The Game Changers

Lucy Adams: Building belonging in skateboarding

• Sue Anstiss • Season 20 • Episode 8

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Lucy Adams has spent her life on a skateboard – but it’s her impact off the ramps that’s transforming the sport forever. From being one of only a handful of women in UK skateboarding in the ’90s to leading the charge for equity and inclusion today, Lucy has carved out a path where others once shut the door.

In this raw and inspiring conversation, Lucy shares what it’s really like to break into a male-dominated sport, fight for recognition and push for a future where every girl feels welcome on a skateboard.

In this episode, Lucy reveals:

  • The grit it took to thrive in a sport where women were often invisible
  • Why representation matters – and what it means to truly belong in skateboarding
  • The battles to make skateboarding safer, more accessible, and more inclusive
  • How she’s helping rewrite the rules for the next generation of skaters
  • The emotional highs and lows of being a pioneer in a sport that wasn’t built for you

From small-town skate parks to global stages, Lucy Adams has paved the way for thousands of women and girls to ride free. This is the story of resilience, rebellion and reshaping a sport for good.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Sue Anstiss:

Hello and welcome to The Game Changers. I'm Sue Anstiss, and this is the podcast where you'll meet the fearless women driving change in sport. From breaking records to breaking down barriers, these trailblazers are changing the status quo for women and girls everywhere. Each episode we'll dive into a powerful conversation that explores not just their incredible careers but also the bigger issues shaping equality in sport and far beyond. A huge thank you to our partners at Sport England who support The Game Changers podcast through a national lottery award.

Sue Anstiss:

My guest today is Lucy Adams, a skateboarding pioneer, who has been immersed in the sport for over two decades as a professional skateboarder, a coach, a leader and a loud and proud advocate for inclusive progression. From winning national titles to launching her own boards and making documentaries, lucy has carried her passion into every aspect of her work, whether that's founding 'Brighton's She Shredders' to support girls getting into skateboarding, commentating for the BBC at the Olympic Games or helping shape the future of the sport as progression project lead at Skateboard GB, previously chair of Skateboard England and GB, Lucy now focuses on developing and supporting the next generation of British skateboarders, creating environments for progression whilst navigating tensions between what skateboarding was, what it is and what it could be. So, Lucy, can you take us back to Crawley Skatepark in the late 90s, when you swapped your roller boots for a skateboard? What was it about skateboarding at that time? That just clicked for you .

Lucy Adams:

Oh yeah so I think it was the fact that it seemed magic, just the very sort of practice of skateboarders being able to make this wooden plank with wheels go into the air, and I thought there must be something about it that sticks to their feet somehow. But no, like they are just, they were just making, making it do that, and I just thought for me I could already tell there was like this kind of cultural piece about it. This lifestyle, like those that I were observing at the skate park, were just brought into this whole community here and this is how we dress a bit differently and the music was playing quite often on like boom boxes and things, and I just thought, wow, this is so different to. I was a sporty child but it was so different to what I'd experienced in different sports in the past a bit rounders at school, very much. You know you're out on the field having fun, but it was what you expected and then swimming up and down in the pool was just a bit monotonous for me.

Lucy Adams:

The fun times of that came when you went to the gala and you got on the coach and you were all excited going to different leisure center. But you're just going to a leisure center in a different place. This skate park was like just so different and I mean yeah, so yeah, combination of that culture piece. But just seeing the magic of skateboarding, how hard, wondering, how hard that must be. How are they doing it?

Sue Anstiss:

and were you just walking back? It was a. There was a skate park that was local to you. How did you had it come across your radar, as it were?

Lucy Adams:

yes, it was so. The swimming pool and the club I swam for was crawly swimming club and they were around the side of the pool. They were building a park, so I'd seen a ramp before, just like a metal half pipe. Um, I was aware that there was one in the town I lived, but this town was sort of the next one down and they were actually building more to it than that, like a whole piece, and it was like this wooden structure for a few weeks and like just sort of skeleton of a form of a skate park, and then, obviously, they started to lay the plywood over it and each, each week, I was at the pool, like looking out the window, and it was more like coming together. So then, once I was able to go out there and watch some of those lads skateboarding, that's when I was like, oh, wow, like yeah and you say those lads skateboarding, so it was a very male-dominated scene.

Sue Anstiss:

What gave you the confidence to enter that and to get started?

Lucy Adams:

I think, because I'd had some of that experience with my roller skates. So my mum roller skated actually she played roller hockey, did she? Yeah? So we had a local roller disco every couple of weeks or so in our local leisure center and we'd go there and we'd play that and, um, I mean, I just don't think it would pass now, but you know, we'd play games like there was sit down tag and all sorts and you'd, um, stuck in the mud and roller skate. So like sit down tag was crazy because you got tagged and you sat down. So then you're like weaving in and out of people on the floor and it was just great and like, yeah, so like weeks would go by and you'd win. You'd always win a.

