Melissa Williams, a 35 year old skater from South Africa, has achieved something historic. That is to be the first woman to ever release a video part in South Africa. A project come true thanks to Baseline Skate Shop and Vans, it pushed her to get out of her comfort zone and try things she never thought she could do.
Interview by Denia Kopita
Published in April 2021
You’re the first woman to release a skate part in South Africa, right?
Yes, super exciting. I was asked to be on Vans around 3-years ago and not long after, Baseline Skate Shop asked me to be on their team. Baseline are now doing a video project with a long part for each of their team riders, as a Vans–Baseline collab video. It was a great opportunity for me to work on my own part because these opportunities don’t really come around and to have that focus on me, it was quite amazing when I heard the news, [laughs].
How did filming for a video part impact your mentality?
Sometimes you think that it would maybe never happen. It’s interesting and different and it’s really cool as it pushed me to skate better. You want to put something out that you’re proud of and you want to see what you can do. It’s an interesting space, because if you don’t have this reason to push yourself–there might not be that reason to go out and hunt down spots and push yourself to think differently. It’s so cool how the mentality of your own abilities comes into skating. Because before, I would think I couldn’t do this or wouldn’t even bother trying or even thinking about doing certain tricks but then all of a sudden your mindset changes to be like “What if I could do that? What if I tried to do that?”. Before that, I mainly skated transition and mini ramps and I thought I was never good at street skating. So for me to film a street part, there’s some stuff in there I am really proud of.
How long have you been skating for?
I started around twenty years ago, so a long time, [laughs]. I’m 35 now and I started skating when I was around 12. Definitely in those years there were times when I skated more and when I skated less or phases where I was more into surfing or playing in bands. It’s quite a long time so skating has always been a big part of my life.
Has skating always been a mental release for you in that way?
Growing up, what I really enjoyed about skating was that it also helped with being a kid who doesn’t fit in. In school, I didn’t always fit in with certain groups but I could always go skateboarding, you know? There’s always a place to go and a thing that you can do that liberates you so you don’t feel trapped in your life.
You said you have been skating for 20-years: How was the girl skate scene back then?
I was the only girl that I knew of but there were these urban legends. I once heard about another girl who skated but it was before social media so it wasn’t as easy to find people. There weren’t even skateparks back then or things like that to bring people together. Definitely, growing up there were a few skaters but never any girls. Even when I lived in London around 10-years ago, I think I saw in total one or two girls skating for my whole 3 years I was there and went to skateparks.
How have you seen the girl’s skate scene in South Africa evolve?
Nowadays the girls skate scene here in South Africa is enormous. What’s really interesting is about 3-4 years ago we had our first Vans Park Series here, the African Continental Championships. That was the first time in many years we even had a competition and there’s never really been competition just for women. There was one that was happening for a few years in Kimberley called the Kimberly Diamond Cup, that brought international women–but that was all street and never took off in terms of growing the scene. But yeah, that Vans Park Series contest was the first contest for women. That made a major statement, the fact that women were now included and there was equal prize money, how the winner would fly to China for the World Championships. That for me was a major step. We then started doing the girls skate nights at the skatepark with Vans, it started with 10 girls but by the end of the year we had over 60 girl skaters. It was amazing to see how if women have that representation in an event how more and more people started getting drawn into it. They make friendships and from there go on skate missions. That’s how it grows. Now there’s so many of them, but sometimes when I go to the skatepark and I see a bunch of girls there I am amazed, like–is this real? It’s so cool it’s become a normal thing now.
Do you think that there is a sisterhood that is being created and that seeing other girls skating helps inspire more girls to get into it?
Yeah, absolutely. That’s the thing, if you see another girl skating you think, if she can do it I can do it. Interestingly enough, it’s about what their parents think, who wouldn’t allow their daughters to skate because it was–”for the boys.” But now that they’ve seen other women skate or taking part in contests, it has a big impact. You hear stories of girls whose parents got their brother a board but then the girls were the ones who stepped on the board and never stopped. It’s really interesting because now all those girls who wished they would have carried on skating but felt it was just for “the boys,” now they are able to do it because there’s other girls around them doing it.
IG: @suzysnakes
Shop our 7th issue HERE.
