Photo of Poppy by Sarah Huston of  Yeah Girl

The results are in, and Bowlzilla Gold Coast has an awesome turnout!  Huge thanks to Bowlzilla and Yeah Girl for making sure the women's division had some equality in prize money this year - that is huge!

1st Poppy Star Olsen
2nd Taniah Meyers
3rd Shanae Collins
4th Ava Godfrey
5th Charlotte Heath
6th Indiana Barnard
7th Aimee Massie
8th Krysta Ashwell

The Matador Network is one of our new favs - travel, skating, surfing - what more could you ask for?

This short film is the first in a two-part series, Tribe without Borders: Israel follows 5 young women from 5 different backgrounds on a journey through the Middle East. Here in Tel Aviv they connect with the next generation of surfers to promote peace and stoke. Beautifully filmed by Nicole Gormley.

Here's to rad road trips with our girlfriends! 

Settle in tonight and watch this new video titled "Please Don't Grab My Boob" from NHS and Thrasher Magazine. This whole crew of female skaters put together an amazing edit. So rad. Featuring Lizzie Armanto, Nora Vasconcellos, Lacey Baker, Samarria Brevard, Allysha Le, Nicole Hause, Brighton Zeuner, Yndiara Asp and many others.

Bowzilla AU is almost here - and this year they are all about gender equality and are doing a great job! The girls prize purse is $10,000 total which means firts place is $2,500 and it pays down to 10th place! We also love that our rad friends at Yeah Girl are involved in this as well - if you haven't checked out what Sarah at Yeah Girl is doing, hop on over to their site and give them some love!

Here is some more info on the comp:

This is the largest Equity in Skateboarding prize purse in Australian history.

This is the third year of BOWLZILLA Gold Coast. This year the whole week is growing yet again thanks to the amazing support of Yeah Girl Surf Dive ‘n Ski, the City of Gold Coast, TEQ, Goliath, Fiik, Gold Coast Skateboard Coaching and our other sponsors.

BOWLZILLA Gold Coast is a Park comp with four divisions; 16 & Under, Women, Open and Masters 40+. The Open, Masters and Women are Pro/Am with prize money and for the first time this year we have Equality in Skateboarding for the Women’s division.

We have a prize pool of over $25,000 in cash and prizes. All prize money will be paid in cash on the day and prizes will be handed out on the day.

16 & Under is an amateur division with over $1000 worth of prizes.


“BOWLZILLA Gold Coast is the biggest gathering of skateboard generations in Australia at a by skaters for skaters event. We are about our community 100%. The incredible support we receive from GCCC, TEQ, Yeah Girl x Surf Dive ‘n Ski, ASF and everyone else in supporting skaters as they want to be supported and represented is something we work very hard to honour year in year out. What we are achieving this year is a huge testament to our communities strength. Equality in Skateboarding has taken another step forward. ” Chad Ford; BOWLZILLA – Director.

Girls Competing (that we know of so far)

Poppy Starr Olsen
Shanae Collins
Izy Mutu
Taniah Meyers
Ava Godfrey
Charlotte Heath
Aimee Massie


Want to watch the web feed?  Looks like they will be doing a LIVE FACEBOOK feed the day of the comp. Just remember that Saturday in Australia is Friday here in the USA. Times of live web feed still TBD

Event info:

14th March: Gold Coast Grill – local hosted BBQ skate session

15th March: Tic Taco art exhibition + the Australian premiere of Joy and Sorrow 3, an all female Japanese skate film by @yuriyuri_desu -  Beach Burrito Company; The Strand Shop 25/26, 72-80 Marine Parade, Coolangatta 4225

16th March: Gold Coast Grill – local hosted BBQ skate session

17th March: BOWLZILLA™ Gold Coast competition - Pines Lane, Elanora QLD 4221

17th March: Yeah Girl and Surf Dive ‘n Ski hosting; Dive In – official after party – Beach Burrito Company; The Strand Shop 25/26, 72-80 Marine Parade, Coolangatta 4225

It's Spring Break so head over to Vans Skatepark Orange at 4 PM tomorrow (Thursday 3/15) and join the Hotshots Skate Gang - Nora Vasconcellos, Nicole Hause, Allysha Le, Lizzie Armanto, Brighton Zeuner, Samarria Brevard, Lacey Baker, & Yndiara Asp and the #MudSweatInBeers crew where they will be demo-ing down.

Grab some Pizzanista while you are there, get some goodies in the product toss,  then at 9 PM head over to The Good Bar in Long Beach for the Thrasher Magazine video premeire "Please Don't Touch My Boob, and "Mud Sweatin' Beers".

