Push The Prom Footage!

Well, it’s been 3 days since we left Brighton after a full 48 hours of sun, sea and skateboarding and we are still buzzing. Our Push The Prom event celebrated International Go Skateboarding Day and marked the first official day of summer on June 21st. Over 100 skaters from up and down the country came to join us for our Push The Prom event on Saturday. The sun was shining down and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, it literally couldn’t have been any more perfect.

Kirsty Tonner had the driving duties, and covered an impressive 225 miles from Sheffield to Brighton with Marion Fernande from France, Stoney Shi from China, Ayumi Powell from Japan, and myself in tow. We arrived late Friday night and stayed with Wings Chan & Fei Phoon at Wings’s university dorm. A lucky few had wooden chairs to sleep on whilst the rest made camp on the floor of the kitchen!

After a somewhat cramped nights sleep, we got ourselves to the park for 8:30am and met Lucy Adams and Josie Millard who were busy getting things set up. Lucy dashed off for an interview with BBC Sussex about the event whilst the rest of us got busy.

With the PA set up and the table of goodies laid out, we were all ready and waiting, 10am strolled around and only 10 or so girls were there.. It was a little nerve racking thinking that months of planning, arranging permits, funding & flat out promotion hadn’t drawn in quite the crowd we had hoped, when seemingly out of nowhere skaters were turning up by the dozen.

Lucy got cracking with the teaching, gathering up the beginners for their first lesson whilst I hovered between groups asking the girls what they’d like to learn in the day. Our youngest skaters were Poppy & Betty, both 5 years old and getting well stuck in!

The progression competitions were loads of fun with comps taking place on the flat bank and over the hip. Prizes were chucked out for anyone trying something totally new, it was rad seeing the girls really pushing themselves!
Charlotte Thatcher landed her first fakie heel flip on a bank, Claire Thompson was trying fakie tres and Marion won a Fabric deck for her kickflip over the hip that she had been battling with all day. Carla, Josie and Anita just banged out trick after trick whilst the newer skaters tried going down the ramps for the first time. Ella wood, a regular at Lucy’s Brighton She Shredder sessions surprised herself by learning how to go down the ramp fakie! So rad!

Olympic and XGames medalist Jenny Jones even popped along to check out the skating and pick up a few tips! She stuck around to hand out prizes, the coolest being a cruiser set up from Hoopla won by birthday girl Carla Von Marx!

We gathered the troops around 1:30pm and embarked on our 3 mile skate along the promenade. There were SO many people skating with us, and loads more met us along the way that when we stopped off for ice cream the head count was creeping up to 100! We reckon It must’ve been the most amount of skateboarders Brighton seafront had ever seen in one place, loads of people stopped to take photos of the stampede!

A silver surfer named Liz in her 60s was skating an old school longboard and sporting a blue ankle length skirt with yellow blazer combo, making us all feel a little under dressed for the occasion!

We finished the day with a girls
Mini ramp competition at The Level Skatepark Jam, where we met yet more girl skaters! One being 7yr old Hannah Maxwell from London who always draws a big crowd wherever she skates, busting out Tuck Knee grabs and 540 Bertslides all over the place.

Lucy had been a little nervous in the morning at the thought of being on the mic but she absolutely smashed it all day and no one would ever have thought it was her first time! Nice one Luce!

After all of the girls comps we had sooo many prizes that we literally couldn’t give them all away, so donated some to the bowl jam that was taking place. It was great to see some of the girls were getting stuck in to the guys competitions too and totally holding their own.

Loads of us headed to the beach to soak up the last of the sun before heading to the after party for the Boardettes premiere. The rest of the night was spent drinking beers on the beach with live music and good company. A perfect end to a perfect day.

We asked some of the girls what they thought, check out what they had to say!

“Just amazing to see soooo many girls out!!! Think the boys at The Level didn’t know what hit them.” – Tracy Gray

“It was such an uplifting feeling being a part of such a welcoming and positive event. Skating along the prom you could see the sight of a massive troop of happy skaters bringing smiles to the faces of Brighton. Awesome day, thanks!” Zoe Holland

“I loved that there were longboarders and skateboarders combined, that the age range was from as young as 5yrs old having a go at the lagoon to over 60yrs pushing the prom, that a lot of guys took part in the push too, and even though the prom is a rough old route we were laughing so much – oooohhhh, and the pure pleasure of rolling onto the smooth bits at last!!” – Sabina Edwards

“I had such a good day! It was great to see so many girls encouraging new comers! It was definitely one of the best girl skate events I’ve been to. I am so hyped for next year 🙂 and I think that everyone killed it!” – Claire Thompson, Rogue Skateboards & Animal UK

“Very inspirational day, to skate with all the girls from all abilities and see a fast growing family of skateboarding! Such a rad day can’t wait for next year!”
– Charlotte Thatcher

HUGE THANKS TO ALL OF OUR SPONSORS AND TO EVERYONE WHO CAME! Nice one Kirsty, Wings, Marion, Stoney, Josie, Ayumi, Sadie, David, Ricardo, Suz & Sheree for helping out! We couldn’t have done it without everyone’s support, Lucy and I are so stoked!
Special thanks to Sadie of Skate Girls Productions who came to document the event, watch the edit above – we think it really captures the spirit of the day, and the level of participation!