Meet Elaine Shallcross, the 68 year old cancer fighter who, having never stepped on a skateboard before, is learning how to do a shuvit to raise money for breast cancer research!
We have been following Elaines journey on Instagram and have been sharing her story far and wide over the last few days to try to help her raise awareness for her campaign. In just 48 hours Elaines account has exploded and has gained over 2200 new followers at time of writing this post!
Elaine invites you to go out and film a shuvit, then post it to your Instagram with the hashtag #shuvitcancer and tagging her @shuvitcancer so that she can repost your video and spread awareness of her campaign.
DON’T FORGET the most important part, is to DONATE to the campaign once you have shared your clip.
You can Donate here
We think she is amazing and want to offer a little token of our support by helping to raise some money towards her goal of £10,000 and so are donating £5 from every sale of our new hoody to the ‘SHUVIT CANCER’ campaign… until she lands it!
With all the motivation and support she’s getting across the world from kids to pro skateboarders, we don’t reckon it will be too long!
You can follow Elaines journey and find out more by checking out her insta page @shuvitcancer Go give her a follow and say hello, don’t forget to @ her in your shuv it clips!
PS, if you don’t want a hood but you still want to help fight the cause, you can donate direct to Elaine by clicking here!
collab, we catch up with founder of the ‘Girls Can’t Skate Crew’, Kellie Simpson to find a bit more about her London based crew…
Hi Kellie! Who are the girls skate crew, where are you based and how long has it been going?
The Girls Can’t Skate Crew was founded in October 2017. We are a collective of females who love skateboarding. It doesn’t matter what your ability is, as long as you love skating you are welcome to join. I currently have over 200 girls that are in the WhatsApp group.
How did it come about?
There were a group of us all out after a Girl’s Night at Bay Sixty6 and we went to the pub after the sesh and started to talk about Girl Crews and how none of us really fitted into any of them. We all went onto a house party and the conversation carried on and we decided to start our own crew.
Where did the name come from?
When I was 15 there weren’t really any other girls that skated, I was always with the boys, they were always very supportive, but we did joke around a lot. One day Dan Cate’s said to me “Girls Can’t Skate cos they’re too fat and always shopping”.
I loved it so much that I went and had it printed on a t-shirt and entered my first skate comp wearing it. The quote was said in jest, it was never meant to be derogatory, I took it and empowered it, and that’s where the name for the Girls Can’t Skate Crew came from.
I was {out skating} wearing my ‘Girl’s can’t skate ‘cos they’re too fat and always shopping’ tee shirt and someone said “We should be called the ‘Girls Can’t Skate Crew” and that was that!
When did you start skating yourself?
I started skating when I was 13 in 1994. I skated for about 10 years and stopped when I had my daughter. I picked it up again about 2 and a half years ago and haven’t looked back since, I wondered why I ever stopped!
Do you feel it’s important to be part of a girls crew? What does it mean to you?
For me, it’s important to be a part of a girls crew. I hardly saw any other girl skaters when I was growing up, I was always skating with boys. To come back to skating and see how many women there are, I was in awe. I wanted a way to bring them all together, so I expanded the Crew from our little group to include more people, and I was overwhelmed.
Girls are always coming up to me to say how the WhatsApp group has connected them with other female skaters, how the meet ups have helped them make new friends and now they skate together. It can be daunting to go to a park or a spot by yourself, especially if you’re not that confident, so posting in the group and meeting other people there can be a real confidence boost, you pump each other up.
Where do you guys skate? Do you have meetups? If so, where?
I skate a lot at Southbank, it’s a great place to meet, and the new little banks are really cool. We have monthly Girl’s Nights’ at Bay Sixty6 (London) and House of Vans (London) , and Tuesday evening at Pioneer (St Albans) for the adult beginners session is always a winner. The girls are always posting in the group when they’re going to skate or head to a spot, so meet ups happen all the time.
Can anyone join the Girls Can’t Skate Crew?
