Women’s Podium Finishers

Words and Photos by Becky Donohue

After going big in her home country of Brazil, São Paolo, Yndiara Asp earns back-to-back wins by taking on Montréal's newest addition to the skate scene - more than 38,000 square feet of VPS-certified park terrain.

As a rider who feeds on the crowd's energy, Yndi was in her element with packed stands eager to see how she was going to make her mark on Canada's first ever VPS legacy course. And what a mark she made! We're lucky that the "VANS" logo is as tough as Yndiara Asp is or it wouldn't still be standing after the fastplant she laid on it to close out a solid run.

Yndi's speed combined with big transfers like her FS air over the hip, and her diverse trick selection pleased everyone from the stands to the judges earning her another well-deserved first place finish.

In a close second, Jordyn Barratt out of Haleiwa, HI dialed in a powerful run with a clean BS Blunt 180 into the bowl. Not a moment wasted and Jordyn set the crowd off with a smooth FS 5-0 Revert.

Lizzie Armanto's ingenuity shone through with her run including an ollie to boardslide transfer on the Thrasher Spine. Lizzie, riding for Finland, hit every wall showcasing her distinctive style and earning herself a podium finish.

Thank you to Vans Park Series and Olympic Park for donating this flawless legacy course - free and open for anyone to use. The opening of this Vans Skatepark has the potential to perpetually open doors for the Montreal skate community to evolve.

Stay tuned for an additional photo gallery and recap of the other riders!

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Holy Smokes!
Quell has officially been around for two years and we could not be more stoked.

We hosted a double header celebration to ring in two years with our favorite Brooklyn skaters.

The day party was at the Brooklyn Pump Track - where we had the space only to ourselves.

Obligatory post sesh group photo by Shelly Simon

Skaters with a wide range of skill levels came to shred, we drank Blue Point Beer & Arizona Tea (so kindly donated to us) and munched on healthy snacks and meals by Anna Marquet. Even Clarence K came to take some photos for his ongoing “Skate Homies” project.

We ended the session with some prizes (thanks to KCDC Skate Shop and Vans) for the fastest skater, best style and the most improved, and of course a Dickies t-shirt toss!!

Kristen Catparty handing out the “Best Style” prize to Quinne Daniels

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Photos by Shelly Simon

In the evening, we closed out our photo show with Vans, we danced to tunes by Alanna Raben and even had a super cute birthday cake and cupcakes.

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Photos by Peter Pabón

Thank you to everyone who keeps Quell growing, we are so stoked to keep skating with you and sharing your stories!

Quell and Vans have partnered up to continue with our mutual mission to celebrate
women in skateboarding and inspire more people of all genders to join in on the fun.

”Skateboarding is for everyone, and we hope this exhibit will show just how rad everyone can be.“

Thank you to everyone who came out to party with us at our Photo Show opening! We had music curated by Moonbear, and showed SRSLY & THX by The Skate Witches and Late Skate in California!

In the room were some familiar faces (shout out to Late Skate) and some new faces from outside of NY including Natalie Krishna Das Ellig who had two photos in the show, Shari White and Una Farrar, subjects in Norma Ibarra’s submission and some of our other favorite skaters Breana Geering and Beatrice Domond.

Check out the photos by Peter Pabon and mark your calendars for June 8 for the closing party – which is also our birthday party!

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Check out our video recap from our March event at the RVCA Space!

Our collab shirt with Lowcard is still available in our online store. Drawn by Sydney Tomer

Thank you again to our sponsors, KCDC, RVCA, Nike SB, Budweiser, Babe Rosé

Video by Kyra Isabella Chen

Edit by Adrian Koenigsberg

Homage has been hosting at least 1 girls session a month! They have been so rad and truly a place for learning! Every one we attend, each skater mentions landing something new - so rad! Keep it up Homage!

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Photos by Shelly Simon

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Photos by Dennis Williford

Presented by: KCDC Skateshop & Nike SB

We’ve been wanting to throw a girls beginner clinic with KCDC for a while. We got to host our clinic around International Womxn’s day alongside Nike SB’s international celebration– once again perfect timing with KCDC

The turnout was incredible with folx from age 4–50! We had a chance to huddle before the session to learn each other’s names and goals for the day. We were so inspired by how many people came to step on a board for the very first time!

We geared up and spread out around the space to conquer fears, learn some new skills and make new friends.

We had some really amazing volunteers - some of the girls from Late Skate came out. And some folx from Queer Skateboarding NYC too! May, pictured below, brought some fun dance vibes into her teaching style. Even the busiest person we know, Amy Ellington, got a chance to teach some pumping on the ramp!

Some of our favorite moments were made on the ramp – built by Pat Smith and the CODA Skateboards crew.

But don’t worry, we got some flatground in too!

At the end - everyone was all smiles. We took some time to applaud everyone’s efforts and victories before digging into Screamer’s Pizza (which we don’t have photos of because we dig into the pizza so quickly!)