Lucy Adams:

I don't know, I'm sorry, I am from the 80s, but what's the vinyl? Is it a six inch, a seven inch? Yeah, well, the smaller one, a small record. We'd been a small record and I remember I won itsy bitsy, teeny, weeny Yellow polka dot bikini. Was that Timmy Mallet? I won that for a game of sit down tag. But I had that experience like shooting about, darting, about being on roller skates. So I was quite confident on wheels. So I had them and I was like Dad, I need to go out there and take my roller skates, because he was the one that took me to swimming on the Friday. So we'd go out, we'd get there a little bit before and I'd have a little roller skate around and he'd sort of stand by the side At the skate park. Was that At this new skate?

Lucy Adams:

park yeah, and I'd barely touch the ramps. There was a lot of flat ground space. I'd sort of just skate around them and be a bit sort of scared. But some of the older boys said to me like, or they, you know, they just sort of did acknowledge me and they said, oh, you need a skateboard, escape. Skateboards are cool. Like, essentially, what you're doing is a bit rubbish. You, you know, you could have a, get a skateboard like one of these. And they'd show me the things and like even the skateboard.

Lucy Adams:

I was like, oh my god, that's so cool, like the graphic on the bottom and just how it looked. And I was like, dad, I do need a skateboard. And really fortunately he had a colleague of his, had obviously been a skateboarder or played about with it, and he said, oh, 80s, got one, get you on that first, see how you go. So I was like, oh sorry, so I was. I remember going um to my nan's house and she had a path, just a pathway, in the middle of the garden and I was just back and forth, back and forth, back and forth up this path, just working it out. So once I had a bit about me, I could go along on the thing I was like. Well, I'm taking that next week and away we go.

Sue Anstiss:

I love that it was the lads that said come along, you need to try this. Did they always make you feel like you were included? Did you ever face any kind of pushback or discrimination there?

Lucy Adams:

So I always reflect on this because there's periods where I can remember bits like that. But in those early days I very much got taken under the wing. That's how it felt, I think, because the park was new and it brought about. There was obviously some older, the older guys that did campaign with the council and were part of the group that you know got the park built. So there were the older ones but there were new, younger people to skateboard in because of this park, because it was big for then. You know, back then in the 90s, you still were getting little half pipes built, little, very small things, little token things, and this was quite large and so it did bring out and because it was of its situation behind a leisure center, lots of people you could see it.

Lucy Adams:

So I think that at the time in the late 90s, rollerblading was was going through quite a bit of a boom. So actually quite a lot of the younger crew were on blades, but I wanted to be on the skateboard. I knew that it was harder, like it was definitely the hardest one of the lot, but there were some BMXs, there were some rollerbladers and there was the skateboarders and I became more friends with the younger rollerblader crew, but everybody sort of tried a bit of everything. It was really nice, like some days you'd get on someone else's bike and you'd have a go at that and then so yeah, I just sort of felt part of the group that was learning and yeah, I just it felt quite good.

Sue Anstiss:

And what was the gender balance like across the park, across the? You know, inline skating and the BMX and this?

Lucy Adams:

oh, I was the only girl there, wow, only girl there.

Lucy Adams:

For years, I mean, girls would come to the site like, and that may have been friends with the boys or whatever, and but generally they sat at the side and sort of get on it and try and maybe have a go, but I was the one that was there like day in, day out doing it.

Lucy Adams:

And that's, I guess, when, when I started to travel a little bit for skateboarding. So when we got a bit older because I started at I was 13, going on 14, so it wasn't until I was about 15, going on 16, that I could take the train independently and things like that and then some of those lads were like we're going to go to a skate park at this place or this place on Saturday, and I was like, oh, cool, so we'd all sort of go together. And that's when, I guess, turning up at a different spot, I would get like a feeling of, oh, I'm different, because the other, the boys at this other part, would obviously be like, oh, it's a girl doing it and like, yeah, so it was a bit. I kind of noticed then that it wasn't like we were all the same, I was different.

Sue Anstiss:

How did it make you feel at the time?

Lucy Adams:

I still didn't really mind it because I still felt quite protected and in a group of my own and actually sometimes I went to an all girls school so I was completely like the only skateboarder there and I felt I guess it was a bit cool, like and that's what skateboarding was. It was cool and it was a bit like a sort of a secret club and like we had our own language, we had our own like music that we listened to. We had our own stuff that we wore. You know, you got into the shoes that you know you needed for skateboarding and you ran all these new brands that weren't just sort of Nike, adidas and like your trainers anymore. There was like this skate or footwear, and it was just like finding all of that stuff, all those different brands, was really cool and so, like I wasn't too scared to sort of represent via that at school, I quite liked it.

Lucy Adams:

People were like, oh, what's your bag? I was like, oh, it's a skateboard bag. You know it was cool. So, yeah, I was okay with it. But going then, starting to move out and travel to those spots, that's when you'd hear about, oh, there's another girl somewhere. And somebody would be like, oh, did you know the girl at Urges Hill? She skates too. And then I'd be like, well, I want to see her, I find her. So it was like I did sort of start to pick up, like there are other girls that do this in and around sort of where I lived and I wanted to find out who they were and where they were.

Sue Anstiss:

I love that, almost like knowing there's another little group or individuals out there. Was there a moment early on when you realized it. I love the way you talk about your passion for that culture, but you felt it could, you know, be an important part of your life moving forward, or did that come a bit later, but when you're kind of 14, 15.

