I’m pretty certain if my family hadn’t moved back to California from Boston when I was in 8th Grade I eventually would have picked up a board and found my way to LonelyBones. String together the words ‘gentle’ and ‘nurturing’ with skating, throw in two kick-ass engineer-leaders, and you’ve got my attention.
A group chat turned mob of beginner/intermediate skaters cruising LA, documenting, and celebrating every minuscule achievement like we won the lottery. This gave me the confidence to attend a Display Only sesh where I met Ashley, the missing piece to the Board 2 Tears puzzle. That was her first meetup. Kismet.
“We skate every Sunday at Parisite DIY. Many of the Crescent Krewe are volunteering for communities outside of New Orleans that were hit very hard. We’ll all get back to meeting up at the skate park soon, but for now, our communities need help. Parisite DIY stepped up as a supply drop-off location.”
I started getting back into skating after a 15-year break and was shocked to find that there weren’t more options out there for fat skaters. Mostly just “fail” videos and discouraging weight limits that I knew weren’t true for me when I was a fat skater in high school. Once I started skating again I knew I had to build a safe space for other fatties to learn too so we could grow the representation further and encourage others who thought they couldn’t skate based on their size.
Shout out skate community in Philadelphia. Skating is intimidating when you’re starting and we’re out to make it enjoyable for everyone, and be there for those who may be nervous at first. The skate community in Philly is just love for the most part. We’ve gotten nothing but good vibes from people and it’s really all just thanks to everyone we surround ourselves with all the time. We love Philly!
