The Female Skateboarders Who Inspire Me — From Sky Brown to Lizzie Armanto

Women’s skateboarding is at a level now that would have been almost unimaginable when I first became involved in skateboarding.

There are more women skating, the technical standard is incredible, and female skateboarders are competing on some of the biggest stages in sport.

As a female skateboarder myself, watching that progression has had a huge influence on the way I think about my own skating.

I’m 38, I’m still learning new tricks, I’m increasingly focused on transition and vert, and strangely, watching the younger generation coming through hasn’t made me feel like I should slow down.

It’s done the exact opposite.

There are so many incredible female skateboarders that I could include here, but these are some of the women who have particularly influenced the way I think about skateboarding right now.

Sky Brown

It’s impossible for me to talk about the current generation of female skateboarders without mentioning Sky Brown.

Obviously, her skateboarding is incredible. But what I find equally interesting is the scale she has managed to take skateboarding to.

She has competed at the highest levels of skateboarding, including the Olympics and X Games, while becoming recognisable far beyond the traditional skate industry.

As a British female skateboarder, I think there’s something particularly exciting about watching another British skateboarder exist on that kind of international stage.

Sky is from a completely different generation to me and our careers are very different, but watching what she has achieved has definitely made me think bigger about my own ambitions.

Not in the sense of trying to replicate her career.

More simply: why put a ceiling on where skateboarding can take you?

Lizzie Armanto

Lizzie Armanto has probably been one of my biggest inspirations when it comes to transition skateboarding.

There is something about the combination of difficulty and style in her skating that I really love.

As I've become increasingly interested in vert, I've found myself paying much more attention to skateboarders who look genuinely comfortable on big transition.

That is something I want in my own skating.

I don't just want to be able to survive a vert ramp or technically land a few tricks on one. I want eventually to have the speed, confidence and style that make skating something that big look natural.

Lizzie's skating is a reminder of how good that can look.

Cocona Hiraki

Then there is Cocona Hiraki.

The level of modern women's park skateboarding is ridiculous, and watching Cocona is one of those things that can completely recalibrate what you think is possible.

Her consistency, technical ability and comfort on transition are incredible.

For me, watching skateboarders at that level isn't about directly comparing myself to them. That wouldn't be particularly useful.

What it does is expand my imagination.

You see somebody doing something you previously thought was extraordinary and suddenly it becomes part of the vocabulary of women's skateboarding.

That inevitably filters down through the sport.

Lola Tambling

Closer to home, Lola Tambling is part of an unbelievably strong younger generation of British female skateboarders.

What I love about watching the younger British skaters is how normal a very high level of skateboarding seems to them.

There is a confidence and expectation around progression that I think is incredibly healthy for British skateboarding.

And yes, occasionally watching someone much younger than me absolutely destroy a park makes me want to immediately go skating.

I think that's a good thing.

I'd much rather be surrounded by skateboarders whose level makes me want to improve than feel comfortable because nobody is challenging my perception of what good skateboarding looks like.

Lilly Strachan

Lilly Strachan is another younger British skateboarder I've really enjoyed watching progress.

Seeing girls coming through British skateboarding with genuine ambition is important because visibility changes what the next generation thinks is possible.

When girls walk into a skatepark now, there are female skateboarders they can actually point to.

British skateboarders.

Olympians.

X Games competitors.

Professional skateboarders.

Women with completely different styles, personalities and approaches to the sport.

That simply wasn't as visible when previous generations started skating.

Why X Games Still Matters to Me

I've mentioned X Games several times when talking about skateboarding recently because, for me, it still represents a particular side of the sport.

It's the spectacular end of action sports.

Big transition. Difficult tricks. Skateboarders doing things that look slightly impossible.

Growing up around skate culture, that imagery becomes embedded in your understanding of what the highest level can look like.

I'm not an X Games-level skateboarder, and I have no interest in pretending otherwise.

But I absolutely allow watching that level of skateboarding to influence my ambitions.

If seeing women skating X Games makes me want to skate a bigger ramp, learn a harder trick or spend another year seriously training vert, then that's inspiration doing exactly what it's supposed to do.

Female Skateboarding Doesn't Have One Look Anymore

Perhaps my favourite thing about this generation is that there isn't one obvious template for what a successful female skateboarder has to be.

There are contest skaters, street skaters, park skaters and vert skaters.

There are Olympians and X Games athletes.

There are skateboarders who are incredibly fashion-focused and others who couldn't care less.

There are women building businesses around skateboarding, creating media, designing products, travelling the world and approaching the industry from completely different directions.

That's exciting to me because my own relationship with skateboarding has never fitted neatly into one box either.

I'm a skateboarder, but I've also built a business, worked in fashion and created a career through social media.

I don't see those things as competing identities.

They're all part of my life.

What I'm Taking From Them

I'm not trying to become Sky Brown, Lizzie Armanto, Cocona Hiraki, Lola Tambling or Lilly Strachan.

I'm interested in figuring out what my own version of progression looks like.

Right now, that means becoming genuinely better at vert and transition.

It means getting stronger.

It means learning tricks that currently scare me.

It means competing, travelling, filming and putting myself into situations where I'm not necessarily the best skateboarder in the park.

And it means refusing to decide that because I'm 38, the most ambitious part of my skateboarding should already be behind me.

If anything, watching the level of female skateboarding right now has made me more curious than ever about how far I can take mine.

There are some unbelievably talented women pushing skateboarding forward.

I'm very happy to be inspired by them.

Then I'm going skating.