ENCINITAS — Exposure Skate’s annual crown jewel event in Encinitas featured a new collaboration alongside the familiar camaraderie, competition and opportunities for women and girls looking to get into skating.
In collaboration with the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the event celebrated those behind the lens, highlighting the photography of women such as Gale Webb, Lisa Whitaker, Olga Aguilar and Joanne Barratt.
Skaters also took advantage of blue skies and warm weather during the weekend competition to showcase a range of skill levels across street, bowl and vert disciplines.
“For a lot of the young girls who attend the event, Exposure is the first time they get to see so many women and girls skateboard at such a high level,” said Gabriela Levy, a spokesperson for Exposure. “Seeing young athletes who look like them competing and pushing the limits while supporting one another can make a huge impact on their understanding of community engagement.”
An estimated 60% of women who competed in skateboarding events at the last two Olympics got their competitive start at previous Exposure competitions.
Exposure 2026 showcased 200 skaters from 22 countries, according to a news release.
Levy estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 people visited the event at Poods skatepark in Encinitas Community Park. Tens of thousands more followed along online as Exposure broadcast live on the X Games’ YouTube page.
“I’m so proud to be a part of a team that brings the international skateboarding community to Encinitas,” Levy said. “North County residents and beyond get to experience women’s skateboarding in a way they may not have otherwise.”
Mizuho Hasegawa, 16, of Ibaraki, Japan, took home the top prize in the vert category, as well as honors for the highest frontside air.
Amelia Brodka, Exposure’s co-founder and a professional skateboarder, described Hasegawa during the broadcast as “amazing” and an “unstoppable force.”
Soarer Wakamoto, 14, of Saitama, Japan, took home the top prize in the street competition.
Olympic skater Shiloh Catori said Wakamoto “literally levitates” and called her “Soaring Soarer.”
“It was very cool – especially the high air – seeing Mizuho and Soarer, their airs are so high,” Catori said, miming the flight with her fingers during the broadcast. “I can’t believe Soarer.”
Smithsonian collaboration
In addition to the competition, Exposure hosts youth clinics and partners with the Community Resource Center on intimate partner violence issues.
The collaboration with the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage was new for 2026 and featured an on-site exhibit.
Levy said the project “allowed us to connect women’s skateboarding to a larger cultural conversation about the people who shape and preserve culture.”
The display was co-curated by Kat “Gato” Salazar and Cristina Diaz-Carrera to tell the stories of action sports photographers through images they captured.
Salazar told The Coast News that the inspiration drew on themes similar to those in an exhibit they worked on last year, called “The Invisible Skate Theory.”
“We’re all connected through skateboarding in any way, shape or form, whether we realize it or not,” they said. “We consider ourselves facilitators. We’re just trying to facilitate a connection and broaden people’s understanding. It’s not just skateboarding, it’s more than that.”
Salazar added that the exhibit and work with the Smithsonian follow a long tradition of using folk art to document and pass down traditions.
“There really is no rubric for skateboarding,” they said. “The only thing you have to do is just challenge yourself. You have to really be ok with things not going your way.”
Among the featured photographers was local resident Joanne Barratt, who sat at the exhibit with her goldendoodle, Coco.
Barratt said she moved from Hawaii to Encinitas to let her daughter, Jordyn Barratt, “skate all the time” as she worked toward a professional career that has since led to medals at the world championships and X Games.
She added that she has found herself gravitating toward portraits instead of action shots. Barratt set up a booth on Thursday and Friday before the competition to take portraits of the competing athletes, an approach that sets her apart from many action sports photographers.
“It’s just so crowded in that bowl,” she said. “I love shooting action, but on my own terms. I’m too much of a control freak. I want the light just right, and angle just right. And you can’t do that when there’s a 1,000 people in there.”
Barratt said she has grown to appreciate how much each picture says about the people on both sides of the camera.
“That’s the coolest thing,” she said. “It’s not the camera; it’s the person behind the camera that makes them all different. I’m inspired by everybody.
“I’ve been doing it for so long that I love seeing all the new ones coming up.”