4 PM  - Pizzanista Party, Skate Jam & Product Toss
Vans Skatepark Orange
20 City Blvd W
Orange, CA 92868

9:00 PM - Thrasher Video Premiere
 3316 E. 7th Street
Long Beach, CA 90804


Get hyped tonight & watch the full Hotshots Gang video below.

If you've been watchig social media, you know that the Vans Get on Board event at Vans in Orange County this past weekend was amazing!  There were build a skateboard stations, skate clinics - for all levels of skaters, a rad band playing, photo gallery show, art, Minx nails and much more. So get ready east coasters - now it's your turn!

The House of Vans in both Brooklyn and Chicago are hosting events this Friday (Brooklyn) and Saturday (Chicago) - make sure you RSVP via the links below becaiuse these sessions will fill up fast!



On March 16, 2018 House of Vans Brooklyn will host workshops dedicated to women and girls to learn how to build a skate deck with private skate lessons with Vans global skate team athlete, Lizzie Armanto alongside Vans Brand Ambassador, Atita Verghese from 5:30 – 8:00 p.m. PST. Workshops and skate lessons will be open to the first 66 women via RSVP. House of Vans will also host a photo show led by female artists along with a video screening, panel discussion, giveaways and more!
Beginning at 8:30 p.m., House of Vans Brooklyn will open its doors to the general public for an open skate jam and will end the night with an epic live performance by Bully.


 

FRIDAY, MARCH 16 @ 5:30 PM | RSVP HERE

FRIDAY, MARCH 16 @ 8:30 PM | RSVP HERE

House of Vans Brooklyn 25 Franklin St.
Brooklyn, New York

On March 17, 2018 House of Vans Chicago will host workshops dedicated to women and girls to learn how to build a skate deck with private skate lessons with Vans global skate team athlete, Lizzie Armanto alongside Vans Brand Ambassador, Atita Verghese from 4:30 – 7:30 p.m. PST. Workshops and skate lessons will be open to the first 66 women via RSVP. House of Vans will also host a photo show led by female artists along with a video screening, panel discussion, giveaways and more!

Beginning at 7:30 p.m., House of Vans Chicago will open its doors to the general public for an open skate jam and will end the night with an epic live performance by Bully.


SATURDAY, MARCH 17 @ 4:30 PM | RSVP HERE

SATURDAY, MARCH 17 @ 7:30 PM | RSVP HERE

House of Vans Chicago
113 N Elizabeth Street
Chicago, IL

Girls Combi 2018 from Caro on Vimeo.

Check out this awesome video of the Vans Girls Combi that Caro Vilain put together!  It's seriously awesome!!

Jordan Santana

Stella Reynolds

Bella Kenworthy

Lilly Stoephaius

Isdora Pacheco

Ruby Trew

Bella, Ruby & Jordan

The under 14  division at the Vans Girls Combi had so much talent in it! These little girls were skating fast and hard and using both the round and square pools. There were girls from USA, Germany, Brazil, Australia and Japan in this group.  It's going to be insane the next few years watching these little girls come up the ranks!

RESULTS

1. Bella Kenworthy $1,000
2. Jordan Santa $600
3. Ruby Trew $400

5. Isadora Pacheco
6. Stella Reynolds
7. Lilly Stoephaius
8. Carlin Makibbin
9. Ruby Lilley
10.Nora Baker

Michelle Barnett

Tuling Lam

Michelle Yoon

Dora Varella

Lauren Canoura

Gabrielle Brownfield

Michelle, Dora, & Gabrielle

Photos Ian Logan - if you choose to share/post - please credit @ianloganphoto  & @girlisnota4letterword  - Thank you!

The over 15 division had nine skaters total and they were fighting tooth and nail for the podium spots. We have seen so much rapid progression in the past year in this division. Michelle Yoon was attacking the pool like she owned it, Dora Varella was skating as if this was her home park  (instead of residing in Brazil), Jesse Frietze, and Michelle Barnett are two girls we have been keeping an eye on for awhile and both have progressed by leaps and bounds since we saw them last year!  And Gabrille Brownfield was on fire - so fun watching her! Nice seeing Lauren Canoura & Stacie Roberts out here from Florida competing as well.

We guarantee there will be a lot more action in the coming years from this group!

RESULTS

1. Dora Varella $1,000
2. Michelle Yoon $600
3. Gabrielle Brownfield $400

4. Jessie Frietze
6. Tuling Lam
6. Lauren Canoura
7. Michelle Barnett
8. Stacie Roberts
9. Audrey Indigo



Huge thanks to Vans, World Cup Skateboarding, the judges and staff for making this one of the best contests ever!