Lucy Adams:

So back then we sort of at the time I guess where internet's come about but we don't very much dial up Things were slow. I think we were still on like Nokia with snake, you know that sort of screen. So if you can imagine like it was quite hard to connect the dots, things were word of mouth and finding people and going places was all done in the way we had to do it. You just went there. We'd have a day off school and we'd be arranging to go up to Northampton to go to a skate park. For me that was like a three-hour journey on a train and we were just going to go there. We didn't check if the place was open. That's where we're going to Ravlands today. We're going there and we just sort of did it and I suppose I didn't think there was a career in it or anything like that, because that wasn't visible. You didn't see people making money out of doing skateboarding. But I just thought this is a thing that I want to get better at and I want to do more of all the time.

Lucy Adams:

Already skateboarding seemed infinite to me from like the whole progression side of things. Like you can learn that trick and that can go to a variation on that trick. I mean, there's so much that you can keep doing, you can't. You can't complete skateboarding, like it just keeps going. And then you, through videos and things like more exposure and traveling, you saw things that you wanted to skate, different things, because it's not like a court or a pitch or a the, the thing that you play on doesn't stay the same, it's everything is different. So you might find that combination of rail and ramp and that is at that place, but but then if you go to that place they've got a different combination of it and so, like again, it's just infinite how the field of play definitely use that word in skateboarding at the moment whilst it's competitive, but the skate park or the landscape, because we skate in the streets as well, right. So like I was really keen for that, I'm a small, I was from a small town and our sort of street skating was pretty non-existent.

Lucy Adams:

We had like a central kind of bit in town we'd skate at, but you know, once sunday trading laws all went the other way, that just became every sunday you'd be there at those places and they were dead and you know you could skate there all you liked, but then it got harder and harder to sort of skate in in spots. We call them spots. It's a place where you you know you skate on, but you'd see that in, like america, and you'd see them in australia and through for exposure, through videos or people telling you where these things were, and you'd be like I've got to go there. I've got to go there to skate that spot, and skate tourism is a massive thing it's really sad in a way, isn't it?

Sue Anstiss:

when you think about all those girls that have missed out on the chance to enjoy something as from when you were first taking part. So my, uh, youngest tess discovered skateboarding maybe a couple years ago on holiday and got bored anyway, just been low and not to a massive extent, but has just loved it and all of of that whole. You know the look and the feel of the boards and everything about it, but how sad that so many girls kind of missed out on that. But why is that? Was that the lads made it so that they didn't feel that they were welcome? Was it the fear of falling and getting hurt? Was it the culture? What do you think it was?

Lucy Adams:

Yeah, I do think that definitely back then, the generation that we're getting into skateboarding were definitely a bit older than what they are now. So we were in our sort of teens, and so I do think that that is a difficult time for girls, where that whole sort of self-esteem piece and that sort of yeah, having the confidence, like you say, to just go for it, knowing like falling is part of our journey, we do, it's, it's going to happen pretty much every session. You're going to take some sort of like like wobble, but to just be out there and do that in front of potentially a lot of like your peers but a big group of boys yeah, you've got to really be okay with that, and I think I might have just got into it just before. That became quite a prominent sort of that. 13 to 14. But then year 9 and 10 is that bit where suddenly everything like the world must be watching me and, like you know, you just feel self-conscious about everything like Like.

Lucy Adams:

Just back then, like walking into a skate shop was quite a daunting thing because it was generally like early 20 lads sort of working in there. It seemed like it's a special place that you sort of had to have a code to get into, and so the parks probably did feel a little bit like that as well to a certain extent. Whereas, like now, I think that kids are getting into it a lot younger and so they're already kind of getting that experience in the environment before that maybe that change of like that identity piece starts to come in and has an impact for people. And also because kids are getting into it a bit younger, nowadays that generally means that a parent or somebody is with them at the place, so these parks are much more family oriented environment, whereas then it was teenagers and, like, I guess, early 20s really, and there were much older people that did take part in skateboarding, but for the most part it was dominated by that group. So teenage boys through to early 20-year-old men yeah, it's hard.

Sue Anstiss:

Yeah, it's really interesting, though, isn't it how you begin to shift that? I've heard you say that skateboarding is more than a sport. You cannot hear that from the way that you talk about, I guess, whether it is the shoes and the music and all that, but how would you describe its role on your identity of who you are today and what skateboarding is to you?

Lucy Adams:

yeah, the whole, the whole cultural capital that skateboarding kind of provides, like just everything about that. Like there's all different, like the intergenerational piece, like we, we skate, you know, with people that are much younger than us to much older than us, all in the same environment and pass on the kind of info, like that peer-to-peer learning. That for me it was a really important thing and and still is, in terms of like who I guess I meet and spend time with and who I kind of value within my life now. But like, yeah, also down to the material things, like the shoes, the clothes, like everything about that is sort of like how I've come to know myself and how I feel feel comfortable and confident to then also, yeah, just travel, because travel is so important in terms of connection and skateboarding.

Lucy Adams:

Like I said, like you're, you're chasing down to go to these far off places where there's different spots and parks to skate, but then also then this sort of shared, the skateboarding is this shared language of like right, well, I can see you're doing it too. We're friends, we're instantly friends, and I know that other sports will have, will have that, but like it's such a deep connection in skateboarding. Just, I remember being younger and walking down my local high street and seeing somebody in a pair of skate shoes with like ripped laces and a bit of scuffing, and you'd be like you're right, you know like there's an acknowledgement straight away, like you do what I do, and it's them and so we're cool.

