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grinding down the VOGUE skateboarding gender gap words by MACKENZIE WAGONER photos by ARTO SAARI Pro skater Nora Vasconcellos plays with a tech deck a miniture skateboard

MARCH 8 2018 O Cara Beth Burnside Kim Cespedes Mariah Duran Samarria Brevard Lacey Baker skateboards in a pool in California n a blazing hot January afternoon in eastern Los Angeles Lacey Baker rides her skateboard to the side of Rosemead Skatepark to pick up her phone Over the rhythmic din of wheels descending ramps the slap of decks sliding up and down railings and yells of Yip and Yew Baker takes a business call with her team at Nike SB She s going over the details for the forthcoming release of her latest shoe design which she is now wearing while pacing the perimeter of the park slim black high tops with a crisp white swoosh vented in California sometime around the middle of the 20th century women such as Patti McGee Peggy Oki Kim Cespedes and Laura Thornhill have played integral roles in the sport s development Women are unfortunately radically new to the industry of skateboarding which has long been a boys club of contests sponsorships paychecks and glory The world didn t get its first woman pro skateboarder until 1998 when Elissa Steamer was signed to Toy Machine It was a huge deal There was no way around it says Steamer an undisputed legend for her contributions to the sport over the phone though she admits that in spite Vanessa Torres of the lack of opportunity being a pro skater was a goal Pro Skater she d had since she was a little girl How awesome it would have been if all of the opportunities that are coming up for this generation would have existed for us Elissa Steamer Alexis Sablone Nora Vasconcellos Laura Thornhill Behind her weaving in time are skaters Samarria Brevard Vanessa Torres Alexis Sablone Jenn Soto and Mariah Duran who have traveled from as far as across the country to be photographed by Arto Saari a pro skater turned lensman assigned to capture this pivotal shift And at this moment Baker is its embodiment a 25 year old X Games gold medalist who is putting forth endless hours to fine tune her championship winning noseslide 270s and making a living wage off it too with the support of a major brand and an exponentially growing fan base who encourages her to be unapologetically herself Women of course are not new to the sport of skateboarding since the skateboard was in Lizzie Armanto Nicole Hause Brighton Zeuner Lacey Baker By its very nature skateboarding produces boundary breakers At its core it s a sport of doing something that has never been done before in a place where no one has ever done it Skateboarders are people who look at a curb a crack in the pavement or a cellar door and see opportunity For instance when Cara Beth Burnside became the first pro woman skater to get her own shoe in 1994 it was because she simply brought the idea to Vans No one was going to hand it to me says Burnside She applied the same attitude when she and Jen O Brien convinced the X Games to host a women s demo in 2002

A year later women had their own official nings up every year until it was equal to the men s platform at the international event though it earnings He was true to his word says Knoop wasn t exactly an act of equality Women s pracIn 2008 the women and men s champions both tice times were scheduled took home 40 000 And at dawn break before the it s been equal ever since male competitors even a brief history lesson stirred in their beds Other major competiin women s skateboarding tions have begun to follow The pay discrepancy suit with the international was especially egreVans Park Series joining the gious At the X Games pledge just two years ago the men s champions But corporate sponsorships earned 25 times as much were still slow to the draw as the women Burnside It was only last year that and Mimi Knoop enBaker who has been pro for listed the help of law12 years was able to quit yer Drew Mearns and the graphic design job that formed the Action Sports financed her skating career Alliance A lot of peoafter becoming Nike SB s ple think it was about first openly gay woman girl power It was so not skater And it s only been a like that says Knoop few months since Brevard sitting on the edge of became the first professional an empty pool with her African American woman board in the San Fernanskateboarder to sign with a do Valley I just wanted major skate brand Enjoi to skate If I could get a sponsor to pay me that We re just now getting meant I could skate more support which is awesome and didn t have to have a Right on for progress when job working somewhere it s happening says Baker else So for me it was adjusting her Meow Skateabout creating that opboards baseball hat over her portunity for other girls buzz cut But we re not even close I still want to In 2005 the Action be present for the pay disSports Alliance staged a crepancy and be here for women s boycott of the queers who skate People X Games until pay and getting recognition for what media coverage were they do and what their skill improved A year later sets are not for what they they landed a meeting look like and what the mewith John Skipper then dia thinks they should look president of ESPN who like you know what I agreed he would bring mean Let s redefine that the women s prize winInformation from Masterclass Girl Skaters Rise Graphic created by Olivia Hicks Lacey Baker skateboards at a park in California With more women s sponsorships which offer a travel budget and significant prize purses and endorsement opportunities the advancement of skaters lives and interests are starting to become possible Sablone for example used her competition money to pay for architecture graduate school at MIT It s a little bittersweet in the sense that I ve been doing this for almost two decades How awesome it would have been if all of the opportunities that are coming up for this generation would have existed for us says Torres taking shade beneath a tree in the East L A park But it s sweet in the sense that it s happening and I feel like women like Lacey Alexis and I played a part in that She watches her roommate Soto 21 the first to arrive that morning on set and the very last to get off her board at nightfall relentlessly slide up and down a handrail with varying degrees of success She s going to the Olympics says Torres acknowledging the inaugural movement of the sport to the international stage in 2020 However controversial the act of pulling skateboarding from its outsider roots onto the global platform Torres and her peers are stoked The hope they say is that a future generation of women like Soto will no longer feel the pressure to be anything but better skaters