Armpit zine was the brainchild of Erika Dubé, a Quebecois skateboarder who had spent significant time in California, getting to know the crew behind the San Diego zine, Villa Villa Cola. Back in Montréal, Quebec, Erika determined that the local crew of female skateboarders, who would soon become known as The Skirtboarders in 2002, needed their own zine.
Making a zine would also be fun project during the cold, bleak winter after the indoor skatepark, the Tazmahal was torn down in 2001, in preparation for a new city library, with no alternative to skate.
Three issues of Armpit were produced from 2003-2004, digitized here:
The first issue features photos of Margaux Walker at Berri park, photos and a rant about TransWorld magazine by Natalie (me), a roadtrip report by Louise Hénault-Ethier with Maya Credico and myself, creative writing by Maya, a review of an all-women breakdance crew called “Solid State,” photos of Amy Mattes at Gesus bank along with her poetry, more skate photos of Louise, Margaux and Mélanie Nadeau, a California memory by Erika (when she skated the Glory Hole in July 1999 with friends like Faye Jaime and Isabelle Ranger), artwork by Erika, a book review by Gabrielle Papillon.
The final two pages celebrate the Skirtboarders first video called Boy (2002), filmed by Mathilde Pigeon, which came out on VHS.
The second issue has a cover shot of some of the Skirtboarders, after we trekked up Mont Royal hill for a hill bomb. There’s Mathilde, unknown, Amy, Louise, Erika, Mélanie, Gabrielle, and Anne-Sophie Julien. More of the crew appears thanks to some all-girls skate session at “South Park,” like Julie Lévesque, Indigenous skater, Marie-France Gravel, Brigitte Emond, Lilli Bastien, Eloise Théoret, Frédérique Luyet, Chloe Morin, and more.
Erika also features Hudson Poston, sponsored by the female-owned company, Cherry Skateboards. A local artist, Dana de Kuyper is celebrated since she designed our Skirtboarders logo, which we silk-screened onto t-shirts.
For the third issue, Margaux takes the cover, and there’s a big feature on the 2003 West 49 contest in Ontario that had a solid girls’ street category drawing in sponsored riders like Vanessa Torres (1), Lauren Perkins (2), Jaime Reyes (3), Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins (4), Georgina Matthews (5), Alex White (6), Lauren Mollica (7), Lyndsey Westfall (8), Carly Fyfe (9) and Louise Hénault-Ethier (10), among many others.
The famous Montreal spot, the Big-O receives some limelight with Erika capturing photos of Anne-Sophie, Margaux, Louise, Fred, and Amy. Erika also shared some inspiration from her friend, Mary-Jane Parish of Grass Valley, CA.
Again, zines prove to be a wonderful portal into the world of women in skateboarding at the beginning of the new millennium.
Womxn Skateboard History 