Lucy Adams:

So yeah, I think I couldn't imagine it's in everything. Like you know, I can be driving, driving, walking whatever down the road, or sitting on the train, looking out the window and see something and go, oh that looks good to skate, like about everything, like architecture, everything you know.

Sue Anstiss:

And what's the gender balance like now? I know it's very broad across skateboarding. Is it still much of a boys' club, do you think, or has that shifted since those late 80s, early 90s?

Lucy Adams:

It's definitely shifted. We don't have sort of figures and stats are sort of bandied about everywhere, so I couldn't really put a number on it, but you can feel now, just by, you know, just if I went to a skate park on a Saturday, I wouldn't be surprised to see two, three other sort of girls, women sort of're taking part and and now, you know, there's so much more provision as well. So there's definitely like group sessions, um, and stuff like that and it's busy, you know. So if people are putting on like a a women and girls or women, non-binary, marginalized gender session, like it's, they're busy. You know people are like oh, that's a space for me and and taking part, whereas when we sort of tried, like you mentioned in in their intro, when we set up she shredders and I can't really remember the year, but it must have been around 2010 or something like that it was quite a while ago and it was quite hard, you know, for the first six months trying to justify that session because the numbers were sort of so low.

Lucy Adams:

But it was like you've got to stick with this, we've got to make sure that people are aware and keep going. Why are these groups called like hard to reach groups or whatever it is, you know, because you've got to stick at it, you've got to do it and you've got to prove that you're around for for the long haul, for this, to to capture those people and and not everyone's going to go. Oh, I've seen that I might do that like straight away. It takes some time and it takes a, but we were there and we, we went through it and we got ourselves out there and now like yeah, these groups are happening weekly. So like that group has really evolved that she showed that I set up and it happens once a week at the little skate park in Brighton and they're busy, like you know 15 to 20 people.

Sue Anstiss:

And you came out in that sort of male-dominated subculture, a time when LGBTQ plus visibility in sport wasn't where it is today. So what was that experience like for you Early 2000s, I assume?

Lucy Adams:

is today. So what was that experience like for you, early 2000s, I assume? Yeah, it definitely felt, I guess because I was like one of the boys for a long, long time. This is where it probably started to get difficult was when the boys suddenly did become interested in girls and I didn't necessarily like fit. I wasn't fitting into some of those sort of conversations or the groups, or I started to feel excluded because obviously they wanted to talk about stuff, but they didn't really want to talk about it in front of me and then, or if they did, I'd obviously be like I don't know if we say that or if we say like that or you know. So I started to become a bit like oh yeah, this is all sort of becoming a bit awkward.

Lucy Adams:

And um, then I think what happened was some, definitely some, of the more famous women skateboarders. Maybe the internet got better at this point, but, um, you know, you become aware that they, they were gay and so it was, I guess, some of the role models that I had. That was kind of cool to know that that was possible. And these women skateboarders weren't like sort of superhero, famous people as much as like the best of the men skateboarders, but you'd start to hear about them more and some companies were backing them. So yeah, so that was quite nice to know and some companies were backing them. So yeah, so that was quite nice to know.

Lucy Adams:

And then, as I just met more women and girls through skateboarding in this country, it seemed like there was quite a large percentage of people were queer, which is just sort of nice to sort of feel part of a community, really, that there were other people like me and that grew quite a bit. It took a long time in skateboarding for there to be like an out male sort of pro skateboarder, but when it happened, I think it really felt super positive because of how sort of famous he was and how well well renowned and respected he was. People just really backed that hard um, and it felt like that that was, that whole piece was quite an inclusive and celebrated thing. So yeah, it was. It was.

Sue Anstiss:

It's always felt to me that skateboarding is quite inclusive of lgbt stuff and have you thought it's important to you to make queer women and men and non-binary people feel that it is a sport for them? Do you feel that you need to champion the visibility side? But is that an important part of who you are within the sport? Do you feel?

Lucy Adams:

Yeah, I really do, because skateboarding is so individual. We're not part of a team in any way or whatever, but we differently form like crews and little groups and things like that and so and it could have been and it has been quite cliquey. So I definitely feel like you know, you should try and speak up or use the platform. I have to just talk about me really in my own experience, because that's what I've got, you know, like I have a wife and we have children and we don't make any kind of secret about that and we've always been quite proud about that and that's, yeah, definitely I've got a lot of support from that yeah, and had a huge impact for, I'm sure, kind of thousands of young people too.

Sue Anstiss:

It's kind of very powerful stuff, isn't it? You were crowned UK champion multiple times and I wonder what those accolades mean to you personally, especially when you're trying to balance, I imagine, but that competitive success, with skateboarding's roots in freedom and rebellion and creativity and so on, it's also a bit a bit of conformity, isn't it amongst it. So how does that sit with you?

