Skateboarding finds itself more exposed than ever to the world around us. As the crosshairs of both fad chasers and potential skateboarders scroll through their feeds and see skateboarding for the first time and wonder: can I do that?
We as gatekeepers to our own culture have protected the initiation rituals the best we can in this ever connected world. An online world where anyone is just a posed Insta-photo away from appearing like a skater and an absolutely thriving offline skate community [even in this pandemic].
Words by Zane Foley
Photos by Zane Foley & Virginia Kritikaki
However, in the last 3-5 years, a new invitation to skateboarding has come in the form of skate meetups. A phenomena that blends the powers of online and offline communities into a branded, cultural phenomena that has led BLM protests, partnered with some of skating’s biggest companies, provided boards for underprivileged youth, and simply but profoundly afforded new skaters a welcoming environment to learn to skate.
Thankfully, this invitation has proven to be an effective initiation process with benefits skateboarders could not have anticipated. Scores of women in major cities around the world and members of the LGBTQ+ community have been invited into a safe space to learn to skateboard for the first time offline. Building tangible community strongholds throughout the world and welcoming hundreds of new skaters into our culture. Undeniably, skate meetups are fostering a new diversity in skating and has often seen attendees go on to become real, legit disciples of skateboarding who love skating just as much as anyone who found it other ways. But also undeniably, skate meetups have been met with animosity and criticism by certain factions of skateboarders for their lack of an organic right of passage.
Taking all these factors into consideration, when skateism began to ponder the importance of skate meetups, it became strikingly clear these meetups operate not only as a novel fostering of diversity in skateboarding but as a profound unveiling of skate privilege. For many of us who were fortunate to fall in love with skating in other ways, most likely we did not have to deal with the very aspects of access these meetups combat. A fact that can’t only be celebrated but needs to be explored to be better understood on a critical level to defend them against any misconceptions or from culture vultures seizing their talons onto this new intimate skate initiation.
Skateism reached out to several founders and attendees of skate meetups to hear directly from the source what they believe the importance of skate meetups represent. And how we as skateboarders, can not only do our best to support them but understand them and their impact. For with any new phenomena in skateboarding, skate meetups have been rightly met with their own criticism, as anything new in skating should. But when we see these criticisms mostly coming from male skateboarders who find the initiation somehow a foregoing right of passage, they fail to see the hurdles other marginalized groups have to jump through to ‘become skateboarders’. It is our hope that upon reading some of these testimonies, we can all understand how truly important these skate meetups are. Not only to the diversity of skateboarding, but skateboarding itself. For when more people fall in love with skateboarding, the stronger our community and culture becomes.
Moreover, you don’t have to take our word for it. Skateism caught up with organizers and attendees of several skate meetups around the world to gain some perspective. We hope you enjoy their perspectives as we humbly thank everyone involved in our interviews and everyone taking their time to read this article. Skateism had the privilege to interview two amazing skate meetup founders in Myriah Marquez, co-founder of the Venice-based GrlSwirl, whose meetups and brand have grown to impact and support thousands of women.
Posthumously, this skateboarder asked to have their identity retracted from the article but what they revealed was how skate meetups help supply much needed spaces for black and brown skaters: “Skateparks aren’t typically in black and brown communities, that is something we’ve struggled with. If you have a meet up in a park that is totally up north, it’s harder for those who don’t live near it to come through.” Their words illustrate the plethora of reasons skate meetups come to be, most of which arising to fix issues those who criticise skate meetups had no idea existed due to their privilege.
We spoke to a member of the LGBTQ+ community [who also posthumously asked their identity be retracted from the article] about the various challenges unnoticed by the general skate public: “Going into the skatepark is something many folks won’t do for various reasons. Whether it’s not having skateparks, equipment, friends to skate with, feeling afraid or unrepresented. Being a new skater is super intimidating. It is even more so when you are a POC of marginalized genders or sexualities. ”
Even so, this reality has empowered and inspired people like these brave skaters, who share a message of hope to anyone nervous about attending a skate meetup: “Black and brown skaters who aren’t cis men are few and far between, so having a centralized space for us all to meet brought people into my life who I could connect to on all kinds of levels. It’s important to remember that you’re not alone. We all start somewhere.”
Myriah, having her own set of challenges organizing meetups for GrlSwirl, shares words of encouragement for anyone intimidated by a skate meetup:
“We have all been the person showing up for the first time, the feelings you feel you don’t feel alone. The nervousness is similar to that of stepping on your board for the first time, it becomes the very feeling you thrill seek.” Myriah has seen first hand the powers her meetups hold by analyzing her own life. “I owe everything to Skateboarding. Literally, everything. My friends, community, job opportunities, meditation, natural medicine. I feel like the meetups amplify all these special parts of the skate family.”
Myriah is so passionate about helping women find skateboarding, she extends a personal invitation to contact her so she can help you feel welcomed: “If it is to a GrlSwirl meetup specifically, please message me ahead of time and I will do all I can to assure you feel welcomed.” Her Instagram is @Myriahrose_
If you’ve been skating for a while now or found skating through more traditional mediums, it can be difficult to understand the intimidation factor for people aspiring to skate in 2020, especially adults. You’ve heard from the founders and organizers their first hand accounts but we also caught up with attendees whose lives have been changed forever by skate meetups.
As we hear from Rachael Sherlock, an attendee of a girl’s skate night at BaySixty6 by Nike Sb, it wasn’t just her introduction to skateboarding but something even greater:
“Before the first girls night I went to, I had never even met another girl skater. I had grown up in a small town outside of Bristol but I started following @girlskateUK who kept sharing the meetups.. Honestly, if it wasn’t for @girlskateUK and the girls I met at girls nights, I probably wouldn’t be skating [today].”
While Rachael was more on the receiving end of the impact of skate meetups, Lily Lu-Zheng reflects on the role she plays as a veteran attendee at a House of Vans meetup also in the United Kingdom:
“As a human being, the (girls) nights help me focus energy on helping others. I’m older now so I’m not going to be achieving the same results as the young ones, [laughs] but I’m loving how the bar for women’s skateboarding is getting higher and higher. I also want to make sure our U.K. girls have the same opportunities as those in other places like California.”
While these two meetup attendees might have found themselves on the opposite ends of the spectrum, they each endorse skate meetups for their ability to bring people together and reduce the intimidation of learning how to skate..
“I really like it as it’s less about going hard and more about having a chill sesh and helping others,” Rachael tells Skateism. “It’s also possible to skate areas of the park that are normally really busy and take space without feeling like you’re getting in someone’s way.”
“When I first attended a skate meetup, I didn’t expect much.” Lily said as she explains the uncertainty most people feel before their first meetup.
“I just hoped to skate around without feeling intimidated. However, when I got there I was able to meet a lot of girls who enjoyed skateboarding as much as I did, and who I’m happy to call my friends today.”
At the very least, if all that we have uncovered here in that there is a moment indescribable and yet innately understandable about riding a skateboard for the first time. That those who fall in love with this feeling will go on to be the future of skateboarding. And as more and more people from more diverse groups discover that feeling through skate meetups, we see just how important they really are.
Far from our control, younger people are inheriting the epochs of skateboarding in a completely different way. And while much of it is problematic and out of the hands of skateboarding, skate meetups do what skateboarding always has done and tips the power back into the hands of skateboarders. Thanks to these brave founders and attendees who come together, skate meetups not only spread love throughout our communities, but spread skateboarding throughout the world.