As I said, anyone can join, just send me a message on Instagram and I can add you to the WhatsApp and Facebook groups.
What advice would you give to someone who is looking to meet other girls or maybe start their own crew?
I would definitely say head to your local Girl’s Night if you have one, if not, just head down to your local skatepark and see if you can spy any other girls. The good thing about the group is that we have girls from all over the country, so you can always post where you’re from and see if anyone is in your local area or knows someone who is and can put you in touch.
And if you want to start your own crew, go for it! It’s an amazing feeling when you and your mates are all rolling together, posting pics and videos, sharing stories and slams.
Any thing else you want to say?
Just want to shout out my girls Grace and Merryn for always being there for me, in skating and in everyday life, and a massive thank you to Rachael for hyping me up and getting my tricks and story on camera. Love ya gals!
You can follow these girls on Instagram @girlscantskatecrew and check out our latest collab which will be dropping this weekend!
First off, THANKS to everybody who came along to our Halloween party at flo Skatepark in Nottingham a couple of weekends ago! Over 150 of you came along to skate, watch, eat, drink and be scary and we absolutely loved seeing you all skate in your costumes!
Secondly, super sorry for the belated photos, these jams are so full on that I always need some time off to recover, so thanks for being patient whilst I sorted through these. 😊
We kicked off the day at 3pm, hosting a ladies only session ‘til 5pm. You may have seen on our live story that we hosted a ‘Mummy Wrap Race’ which saw 4 teams of 3-4 players skate across the park to wrap up their ‘mummies’ in toilet paper, with the best dressed mummy winning a bunch of Cheapobrand goodies for their team mates.
Come 5pm we had a park full of zombies, ghosts, wizards, angels, animals and countless movie characters. It was so rad to see everyone getting involved!
There was a mini ramp jam for the kiddos, followed by a bowl and street jam with loads of rad prizes from our sponsors; Santa Cruz Skateboards, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Moju Drinks, Cheapobrand, FortyTwo Skate Store, Huf, Brixton and Out Of Step Ltd.
CONGRATS to the Creepy Alice in Wonderland group who won Best Squad costume, and to Rico who came dressed as an alien abductee, winning best costume for his inflatable suit.
We always have such great success with the bake offs we host at our jams, that this year we decided to do a ‘Spooky Snack’ competition for Halloween. The entries were ALL amazing, with lots of scary looking cakes and cookies, Miriam even made a rotting brain jelly complete with eyeballs and wiggly worm sweets. The Winning entry though was from Chloe and Tenika for their super creative and unique toffee apples.
MASSIVE THANKS to Joel, Liz and Rico from Flo Skatepark for all their help on the day, and to Kirsty for being our Beetlejuice MC! 👊🏼👊🏼
Absolute banging day, hope to see you all at the next one at Rockcity in Hull on November 16th!
3yr old Autumn Bailey from Brighton, UK, has been kicking up quite the fuss on instagram this summer and has racked up a steady 5 and a half thousand followers in the short 4 months since her Mum, Tara, started the account.
It was Autumns second video that got us swooning, dressed in a pink beanie and bright yellow T-shirt, we saw her manual scraping down hills and grabbing her board tucknee, we were instantly besotted!
Since it’s Autumns THIRD birthday today, we wanted to catch up with her to see what life as a skateboarding toddler is all about!
Hi Autumn! You’re so good! How long have you been skating?
Autumn: I’ve been skating since I was born
Tara: She’s been skating for one year
I’m sure everyone would like to get to know you a little better, tell us, does anyone else in your family skate?
A: Daddy and that’s it
Who teaches you?
A: Ali teaches me new tricks (@a.jassim_uk) and Mummy
You look fearless! Do you ever get scared?
A: Yes, scared I might fall down
What about you Tara? Do you ever get scared for Autumn or are you pretty confident in her abilities?How do you keep her safe whilst she’s skateboarding?
