By: Kaitlynn Jong
Longboarding culture among women has become overwhelmingly popular on campus and in society. Although it’s always great to see women striving for success in a male-dominated sport, it also makes me curious as to how this trend began. Many people say that celebrities like Kylie Jenner have had a strong influence on the prominence of skater-girl culture, as her blog and Instagram page are filled with pictures of her and her friends on their penny boards. Board sports are more than just a social media accessory; girls who have yet to try any board sports need to get out there and realize just how much fun they can be.
There are a number of athletes to look up to, such as Lacey Baker, who embodies the boarding culture in a positive way. Baker was the winner of the 2014 X-Games, and she is sponsored by companies such as Billabong, Element, and many more. You’ll never catch Baker worrying about how she looks on a skateboard; instead, she goes out and learns tricks to do well in competitions. Another boarding role model is Maëlle Ricker, who became the first snowboarder to win a gold on home soil at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. As a society, we should be encouraging young girls to strive for achievement in these sports. This applies to every board sport, as it is a very male-dominated industry. Girls can find interest in many board sports, such as snowboarding, longboarding, wakeboarding, skateboarding, and surfing.
In a male-dominated sport, there are normally groups full of male members, and this can be intimidating to some women, especially when they’re new to the sport. It can be hard for girls to find other girls to ride with, but luckily there are associations out there that support women and help unite them across the world, such as social movements like Board Betches. Board Betches is run by a student at McMaster University, Madison Calder, and their goal is to unite female boarders and bring together all women riders who love snowboarding, wakeboarding, longboarding, surfing, skateboarding, and more. Board Betches is a great social movement for women who want to meet other female boarders, and not just in one board sport, but all of them.
Longboarding season may be over, but with winter comes snowboarding season. If you’re woman-identified and you love board culture, I suggest you grab a board and hit the hills. There are always organizations like Board Betches to help you get started and meet other board girls.
By: David Laing
On Sept. 8th, I attended the tenth annual Board Meeting, which took place in downtown Toronto. We are a large, fast-growing company, so we can’t afford to convene more than once a year. Board members came from near and far, in all shapes and sizes.Some were barely old enough to walk, and others looked like they might not be walking for much longer. Some required mild narcotics in order to pacify their contributions, while others ran perfectly well on just gravity and adrenaline. All came dressed in business attire. It was a board meeting after all.
We are longboarders, and this year, the streets of downtown Toronto beheld a proud company of over one thousand.
It begins as a sea of helmets, churning and bubbling in a park near Yonge and St. Clair. We are amateurs, so there is no commercialization. A lone opportunist floats in the swarm – a NOS truck crewed by two scantily clad nymphets, fishing energy-hungry skaters out of the throng and throwing them back into the crowd if they are under eighteen years of age.
A fountain-base is discovered, and a few drifters start to circle it, boldly displaying their steeziest moves. They draw the attention of the crowd, and this slowly grows into a maelstrom. I watch from the sidelines, marveling at how few collisions take place despite the chaos. In skill level, I am to these skaters as a house-cat is to a pride of lions. So I am quite content to sit back and whistle along with my friend, who is strumming an ukulele.
Eventually the whirlpool subsides and a short bearded man climbs up onto the fountainhead, megaphone in hand. He wears his helmet like a crown. We raise our boards in salute, and like a church assembly, we stand and sit as one. He reveals to us the plan for taking over the streets. The more audacious boarders are going to slowly roll out onto Yonge Street at the top of the hill to block the traffic. The more timid ones (like me) are going to take a gentle route down the side streets to get a good view. The dam is about to burst.
Like a waterfall, longboarders come hurtling down the hill at 40 km/h. The fastest ones lead the erosion, and the rest of us join in as sidewalk tributaries. My place is near the back, where the stream flows at a slow trickle. I roll along anxiously, trying not to collide with the children who are also at the tail end of the procession. I’m slowing down my friend, who has to keep waiting up for me. He’s more confident than I am, and while he rolls down the hill he’s still strumming along and singing.
He passes me his iPhone for a few minutes so that I can document the event. I’m shooting a video, trying to narrate as I go. I only last thirty seconds before causing a pile-up – I swerve sideways and three unsuspecting skaters find themselves as part of a human accordion.This is more than a sea of skaters enjoying the luxuries of a skate. In fact, it isn’t even about that. This entire meeting, from it’s inception to the point where we met and skated, some better than others, some not at all, was a statement of culture.
In this world, art is undeniable and more than that is the way it is embodied. We chose to embody it in motion. If I were to try to describe it, I would call it a moving cultural transformation. I would call it poetry in motion. To that degree, while we were cascading down the hill, I saw an old man on the sidewalk, tears streaming down his cheeks. He appeared to be overwhelmed by the courage of our company.
Perhaps it reminded him of his youth. More truthfully, though, it probably reminded him of a world I would never know. A world that was uncertain and strange. In a a few generations, everything he knew, he cherished, and was able to call his own had changed. Transformation was at every corner; sometimes for the better, other times for the worst. Disasters seemed immanent. Every day seemed like the end of days. But only through movement, whether it be a peaceful march against an army of tanks or a cry for equal rights on the streets of New York, did transformation take place. For it is through the unsettling of stagnancy, that change will stir,
Maybe longboarding is not exactly like that. Maybe it is. I’m not exactly sure and I don’t think I am supposed to. All I know is that after it all, I have found another community and they found me too and that means something. Or at least, it borderline does.
