Skateboard Girls
From my experience around 1 in 50 skaters are skateboard girls. I suspect that there are more girls out there skating but they just aren't at the skateparks. I wonder what is it about skateboarding that makes it such a male dominated sport? I see a lot more longboard skater girls. Longboarding seems to be much more popular with girls.
There are some big female names in skateboard: Elissa Steamer, Cara-Beth Burnside, Jen O'Brien and Vanessa Torres. More recently Leticia Bufoni, Alexis Sablone, Lacey Baker and many more. But compared to the guys they are pretty unknown throughout the sport.
These girls are good. I mean really good. They would cause most skaters sit down and just watch the session. Yet they don't get the same credit as the guys. Several years ago there was an uproar in the skateboarding community. The prizes at pro skate contests for skateboarding women were only like one tenth what the men got. They were athletes preforming at the top of their profession. They deserved more.
Since then the prize money has come in line and this is good news. There is a lot less demand by girls for signature women skater merchandise and hardware. That means companies usually stay away from having women pros on their teams. There isn't the money to support it.
The increased purses at contests make it easier for these women to get the bills paid and keep skating as pros. Although that isn't really a motivator for a girl to get into the sport.
I wish I knew what was. I love seeing girls get out and really skating. There have been plenty of times over the years that I have seen girl skaters. Good ones too. Sometimes they are better than me and I think that is awesome. I don't get intimidated or feel all macho about it. I get stoked.
The more skaters girls the better!
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