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Photos taken by Nate Hutsenpiller

Historic Day Reveals 16 Skateboarders Named to First-Ever USA Skateboarding National Team

Vista, Calif. (March 19, 2019) — Together with Toyota and Nike, USA Skateboarding - the U.S. governing body for skateboarding - announced 16 members would join the first-ever skateboarding national team. Men’s and Women’s Skateboard Park and Street events will make their Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games. The 16 skaters named to the national team qualified based on performance in international level events during the year before their selection. In June of 2018, USA Skateboarding became the 50th National Governing Body (NGB) recognized by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and responsible for the selection, training, and fielding of U.S. national teams that compete in the Olympic Games, Pan American Games, and other sanctioned team events.

Front Row (l to r): Wettstein, Zeuner, Baker, Sablone, Soto, Duran, Barratt, Hause

Second Row (l to r): Joslin, Lopez, Huston, Eaton, Wright, Sorgente, Schaar, Rennie

“We couldn’t be more excited to finally take the wraps off the first-ever USA Skateboarding National Team,” said Josh Friedberg, CEO of USA Skateboarding. “We’re honored to have partners like Toyota and Nike that understand the intrinsic value of the sport we love and appreciate all they’ve done to get USA Skateboarding up and running. It’s a historic moment in the history of skateboarding, and we’re looking forward to doing all we can to support these amazing skateboarders on their Road to Tokyo.”

Skateboarders will have the opportunity to qualify for the Olympics based on their three best results in World Skate sanctioned events during the 2019 qualifying season (now through September 15, 2019) combined with their six best results during the 2020 qualifying season (September 16, 2019 – May 31, 2020). The 2020 World Championships will also be a direct qualifier for the games for the top 3 podium spots at each event.

“Toyota is proud to be involved with this historic moment as a proud sponsor of USA Skateboarding and the first-ever National Team announcement,” said Dedra DeLilli, group manager, Olympic and Paralympic Marketing, Toyota Motor North America. “This event marks the official start of a great journey for these incredible skateboarders. We are dedicated to helping the inaugural USA Skateboarding National Team, and look forward to the road ahead with them.”

The skaters named to the 2019 USA Skateboarding National Team include:

Women’s Park:
Brighton Zeuner (Encinitas, CA), Bryce Wettstein (Encinitas, CA), Jordyn Barratt (Haleiwa, HI), Nicole Hause (Stillwater, MN)

Women’s Street:
Lacey Baker (Covina, CA), Mariah Duran (Albuquerque, NM), Jenn Soto (Jersey City, NJ), Alexis Sablone (Old Saybrook, CT)

Men’s Street:
Nyjah Huston (Laguna Beach, CA), Chris Joslin (Hawaiian Gardens, CA), Jagger Eaton (Mesa, AZ), Louie Lopez (Hawthorne, CA)

Men’s Park:
Alex Sorgente (Lake Worth, FL), Tom Schaar (Malibu, CA), Tristan Rennie (Rialto, CA), Zion Wright (Jupiter, FL)

For more information on events, qualifying and athletes log on to www.usaskateboarding.net or follow on social media to stay in the loop for all announcements.

Facebook || Instagram || Twitter

We noticed Lowcard promoting girls sessions at their ramp, and they’ve been giving us some support on our events so we figured we’d celebrate the mutual support for women’s skating with a fun t-shirt collaboration. We had our friend Sydney Tomer draw a beautiful illustration for the back of the shirt.

As we finalized plans, we got to thinking, what’s the point of a t-shirt if you can’t throw a party to celebrate its existence?

Photo by Boyz Bieber

With near perfect timing, KCDC and RVCA secured a space for exactly the purpose of partying and skateboarding. Thanks to Pat Smith and CODA Skateboards, we had a wavy blue ramp to skate as well.

Photo by Jacob Pritchard

Photo by Los Estrada

We started the night off with some bevs provided by Budweiser, BABE and Healthade Kombucha, then we got to skating.

While we started off letting dudes skate the ramp too, we quickly realized (with the help of some girls bringing it to our attention) that not every girl felt down to skate with the dudes. So we quickly ushered the dudes off the ramp and for about an hour got to see what it felt like to be the ones skating while the dudes watched, and I gotta say, it was pretty cool.

Photo by Nate Hutsenpiller

The vibe on the ramp immediately changed. It was the first time I realized how different girls and guys can be within the skate scene. The mood went from chaotic and aggressive to thoughtful and supportive. While guys were dropping in on each other, 2 or 3 at a time, when they first cleared the ramp, the girls didn’t want to be the first one, each person offering the other the first drop in. All levels of skating got support and hype because everyone was just generally stoked to be skating. This was a true place for support, no one was there to show off, just to have fun, and you could feel it.

Photo by Nate Hutsenpiller

When we invited the dudes back on the ramp, it went back to being chaotic, but something changed… some of the dudes started holding other dudes back to give the girls a chance to skate. They were cheering for more than just the ‘best tricks’ but also for girls who were putting the work in.

Photo by Jacob Pritchard

I actually had a guy come up to me saying “I’m glad you kicked us off the ramp, I can skate any time I want, but some of these girls can’t, it’s about time the dudes watch for once. And I honestly think a lot of guys here didn’t even know this many girls skated”

It was truly inspiring getting to see all of the girls who showed up and skated the ramp and raised each other up!

Thank you again KCDC & RVCA for providing the space, and Lowcard & Sydney for giving us a reason to party!

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