Lucy Adams:

Yeah, good question. Yeah, because I have probably said this quite a few times, but definitely, even as I got older in skateboarding the competition side of things the main thing about it, and I guess the main pull to take part in competition was the fact that you get to be with other women and girls, because even though, like, we'd started to find out where each other were, the internet did come and that whole social piece definitely made like the connections form a lot easier. You could speak to people, you could see more like you could, you know, you can create your own sort of feeds to what you want to see and you would see it. Like back in the days of dial-up, I was refreshing, like the same website which was called um I can't remember what it's called, but it was. It was about women and girls skateboarding, refreshing for new content and it took weeks, like weeks went by and then there'd be some new content competition. You, you've got to be in a group, skate in a park together, bouncing off each other, like, oh, I can do this and oh, she can do that. And like, oh, no, now she could do that. Like I can do it too, and like sort of seeing it because you skate with the lads.

Lucy Adams:

But like there was definite sort of sometimes things fell out of your reach, like they could do them, but you're like, oh, I've never I don't know, I don't know that's. You know he's a big rail or something, something about it. And I was like wasn't necessarily as reckless. I was like, yeah, I wouldn't have ever called myself like a gnarly skateboarder. I didn't want to just like throw myself off of things. I wanted to like learn the intricacies of it, and I still do like all the technical sort of side of it.

Lucy Adams:

But yeah, you got to see other girls doing things and women doing things and it was like it gives you like that boost and that motivation. And but again, like I you know I make no bones about it, I was competitive. I did like the fact that you've got a bit of time to put together some stuff and show people and like I don't care about being judged or whatever and didn't necessarily always agree with the result or whatever, but like you still got that time to put yourself out there and I think that that is a real part of skateboarding. And you see it now in the whole sort of digital age where instagram is such a massive thing for skateboarding, like if you didn't film it and upload it to Instagram? Did you really do it?

Lucy Adams:

It is so important to be sharing your content and for skateboarders everywhere. So, yeah, it's a definite thing to kind of get yourself, put yourself out there. So I did enjoy competing, for sure.

Sue Anstiss:

And you've worked with some incredible brands across the time. So what have been the most meaningful partnerships to you? And I'm interested to know what makes a great partnership? So where do you think feeling supported and impactful? Where does that really matter for athletes?

Lucy Adams:

yeah, and I think in in skateboarding. So I will talk about some of my other things. But I think in skateboarding it's still there's a real lack of kind of good support for skateboarders. Knowing how much skateboarders work and put their bodies on the line, I think you'll probably get like a real small percentage of top tier skateboarders getting any kind of proper support, small percentage of top tier skateboarders getting any kind of proper support.

Lucy Adams:

And for me those sort of early days partnerships were very much based on recognition, I suppose. And then getting free product and and obviously like as a young skateboarder, like that is that is super helpful, that this stuff doesn't come cheap. I mean it's quite accessible. You can be going, or you certainly could sort of in the days when I started you could be going on a pretty top tier board for about 120 quid and that will last you. You know it's a wooden board, you can snap it, but generally you can last on that for quite some time, like six months to a year. Yeah, so getting free gear, shoes, gear shoes, boards, the components, like it was good and you would certainly got super grateful.

Lucy Adams:

But I guess as you, as you develop in skateboarding, you start traveling more. Some of the partnerships I had started to support with a bit of a travel budget, um, which was not necessarily always able to sort of pay the lot. But you know, you were getting a little bit of help here and there and then I guess once you started to get on bigger brands, that became a little bit more sort of helpful in terms of right, you've got somewhere to stay and a way to get there and some connections. You know, in terms of. Probably the best support I had was from vans and it was good like it lasted quite some time and I got a sort of small contribution by way of travel budget and some monthly money.

Lucy Adams:

But I think if you think about how much like, if you're a skateboarder and you get injured and it's quite a serious injury, there's nothing by way of support for that really like I don't know many people that were getting anything to help them in terms of like rehab or treatment or costs like that.

Lucy Adams:

So you're just in there with the rest of us, like sort of NHS kind of waiting and hoping. And that's why I think so many skateboarders get back on the board and get back on the board too quickly that I remember seeing like people that would just be skating in wrist supports and ankle supports all of the time and thinking like you know, yeah, you've had a bad wrist for two years now, haven't you? And it's like, yeah, because, well, I never let it heal right and so, yeah, we've all got sort of the bits that hurt on us all the time and that's because we've never really had them treated properly or or rehabbed in the way we have. So I think that there's that there's a gap there in skateboarding that brands and and any kind of sponsors of skateboarders should really start to look into and help in that respect, because it's it is bad. You know, you can really sort of hurt yourself in this game.

Sue Anstiss:

Both for men and for women. You feel there there needs to be more sponsorship and support from the brands.

Lucy Adams:

Yeah, I think there's the way it is, the way you kind of see it is in the industry. You've got like bigger sportswear brands sort of backing in skateboarding again now, and so they are generally, as I say, supporting a small percent of top tier riders and that support is good, like you can imagine, like any sort of thing where it's to do with a shoe brand, that they somebody might be getting a colorway of a shoe or they might even be getting their own pro shoe. Then there's some serious money there and there's help. You definitely see the people supporting putting out content of them in the gym and them getting help when they've got some injury or talking about their well-being and things like that. But then there's this level below where there's a lot of talent, I guess, that are pushing that bit, but we're back to just sort of free product. They're sort of swimming around in this area trying to push for a bit more, but they're the ones that are generally like really sort of breaking themselves because they're trying so hard to get to that next, to unlock that next kind of level and try and make a career out of skateboarding. And and that's why I guess you get these different bits of skateboarding like.