Poppy Starr Olsen

Brighton Zeuner

Nicole Hause

Jordyn Barratt

Minna Stess

Lea Taylor

Sakura Yosozumi

Bryce Wettstein

Lizzie Armanto

Kihana Ogawa

Leticia Goncalves

Bia Sodre

Grace Marhoefer

Kat Folsom

Spencer Breaux

Arianna Carmona

Allysha Le

Lizzie, Brighton, Jordyn, Nicole, Steve Caballero & Poppy

Poppy giving Nicole a well deserved hug and congrats!

Photos Ian Logan - if you choose to share/post - please credit @ianloganphoto  & @girlisnota4letterword  - Thank you!

The Vans Girls Combi is always a highlight of the year in women's skateboarding, but this year it was even more special. The night before the contest, Vans threw the first in a series of events, to celebrate and encourage girls to skateboard - complete with a band, photo gallery show, panel about skateboarding, create your own grip tape, artwork, clinics, checkerboard nails by Minx Nails and more.

The contest itself was historic - the prize purse was $65,000 - making it EQUAL to the men's combi prize purse. Female EQUALITY!  Something women and girls in skateboarding have been fighting for, and now see as reality - thanks to Vans.

Girls came from all over to compete - Australia, Brazil, Germany, Japan and from all over the USA. The under 14 division and over 15 divisions were packed with amazing skaters! (More on that and photos later)

From the get go this contest just felt different, the girls stepped it up and the tricks they were pulling were amazing, they cheered each other on and had fun while pushing the level of female skateboarding forward.

We need to mention that we loved Brighton Zeuner's outfit for qualifiers and finals - she was dressed in yellow and black as the lead character from the movie Kill Bill. Visually it was great and she definitely was killing it!

Eleven year old Minna Stess took hard slam to her hip and had to be looked at in the medical tent just prior to competing in the Pro Qualifiers - but she powered through and threw it down to make the finals. So cool to see the younger girls competing at such a high level.

When it was announced that Nicole Hause was the winner of the pro division, every single girl was on her feet cheering for her and stoked that she won. There was no question that last night was her night.

Congrats to all the girls who competed and stay tuned for photos from the AM divisions soon!


FINALS  RESULTS

1. Nicole Hause  $28,000
2. Jordyn Barratt   $14,000
3. Brighton Zeuner  $7,000
4. Lizzie Armanto  $3,500
5. Poppy Starr Olsen  $3,000
6. Sakura Yosozumi  $2,500
7. Arianna Carmona  $2,000
8. Grace Marhoefer  $1,800
9. Minna Stess   $1,700
10. Lea Taylor  $1,500


Huge thanks to Vans, World Cup Skateboarding, the judges and staff for making this one of the best contests ever!

Traveling to another city and want to find some people to skate with? At home but you want to find a new skate spot with some new people? You might want to download the new FREE app LOKE.

Make sure you wtach the video above, because it features the Skate Kitchen's Rachel Vinberg and friends.

Designed by skaters for skaters, Loke offers real-time visibility into where users are skating and where the best sessions are happening. With Loke, skaters can communicate with their crew and plan sessions at hundreds of skate spots available in each major city across the US.

We downloaded it to our iphone this morning and found three of our skater friends on the app - no info on where they plan to skate today, but we think that the more people join and use the app, the better results you will have.

Worth a try, especially if you want to find out easily where people are meeting up to skate!

 Skateboarder Sierra Prescott - Photo Matt Hind

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

 

Today's the day to thank the women who came before us, to cheer for the women and girls that are charging now, and to lift up and encourage the girls that will later lead us to full equality.

We celebrate all of you - today and everyday. 

Jordyn Barratt - 2017 Pro Division Girls Combi 1st place - Photo Ian Logan

Last years pro divison podium - Poppy Starr Olsen, Jordyn Barratt, Nicole Hause - Photo Ian Logan

Vans Girls Combi Pool Classic 2018  is coming up this Friday & Saturday, March 9 & 10, 2018

Vans, once again is very happy to present the Seventh Annual Girls Combi Pool Classic.

World Cup Skateboarding is inviting the top girl bowl skaters in the world to compete for a historic prize purse of $65,000

18 Girls have been invited for both Am Divisions: 14 and Under and the Open Amateur (15
and Over).

Last year’s Pro Champion, Jordyn Barratt and Arianna Carmona, WCS #1 for 2017, will be
advance directly to the Pro finals along with the top 6 qualifying skaters.



