Want to Learn to Skate? Let GrlSwirl Show You How

Rolling with the fast-growing group that’s on a mission to teach women to skate, one push at a time.

a group of girls posing for a picture holding skateboards

Published September 7, 2023

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After decades of daydreaming and trepidation, I decided it was finally time to learn to skate. I was born and raised in Southern California, so not learning how to carve down streets or drop into bowls was a bit like growing up in Vermont and never skiing. I’d always meant to pick up skating sooner or later. I just never did.

As I’ve gotten older, learning new hobbies or skills has become exponentially more intimidating. What if I hurt myself, or look like an idiot while hurting myself or, worst of all, waste a bunch of my valuable time looking like an idiot and hurting myself? Nevertheless, I bit the bullet, and a week before my 30th birthday, I drove up to LA to have a lesson with the experts of GrlSwirl and came away with advice on how to do way more than just ollie.

If you haven’t heard of GrlSwirl yet, maybe a woman in your life has. Founded in 2018 in the notoriously intimidating skateboarding hub of Venice, California, the collective hosts weekly skates where women and members of the LGBTQ+ community come together and bond over their love of skateboarding, no matter their age or skill level. After five years, the nine-founder crew has gathered 300,000 Instagram followers, appeared on CNN, 60 Minutes and Oprah and collaborated with brands like Carver and Roxy. They’ve also founded chapters in San Diego, Paris and New York City.

Over the course of a few hours, I was able to grasp the basics of how to stand on the board, but that was the easy part. The real challenge, I soon discovered, was learning how to stomach the fine art of being bad at something around experts who are half your age.

a woman skateboarding in a skatepark — One of GRLSWIRL’s team riders, Val, skates the bowl at a local park.

“I think the biggest thing was showing up each day,” says Val, who has been skating since her early 20s and has been affiliated with GrlSwirl since 2020. “It didn’t matter how good you were, how bad you were, who you were, but that you showed up each day. Slowly, I got to know people and I progressed.”

For Mariah, who arrived in 2017 to Venice living in her van and hitting the skate park every day, smashing self-doubt comes in the form of a simple mantra: Who cares? “We’re here on Earth, we’re living and all these people are a part of it. They’re maybe looking at you but they’re not going to be there at the end of it, so just thinking, ‘Who cares? This is fun.’”

Crucially, especially as an aging enthusiast, it’s essential to avoid the existential horror of comparing yourself to skaters half your age, all coming into the sport with different backgrounds and levels of experience. “If you compare yourself to other people’s progress, you won’t have enjoyment while you’re skating,” says Yaya, one of the group’s team riders. “The only way to have enjoyment is to only focus on your own progress.”

a black and white photo of three girls skateboarding in venice — GRLSWIRL was born from a desire to find community through skating, and over the years, the group has built up a following worldwide.

Of course this is all easier said than done. “I spent six months before ever entering any space outside of my neighborhood, because I was too nervous to skate around other people,” says Lucy, one of the cofounders and perhaps the most well-known face of GrlSwirl.

The trick, she stresses, is to find your people.

“We can’t claim to do everything or make a space perfectly safe for everyone, but we can do our best to make people feel what we wished we had when we started: people who want to do the same thing as you, and enjoy skateboarding and their community. Wherever you are, utilize the people around you. It’s on you to ask for help,” Lucy says.

Sometimes, you don’t even have to know that you’re interested to start. “Even if people didn’t skate, I would ask people to come like, ‘Yo, most of the time I sit down anyways,’” Mariah laughs. “Just come sit with me!” Because once you’ve come to sit, and the board rolls up to your feet, it’s almost sillier not to try.

3 Essential Tips to Getting On a Board

Tip 1: Remember “Best Friends”

Keep your two feet parallel and together — as best friends — when getting on and off the board. Put one on either side of the screws that attach the truck to the deck.