Part 6 - We Skate Too: Women, Non-Binary, Queer and Non-Traditional Skateboarders

Thank you to Slam Skateboarding Magazine editor Trent Fahey (all issues are part of the collection at State Library of Queensland) and journalists Nat Kassel and Josh Sabini. Additional thanks to photographers Mike O’Meally, Wade McLaughlin, Robbie Cameron, Jack Cassidy, and Peter Sondergaard, Rachel Torti, Andrew Viles, Toby Mellonie, Jay Musk, Sarge Jhogenson, Daniel Vincent, Mike Lawry, Kane Stewart, Izy Duncombe, Sarah Huston, Andy MacKenzie, Scott Shearer, Mark Brimson, Stu Fogarty, Curtis Hay, Mitchell Roberts and many others. And a special thanks to my fellow We Skate QLD team members, Evie Ryder, Miljana Miljevic, Brooke Manning, Connie Leung, Jingjing Yang, Lil Turek and numerous members of the Brisbane and QLD skateboarding community for sharing their knowledge.

This blog is one of a 7 part series. To view the other blogs, click here. 

Women’s run skate media, networks, and competitions have all made a difference in promoting gender equity and a more truly diverse, real and rad image of skateboarding today. This blog explores just some of the platforms and networks in Queensland that have popped up to highlight women, non-binary and non-traditional skateboarders and showcase various efforts to build fun, safe, celebratory and inclusive spaces for all. Influential online platforms and networks have included Yeah Girl founded by Sarah Huston, who produced exhibitions of photography by women, events with equal prize money through Bowlzilla and various art shows, zines and workshops (also see past blogs such as Part 2 - Queensland Skateboarding Zine-making Tradition and Part 3 - Picture Us Rolling: Visual Storytellers in Queensland Skateboarding). 

The Girls Skate Australia network, founded in the 2010s by Esther Godoy, also featured at the time a ‘who’s who’ of Queensland women and non-binary skateboarders. Skateboarders breaking new ground included Shari White who was based on the Gold Coast, became sponsored by Meow Skateboards and is now a filmmaker of skate films for large companies such as Vans, Dime and Plylon Skateboards.

Brisbane’s inner-city favourites such as Paddington or ‘Paddo’  skatepark, as it is affectionately known, has also been host to iconic women skateboarders from around the world such as Peggy Oki, the only woman team member of the legendary Dogtown and Z-Boys Zephyr team.

The We Skate Queensland network (formerly Girls Skate Brisbane) is one of the largest and longest running skate networks for non-traditional skateboarders in Australia. With over 4000+ followers on their Instagram @weskateqld and strong participation rates at their popular Annual Spring and Winter Jam (now in its 10th edition), the group also rolls out a range of other casual gatherings and special events. Co-founded by myself, Evie Ryder and Tora Waldren in 2016 originally as Girls Skate Brisbane, the group changed to the more inclusive We Skate QLD in 2021. The core team have since expanded and been joined by Miljana Miljevic, Connie Leung, Brooke Manning, Mon Werkhoven, Vivi T, Alex Blythe, Milly M, Dr Benjamin Duester and others." Concrete Denizens documentary by Jessica Sherlock (2023).

We Skate QLD activations have included numerous film screening premiers of women and queer skate films at The Small Room Skateshop, We Are Drop Outs, Fast Times, Parliament and Middle Store. They have also been invited to run activities for the upgraded Pizzey Skatepark Opening in 2022, and the upgraded Lota Skatepark Opening in 2023.  They have also run educational workshops combining science, design and art activities for the QLD Museum at ‘The Zone’ for World Science Festival, Brisbane in 2025. As a testament to their social impact and community work for non-traditional skaters they were also featured in an article (2023) in Monster Children (https://www.monsterchildren.com/articles/we-skate-queensland). Also in 2023 they were featured in an ABC Sport/Siren Sport, story (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-05/womens-skateboarding-chloe-covell-arisa-trew-paris-olympics/102923854) about how non-traditional skaters bring improved frameworks for addressing mental health and supportive spaces in the Olympics. We Skate QLD were also the subject of Jessica Sherlock’s documentary Concrete Denizens (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO9-blBKyG8). The queer-led group also won a Pushing Against Racism grant from The Goodpush Alliance to hold their ‘Boosting Pride and Diversity Art and Photography Competition in 2022  (https://www.goodpush.org/blog/showcasing-2022-pushing-against-racism-fund-grantees).

We Skate QLD also regularly collaborate with local artists, fashion and jewellery designers too. This includes at the Station for the Never Comply event.

In 2025 the We Skate QLD team also incorporated science and education into their public programs and community initiatives. 

Emily Kafoa, a Minjungbal woman living on Bundjalung Country, is another change-maker in women’s skateboarding in Queensland as the founder of Girls Skate Gold Coast and the first woman member of the First Nations Songline Skateboarding team. She is also joined by the Skate Like a Girl Australia Group on the Sunshine Coast and other crews around the Sunshine State.

Queensland has also been home to world champions who are the focus of the next blog. Of note is Olympian Haylie Powlell who is from Nambour on the Sunshine Coast.

The State of Queensland is also home to Gold Coast trained Olypmic Gold Medalist Arisa Trew, who continues to break world records and regulary winning gold at the world's biggest skate events.

This section has shed more light on skate groups and initiatives run by women and non-traditional skateboarders who have been an often over-looked and traditionally peripheral part of Queensland skateboarding history. The exploration then concluded by offering a preview of how a younger generation of girls are now pushing skateboarding to new levels including at the Olympics. This project is keen to keep building up knowledge and archives by and about non-traditional skateboarders and will cover more stories and memories in future posts. The next part of this project’s blog series is dedicated to the high-performance and world class, competitive history of skateboarding in Queensland.

Dr Indigo Willing
2025 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow
 

Read other blogs by Dr Indigo Willing (to be released weekly):

• Part 1 - The Early Subculture of Skateboarding in Queensland
• Part 2 - Queensland Skateboarding Zine-making Tradition
• Part 3 - Picture Us Rolling: Visual Storytellers in Queensland Skateboarding
• Part 4 - Good Company, Good Vibes: Queensland Skateboarding Businesses
• Part 5 - Rolling Out the Red Carpet: Skateboarding Icons and Everyday Heroes
• Part 7: Queensland’s World-Class Competitive Skateboarders 

To get involved in Skateboarding in Queensland, see We Skate QLD