The Mutter Skate Blog

Women belong in the skateboarding community. As it is we need to change the community and the industry both locally and globally to include women. This is my contribution.

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Repost from Amelia Brodka's instagram a mural depicting legendary female skaters.

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Olympics is good for skateboarding

Visibility and access have been major obstacles to female skaters. The skate industry claims they do not get return on investment for sponsoring female skaters due to lack of visibility. Media claim there is no point in covering female skateboarding since they are not represented in teams or competitions. Female skaters can not travel to competitions due to lack of sponsors. Even Leticia Buffoni can not get a proper board sponsor.

In the past couple of years  female skaters have created visibility for themselves via social media and the internet. By doing so they slowly but surely opened up access for female skaters into the arenas where the skate industry will follow. Mahfia, The Alliance, Girls Assault, GSN, Exposureskate, Girlskate UK, NoLimit Skate Sweden, Jenteskate, Norway have created visibility for female skaters on the web, in social media and in their communities. But still this is something that female skaters create for themselves, only slowly is the industry following them. The Alliance keeps the balance of continously growing the exposure of women in the X-games and some huge female skate stars get sponsored by the giants of the industry. There is still much work to be done.

When skateboarding enter the Olympics female skaters will gain visibility. Keeping female skaters out of the medias’ attention will be impossible. Some countries will do better in women’s skateboarding than in men’s skateboarding. This will lead to the creation of new heroines and new role models. Skateboarding needs to evolve. Some might be afraid of loosing what makes them love it, but I say, only change can lead to improvement. The love of skateboarding must open up to girls and women. The olympics will be a huge opportunity for millions of girls to say as Mahfia boss Kim Woozy said: “If she can do it, so can I”.

This picture is taken from vert skater Karen Jonz’ Instagram. She is skating carrying the Olympic torch to Rio 2016.

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This is a video of two oldish ladies, my friend Sussi and me, skating four contests at this week ends Bowlstock, Eurocana reunion and Betongcupen. On my way back home a guy asked me “Why did you do that?!!?”. The reasons are: no women in Europe compete in freestyle skateboarding until this friday, no Swedish women have ever skated in a masters’ section in a bowl competition, we were two out of four women in the bank slalom (the guys were about a hundred) and in the women skaters section seven persons turned up so, we had many good reasons to do this. You should try it too!

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This week end me and my friend Sussi Eriksson skated four competitions at the Bowlstock and Eurocana reunion. We were the only two women in the freestyle section and the only two in the masters bowl section. In the slalom we were two out of four female skaters in a competition where nearly a hundred male skaters competed.

I have said it before and I say it again: ladies, you should compete. Competing grows the community. Large parts of the audience are women and girls who dream of skateboarding. They love to see you skate and their hearts will grow when they see you skate and maybe finally so much so that they break the glass wall and enter the skateboarding community. When there are no walls, space is the limit.

The men at the bowl masters were a little surprised and shy in the beginning but in the end they relaxed and talked to me like any normal skater. The freestylers on the other hand immediately worked with me to improve my skills and included me in their community. I certainly look forward to seeing them again.

Earlier I have been writing about overexposure as a strategy against the invisibility of female skateboarders in the community. If you do compete you get more exposure and visibility and the image of skateboarding gets more open to female skaters. I am therefore touched by the fine gesture shown by the freestyle and Eurocana organizers who made Sussi and me enter the stage at the prize ceremony to receive special gifts for our participation. I am stoked that you gave me this Per Welinder street board with his autograph on as a recognition of the virtual skateathlon Sussi and I completed this week end. Here it is propped up whith another Nordic design classic the Fannett chair by Illmari Tapiovaara ;).

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Kobacka skate jam in Kungsbacka Sweden. I am so proud to know this young Emma Bellstam competing, filming and editing. This is what it is like for female skaters over the world. We are few but we make ourselves visible.

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Anna Kruse in beautiful film made by Audi.

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Picture by Hanne Liljeholm: The female contestants at Gothenburg Bowl Games

Make women try skating and stay skating

It is my firm belief that girls and women are as likely to love and live skateboarding as are men and boys. In order for all those girls and women to try skating and stay skating we need to make women visible so that others will follow and we need to make those who have already made their way into this world of boys and men feel comfortable and welcome. In this example from Gothenburg Bowl Games I want you to try to feel the feelings instilled by the words and behaviors of some influential men within the skateboarding community and I want you to understand the important work done by those who stand up against the status quo and lead the change by making room and time for women within skateboarding.

At her blog krutet.com skater Hanne Liljeholm describes her mixed feelings after this weekend’s Gothenburg Bowl Games. If you understand Swedish please read her post.

On the competition day the time in the park available for the various parts of the competition was considerably shrunk due to bad weather. That caused the referees to suggest that the women’s competition should be cancelled to give way to the senior male warm up. No time for warm up was offered the women. Hanne describes her anger boiling within while she didn’t find words to tell those men how much she had practiced and built up for the competition and the significance of canceling the only part of the competition with women. In the end the organizers stood firm and made sure the women’s competition was held.