Lucy Adams:

So competition, can you know it can be really good prize money in our competitions like the x games and the bigger ones, and even like our now our world governing body world skate. You can, you can win some serious money, but it's quite as hard to do that. And then then you've got the other skateboarders that are trying to go down the kind of content producing road to stand out. But trying to stand out in and amongst all of that Instagram and TikTok noise is also really, really hard. So I think it's quite tricky. Right now I guess I feel a bit lucky.

Lucy Adams:

Maybe this is a bit of a segue into, but like with Skateboard GB, in terms of the sort of work that I'm doing to support some of those up and coming skateboarders in the realm of competition we get to offer, like the TAS, supports at the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme and like we're really noticing how that's helping those young skateboarders because they get to look like they get to be aware of how to look after themselves, where the sort of generational fluency piece in skateboarding is great.

Lucy Adams:

But it can also be a little bit problematic because you can get somebody going oh, don't worry, like your ankle, you just rolled your ankle, put some ice on it, get back out there the next day or whatever. Like, yeah, hit heels, it'll just heal, you know, and like some of that kind of folklore that gets passed down isn't so helpful, like it's actually like. You know, why is it hard for you to press the buttons on your keyboard? Because you, your hands, are mental, because they're broken, because you never, ever checked them. But we're falling down all the time on, like hands and wrists and arms, and you know that's one. I think skateboarding is crying out for that more support for your kind of your body and your mind.

Sue Anstiss:

So you were chair of Skateboard England and Skateboard GB. How did it feel to be I guess you're a bit of an insider working with them and also, I imagine, a bit of a disruptor within the governing body? So what was the setup like there for those organizations?

Lucy Adams:

So in 2015 we founded Skateboard England. There'd been a couple of sort of pushes in the past to have some kind of formal body to be recognized, but I think that mainly came in and credit where it's due to those groups, because they definitely helped with a voice in terms of getting good or better skate park and facilities built at a time where councils were having some money and there was funding there to be building some better skate parks or a kind of our state of skate parks in the UK were kind of getting a bit dilapidated from when they first got built and they were built in steel and wood. And then the groups that were sort of trying to become something, maybe a governing body, maybe just trying to get a bit of a voice, I guess, within the kind of wider sort of sporting world.

Sue Anstiss:

There's groups of skaters. Sorry, Liz, is this groups of skaters regionally? Yeah, groups of skateboarders.

Lucy Adams:

Yeah, nationally, nationally trying to do something to say, right, look, if you're going to build skate parks, councils, you need to do it in a certain way. They need to be, they need to be good, we need to start making better places out there. And so they did really good job with stuff like that, even in terms of like coaching. I remember like people sort of giving skateboarding lessons in the early days, like there was never any kind of regulation to it, um, and those groups certainly tried to say, right, let's try and do this in a safer way. But then by 2015, there certainly became a need to make something a bit bigger, a bit more um, a bit more structured, um, and then to try and get recognised by the life sport England and things, and it was before we knew that skateboarding was in the Olympics. So, 2015 and we started up Skateboard England and kind of by default, I was the chair, really like nobody wanted to do it and somebody suggested me and everyone else went, yeah, sure, do it. And I didn't really know what, what the role was and, to be honest, at the time it was quite sort of working out. We didn't have any funding or anything, so we were just trying to kind of work towards what it might be to be a governing body. And then we got the news in I think it was 2016 that we were going to tokyo 2020. So then there became a bit more of a like okay, this needs to be right. Suddenly there needs to be a gb vehicle here and, um, you know, people like uk sport are starting to engage in terms of are we going to have any chance at this thing, like blah, blah, you know, start talking. So we spawned skateboard gb as well, and then we did a bit of a restructure and the whole thing is just a skateboard gb now, with some home countries as well that do exist. But yeah, I did that for five years as a voluntary chair, so 2015 to 2020.

Lucy Adams:

And it was a slog because we went through so much sort of change and so much of learning new information, taking it on and then working out how we get to that point, how we keep ticking off the boxes, I guess governance-related stuff, like to the funding we get to that point, how we, how we keep, like, ticking off the boxes, I guess governance related stuff, like to the funding, how we were engaging the community, because obviously that was really important because skateboarders never had this sort of governing body before and there was a lot of pushback on why do we need to be organized like this? And and then a lot of people would sort of make that or had the perspective of well, you're only forming the thing because you're going to the Olympics and we don't care about skateboarding in the Olympics, we don't need to care about a governing body. And so it was seen as quite a one dimensional thing. But we had every intention of right now, we just want to be a kind of a body or a vehicle that supports the growth of skateboarding in the right way, not replaces the good stuff that's already out there but, like that, adds value where it's needed. So again, like back to the. It's really easy to talk about it in terms of facility development. But you can imagine like so you've got local authorities, most of the outdoor skate parks onto your local authority park and so there's a tendering process that happens and got the likes of play companies that that are great at making swings and slides, but they'll have a catalogue now of prefab skate equipment and a council is very you know it could be take the easy option to go oh, we've got 150 grand budget. Oh, it's nice to see it in a catalogue. We'll have that ramp, that ramp, that ramp, that ramp, that ramp go for it, put it there. And that serves that ramp Go for it. Put it there and that served, like the purpose. But we don't want that. We want free form, flowing, concrete designs that we've been consulted on, and then there's the ownership of the design and the space and the maintenance and all sorts. So the body itself is like to do that to sort of safeguard that sort of stuff. But the Olympics did like to do that to sort of safeguard that sort of stuff.

