Girls hit boards
More young females taking to parks to practice their moves on wheels
When Chinese street skater Yang Liuqing encountered US park skater Lizzie Armanto at the Vans Park Series Pro Tour finals of 2018, the world’s top men’s and women’s park terrain skateboarding competition held in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, over Oct 2627, Yang says she felt a connection with Armanto.
Speaking about the meeting, Yang, 28, says: “That’s the beauty of skateboarding — we don’t need to talk — we skaters have this kind of understanding.”
Yang, one of the most popular female skaters in China, was in Suzhou as she was invited to watch the final showcase of the world tour, which pitted the top-ranking 2018 Pro Tour athletes against select VPS continental champions. Armanto competed in the semifinal, but failed to make the grade.
Armanto is one of the most accomplished female skaters in the skateboarding history.
In 2016, she became the first woman to ever grace the cover of Transworld, the skateboarding magazine.
And in August, the 25-year-old became the first female skater to complete the loop, a 360-degree ramp.
Yang and Armanto first met a year ago when the world tour first entered in China last October in Shanghai, an event in which Armanto ranked 4th.
And this year, after the women’s semifinal, Yang and Armanto got a chance to sit together and share their stories about skateboarding.
Armanto says she found the number of women skaters is growing in her country compared to when she started in 2007.
Back then, it was rare to see another female skateboarding, but now, it’s hard to find a park without a woman practicing skateboarding, she says.
“Skateboarding can be really hard mentally and physically. It’s scary to learn tricks in your mind, so I think it takes a certain kind of person to be a skateboarder,” says Armanto.
“But the sport inspires me in so many ways. I get to travel a lot through skateboarding. You can see cities and get to know people there, and get an insight into their homes, which is different from any other way of knowing the world,” she says.
To be a skater, according to Armanto, one has to be patient and learn from scratch.
“You have to learn how to fall so that you don’t get hurt. And you have to learn recovery when you get hurt,” she says. The first trick Chinese skater Yang learned was ollie, where the rider with the board leaps into the air without the use of hands. Even though it took Yang a whole year to perfect it, she felt very proud when she could manage to do it.
Yang says: “It’s just a piece of wood. So, when you do the trick, people are amazed and many think you have magnet on your board.
“I enjoy the success of each new trick, and it makes me want to learn something more challenging.”
Yang, who was born and raised in Xi’an, Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, started to learn skateboarding 10 years ago when she just wanted to find something to ride instead of walking.
“For a bicycle, you have to find a place to lock it, and for roller skating you have to carry the shoes all the time. I think the skateboard is the perfect device for transportation on the road,” says Yang.
“Also, earlier, when I had short hair and dressed like a tomboy, I used to worry about what people thought of me, but ever since I began skateboarding, I don’t care that much, and think people see me as cool.”
Yang took part in her first competition in 2012 in Xi’an, after four years of practice.
“Then there was no women’s group at the competition because female skaters were so few, so I had to compete with men,” says Yang.
She set herself a goal of jumping off six steps in that competition, but couldn’t make in the last minute.
“I was pretty much the worst in that competition, while all the male skaters were busy ‘flying’ around,” says Yang.
Yang recalls that the contest’s emcee noticed her struggling and called on every audience member to cheer for Yang.
“He said I needed more encouragement, and led the audience to call my name loudly and applaud for me. And they did!
“I was so encouraged and finally did that trick.”
As the competition was held in her hometown, Yang thought there might be some of her friends or classmates that were cheering for her, but when she finished the jumping, she found that there was nobody she knew.
“I might not have been the best on the field, but the audience cheered for me. And that was when I realize the charm of the sport.”
Over the past few years, Yang has practiced skateboarding in her spare time after work.
But when it was included as a mass sport in the National Games in 2017, she quit her job and took half a year to prepare for the competition that was held in September.
There she won the silver medal for street skateboarding.
While skateboarding will feature at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020, Yang has decided to find another way to support the sport instead of being a professional athlete.
Late last year she started her own skateboard brand, Mirroir, which focuses on boards specially for women.
Yang is also signing promising female skaters to train and support them.
According to Yang, a professional skater needs two to three new pairs of shoes and boards for training each month, which is a lot expense for youngsters.
“I hope to support female skaters with my boards, and also by becoming a coach, I want to help them to avoid the problems that I experienced.
“Skateboarding is offering opportunities and challenges to women in China right now,” says Yang, who thinks the sport is still in its infancy.
“Skateboarding gives us a chance to show how more cool women can be.”