T: I don’t really get scared for her. I think people don’t always get that we build up to the big things really carefully, and I have absolute trust in her ability and that she knows how to land. I also trust that she wont ask to do anything she is not comfortable with (although I do occasionally say no if she goes for a huge ramp or drop in)
To keep her safe she has pads and a helmet, and she has learnt how to fall on her knees. She also trusts me completely and knows I wont let her fall, and I trust her.
I bet you get lots of people telling you ‘you’re pretty good, for a kid’ ? 😉
A: No, they say I’m better than a kid.
T: she often gets, ‘you’re good for a 2 yr old girl’
You get around for a 3 year old! Not many of us can say we have skated Venice beach! Where is your favourite place to skate and what has been your favourite skatepark so far?
A: California and Brighton.
T: Autumns favourite skatepark is Robb Field in San Diego because she loved the tiny bowls there. She also loves a Hollingdean skatepark in Brighton because she is super comfortable and used to it.
We’ve seen lots of clips of you skating the streets of Brighton, do you prefer to skate street rather than in skateparks?
A: I like skating on the street because I like pushing.
So you’ve got rock to fakes absolutely dialled already! But what’s your favourite trick? and what is the trick you most dream of learning?
A: Ollie (favourite) Jump and turn aroundon my board. (Dream)
T: She can’t ollie yet, but she thinks that jumping on her board is it.
What’s the naughtiest thing you’ve ever done?
A: Kick my door
Is that true Tara?!
T: She‘s correct, when she is sent to her room she will kick the door as hard as she can! She’s not particularly naughty, but incredibly strong willed and defiant. If you look away for 1 minute she will have climbed to the highest point of anything she can just to prove a point.
She learnt to push in a shop in brighton simply because I asked her not to skate so she decided that was a perfect moment to learn to push herself along.
She has also dropped a few casual swears when she messes up in skating (and always finishes off by asking if it’s ok that she said that)
What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: A really, really brilliant skateboarder!
How is it for you to have a skateboarding toddler? Any funny stories?
T: Funniest moments for me always happen when she gets cocky or shows off.. this can be anything from loudly telling people on scooters it’s a skatepark and they are not allowed there, to screaming enthusiastically from the sidelines to cheer on people skating – but throwing them off their game!
She does throw massive tantrums at the skatepark and people sometimes seem to forget that despite her ability she is still 2. She gets mega frustrated if she cant land a trick. Also I stop her skating if I feel she is too tired (that’s when it becomes dangerous) and she has had a few screaming episodes then where she will march off with her skateboard to carry on and I have had to literally drag her out! (Laughs)
AndFinally, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! The big THREE! What are you going to do today?!
A: Playing, going to the skatepark and going on the train to london!
Sounds perfect! We look forward to seeing the videos and photos, have a lovely day Autumn!!!
The UKs longest running annual girls skateboard comp is back again TOMORROW at its home place, Pioneer!
Competitions on the day will include Groms, mini ramp, Under 18’s, Over 18’s and sponsored comps. Expect a wicked day, as always, with loads going on and lots of familiar faces
Entry fee is just £7 to skate or £2 to spectate, we’ll see you there!
Come celebrate our FIFTH year of Girl Skate UK with a skate jam at Flo Skatepark in Nottingham on Saturday March 9th.
We will be kickingoff with a 2 hour girls only session from midday, followed by a skate jam with some games in celebration of International Womens Day’s theme of Balance For Better. 🚺
We’ll be giving away hundreds of pounds worth of product from our sponsors Santa Cruz Skateboards, Huf Worldwide and Brixton, free beer will be provided by Pabst Blue Ribbon and fresh juices by Moju Drinks.
Not forgetting free food and cash prizes! 💸🎁
Don’t forget to bring along your best British Bake Off efforts, as there’ll be a prize package for the best cake! 🎂🏆🍰
We will also have a pop up shop where you can grab yourself some of our new garms, and maybe a raffle or two. 5️⃣🎊
***We will be choosing 2 winners at random to receive a free gift, all you have to do to enter is click ‘Going’ and be able to pick your prize up on the day!***
girlskateuk.com 