Skate opportunities for girls

My name is Sophee Hills and I run a girls skate group in Gisborne called Surely Skate; alongside my sister Tessa and friends Georgia and Morgan. We skate at the local skate park every Sunday afternoon from 3-5pm. Our group is made up of approximately 30 members of all ages and skill levels. Surely Skate started around the beginning of 2019, we started off with only a few of us going down to the skatepark every now and then. The more we went the more girls we recruited. Our goal then became to inspire and build confidence in female skaters.

We were hoping to run our own competition in the middle of January but unfortunately we missed out on funding from Sport NZ. Since we aren’t an official organisation it is very hard to get funding to support this competition. We have got support from a few local businesses who will provide prizes and advertising, however, we do not currently have majority of the funds to run the competition or give out any cash prizes. We hope that by running our own competition it will help to promote Surely Skate to the community and let parents know that there is a place that their daughter can learn to skate and will be safe doing so. We all know that it can be really intimidating trying something for the first time, especially when there is already a gender stereotype around it. That is why we want to provide a safe and friendly environment where girls can feel supported and not fear that they will be judged when learning how to skate.

Our group has been entirely non profit and we hope to keep it that way so that it doesn’t stop girls from wanting to skate. With funding and support we will be able to provide prizes for each competitor and hopefully hold more competitions in the future. We will also be able to provide the girls with safety gear and spare boards for those who are just starting out. We will then again be able to use the boards and safety gear to run free skate classes in schools around the region.

Any donations are very much appreciated and we can’t wait to see where Surely Skate goes to from here!