Editor’s Note: Today is Day 2 of Pride Week, and Issue #4 Release week. Today we’ve got Tin, whose Issue #2 interview described how she has slowly but surely been smashing the glass ceiling of skateboarding. In Cambodia, specifically, but goddamn if that isn’t where it really starts, in places that may suffer from patriarchy, but don’t suffer from the same preconceived notions about who can and can’t skateboard that we have here in the West.
I like to think I am one of Tin’s biggest fans, but she has many. She has been pushing the skate scene for girls, young people and Cambodians more generally since she first stepped on a board in 2012. Straight away, skating opened the door to the challenge of changing people’s minds on what it means to be a girl, what it means to live with a dis- ability, and what it means to be a skater. I first met Tin back in 2015 at Skateistan in Phnom Penh, where she is the Programmes Officer for the skateboarding for development NGO, in charge of running the organisation’s sessions and inspiring the next generation of skaters in Cambodia. She was also the first woman I had seen skating in the country, and she was on a mission. Two years later, in 2017, I visited again and was amazed to see a handful of new girls skating, obviously looking up to her as a role model, on a skateboard and off. Tin has been push- ing forward since the day she first fell off a board. I caught up with her at the opening of the new Skateistan Skate School in February. What an inspiration…
Interview & Photography by Hannah Bailey
Tin, do you remember the first time you stood on a skateboard?
I remember being instructed to turn around on the ramp. I had never done that before. I had only learned how to push – “1, 2, 3.” Unfortunately, I fell so bad, and everyone around laughed so much at me. I didn’t care, I tried to make a joke out of it, Cambodian style. But I was so hurt that I didn’t try it again until the next day, even if I wanted to.
You took up skating in 2012 via Skateistan, were you aware of it before then?
Before I started I didn’t know what skateboarding was, and I didn’t see people doing it – especially girls. At first, I took it up for fun, but during the first lessons, some of the boys looked down on the girls who were part of it. The boys thought the girls couldn’t do any tricks like they could – I wanted to change their mind! I tried to put myself deeper into skateboarding, to play and learn, because I wanted to show them girls could do anything, just like them…or better than them!
Using skateboarding as a tool to share a positive opinion and question stereotypes, that’s amazing! Was your family ok with your skating?
When I first started skateboarding and working with Skateistan, my mum didn’t have any objections to me skating. But my parents are a bit different from other parents in Cambodia. My mum wanted to motivate me and let me in, she knew I was confident to make my own decisions.
One day I fell really bad skateboarding, rolled my ankle and hurt my lip, I was bleeding. When I got home, she saw my injury and she said she wasn’t going to stop me from skating, but to take care of myself. She also said, if a girl is afraid to do what they want, how are they going to be able to do anything in life? That really motivated me.
What about other people, what did they think?
People in my community didn’t really respect me or value me as a girl skateboarder. They didn’t see any value in people participating in skateboarding at all. They thought I was wasting my time doing it and that I couldn’t get anything from skating. They thought I was stupid! But it made me want to skate more, to improve their outlook, to show them girls can do anything and show them that skateboarding is an amazing sport. Every time you land a trick, you feel free, like you are flying – you feel confident.
What are the cultural restrictions for girls in Cambodia?
Girls are not really able to do sports because society thinks it is not necessary for them – people think they should just work and work. Culturally, girls study, work, they don’t have a chance to participate in society in other ways, they just earn money. The discrimination is there between boys and girls, but also people living with disabilities. Both are considered low in society.
When we first met in 2015, there were not that many girls skateboarding in Cambodia, has that changed now?
When I started skating I could not change the mind of my community, I needed time to slowly show them, to inspire them and show them the benefit of skating. Year by year, Skateistan has being able to provide more skate lessons to the community so people around can see and kids and girls can participate to show the successes and their stories to the world. People start to see! They started to change their minds and let their kids come to skate – understanding the value of people, in particular girls, participating in skateboarding.
When you show skateboarding to a local kid for the first time, what are they like?
When we started building the new Skate School here [at Factory Phnom Penh a new creative development in the city], it was in a different community and near a lot of street-working kids living in the area.
“Every time you land a trick, you feel free, like you are flying – you feel confident.”
We went to explore the community, to let them join our programmes and when they saw the Skate School they felt strange. They didn’t know what the features were, they didn’t know how you could do it, even to roll around. They thought it was complicated in the park. They were asking, how do we skate these obstacles? Our Educators, girls and boys, put on demos to show them how. They were so into it, so we told them to come back. Now, about 26 local community kids come to the sessions to be part of the Skate and Create program [hour in the skatepark and hour in the classroom].
Which skaters inspire you most?
Leo Baker is my favourite skater. I like their style. When [Leo] skates, they is focused, and all their tricks are so clean. When they lands, they has style. Leo seems friendly, although I’ve never met them – that’s what every- one says. That inspires me more to be like them!
Do you see much of the womxn’s skate scene around the world?
When I see the skate scene in other parts of the world I feel jealous! There are a lot of skaters in other countries, and girls can skate just like boys. In Cambodia, we are more restricted by discrimination. Here, kids are pushed into traditional things and studying hard.
What is the greatest thing about having skating today?
Skateboarding is an amazing sport, the most amazing sport I have ever had in my life. Skating helped me get far away from bad situations. I have made a lot of friends through it. When I was young, I wanted to grow up to be a teacher at an NGO. Now I’ve joined Skateistan, using skateboarding as a tool to empower the world.
