The sport, started as a dry-land replacement to surfing in empty swimming pools and on sidewalks in Southern California, now has well-crafted, publicly built parks.
You have to earn your Shoe Goo, that substance used to mend skateboarders’ sneakers worn by pavement and persistence.
The sport, started as a dry-land replacement to surfing in empty swimming pools and on sidewalks in Southern California, now has well-crafted, publicly built parks.
Skate Like A Girl runs classes and camps. Sima Safavi-Bayat, 18, teaching a coed class for 4-to-12-year-olds at Seattle Center, says there are life lessons in skateboarding.
“You fall and get up again and fall again until a move is mastered. That builds confidence, self-esteem, and you can apply that to the rest of a life.”
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While Gina Lee leads another class for beginners, Aly Richards, 25, is at the park to attack a “tre flip” more than a dozen times until she nails it.
It’s one of the hardest moves — building speed, jumping, flipping the board 360 degrees and landing on it smoothly, continuing on.
She high-fives Jenn Keim, 14, who just started this summer and is working on her balance.
Skilled skater Brian VanWagenen, 17, watching a class, provides running commentary and encouragement. “We crash and we gnar it out. We’re not sitting there like a potato on a couch. We’re going for it. It’s better than video games.”