Women Skate the World is an organization founded by Amber May Edmondson and Nanja Van Rijsse, after they met while doing skate charity work together in Palestine. Seeing the power skateboarding had to improve the lives of children there, they wanted to focus more specifically on bringing those benefits to womxn. Their mission is to use skateboarding “as a tool for engaging, inspiring and empowering girls and womxn on and off the board.” Currently, they conduct programs in Athens, where Amber works as the Programs Director for Free Movement SB, and Amsterdam, where Nanja lives and runs WSTW classes. I sat down with Van Rijsse after a quick flatground session at Olympiaplein skatepark, in south Amsterdam, where the classes are held, and we talked about everything from women’s empowerment to the changing dynamics of Amsterdam’s diverse Southeast neighborhood. WSTW is aiming to launch a new spate of skate programs in Southeast, including efforts to bring a brand new skatepark to the community, which will serve as “a community space for residents of Bijlmer-Oost” that is “not solely for skateboarders, but also easily accessible to residents of all ages and backgrounds.” The city is on board so far, so here’s hoping they succeed!
Interview by Tobias Coughlin-Bogue
Photos Courtesy of Women Skate the World
What’s your name and what do you do?
I’m Nanja Von Rijsse, I’m 23 years old, and I teach skateboarding for Women Skate the World in Amsterdam.
For people who don’t know, what is WSTW?
WSTW is an organization aiming to inspire, engage, and empower girls through skateboarding, combined with educational lessons.
Who else is involved with it?
Amber is the co-founder and I’m co-founder. Amber is based in Athens, where she works with Free Movement SB as well. I’m based here where I work together with Kim [Butter], and Kim helps with all the Dutch WSTW stuff.
What kind of programs do you run here in Amsterdam?
For now, we run a weekly program with 13 eight-to-fourteen-year-olds. We do a combination of education lessons around themes of community, working together, impact making, sustainability, etc. And then skateboarding!
That’s the one that’s here in Olympiaplein?
Yes, here in Olympiaplein, in South. Every Monday for two hours. We have one hour of educational class, where we talk and draw and stuff, then we have an hour of skateboarding. And then they go home, and we see them next week!
Who signs up for it?
It’s a bit difficult. Up here, we’re partnered with Project Fearless, which is a nonprofit working to inspire young girls also. Our values are kind of aligned. They did the whole registration process, and we’re very happy with how that worked. Going forward, we would love to work with kids who might not have as much of a chance to do skateboarding, lower-income kids. Down here in the south, the Old South, it’s like the fancy bit of Amsterdam.
So it’s more people who already have access to extracurricular activities?
Yeah, they do. [The conversation stopped briefly at this point, as Nanja spotted one of her students, Athena, and went over to say hello.]
She’s the oldest, she’s rad. She just wants to skate with girls. That’s another thing we noticed during the lessons, is that some of the girls just want to skate with girls, and that’s why they joined.
“Okay, let’s get on the ramps, let’s do a kickturn. It doesn’t matter if you fall, we’re going to drag you back up.”
Just to have a different environment?
Yeah, having friends who skate and having a different environment, a safe space where you can learn skateboarding. Obviously we’re role models, and that’s what’s important for WSTW as well, that we provide female volunteers everywhere on all projects and support them, so we have role models for girls.
So they see that it’s something women do as well? Instead of a bunch of guys sitting around rolling spliffs and yelling at each other?
Yes, to see the other side of skateboarding as well. Especially, like, Amsterdam is really progressive, but if you look around it’s only boys. And then the girlfriends.
Yeah, true. I think you’re the only woman I’ve seen skating here consistently.
Well in NOORD Skatepark you have a girls’ scene. They have a special night for it, and it’s also just a hangout spot for a lot girls. But it’s usually mostly up in the north.
To get back to the topic of skating in south Amsterdam, you were hoping to have more diversity in who can do your programs. I went to that mini skate clinic you put on at the fair in Southeast the other day. What’s going on there and why are you working to bring skateboarding there?
So, Southeast is kind of like the “ghetto” of Amsterdam. Even though it’s a really fun neighborhood, there’s a lot of criminality. There’s a closing down of youth centers, where children don’t have anything to do anymore, so that’s probably why. Also there’s a lot of gentrification happening because Amsterdam is growing really fast. So there’s lots of cliques, people not interacting with each other in those neighborhoods.
And maybe skateboarding could get the kids from different socioeconomic groups interacting?
Yeah, so that’s one of the goals, to have everyone interact. But also to make it more of a place where the parents can hang out. It’s not only the youth hanging in some skatepark, but also the parents coming by. An inclusive skatepark.
So you avoid that gentrification thing where people move in, and it’s not like they’re hostile towards the people who already lived there, but they don’t get to know each other and they don’t do anything together.
Yeah, they’re not hostile, but they don’t like each other because they don’t know each other. It’s difficult to say sometimes, because I’m not living there and I’m privileged, so I cannot speak for them and how they experience it. But I know that they don’t have a lot to do in Southeast. I know that there’s a lot of, you could say, more corrupt government in that area of the city, where old, white people get the say in most things as far as where the money goes, etc.
