Coming off a big win the weekend before at the S3 Jam in Huntington Beach during the U.S. Open of Surfing, Mimi Knoop summed up last weekend’s women’s Skateboarding Vert Competition at the X Games in Los Angeles when she said things were “way more competitive than ever before” and that the “fire had been lit” on women’s skateboarding.
Even though the event took place in the morning on Saturday, August 2, the bleachers were packed with fans there to see the best competitive field in women’s vert skateboarding with the likes of Cara-Beth Burnside, Mimi Knoop, last year’s gold medalist Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins, Karen Jones, and Gaby Ponce among the competitors. New styles in girls skateboarding apparel were also illustrated with Volcom and Nikita skaters for example, sporting long, tight tank tops in checks and neon DIY screenprints, while most of the skaters wore long shorts in bright colors such as white and yellow, or capris with knee pads, of course their sponsored skate shoes, pulled-up ankle socks, and logo-ed helmets.
The ramp itself however, had some drawbacks given that it was not as big as last year’s set-up (which also had the guy’s vert skaters complaining) and favored skaters who were used to more static vert courses. As Lyn-Z described in the press conference, the problem with the ramp, which was actually an ASA ramp, was that basically you’re trying to do similar runs over and over rather than mixing it up with various options from a SuperPipe ramp—the kind that most of the field has gotten used to skating on.
However the set-up did compliment the style of Brazilian gold medalist, Karen Jones. Winning with a technical varial mute, a finger flip, and a lolli-pop shuv-it among other tricks, which she landed consistently, Karen pulled off what many people didn’t expect, including herself. “This is the happiest time, I couldn’t believe I won. This sort of ramp is what we are used to in Brazil—we don’t have more elaborate ramps usually so I liked this ramp.”
Lyn-Z took the silver with huge amplitude and landing a d kickflip indy, while Mimi took the bronze. Cara-Beth had several good runs, but was missing the amplitude she usually has, whereas several younger skaters, including 12-year-old Allysha Bergado, came in 7th in her first X Games competition, landing most of her tricks but simply not getting the amplitude yet because of her weight.
What’s interesting about the evolution of women’s skateboarding competition however is that many of the new younger skaters are coming from a bowl-skating background where dropping in on each other is a given. The jam session format for the women’s vert competition meant that each rider had to respect others in terms of order and timing, but it was clear that the bowl riders were snaking many runs, which, as Mimi put it “is something we have to teach the younger girls about—they need to understand etiquette of dropping in.”
“Age doesn’t really matter in skateboarding vert,” explained Lyn-Z. “I was once 12 during the exhibition of [X Games} in Philadelphia, but you do have to learn about how the jam format works for vert versus bowls.”
Overall, the crowd loved the competition, which in the past few year’s that I’ve been reporting on women’s skateboarding, continues to get bigger and better. As more young people come into the sport, including street, so too has the level of skating which clearly marks an opportunity for brands looking to the future.