New Pro Purse $65,000

1st $28,000
2nd $14,000
3rd $7,000
4th $3,500
5th $3,000
6th $2,500
7th $2,000
8th $1,800
9th $1,700
10th $1,600



AM – (14 years of age and under – up to 18 skaters,  (Age refers to the age as of July 1, 2018)

1st: $1000
2nd: $600
3rd: $400


AM – (Open Amateur 15 years of age and over– up to 18 skaters)

1st: $1000
2nd: $600
3rd: $400

Event info:

- Free skating is now in effect at the park!

- Friday practice ends at 3:00 PM as Vans will be hosting a women event called "Get on Board", where they will be celebrating women helping women get on skateboards. Food, activities, music and a special Guest Panel.


To RSVP for Friday night's Vans event please go  ----> HERE

Event Schedule:

Friday March. 9, 2018

11:00 AM – 3:00 PM – Registration and Check in
11:30 PM – 12:30 PM – Practice for Amateurs 14 & Under
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM – Practice for Amateurs 15 & Over
1:30 PM – 3:00 PM – Practice for the Pros
4:00 PM – 10:00 PM - Vans presents: ”Get on Board”!

Saturday March 10, 2018.- Competition

Amateur 14 & Under: 20 minute warm-up, – 3 – 40 second runs, best run –Results are final.

9:00 AM - 9:40 AM – Heat 1
9:40 AM – 10:20 AM – Heat 2
10:20 AM – 11:00 AM – Heat 3

Open Am: 20 minute warm-up, – 3 – 40 second runs, best run – Results are final.

11:00 AM – 11:40 AM – Heat 1
11:40 AM – 12:20 PM – Heat 2
12:20 PM – 1:00 PM – Heat 3

Pros: 20 minute warm-up, – 3 – 40 second runs, best run – top 8 advance plus last year’s
Champ, Jordyn Barrett and Arianna Carmona, WCS #1 for 2017

1:00 PM – 1:40 PM - Heat 1
1:40 PM – 2:20 PM - Heat 2
2:20 PM – 3:00 PM – Heat 3
3:00 PM – 3:40 PM – Heat 4
3:45 PM Pro Finals – best of 4 runs
4:30 PM Awards

Make sure you come out and join the Ladies Day Skate Sesh & BBQ this Sunday in southern Oregon hosted by Skate Sirens and Few and Far Women. This group of girls is growing larger by the week so join in and have a great time with some rad skate sisters!   


Sunday, March 11 at 3 PM
Gold Hill Park
14745 OR-234
Gold Hill, OR 97525

Drawing of Lizzie Armanto by Carly Bizama from a photo by Ian Logan from the book "It''s Not About Pretty: A Book About Radical Skater Girls"

Chloe Kim - Olympic Gold Medalist Snowboarding

Nicole Adams Obe - Boxing Champion

Ibtihaj Muhammed - Fencing Champion

It's true, girls need more positive role models. We love that Barbie has started making dolls for girls that inspire them to dream big, and set the world on fire. From artists, chefs, journalists, scientists, to astronauts, aviators, activists, filmmakers and athletes, this new Global #Shehero line of dolls has a role model for just about everyone - but we have to say that we'd love to see a female skateboarder and surfer in the line up too!

Pro snowboarder and Olympic gold medalist, Chloe Kim, is one of the 17 role models - current & historic - honored in the new collection.

“Barbie’s message — to show girls that they can be anything — is something I can get behind,” the 17-year-old Kim said in a media statement. “I’m so honored to be considered a role model and want girls to know that they can be athletic and girly at the same time!”

We were super excited to see Chloe in this line up, and even pictured her doll sitting in on our office shelf, but then we became disappointed when we found out that only the Frida Kahlo, Amelia Earhart and Katherine Johnson dolls will actually be available to purchase - the rest of these amazing role model dolls are "one of a kind" and not for sale according to Barbie/ Mattel's statement on Instagram today.

Our bubble just burst....

Emma Houle

Zara, Emma, and Kyra on set

Amanda on set breaking down the scene

Kyra power slide

The girls on set ready to skate

Gin and her Girl Gang

Zara Percy

Gin on set - while 8 1/2 months pregnant!

Photos by Rayana for Gin Wigmore

You may remember that badass music video, Cabrona, by musician Gin Wigmore that some of the Girl is NOT a 4 Letter Word skater girls were featured in?  Well, in celebration of International Women's Month, we are stoked to say that Gin has decided to donate all proceeds from her online store for the entire month of March to our GN4LW movement so we can help even more female skaters!

To help celebrate we are sharing some behind the scenes photos from the music video shoot and the Cabrona video - enjoy!

The "Cabrona" music video featured some of our fave skater girls - Zara Percy, Emma Houle, Kyra Williams & Amanda "Panda" Caloia, so we love that Gin is always on board with helping our mission and the girls!