When the senior male competition started after the women’s death race the speaker, who had been unable to comment during the women’s race, announced: ”And now it’s time for today’s first competition!”. Had the speaker not noticed that the women competed? Did he not count this competition as a real competition? Either way, not mentioning the women’s competition as a proper contest is building the feeling of discomfort that meet women and girls within skateboarding. I have said it before: in order to make more girls and women skate you need to give them a 100 times the support. Not less support than you give your fellow male skaters.

The organizers of the Gothenburg Bowl Games deserve credit for resolving the situation and standing up for girls and women in skateboarding. The female skaters were made visible both in the contest and during the prize ceremony.

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Valeria Kechichian, co-founder of the Longboard Girls Crew TEDx talk about giving power to women by making them step out of their comfort zone.

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Yesterday I participated in my second competition. I sincerely recommend all female skaters to compete when you can. You will grow from the experience and female skaters as a whole will become more visible. The girls and women competing yesterday had a great time encouraging each other and exchanging experiences. I loved that I had a legit reason to require the space I needed in the skate park. This changes me and it for sure changes the impression from the audience’s point of view. Let yourself be changed too!

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Ishtar X Tussilago is a short film by Maceo Frost starring Downhill longboard Rider Ishtar Backlund in the epic mountains of Norway. Combined with an epic soundtrack from Swedish rock band Tussilago, the film is a glimpse into the profound feeling of believing in yourself and living one’s greatest dreams.

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Some of the big brands we met with actually told us that they don't want any girls on their skate teams. It's hard, because I can only get a "flow" sponsorship, which means I ride in exchange for free boards, while the company makes money using my name. I'm not doing that. I would rather ride for myself. I have my own blank boards...

Leticia Bufoni, interviewed in the The Rolling Stone august 25 2015

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A women’s edit from yesterday’s competition in Highvalley skate world Stockholm. It was a wonderful day with new and old friends. A fantastic work done by all organizers and skaters. 

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No, I will not serve coffee

I decided to compete. You know, skateboarding is not about competing. That is what everyone says. However, competitions are the arena where stuff is sold, where stuff is marketed. It is the place for visibility, for audiences and for sponsored skaters.

In early 2015 a competition was held in Borlänge and the girls skate section was cancelled because no one signed up. Then this competition in Stockholm turned up. It was poorly marketed but they had two sponsors with female skaters on their team. Two Mutter Pink List companies. So I decided to take action to encourage my fellow female skaters to sign up. I too signed up and announced gladly that: “now everyone know they won’t be the last”.

Then came the news about the prize money: 15.000 to the male winner and 2.500 to the female winner. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a one to six ratio. It is not a small difference. Both men and women started reacting in social media: ”could this be real, in 2015?”. The critical comments were deleted but the organizers decided to withdraw their statement about the prize money. To follow this up women from official girl riders organizations contacted the organizers to get more information about the division of the prize money.

Then the discussion turned nasty. Both in social media and as a response to the official requests the organizers responded by asking the female skaters to volunteer picking rubbish and serving coffee. Read that sentence again.

We are now awaiting the response to the questions about the prize money. There is no way I will be near winning that money. And I do not need it. I have a well paid job. What I need is the recognition of the achievement of my fellow female skaters. And recognition of the fact that I am a contestant. Not a woman who works for free serving coffee.

Update: organizers have decided on a new, fairer division of prize money and acknowledged that they listened to those who debated the earlier suggestion. They have also apologized for the coffee serving parts in private messages to some of the people who protested.

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This weekend the Get Set Go! all ladies skate contest was held in Malmö. It is part of a bigger competition called Malmö Ultrabowl. Women and girls from all over Europe participated. The contest was won by Emma Fastesson Lindgren and 2:nd and 3:rd were Mimmi Leckius and Tonje Pedersen. I visited the event with my family and it was amazing to see what watching these ladies made with the confidence of my daughter who freely skated along the bike road outside the competition area. 

This edit is from my viewpoint, a little shaky and disordered. Some of the women I didn’t get the names of. Some parts of the contest are not covered. Well you’ll get the general feel for it! I loved this week end!

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Edit from my road trip with Anna Hougner’s skate bus to Dalarna. This trip was with OG skater Sussi Eriksson who is an active part of the Stockholm skate community and who is one of very few women in my country who has skated since the seventies. Anna Hougner, like me started skating as an adult. We met up with Therése Axelsson AKA “mammaskejtarn” who started skating when her daughter started and who is now working actively to get more girls and women into the skate community. We were also joined by young male and female skaters from Stockholm and Dalarna.

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Today Emma Fastesson Lindgren won the second place in the Swedish open skateboard championship for ladies. This is a film made by her about the Stockholm skate last week.

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RCS DIY park in Stockholm

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This is from an inspiring skate photo blog by Lina Linde. That is me watching Emma Bernström skate in the RCS DIY spot in Stockholm. And then Lina Nordlander watching me skate while Sarah Meurle checks her photos.