And your goal there is to get a skatepark built so you can do programs? Or are you just doing pop-up programs anyway?
Well, we did the two events to get some community buy-in and see what’s happening. Now we’ve got a green light for a location in Southeast, a little square in one of the, you would say, worst neighborhoods. There’s already some sport facilities around it but the square isn’t really used, so we have the green light to go skateboard there. I have a guy who wants to build some obstacles there, which is super cool, but we’re just looking for storage space. Also for some organizational help to set this all up!
So the government is into the idea of skateboarding as a positive force for youth?
I think what happened before I got involved is that a skateboarder proposed the idea of an urban sports zone in that neighborhood. And the government said, “Okay, that’s fine, we have some money to invest in urban sports.” Because it’s one of the main topics in government of Amsterdam right now. But they first wanted to see results, and see if skateboarding was something people would want, before they built a park. It’s the chicken and the egg. Because you won’t get results without a skatepark, and without results you won’t get a skatepark.
So going to the fair with the small ramps and box was your way of cracking the egg, so to speak?
[Laughs] Yes. Because we have a square where we can do this, people in the neighborhood can see it work. Also the local government. In that way get them more involved and supportive of skateboarding. And show them our side of skateboarding, the social and inclusive side of skateboarding, instead of people just hanging in the park. Smoking weed and…which is fine by me, but there’s also another side!
Yeah, I feel like with some of these programs, skaters are mad because it seems like skateboarding is becoming too much like a sport and too nice and organized. But it can be both. Skateboarding can help kids in a low-income neighborhood and still be gritty.
Yeah, and we try to keep our skateboarding lessons gnarly in different ways. Not gnarly as in offensive to people, just, like, having them fall and slam on the banks here.
Yeah, I watched you eat shit when a kid dragged you down on the pyramid yesterday. How was that?
Oof. That one was intense. They fall really hard! But we just try to get them to stand back up and laugh about it and try again. Which they do, it’s super cool.
It’s a really good life skill!
Yeah, and we’re not a sports club. You have some commercial skateboarding lessons that do more of a sports club system with levels and everything. We just say, “Okay, let’s get on the ramps, let’s do a kickturn. It doesn’t matter if you fall, we’re going to drag you back up.”
Yeah, kind of teaching them enough so that they can learn the rest on their own.
Yes, and in that way we’re keeping skateboarding as people know it. We can help and support them while they’re learning, but we also want the kids to do it themselves.
“It’s about skateboarding, but it’s also about empowering young girls to be able to speak up when they want, to have more confidence.”
Rad. What has the community response been like so far in Southeast?
Good! It was really busy at those events. You saw it at the second one. The first one of the day was not so busy because it was really early in the day, but then we went to the fair and that was really busy and really intense. But everyone loved it! There’s a lot of positive response to it, and we said that we wanted to do the skatepark soon and everyone was cool with the idea. Everyone we spoke to. We met someone who wants to volunteer, I’m speaking with her later. It’s a good start, we’re just trying to progress from here and take it step-by-step instead of rushing into it. Because I want to do a sustainable project that will last, not just rush in there, put down a skatepark, and in the end not be able to come there anymore. It wouldn’t make sense.
That’s wise. Do you have equipment for the kids to use already? Do you take donations?
We take donations for sure. We have some equipment, but most is secondhand. We have some obstacles. You know what it’s like with secondhand stuff, sometimes the bolts come off — it’s okay but it’s not the best.
View this post on Instagram
Our Women’s Program team in Athens bringing the sass to sessions 🔥🔥🔥 @freemovement__sb
How can people support WSTW’s efforts?
You can get in touch with us to donate or volunteer. We have contact forms on the website as well, and you can reach us via email or social.
Lastly, I wanted to ask what the ideal outcome of your programs is?
Well, the best outcome of the programs would be, in the short-term, to have them enjoy doing sports and maybe learn something about social issues. Like, we’re working on teaching how you can make impact in the community as a child, and we hope they’ll be inspired by that.
So a big part of the program is teaching them how to be community advocates the way you are with WSTW?
Yeah, for the program here, which we will also use in Southeast, the first theme is “Girls in the Community.” It’s about role models, your position in the community or school, how you feel when you talk to adults, etc. The second bit, which we start next week, is going to be “Be the Change (Through Skateboarding).” Like, we make it about skateboarding, because we link everything to skateboarding, but the idea behind it is to be the change. We’re inviting Wasteboards, who do recycling of plastic bottle caps to make skateboards, and we’re going to do some plastic pickup on skateboards. Just in the plaza to practice, but showing them they can make a little change without too much effort. I don’t expect all the girls to go collecting plastic all over, but I just want to show them that it’s a tiny little thing they can do and have fun with, but it can still make an impact. It’s about skateboarding, but it’s also about empowering young girls to be able to speak up when they want, to have more confidence.