Check out the extra special GIRL GANG BUNDLE in the online store!   It's super cool!!

You can order Gin Wigmore merchandise that benefits the Girl is NOT a 4 Letter Word movement HERE 

Check out skateboarder Christiana Means in the new "Trust Fund Baby" music video. Great video about guys actually wanting girls who do something in life . Christiana's part starts at 2:09, but you should watch the entire video, the other girls are pretty rad too!

We heard that Christiana didn't have special effects put a cut and butterfly bandage over her eye and blood on her hands - that actually happened while skating right after they started filming. We're sorry she got hurt, but we love how real this whole clip is!

Get ready for the 16th Annual West Hobart Bowl Jam presented by Van Diemen Skateboards and brought to you by the rad people at Jimmy's Skate & Street!  There is $3,000 in CASH up for grabs + prizes. So make sure if you are anywhere near Tasmania, AU you show up and skate. We have heard this event is a total blast!!

It's an all in jam for a few hours which gives guys/girls/masters/kids plenty of time to skate. Money is given out to anyone who does a rad trick during the day.

After party they announce the king/queen/master and grommet of the bowl!

Vans has set out to change women's skateboarding this year in more ways than one. The first announcement was the $65,000 prize purse (equal to the men's prize purse) for the Girl Combi Contest taking place on March 10.

Just in time for International Women''s Day on March 8, Vans has now stated that they are starting 100 mobile skate clinics in major cities around the world to teach girls to skate! How great is that!? The clinics are open to all levels of girls - beginners to experts - and we know this will inspire the next generation of girls and women to get out and skate!

Check out the video above of two of our favorite skaters, Atita Verghese and Lizzie Armanto teaching girls to skate in Bangalore, India.  The video above about Girls Skate India  kicks off the initiative. 

Skateboarding has the power to change girls lives - all over the world. 

For a complete list of the girls skate clinics Vans is putting on go HERE 
  

The new issue of THRASHER MAGAZINE is out on newsstands now, and you should definitely grab a copy. This April issue is another historic moment in women's skateboarding - a full-on girls road trip with Lizzie Armanto, Nora Vasconcellos, Brighton Zeuner, Allysha Le, Samarria Brevard, Lacey Baker Yndiara Asp & Nicole Hause.  They hit up spots all over Arizona, from street to pools, and from the look of it, had a blast.

"Please Don't Grab My Boob" / "Girls Arizona" was written by Nora Vasconcellos, with photos by Rhino. There are 14 pages, full of action photos, behind the scenes moments (pedicures anyone?), commentary about fashion, Brighton's top 10 sk8r boys, and of course the actual skate trip - well worth the  $4.99 cover price.

Also in this issue, a full-page, inside cover ad for Krux Trucks featutring Nora and her new pro model trucks and a 2-page ad for Bones Wheels featuring Lizzie and her new pro wheel.

And NO, we are not going to show you the entire 14 pages, because we want you to get out and support girls skateboarding by buying a copy of this issue so more coverage like this keeps happening and a girls skate trip covered by a major skate mag is not a novelty any more. .

Welcome Skate Deck, Krux Trucks, OJ Wheels, Mob Grip Tape

It's only appropriate that today is the first day of Female History Month and we lead off with this story...

We have been waiting since the day we started skateboarding to be able to walk into a skate shop, throw some cash down on the counter, and get a board set up with all pro female skate products. If we would have asked that question at our local skate shop even a year ago, they would have just smiled and shook their heads.

The great news is, that moment has finally come!  And Nora Vasconcellos has made skate history this month as the only female skater who has ever had a full pro product line where you could actually put together a complete board that is all her!

Check it out:

*Nora Vasconcellos Pro Model Welcome Skateboards Deck - various colors and sizes
*Nora's Pro Model Krux Trucks - 7.6 to 8.5 available
*Nora's Purple "Cat & Mouse" wheels from OJ Wheels - 55mm 101a
*Nora grip tape by Mob - in two different graphics

You can even order each piece you see above, on line at So Cal Skate Shop

So basically you can put together an entire set up of Nora pro products if you want to. We never thought we would see a day where we'd be able to say that - and it's so frigging RAD.

Why is that important? Because girls out there need female role models - especially in a male dominated sport - and by having pro products from their favorite female skaters on the market, these young girls can finally take pride in skating a pro female riders deck, her wheels, her trucks, and even her griptape.

As always, please support products that suport female skaters - the time is NOW to skate a deck, wheels, trucks, grip tape and even shoes & apparel  from your favorite female pro riders!