Tag: Canada

  • Michelle Pezel (and Antisocial)

    Michelle Pezel (and Antisocial)

    For skateboarders living in Vancouver, Canada, and the countless skaters who have visited the city and made their way to Antisocial skateshop (or even found refuge on her couch), Michelle Pezel is a legend. She is the co-owner of Antisocial with Rick McCrank, and has relentlessly offered community-building, launch parties, creative outlets, and even activist-activity…

  • Pam Judge

    Pam Judge

    PJ McKenzie (AKA Pam Judge) was Canada’s first female National Champion winning the 1977 and 1978 championships, which would result in sponsorship by Gordon & Smith (G&S) – a leading skateboarding company in the U.S. If there was a Canadian Skateboarding Hall of Fame, PJ would have my vote! While I can get riled up…

  • Lisa Jak Wietzke

    Lisa Jak Wietzke

    The skateboarder movie genre, with classic titles like Thrashin’ (1986) and Gleaming the Cube (1989), has tended to dismiss female roles as “the love interest” or just a sidekick or non-existent. This changed in 1990 with the release of a little-known student-made movie called Grinding to Win. It is set in West Vancouver, written and…

  • Marie-France Gravel

    Marie-France Gravel

    Marie-France was an Indigenous skateboarder who took up skateboarding in her early thirties as a single mom in Montréal and was part of the original Skirtboarders crew. She had begun skateboarding in 1994 but had to put her life on hold to care for her daughter Arielle, who was born paralyzed and wheelchair-bound with cerebral…

  • Push & Frontside Betty

    Push & Frontside Betty

    Does anyone remember Frontside Betty website and Push skateboard magazine? Both were created by Denise Williams in Halifax, Canada in the early 2000s. The world wide web was a gamechanger and Williams was motivated to reach other isolated women skateboarders, to shift the ratio of representation, and be a resource. Here are the three digitized issues of…