I love when all the vintage photos of Christmas mornings past are posted showing kids who are absolutely stoked to receive a new skateboard (The Skateboarding Hall of Fame hosts an awesome collection of these images). You know their whole world is about to be altered forever like this image of “Gretchen” in 1977 that I stumbled upon on Flickr, rocking her Star Wars t-shirt and all geared up with a new board.
As expected, there is a disproportionate number of boys versus girls featured in these photos, and on occasion, a sister is posing in the photo, perhaps holding a teddy bear or doll. There’s no doubt, the girls are delighted with their gifts, and I’m not interested in shaming parents of bygone eras, but I want to see a real flood of support this Christmas and photos of girls receiving their first skateboards.
I chose these two 1980s photos specifically because I remember receiving a cabbage patch doll, which I wanted, but not receiving a skateboard (which I also wanted since my friend, Elizabeth got one, and we had accidentally hurtled it into traffic, busting it in two). And the Rob Roskopp Santa Cruz board is also symbolic because this is the skateboard that my big brother owned, and in 1995, when he had left home, I pulled it out of his closet and began to learn to skate, even though it was no longer “cool”, and I had no one to teach me.
In 2003, Jessie Van Roechoudt in her interview with Denise Williams of ‘Push’ magazine was hoping for a cultural shift that normalized society’s attitude towards girls’ participation in skateboarding. She envisioned a time when “Parents will walk into skateshops and think, ‘I’m going to get Billy a skateboard for his birthday, and maybe I’ll get my daughter Megan one.’ I certainly never got a skateboard for my birthday [or Christmas] like I hear a lot of boys talk about.”
There were always exceptional parents, like the parents of Isaac and Audrey who bought both their children skateboards for Christmas in 2004, but this photo was a diamond in the rough.
Photo: David Beach
Thankfully, twenty years later, I think we’re finally there!! So, parents, buy your daughters skateboards this Christmas and document their joy! Yes, there will be highs and lows in the pursuit of learning, but also friendship, joy, opportunity and fulfilment.
Womxn Skateboard History 