Our International Women's Day Celebrations...
Celebrating womxn in the skateboarding community, we hosted a pair of "Girls' Night" events in both London and Glasgow. It was the perfect opportunity to connect femxle skaters and advocate for gender equality in skateboarding.
Kicking off our events on the Friday afternoon of International Women's Day in Glasgow, we offered 40 girls free admission to the Loading Bay skatepark. Alongside that, we had a bunch of sweet prizes to giveaway including a few signed Rayssa Leal boards! It was awesome to see the local community come through and celebrate together. Later, "Valley Boy" (a video about Kerr Melville by Guy Thomson) premiered in the middle of the skatepark, rounding off a perfect night.
The following Saturday, we organised a sell-out event at London's BaySixty6 Skatepark to continue the celebrations. Kicking off with learner lessons, everyone got kitted up and stuck in with coaches from Girl Skate UK. Once we'd got everybody confident and rolling, a series of under-16 and 16+ jams followed, judged by Route One's own, Rianne Evans and Amy Ram. This wasn't about landing the 'best' or 'hardest' trick, and prizes were given out based on who was pushing themselves and supporting others. Throughout the day, we had open skate sessions, a pizza party, a bake off competition, a Stance sock customisation station, and a very special guest all the way from Sweden; Nike SB's Vilma Stål swung by to kick it with us, putting on her own mini-demo on Bay's famous hip.
With tons of prizes from our generous sponsors, everyone was a winner. We want to extend a huge thanks to Nike SB, Dickies, Santa Cruz, Bones Bearings, Bones Wheels, Independent, Polar, Welcome, and Stance for helping us pull this off, and to everyone who came out and showed love!