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Skateboard Moms. "It's all about recapturing that flow, that buzz, that wind-in-your-hair feel, and also coming home bloody," says Barb Odanaka, 41, explaining her midlife return to skateparks, as quoted by Marco R. della Cava in USA Today. Barb has gone so far as to write a biographical children's book, called Skateboard Mom, about her obsession. She has also founded the International Society of Skateboarding Moms. "With every new member, we hear the same thing," says Barb, "I can't believe other women are doing this." She says she has heard this from women as far away as Argentina. "People in the scene always knew that women ripped," says Michael Brooke of Concrete Wave, concretewavemagazine.com, "but it has 10 years for them to climb back."
Not only are they climbing back, they are bringing their daughters with them. "I don't give my girls cellphones," says Sunny Elizabeth, 37. "I come here with them and skate. It keeps me young, and I know all about the newest music." She adds: "For kids, I prefer skateboarding to Ritalin. It's a good way for them to channel their estrogen. I want them to beat the boys at their own game." The therapeutic aspects are not limited to the youngsters, of course. Explains Stacy Peralta, director of a documentary called Dogtown and Z-Boys: "The older folks, now settled, are looking to recapture that moment in their life when they felt truly liberated and free. For many that was skateboarding." Comments skateboarder Rose Bernfeld, 25: "This sport makes you both agile and mentally strong."
It also introduces some tantalizing entrepreneurial opportunities. A company called ConCrete Divas, concretedivas.com, noticing a lack of skateboarding apparel for women and girls is filling that void. Faye Richards started a quarterly magazine called Second Wind for skateboarding moms like herself, and a girls-only skate magazine called Check It Out, promises to "make any woman feel as if she's surfing an unstoppable cultural wave." Curly Grrlz, meanwhile, is making skateboards with "softer graphics and colors." Make no mistake -- skateboarding remains dominated by 15-year-old boys. But the overall market is pretty big ($1.4 billion in retail sales generated annually by about 14 million U.S. skaters) and looks poised for growth. Says Faye Richards: "This is about to blow up." Indeed, some 1,000 skateparks dot America today, up from just 200 in 1996.
Tim Manners, editor
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©2004 reveries.com |
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