Millions watched as Sky Brown flew around the Olympic skatepark in Tokyo this week. Not only did the performance earn a bronze medal for the 13-year-old, it also sparked a newfound interest in the sport, with more people flocking to skate shops and searching online for skateboarding lessons.
Brown’s success is adding to what has already been a great year for the sport, with the pandemic prompting a boom in the number of people – particularly girls – picking up a board.
Neil Ellis, the head of engagement for Skateboard GB, said since Brown’s achievement there had been a 20% rise in people searching for skateboard lessons on the governing body’s website. The London skate shop Slick Willie’s said it had enjoyed an uptick in sales the day after, although the full impact of her victory is likely to be seen in the next month.
It follows a surge in people buying skateboards in the buildup to the Olympics. Skateboard GB said sales of complete boards – a preassembled skateboard with a deck, trucks, bearings and wheels – at the dozens of skateboard shops they talk to rose by 31% in the last month.
The Covid pandemic has also helped skateboarding, with a notable rise among female riders. Skateboarding sales grew 34% last summer with a 21% increase in female skateboarders in the UK, by about 110,000 a year, according to Skateboard GB.
“We have a good relationship with skate shops around the country and they were definitely seeing a massive uptick in boards sold in the lead-up to the Olympics,” Ellis said.
The rise in women taking up the sport is in part due to great role models, Ellis said, giving the examples of Brown and 14-year-old Bombette Martin. “They are both young and amazing and in the public eye,” he said, adding that more girls are going to skateparks, with a rise in groups such as Girl Skate UK being set up to accommodate female skaters.
“They feel they can try it out and go down to a skatepark and realise it is not daunting and people are really friendly. It’s a great environment at most skateparks. If you go down you will see boys and girls from age four to 50 years old, and that is amazing,” he said.
On Thursday lunchtime, Stockwell skatepark in south London, also known as Brixton Bowls or Brixton Beach, has almost an equal number of men and women practising. Among them is 11-year-old Bianca Arevalo Cabrera, who has been skating for a few years and finds Brown inspiring.
“We saw a few videos of her training before the Olympics. Maybe more girls are getting into it because of the Olympics and also their friends doing it more,” Bianca said, laughing and nodding when asked if she falls over a lot.
Stefani Nurding, 33, has been skating for 10 to 15 years and says when she started she was one of few females doing it. “I have dedicated my life to getting girls involved so, for me, it is emotional to see girls in the Olympics.
“This is the best thing that has ever happened to women in skateboarding. I have never seen such equal coverage [of male and female boarding].”
She said Instagram had encouraged gender equality in the sport. “Instagram put women’s skateboarding on the map. It showed that people want to see women skateboarding and made a network so female skaters could talk. Now groups such as Girl Skate UK post events.”
As well as more women skating, the pandemic has encouraged former skaters to return, according to Nick Warry of Slick Willie’s.
David Whitelaw, the founder of Native Skate Store in Newcastle upon Tyne, said its biggest increase in sales – 50% – came during the height of lockdown last year. He said people had been left on furlough with more time on their hands so they were able to go back to skating or try it for the first time.
“Last year we had loads of girls taking up skateboarding and older guys on furlough who had time to practise tricks over and over again,” he said. “I think this year we are about to see an uplift and maybe more younger kids trying it out.”
Whitelaw hopes the rise will be matched by more skateboarding facilities, but notes there is more space than when he was a child. “I used to travel to Scotland for a skatepark as the only one in South Shields [in north-east England] was not good, but now there is a skatepark in every town … and with the next Olympics in Paris in three years’ time, there will be more facilities.”