Skateboarding has been apart of the youth culture since the 1950’s, starting from its home base, California, USA. Surviving through the ups and downs from the previous decades, it reached the mainstream in the early 2000’s, due to the attention it received in media. With the level of interest rising and more money being invested in the skate world, more skate parks have becoming available all over the world. In 2020, skateboarding will make its first appearance in the Olympics in Tokyo, Japan

There has been another rise within the skate community: female skaters. Back in the day, but not too long ago, skateboarding had its few female legends; Elissa Steamer, Cara-beth Burnside, Jaime Reyes and a legend from way back when, Patti McGee This generation is now filled with female skaters; Leticia Bufoni, Lizzie Armato, Vanessa Torres, Lacey Baker, Mariah Duran, Jenn Soto and longboarder Emily Pross, just to name a few. These female skaters, along the social media, has helped motivate girls all across the globe to pick up a board and start skating.

I ended up at Guapo skate park, a local Dallas skate park located at 4000 Elm Street, nestled on the corner of N Hill Ave and Elm Street. Accompanying me was my 9 year old daughter Audrina. I figured it would be a good idea for her to come along and hang out with NSV, the all girl skate crew. NSV, which stands for NO SOCIAL VALUE, consists of a handful of young women, Valerie Gonzales, Kira LeNoir, Emma Lytle, Ayari Cruz and Toni DeWert, that got together in the name of skateboarding. “Valerie and I had been talking about skating together for a while so we finally made it happen.” Kira says. “ When you got a few lil mamas that are ready to shred, you wanna lock it down”, Valerie adds.

It was a cloudy Sunday afternoon as Audrina and I walked towards the back of the skate park that leads to the outdoor section, where we found the crew. Guapo skateboards offers $5 skate sessions for girls only every Sunday for 2-6 pm, which makes for a pretty rad and safe skate spot for the girls to meet up and skate. It’s been a while since I have seen Kira and it was a pleasure to see her again. She showed a great deal of energy; flying over the mini launch ramp and shredding the quarterpipe. At one point, we went inside to watch Kira skate Guapo’s nicely built bowl. “I been skating on and off since I was around 10 or 11 years old, but 6 months ago I started skating a few times a week”. That explained how comfortable she is on the board. Collectively, the crew hasn’t been skating for long. Each member either just picked up a board a few months ago or recently jumped back on the board after a long hiatus. As a kid, Toni was a tomboy who always had a love for extreme sports. “ Originally, I picked up skating at 11 [years old] but I fell off around 14 or 15 years old because of being insecure, having no one to skate with and no reference of progress”. Ayari started skating in the summer without prior experience and Emma skated a little bit as a kid but picked it back up in July. Valerie has been skating for about half a year

Before I knew it, a couple of boxes of pizza appeared on the table outside and everyone huddled around, including Audrina, to grab a slice or two. There was a very organic, hospitable vibe that floated among NSV. A group of like minded young women, all from different backgrounds, coming together as a unit in the name of a revolutionary wooden toy with four polyurethane wheel, its not something you see all the time. “ I guess you can say our purpose is to empower each other, ourselves and others to skate and just have a good time.” Kira says. The energy that they share is very warm and embracing, it was enough to encourage Audrina to consider taking up skateboarding

Outside of getting some scraps and bruises from learning new tricks, drinking booze, and living their best life skating the city streets, members of NSV lead separate lives. “[Outside of skating] I’m a mechanical engineer for an aerospace company.” says Ayari, “ i love hiking and spending time outdoors. I also have a super cute dog.” Toni spends a good amount of time bartending or at live music shows and loves cooking and camping. Outside of paying bills and working a job that she really likes, Valerie loves to stay at home, creating and cooking different things. Emma plays in two bands; she plays bass and performs vocals for the band Imperial Slaughter and performs vocals and noise for the band Vault Dweller. She’s also in the middle of learning different instruments and fills her spare times with DIY crafts, painting, 2d collages and PC gaming. Kira has a small leatherwork business called Lost Johnny and screen prints for XINGONES Collective, co founded with her partner. She has a love for travelling, camping, gardening and cuddling her fat dog, Ollie.

After pizza, we decided to head over to Lakeland Hill skatepark. Audrina and I got to the park first and waited on the rest. The park was crowded with adolescents on skateboards and scooters, taking advantage of the cool, cloudy overcast. That wasn’t a factor for NSV as they didn’t cease to take over a section of the park. NSV is more than just a group of skaters, they are a sisterhood that stay together and skate together. When asked about future plans for NSV, Valerie replies “ Many burps and many skrrts”

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