Across Australia in 2012/2013, Competition organisers began modifying competition. Prior to this, competitions were not Mens and Womens, just ‘Open’.

With the lack of females and development opportunities, it was rare when they did compete they got a slice of the pie.

In that season 10 years ago, a Womens Division was brought in, so that there was Womens and ‘Open’ allowing Females to compete in both. It was only in 2020 that the competitions were officially split into Mens and Womens divisions.

So we’ve had equal prize money now for over a decade, how is womens skateboarding going?

Participation

The goal, was to bring skateboarding up to the participation levels of similar sports, namely surfing, which was at around 25%.

At the time, it was at around 13% in Skateboarding, so extremely low.

Programs were put in place, 20for the girls and other initiatives, with a number of skate coaches nominating to coach 20 girls for free every year, as well as trialling different categories and age groups to improve the landscape.

Media opportunities were favoured towards females, with girls like Haylie Powell doing a number of kids tv shows in her younger years.

The aim was in 2019, to bring Female skateboarding participation in our leagues up to 25% by 2029.

As it currently stands, with the season just gone, female participation is at 23.43%.

It is on trajectory to hit 25% by midway through 2024, hitting its landmark achievement almost 5 years early.

Pulling their weight

Of all the sponsorship & funding received to run the leagues, operations and prize pool, female skateboarding is succeeding over other sports, with most funding coming in contributing to both male and female and 40% of overall sponsorship coming in support of the Womens.

Since 2019, over $800,000 has been invested into Womens skateboarding in our leagues.

Coverage is Key

Whenever we broadcast, both Mens and Womens is covered at events, its been almost more important to cover the Womens to allow for more exposure and growth.

Felicity Turner had the highest article reads across all mainstream media coverage for 2023.

Improving Issues

Participation fixes a lot of issues in sport, with smaller pools of people creating challenges.

Having not enough people to field a division make it difficult to retain females.

Bullying issues are more apparent in smaller groups as its competitive but the rise in numbers helps reduce these issues.

Progression happens when it's competitive, the more girls skating, the harder it is to win and the more they push themselves.

Utilising the strength in the male divisions also helps connect the females to a wider support network and creates more peers for them to skate and develop with.

Success
Our Females have been thriving on the world stage, with competitors at Olympic Qualiying events, becoming Olympic judges, being in leadership roles and taking out the titles on world pro tours.

What’s Next

A continual focus on growth, with a major focus on supporting the girls we have now, it’s only going to improve and we look forward to seeing these females hit their goals and reach their potential.