PORTLAND, Ore. — Skateboarding is still one of the newer additions to the list of sports at the Olympics, debuting at the last Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Since it's inclusion, skateboarders in Portland say more people have become interested in taking up the sport.
Selma Urbina, with the nonprofit Skate Like a Girl, started skateboarding in 2018. Back then, she said between five to eight people would show up for the nonprofit's skateboarding lessons. Now, she said there's a waitlist and roughly 30 people will show up.
Urbina said the nonprofit's mission is to offer a space for skateboarders who aren't the typical white men or boys. Skateboarding sessions are held inside a building at the corner of Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Main Street in Portland.
"This is the Nike SB skatehouse that Skate Like a Girl is allowed to use for our weekly sessions. They're women and/or trans sessions," Urbina said. "Our space, what it does, it kind of exposes the community that all sorts of people are able to do this."
Urbina thinks a big reason for the boost in popularity in recent years is due to skateboarding debuting in 2021 during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
"If you watch the Olympics now, if you watch just even competitive skateboarding now, you see women. You see trans skaters out there, which is crazy to think about, and that's just kind of the new world of skateboarding that was not there 10 years ago," Urbina said.
Natalie Zoz volunteers with Skate Like a Girl and said she plans to watch the Olympics. For her, the community she gained through skateboarding is the best part.
"Everyone here is just so free and so authentically themselves," Zoz said.
If the potential bumps and bruises scare you, Urbina said you're not alone.
"We are all scared of skateboarding. But at the end of the day it comes to [...] creating this relationship where you are intimate with your fears. You don't let it stop you," Urbina said. "It opens doors to how you navigate other fears in your life and we're here to support you."
While Skate Like a Girl offers a weekly session exclusively for women and trans skateboarders, they've also got opportunities for anyone to learn, including summer camps for kids and teens in the summer. For adults wanting to learn, there are workshops in the fall.