If you’ve been paying attention for a few years, I’m sure you’ve noticed the evolution that women in this sport have been going through. It’s not simply the number of women involved, but also the level of the riding. This high level of performance is setting the bar for the new generation of women, and they are rising up to meet it.
Kim Woozy is the founder of Mahfia, which is a network of female pro athletes, artists and in action sports culture. She recently wrote an article for Groupy a few weeks ago exposing how females are the most underrated, yet fastest growing,demographic in action sports. We are changing, and so is the market. Brands are beginning to respond to this growing need, and it’s exciting to watch happen. Our most ambitious project to date.
OPEN – LGC skates Israel, is about to be released. With projects like these we want to show the level that female longboarding has reached, and also the drive women have to do epic projects; things that have never been done before. I hosted an exclusive preview of OPEN in Munich during ISPO for all our sponsors and attendees. By the time this magazine is printed, OPEN should be about to be released so make sure to check all the premiers happening worldwide to see if there is one near you.
SKATERS HELPING SKATERS
All the crews around the world are doing amazing things to support and
promote the riders and the sport. They have also been going well beyond, creating humanitarian activities to help relieve natural and human caused catastrophes. LGC Japan ambassador Ayumi Oride, and her partner Fifer, visited the Philippines to attend a longboard event a couple weeks following the disaster cause by typhoon Yolanda. They met people from the most devastated area, the Visayas, and found out that a lot of skaters and skim boarders (Visayas has some of the best skim boarders in the world) lost their homes. They realized that a good way to help them keep optimistic through the adversity was helping them getting back to the board. Ayumi not only donated her prize for winning the competition, but also helped organize a way to help even further. She and Fifer are now collecting new and used hardware to send over to the Philippines. In order to cover the expensive shipping costs they’ve created a PayPal account: keepemshredding@ gmail.com Please contribute if you can and help skaters help other skaters regain their joy.
Kat Augusto, Trina Rose and the rest of the LGC Philippines staff are still working hard in the calamity stricken areas with their relief operations. Boarders For Hope is doing the same from Sweden and so is the entire community. Visit our web for more info on how to help or get involved.
Anna-Selina Kager keeps working spreading the stoke in Vietnam as a LGC ambassador and Founder of Viet Shred. I’m sure there are plenty of things you can do in your own community, so just think about something and get rolling!So what’s going on in the female longboard scene worldwide? South American female crews keep growing fast. It’s insane how big the communities are in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and even Uruguay. These countries are usually underexposed but the female skating level is amazing and they deserve way more attention than what they are getting.
GUAJATAKA’S CRAZINESS
Katie Neilson won the Guajataka race in Puerto Rico so I slipped some questions about it in between our usual cars/boys/ party conversations:
LGC: How does it feel wining a race now that the level has improved so much and the number of women racing is higher than ever?
Katie: It felt pretty good winning a race again now that the level is higher amongst the girls. I’ll be honest, there is some very tough competition in North America that wasn’t present in PR but that’s not to take away from the true talent that still is there. I’m excited to get into it again this season with everyone that’s getting involved.
LGC: What did you think about the track?
Katie: Guajataka is one of those tracks where it’s not quite super fast so the competition can be very high. Ponce, on the other hand, is a very fast track with sketchy pavement so it takes a rider with a bit of a death wish to stay in their tuck the entire way down the hill.
LGC: General impressions of Puerto Rico? Do they know how to party?
Katie: Puerto Rico does indeed know how to party. Their entire culture seems to be built around networking and socializing, so as a result they have huge crowds everywhere with a lot of promotion.
We’re stoked on Katie and on every girl that raced in Ponce and Guajataka. Congrats to you all! Local talents were exposed and some of our favorite girls stayed longer in Puerto Rico to enjoy the beer… I mean the country.
Coming back to the old continent, the girls from LGC Poland did an amazing trip to Tenerife, got wonderful footage and are editing their own trip video. A bit further away, Emmanuelle Daigle met with Gemma Holland and they ripped New Zealand during the ntensedcentz tour. Girls from every part of the world are ripping, traveling and having fun. Are you? Just go for it!
By Valeria Kechichian