New article about Pushing Boarders in Yeah Girl Media

New article about Pushing Boarders I wrote for Yeah Girl Media is now live – read here with photos by legend Norma Ibarra

Pushing Boarders article in Yeah Girl Media by Indigo Willing with photos by Norma Ibarra

There’s an ethical turn in skateboarding and Pushing Boarders, the world’s first and largest academic skateboarding conference, illuminated that. The inaugural event was in London, UK last year and this year it was hosted in Malmo, Sweden. It felt so incredibly fortunate and surreal to be there as speaker on ‘The University of Skate: Support Your Local Academic’ Panel to talk about some of my emerging skateboarding research, as co-founder of Girls Skate Brisbane and to facilitate the launch of Consent is Rad. This was one of those ‘experiences of a lifetime’ that I am forever grateful for and especially for the many new friends, collaborators, mentors and inspirational people I met.

Post event I caught up with over 30 attendees to talk about their perspectives and reflections on the event. In this article (part 1 of 3) the Pushing Boarders ‘class of 2019’ talked about how skateboarding has changed from the past to now, why it is a sign of the times and what were some of the biggest learning experiences they had. In Part 2 the focus will turn to looking at what kind of mentors and networks arise from the world’s only skateboarding conference. The conference’s theme of mental health will also be considered, and what advice people at Pushing Boarders have on how they have overcome issues of self-esteem and anxiety about skateboarding, from individuals who are pro-skaters to people just starting to roll. Part 3 then will ask ‘how far has skateboarding still got to go’ in terms of being ‘for everyone’ and concludes by asking advice from this amazing group of womxn, non-binary and non-conforming gender diverse group of individuals from around the globe ‘how skaters can change the world’? Stay tuned…

Thanks PB organizers, all the amazing interviewees talking skating ❤️ & editor/YG founder @thesarahhuston ‬

*womxn is used in a range of contexts to signify a more inclusive category that recognises intersectionality e.g. Trans Women and People of Colour