Lucy Adams:

But the olympics did come along and yeah, it just kind of got more challenging and I think every volunteer will probably tell you. But it has a shelf life and you can only do it for so long or so sort of passionately for so long. It was getting to the point where it was sort of breaking me in terms of trying to hold down a full-time job and be a skateboarder still right, you know one that did it a lot and yeah, so I couldn't really keep up with it and it deserved to be someone that could put a bit more time in. But also I wanted to have a job where I could say, like, my job is about skateboarding. So if this thing ever did get traction and we got funding, I was like, oh, I want to have a job, so yeah. So I stepped down and took a bit of a break from it. But yeah, fortunately we did do all right and got some funding and I've got a role there now.

Sue Anstiss:

So what's your role today Is Progression Project Lead. So what does that entail? What's your day to day?

Lucy Adams:

Yes, so we got funding from UK Sport as a progression sport. So in terms of like the big ones know the big governing bodies, it's like a world-class performance program. They're looking for money to support athletes and the pathway in terms of like trying to get kind of to the medals. But we were more about we were in a group of sports that were right, like you guys. There's definite need to build out a pathway here in the way that's relevant to your sports and so like we've taken the pressure off in terms of funding for kind of a medal target. But it's more about like domestic competition for us was big, like what's going on? There wasn't really much going on.

Lucy Adams:

So how are we going to build a bit of a pathway with competitions to support skateboarders? How are we going to look at coaching again, like I mentioned earlier, but like no one had really like looked at what coaching means for skateboarding and I told you earlier it's like so peer-to-peer, like you really you're there and everybody's kind of up for giving you advice and and as a skateboarder even one that isn't doesn't care about competitions and has got nothing to do with it you'll still be on a journey whereby even a top pro that's never entered a competition, will go out with a filmer, go out with a photographer, and they'll be giving you hints and tips. Like through my lens, I can tell that you need to go a bit faster. That's coaching, right, and so, like all of those people kind of feeding into, like what you do. So we coaching existed, but in this really like lovely, organic way, and a lot of people will say that's what makes it so special and oh, don't lose that. That's, you know, that's really great about what your, your sport, your your activity and so sort of capturing that in our any kind of coaching offer that we built.

Lucy Adams:

So this is my role really, just sort of looking at our skateboarders in our pathway, those that might want to be competitive skateboarders and maybe go along to different competitions, go to international staff and try and like make their like inroads into that area. But, um, I've also, yeah, just looking at how we create in a community of people around that competitive skateboarding. So, with the judging, like how are we getting more judges that are skilled and good at what they do to provide integrity to the pathway? And looking at, even in the events there's so many roles like there's the MC, there's the event manager, there's the DJ and just building that community of people around what we do to keep it skateboarding, to keep that culture there.

Sue Anstiss:

Does it almost feel like a bit of an impossible task to your job. But that goal towards conforming in competitions on versus it's almost a question that we asked before of the cultural alternative. It's very doesn't really care for the rules, it's all, all of those things. It does feel like there's two, not two different sports. But I'm just interested to know, in terms of the Olympic and being an Olympic sport, would the average skateboarder say it's been fantastic for the sport or has it changed the sport.

Lucy Adams:

Yeah, there's a definite dichotomy, that's the word I was after yeah.

Lucy Adams:

I think they can they do they are coexisting. But I think they can that they do they are co-existing. But I think we can continue on that track. Because it's funny about your question if you say if you ask an average skateboarder, one are probably hard to find an average skateboarder. But I suppose sort of like you're more core skateboarder, like core to the culture and core to the the industry and and connection to just skateboarding in the streets and as a at its heart is probably a bit indifferent to it because it's like, well, that bit doesn't really touch me.

Lucy Adams:

I think there's still like that feeling well, I can still go out and just go along to the curbs or the, whatever I want to skate and just do it and it doesn't, you know, neither thing really have to kind of touch each other.

Lucy Adams:

But I think that there's a definite move or shift towards okay, with some of what skateboarding that in more of the mainstream and the Olympics has brought the sport in terms of funding to facilities, more like sort of longevity in certain careers, that in skateboarding itself, but in terms of like the coaching and the like, people do earn a living off of being a skateboarding coach now, like having skate school, going into schools and delivering skateboarding, and like I only know, like if somebody had come into my school when I was nine with skateboards, I'd have been into it on that day I would have been like this is the thing for me and it would have been four years earlier like having that thing that I loved.

