There were mud-stained knees and elbows, thumping music, skateboards and smiles all around at the Swami Vivekananda Road metro station. Makeshift skating ramps and some mean tricks on the skateboard attract a crowd from school children to curious onlookers.
When India’s first professional female skateboarder, Atita Verghese, and her team of 12 female skateboarders took the city’s skating scene by storm.The 22-year old Atita spearheads the Girls Skate India Tour, the first of its kind, where an all-female, self-funded crew of skateboarders, filmers, camerapersons and a skate-yoga guide, have toured Kovalam, before they made a stop at Bengaluru, and are now headed to Goa and Janwaar. The all-girls crew has conducted workshops and free demos for girls, as well as built a skating ramp from scratch at the Cave Skate Park, Bengaluru.
Atita is determined to shatter the socio-cultural barriers that prevent gender equality in sport. “There is something inherently wrong with the way in which society has conditioned our idea of femininity,” she says. “The misconception here is that one needs to be meek in order to be feminine. Consequently, girls grow up to be very conscious of their bodies. Young girls need to understand that you can be strong, get on the skateboard, and go home and wear nail polish, all at the same time,” she says with a laugh.
“Our societal structure is such that, once a girl hits puberty, it is considered inappropriate for her to be seen jumping around outside. Generation after generation of female oppression has resulted in women lagging behind physically.”
Atita admits that she has had to face men who would pass comments when she began skating, but she took it in her stride as a force to get better.
The tour is her attempt at inspiring Indian girls to shed their inhibitions and get on that skateboard. “Girls tend to be hesitant and often shy about falling while learning. It becomes necessary to hold their hands, show them what is possible and get them involved in the alternate sub-culture that is evolving in cities such as Bangalore,” says Atita, who is also a skateboarding instructor working with the HolyStoked Collective.
The future of skateboarding in the country looks bright as Atita declares that it is at the cusp of change.
She can still count the number of female skateboarders in the country but is excited that girls are at least getting involved in the sport which was previously an all-male bastion.
She attributes this change to the growth of an encouraging and supportive skateboarding community that is open to all regardless of age or gender.
Atita hopes to build a collective of female skateboarders and help the underprivileged, for whom skateboarding as a sport is largely inaccessible in terms of equipment and ramps. With an inspiring vision and her eyes set on the future, Atita and her team make for the proverbial ray of sunshine on a cloudy day.
