{"id":46901,"date":"2021-05-07T21:11:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-08T03:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-student-launches-womens-skateboarding-group\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:35:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:35:29","slug":"durango-student-launches-womens-skateboarding-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-student-launches-womens-skateboarding-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango student launches women\u2019s skateboarding group"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"From
From left, Ashton Larocco, 11, Mika Phillips, Alyssa Nicoly and Lindsay Levine gather at the Durango Skatepark on April 28 for Women on Wheels. Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For Alyssa Nicoly, a senior at Animas High School, Durango\u2019s skate park is friendlier at night.<\/p>\n

Then, she can practice skateboarding freely \u2013 without hearing more experienced male skaters judge her form on tricks or saying she\u2019s only there because of her brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me personally, just seeing men I get intimidated right away because I\u2019m not that experienced of a skater,\u201d said Nicoly, who started skating in May 2020. She still calls herself a beginner. \u201cI want to be able to go there to learn things.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her senior project, she decided to revive an old idea: skate nights where girls and gender nonbinary people can meet each other and get inspired in a male-dominated sport.<\/p>\n

\"Alyssa
Alyssa Nicoly skates through the Durango Skatepark on April 28 while skating with Women on Wheels. Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In 2017, another Animas High School student launched a series of Ladies Skate Nights<\/a>, but the weekly events petered out when the founder went to college. Nicoly started her own series of Wednesday night gatherings, called Women on Wheels, April 28. She is throwing a kick-off event from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday in collaboration with local groups to encourage girls to join.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinding a community of girls who skate is really hard because I think a lot of girls are super intimidated to go,\u201d Nicoly said.<\/p>\n

Women have been skateboarding since the sport was invented in the 1940s, but in lower numbers than their male counterparts.<\/p>\n

Over decades, they have slowly, but steadily, pushed their way into the industry. In 1964, Patti McGee became the first female professional skateboarder. In the 1980s, Thrasher<\/em>, a skateboarding magazine, featured the first woman on its cover. In 2008, professional women skateboarders won equal pay, according to a MasterClass history of women in the sport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Ashton
Ashton Larocco, 11, kicks through one of the bowls at the Durango Skatepark on April 28 while skating with Women on Wheels. Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Skateboarding, including women\u2019s skateboarding, was scheduled as part of the 2020 Olympics for the first time. And now young skateboarders can look up to the likes of Leo Baker, born Lacey Baker, the first openly gender-queer nonbinary skater, and Samarria Bevar, the first professional African American woman skateboarder to sign with a major skate brand.<\/p>\n

In rural Durango, Nicoly said women at the skate park are few and far between. There might be three girls maximum among five to 15 boys, Nicoly said.<\/p>\n

The skate park, by Schneider Park and the Animas River, is the only place in town to learn. There\u2019s no bowl anywhere else waiting for her to try some new tricks, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there were a lot of girls, I feel like it\u2019d be a lot more comfortable. You can go up and ask, \u2018Can you teach me how to do this?\u2019\u201d Nicoly said. \u201cIf there\u2019s a dedicated time for learning and skating with other girls, I feel like it might be easier to learn or to teach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alyssa
Alyssa Nicoly helps Mika Phillips drop into the bowl for her first time as Lindsay Levine, looks on at the Durango Skatepark on April 28 as they gather for Women on Wheels. Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The first Women on Wheels event Wednesday pulled in about eight people, said Lindsay Levine, an Animas High School student who attended. All of the weekly events will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great. \u2026 There were a bunch of kids there at first and it was fun to see all the little crushers,\u201d Levine said. \u201cThe park cleared out a little bit, and all of the girls who were there got to do whatever they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roller skates are Levine\u2019s wheels of choice. She started two months ago and has been trying to get herself \u201chyped up\u201d to drop in from 6 feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like for skate parks to be less intimidating for women and nonbinary folks,\u201d Levine said. \u201cIt can make you feel you\u2019re out of place and you don\u2019t have the right to be there. I would like to see ladies dominating the place and just feeling welcome. That\u2019s my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lindsay
Lindsay Levine heads up a wall at the Durango Skatepark on April 28 while skating with Women on Wheels. Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Nicoly was feeling nervous but excited before the first meeting and the upcoming kick-off event, she said. The Hive, a local youth activities organization, has helped with advertising and reaching out to local bands.<\/p>\n

She already has a \u201cline of succession\u201d planned for next year, after she goes to college. Eventually, she hopes to see 10 to 20 women skaters meeting up regularly, skating together for a bit and mentoring young skaters.<\/p>\n

For the boys at the skate park, Nicoly wants Women on Wheels to show them ladies have a right to be there, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really hope it inspires some young girls in the community to start skating,\u201d Nicoly said. \u201cIt is super scary. It is considered a men\u2019s sport, so in my opinion, it\u2019s really bold to be a woman in the skating community.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"You have just as much of a right to be here as anyone else,\" said Alyssa Nicoly, right, to Lindsay Levine, left, and Mika Phillips at a busy Durango Skatepark on April 28 as they gather for Women on Wheels. Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald
\"You have just as much of a right to be here as anyone else,\" said Alyssa Nicoly, right, to Lindsay Levine, left, and Mika Phillips at a busy Durango Skatepark on April 28 as they gather for Women on Wheels. Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

offers safe space to thrash<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1644,155,28,2227,610,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-animas-high-school","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-skateboarding","tag-social-issues","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87077,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46901\/revisions\/87077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46901"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}