VISTA — Dozens of young girls gathered at the California Training Facility on March 8 for Exposure Skate’s Skate Rising event, a free skateboarding clinic to empower girls through the sport.
The event, hosted by Exposure Skate, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing women’s opportunities in skateboarding, provided free lessons for girls ages 4 to 16 on International Women’s Day. Experienced skateboarders, including Olympian Amelia Brodka, led the instruction.
“It’s been really cool to see the changing landscape of women’s skateboarding,” said Brodka, co-founder of Exposure Skate and a Team USA skateboarder. “When I started skateboarding, it was a guys’ sport and I would be heckled out of the skate park.”
Brodka, who competed in the Tokyo Olympics, said the organization’s mission is to make skateboarding more inclusive and to create opportunities for women and girls in a historically male-dominated space.
“Essentially, our mission at Exposure is to create a more inclusive environment in skateboarding and skate parks and to create opportunities for women and girls,” Brodka said. “And we’ve been doing it for 14 years now, and it’s incredible to see some of the girls that have come through our programs become Olympians and come back and teach our clinics.”
The event was held at the California Training Facility, an Olympic training center for skateboarders, which allowed Exposure Skate to use the space for free.
Beyond learning tricks, attendees were also introduced to skatepark etiquette to help them feel more comfortable in public skateboarding spaces.
“Teaching them the basics of skateboarding and etiquette, so when they show up to a skate park, they’re a little bit more aware, and they have skill sets to participate and be mindful,” Brodka said.
The rise of women in skateboarding has significantly changed the sport in recent years. Brodka said it was once a “cool guys club,” but now more girls are skating than ever before.
“It was so hard to become a part of skateboarding,” she said. “And now, the doors are wide open, anybody can participate, and it’s creating a lot more different styles in skateboarding.”
Brodka credited skateboarding’s inclusion in the Olympics as a significant factor in growing opportunities for women in the sport.
“The Olympics definitely changed a lot of things for girls in skateboarding, because all of a sudden all these competitions that removed women’s divisions from their events had to add them back in,” she said.
Skate Rising is one of several programs offered by Exposure Skate, which also runs the world’s largest women’s skateboarding event every fall in San Diego. Brodka encouraged those interested in supporting Exposure Skate’s mission to visit ExposureSkate.org or follow the organization on social media.
“We’re a nonprofit,” she said. “Our programs are totally free, and we try to support the community.”