Lucy Adams:

So I think you know that people can't. That that's only a great thing, that that's that's out there happening. The exposure to to people is great, but it it still can be tricky because, yeah, it's like wondering if we might go too far down a path of something that's not really skateboarding. And then is it two separate things like competitive skateboarding and skateboarding, but at the moment they're kind of sort of coexisting enough. It gets a bit deep here if I keep talking about it.

Sue Anstiss:

No, it's interesting though, and interesting to know where it might be in five, ten years. You know you haven't got crystal ball, but knowing where it goes and I guess that's part of your role in the work that you're doing now is to sit across those two areas and to enable them both to thrive yeah, and it's like a push there, like sometimes, because it's certainly.

Lucy Adams:

I guess, if you look at olympic skateboarding, in both of those olympic games, the average age of the women's podium, I think well, in tokyo is like 14, in paris it might have been a little bit older, but we're still talking about teenagers, and so you can't help but then think, oh, like, where have other sports, where have there been pitfalls in other sports with this type of thing?

Lucy Adams:

Because, like I'm seeing it happening in within the pathway, like the kids, the kids we have are kids, they're children, you know, and so how you support children that want to go on that journey and kind of keep a focus on the fact that they are children and they're in childhood, and that's a really unique kind of state of being. But then also, like, how are you going to kind of provide relevant competition opportunities and how are you going to kind of give them that sort of experience, the competition pressure and all the stuff that is really there if you're going to go to an Olympic Games and you're a teenager? It's quite tricky, it's definitely making like getting me kind of worked up now and again.

Sue Anstiss:

I've heard people talk about your work ethic. I think someone actually said you're too productive for the human race. But how do you find that balance between skating yourself and work and family and advocacy and all those things? You're clearly juggling yeah, definitely.

Lucy Adams:

In the last two years my skateboarding, for me has like took a back seat. How do you feel about that? Yeah, that does it. It's a struggle because I it's an outlet. Isn't it like so obvious? Like it's somewhere I go to do something that's like just focused on it. You know, with skateboarding you have to just be focused on it because you're gonna, you're gonna fall anyway, but you'll do more falls if you, if you're not like keeping your eye on it. But yeah, and I just love kind of being out there and progressing and I think the like when you don't go as much, you then just cover an old ground off.

Lucy Adams:

Each session is like right, can I keep my tricks rather than like gaining new ones, can I just keep the ones I've got? I miss the progression in the skateboarding when I when I'm doing it at the moment. So it's definitely I find working within skateboarding it's every day and it's all day and I do love it and it keeps me excited, but then I do miss the actual doing of it. But, as you said, having children, that's been big for me in these last four years and the second one coming along definitely made it. I almost thought with the first one. He was getting to an age where I was like we could go to the skate park now and spend time there together and be there and yeah. So sort of stopped that happening right now. But yeah, I've just got to carve out a bit more time. It's easier said than done.

Sue Anstiss:

And what do you think you'll do in the future? How long do you think you'll skateboard for?

Lucy Adams:

Well, the beauty of skateboarding is that we don't have people announcing retirements. You don't do that. I'm a skateboarder. So I hope I see my kids getting a bit bigger and then I'll be really back to it, because hopefully they'll enjoy, enjoy it whatever. They might not skateboard, but they might still enjoy the community and the environment of the skate park.

Sue Anstiss:

And so, yeah, I see myself back there getting all my tricks back and just getting better again, hopefully fantastic and just finally, if you could share a message with a girl or a young woman or a woman picking up a skateboard for the first time today, what might that be?

Lucy Adams:

I think everybody was a beginner once you know, so you are going to be apprehensive, but everybody was in that position, so don't forget that. Because everybody had that oh, and everybody still gets it. Every time I skate I'll get a kind of oh, like a little adrenaline rush of like oh, my God, like I nearly went there or you're going to get them. But I think for me and if, like, you're interested in skateboarding and something's like kind of tickled that desire, like when you do make the tricks, it feels so good and when you are rolling away from something that you thought you were never going to make, like it's a great feeling and it keeps you, keeps you coming back for more lovely to talk to lucy and it's almost made me think I'd like to try skateboarding, but I think I might be a little too late for me now If you'd like to hear from other trailblazers like Lucy.

Sue Anstiss:

there are over 200 episodes of the Game Changers that are all free to listen to on podcast platforms or from our website at fearlesswomencouk. Guests include elite athletes along with coaches, entrepreneurs, broadcasters, scientists, journalists and CEOs all women who are changing the game in sport. As well as listening to all the podcasts on the website, you can also find out more about the Women's Sport Collective, a free, inclusive community for all women working in sport. We now have over 13,000 members across the world, so please do come and join us. The whole of my book on the unstoppable rise of women's sport is also free to listen to on the podcast.

Sue Anstiss:

Every episode of series 13 is me reading a chapter of the book. Thank you once again to sport england for backing the game changes and the women's sport collective with a national lottery award, and to sam walker at what Goes On Media, who does such an excellent job as our executive producer. Thank you also to my wonderful colleague at Fearless Women, kate Hannon. You can find the Game Changers on all podcast platforms, so please do follow us now to ensure you don't miss out on future episodes. Come and say hello on social media, where you'll find me on LinkedIn and Instagram at Sue Angstis. The game changes. Fearless women in sport.

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Sue Anstiss

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Sam Walker

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