street in London. Not to be mistaken for a dominatrix bondage club, although admittedly steamy and sweaty, this one played music; hardcore, hip hop, punk, metal and anything else vaguely alternative. It was from going to this club that I made a good (female) friend who eventually got me into skating. As it turned out there was another girl there who also skated: Kellie Simpson. This was an era where seeing another girl on a skateboard only happened very rarely, if at all, so to have 3 in one place was somewhat of a miracle.
Kellie had started skating way before I did, at the age of 11 she had asked for a skateboard only to be told – if you want it, you pay for it. She then spent the next two years epically saving every penny she had until finally she had enough to buy her own board. After 10 years of riding though she stopped completely after falling pregnant with her daughter and it wasn’t until 2017, at the age of 36 that she picked up her board again.
Words & Shots by Jenna Selby
“When I came back on the scene, I expected to see perhaps a few more female faces than the girls I already knew, but what I found was unreal, there were so many more! Every skate park I went to, I would see at least one girl skating it, it was amazing to me. I think the breaking down of gender barriers over the past 10 years has been a big part of that, along with female empowerment that is growing. Skateboarding is fucking cool, it’s fun and it’s a great community, who wouldn’t want to skate, male or female??”
Collectives is created by Rachael Sherlock, in partnership with SKATEISM and Nike SB.
A few years ago, after one NikeSB Girls Night, Kellie and a few friends started up a WhatsApp skate group. “Initially we wanted to create a crew that didn’t care about how good you were at skating, just that you loved it. The O.G. Crew included Grace Pogonoski, Milky, Indiana Williams, Mim, Emma Parry, Milly (Girlie), Aimee Gillingwater, Beth Dunne and Merryn Garner. We’d get together and go on ‘skate dates.’
Outside of the group, I noticed that even though there were more girls skating, a lot of them were by themselves. It was crazy to me that there were so many girl skaters in London but hardly any of them knew each other. So I started up a second WhatsApp group; Girls Can’t Skate. Every time I met a girl at a park I would take her number and put her in the group. Everyday I would post where I was skating, and would encourage other girls to do the same so that they could meet up in bigger groups or with other women. I’d also post about events going on like video premieres or girl’s nights and get everyone together socially too. When the group went from 20 to 50, it really started to run itself. There are now nearly 200 girls in there, not just from London but also from all over the world. We share stories, photos, articles, sell things, give things away, get advice, it’s fucking amazing.
One of the best reasons for bringing these women together in the group is a good majority of us are prone to feeling self-conscious. It can sometimes be very intimidating arriving at a skate spot with people flying around all over the place, especially when you are learning. I have spoken to a lot of the girls about this, and they say they have that feeing of ‘getting in the way’ even though they are absolutely not and most skaters understand that we all had to start somewhere and are actually very encouraging!
I’ve met a lot of girls who suffer from anxiety and are apprehensive about getting on a board, especially their first time, so the group also helps build up their confidence, they are meeting other girls, making friends and creating crews of their own. It means when they go to skate parks or events there are friendly faces to meet up with. It’s awesome to see. Everyone’s experience of with the group is different.”
Lizzie Heath is one of the skaters who met Kellie skating at a park and is now an active member; “She asked me for my number and said she’d add me to a WhatsApp group they had going, that was about a year after I started skating. The group works well in a place like London because there isn’t just one place where everyone can gravitate to as it’s so big and people live all over. The group acts as a meeting space for us.”
Georgie Winter a familiar face on the UK scene; “I started skating approximately 10,000 years ago (in 2005) because I basically wanted to be a character in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and then I saw some guy in my town ollie up a kerb and it was love at first sight (with the skateboarding, not with the guy). I was added in to the group a few years ago, and although I’m not a super active member it’s always nice to be a part of a community and I hear about a lot of skate events around London from it. Also it’s nice to know that if I was in London and fancied a skate somewhere, I could just drop a line or head to where a group’s already said they’re skating and it would be a ready-made session.”
Merryn Garner moved up from Cornwall to London a few years ago “I started skating when I was 18, my friends and brothers already skated but I got bored of just watching and decided to join in. When I moved to London I didn’t know anyone, Kellie saw me skating at a park and told me to come skating with her and added me in to the Girls Can’t Skate Group. She took me under her wing and took me to all the different parks/spots, introduced me to loads of amazing people and just really made me feel welcomed. It’s cool having the opportunity to go skate with completely different people with different styles and different ways of approaching skateboarding, you can learn so much from each other and it’s crazy how a small thing like a Whatapp group can have such a massive effect on people and their lives. Kellie’s done a really special thing here. Big love to Kel, she has a heart of gold!”
“Being a woman and a skater never used to be that important to me” say Kellie, “I was just a skater, but now I find it empowering, and I’m using that to encourage more girls to get out on their boards. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, what religion, race, gender, sexual orientation or age, we all love skating and how it makes us feel. I wish I could bottle the feeling that skateboarding gives me and sell it, because it’s like nothing else. I’ll put my hands up and say I’m not that great at it, but man, do I fucking love it.”
If any girls would like to join the group, give Kellie a shout on Instagram @kellie1980 or @girlscantskatecrew and she’ll add you in.
