Skateboarding helps these Austin women balance their lives

It’s the first Wednesday in November and several women are walking over to a small patch of concrete near a bike trail in East Austin.

Among them is Austin skateboarder Amanda Batchelor. Next to her, a painted cloth banner that reads “Austin Womxn’z Skate” rests on top of a donation box for diapers and extra skateboards.

“I actually skated here from my house, so wouldn’t have been able to do that four months ago,” she said.

Batchelor has always wanted to skate. She started learning how about six months ago after searching for a women’s skateboard community on Instagram. She found the Austin Womxn Skate group –  which has recently been renamed Swirl Austin after affiliating with the GrlSwirl skate collective – and now she’s among the dozens of women who meet up twice a month to coast.

“I feel like I just kind of fell in love with it,” Batchelor said. “In your late twenties, you just have no idea how to make friends, and I’m new to the city.”

The skateboarders carve time out of their busy lives every first and third Wednesday at different locations around the Central Texas city to skate with one another.

Mental health and art therapist Brii Valdez is one of three women who started Austin Womxn Skate. This past summer, the trio would grab their boards and meet at Mueller Park for a cruise.

But eventually, they realized, if they were enjoying their informal skate meetups, others probably would too.

“We saw kind of like a need in the community for women skaters and a space for women skaters to feel really supported,” Valdez said.

Sometimes members meet at a skatepark. Other times, like tonight, the women gather on a sidewalk — excited to smack their boards down wherever they can.

“As soon as I get on the skateboard, I stop thinking about anything else,” Valdez said.

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At the meetup, members catch up with one another and toss their diapers into the donation box. Valdez finally calls out to everyone, asking them to gather in a circle.

“Before stretching really quick, just a couple of rules,” organizer Carolina Montgomery said. “Have fun, be safe, be kind and just remember this is a space for everyone.”

Montgomery or one of the others from the trio that founded the group will prompt everyone to introduce themselves and maybe answer an icebreaker.

This evening, the group shared what they had for lunch, gripping their skateboards, waiting to disperse.

Some women wear knee pads and helmets. Others just have the clothes on their backs. Montgomery likes to wear gear because it helps her to feel more confident.

As a skater in her early 40s, she believes that skateboarding has taught her to take more risks.

“I think that it’s made me brave,” she said. “To be able to take chances, to be able to take up space and to be okay taking up space, even if I’m not the best skater or if I am just a beginner, or I don’t do tricks or I’m still scared, it’s okay to take space.”

Swirl Austin member Sonya Herrera grew up watching her older male cousins skate. But as a girl growing up in the ’90s, she felt like there wasn’t much representation in the sport.

“I think not seeing anybody like me doing skateboarding made me really nervous, made me be really scared,” she said.

Herrera does her best to make time to skate, because for her, it’s like she’s finally free to do what she’s always wanted.

“I played all the Tony Hawk games,” she said. “I watched videos. I read some of the magazines. And so it definitely felt like giving my child self something back.”

Finding time to skate with a busy routine can be difficult, but like Herrera, Valdez believes that it’s important to make time for play – especially when people wear multiple hats.

“When I’m like pushing my kid in the stroller I’m skating at the same time, you need a way to decompress,” Valdez said. “If not, you can’t give your best to the community either.”

After taking a group photo, the women place their feet on the tails of their boards, find their balance and push themselves down the bike trail towards their group skate – just one of many to come.

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