(From left) Landfield, Noelliste, Collins, Sue Yee Hubbard and South at the K Bridge Skate Spot in Brooklyn. — JOSH KATZ/The New York Times
ON A chilly, windy morning in March, Nagisa Landfield’s and Leila Noelliste’s skateboard wheels boomed in unison with the clanking of construction work and semi trucks echoing nearby at a skatepark under the Kosciuszko Bridge in Brooklyn, New York in the United States.
When an attempt at a trick turned into a fall, they laughed it off alongside their instructor, Liv Collins, and a group of women they were skating with. It was common practice to cheer for one another when they fell just as strongly as when they stuck the landing.
Meet the Brooklyn Skate Moms: a group of women who are learning to skate or are getting back into it. After coming together at the end of a skating boom during a pandemic lockdown, they began practicing the sport and were unified in their desire to build a community.
For many of them, it also became an outlet to play outside of their tangled web of responsibilities as business owners, mothers, friends and partners.
“We escape, and then we go to work and we pick up the kids and we do laundry and we cook dinner,” said Landfield, 50, who works as an artist and a seamstress.
Although she’s familiar with board-based sports as a longtime snowboarder, she stopped skateboarding in her 20s. She picked it up again with her daughter’s help a few years ago.
“She was really proud of me for trying new things,” Landfield said. “And I think that made me feel I’m, like, giving them a good example that you can try anything, no matter how old you are.”
Noelliste, 39, who owns BGLH Marketplace, a skin care business, was going through a divorce and took up surfing as a hobby in 2020. A friend suggested that during the offseason she should try skateboarding.
She was skeptical.
“I didn’t see a lot of people starting in adulthood, much less women, much less Black women, much less single,” she said.
Curious, she skated on her block when it was quiet and soon grew fond of the sport. She drew parallels between the trial and error that came with skateboarding and those of being a single parent of three juggling motherhood and operating a business.
“You know what,” she said, “if it took me 200 tries to get that axle stall, then I shouldn’t be frustrated that after 10 tries of doing this with my kids or my business, I don’t have it yet.”
Staying passionate
Shannon South, a functional nutritionist, hosted sessions at home after installing a 61cm-ramp in her basement in 2021. At one early-morning meetup, a small group did rotations while There She Goes by The La’s played in the background.
What was next on their to-do list after a few hours on a ramp? “Work,” they said flatly, in unison.
“I think we’re kind of proud of ourselves for doing it,” said South, 51, who started skateboarding in her 20s and picked it up again in her 40s as a way to deal with infertility issues. She now skates with her eight-year-old son.
“You know, it’s so easy as a mum to just kind of let go of your passions and everything becomes about your child,” she said.
The youngest daughter of Lara Alcantara Lansberg, 46, a photographer and artist, took skateboarding lessons for two years. One day, in 2023, Lansberg thought, “Why not learn too?”
Nowadays, if the mother and daughter aren’t exchanging tips at a skate park, they’re skating together as they’re walking their dog or carrying a bag of groceries.
“When skateboarding came into my life, I was in the middle of this really hard part of my separation, and it just became a place where I can learn about myself in different ways,” Lansberg said.
“There’s so many things in the pot right now – but skateboarding for me, it’s an escape,” she said. “It’s like when I’m sitting doing art, it’s the same thing as skateboarding.”
It’s just fun
Hein Koh, 48, understands the risk of being more susceptible to injuries in a sport where falling is part of the practice, especially as an adult with obligations.
“We have so many responsibilities, and sometimes you can feel really bogged down by them,” said Koh, an artist. “But what I love about skating is that it doesn’t serve any purpose in our lives except for fun. It is pure, unadulterated joy. You feel like a kid again, skating.”
While finding a skating community has reinforced her growing obsession with skateboarding, Koh said, a part of her is afraid that her children may lose interest in the sport they share.
“I’m trying to figure out how exactly I feel about skating, or how I’m going to structure my weekends if they don’t want to skate with me,” she said. “But I still feel committed, even if they’re not.” – The New York Times
