(bright ascending music) - So the wider you are, the more you'll be able to kinda bend your knees and move with the board.

So we'll just practice getting onto that.

- It always cracks me up when the person who's the expert does it and it looks flawless, and then I do it and it looks bananas.

(laughing) - But that's part of it, right?

That's the whole skate experience.

So... - Eee!

- Yup, just like that.

Awesome!

Cool, nice.

And then if you wanna just practice stepping down, you can go ahead and step down.

(Alison laughing) (laughing) You got it.

Oh.

Cool.

- My brain is like, "Pick a foot, which foot."

- Cool, so if you want to do that, maybe like one more time, just to get comfortable.

Never push like back, always try to... Yeah, push your pressure down always.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- Oh, that's helpful.

- Yeah.

Nice!

Already way more stable than the other times, way more comfortable.

- [Sara And Alison] Yeah.

(bright rhythmic music) - [Sara] The the biggest thing that I get from skateboarding is community.

When you see someone who looks like you or represents some of the same things in you, there's power in numbers and it's an opportunity to learn how to take back space.

(bright rhythmic music ending) (gentle rhythmic music) (upbeat rhythmic music continues) (upbeat rhythmic music) (upbeat rhythmic music fading) - Skateboarding is an American sport that started in the 1940s, when surfers in California were looking for something to do when the waves were flat.

Historically, skateboarding has been cis, white, and male, but things are changing.

People, like Sara Campos, co-founder of Queer Skate PDX, are creating spaces for BIPOC and queer folks to feel welcome and supported.

Today, I am at All Together Skatepark to go skateboarding for the first time.

Pray for my knees.

(wheels rolling) What made you start skateboarding?

- I started skateboarding because, I mean, I think I had like the traditional Southern California life, where it was like I just used skateboarding to just get anywhere around town.

(warm rhythmic music) I started skating around like seven or eight years old, but had gone to skateparks, and would get bullied for being like the only girl at the park, or just not even being able to do the same tricks that boys or men can do.

Traditionally, skate culture has been, I mean, it was considered like a white boy sport.

And it was very like, stick-it-to-the-man type of against power.

Like all you had access to was street skating, and so everything was just very hardcore.

- It is so interesting to me that an activity that was built of sort of counterculture, like "F" the rules, has so many rules (laughing) about who should be here, how you should act.

- I stopped skating because of that, and then picked it up years later when I met my fiance.

And she just introduced me to like an entire community of people.

- That's beautiful.

(bright rhythmic music) You keep referring to skateboarding as a community, and it's sort of blowing my mind because I think of skateboarding as this like super individual thing.

And tell me, how do you build that community?

(rhythmic electronic music) - I think building the community shows in the way that you show up.

I think what's really interesting about community and skateboarding is you go to a skate park, and this might sound weird, but it's the only place where you'll see a 20-year-old, and a teenager, and then a young child interacting in a safe setting where they're info sharing.

- That is really cool because I can't remember the last time an 8-year-old taught me anything.

(laughing) - Yeah, I don't even remember the last time either, other than when I'm at the skatepark.

- Tell me about the community that you build at Queer Skate PDX, and how it's different.

- The culture and the space at Queer Skate PDX meetups just combats previous skate culture because I think our general existence of the folks that are there is already against what the normal is.

So the fact that there's people of color, there's trans people, there's queer people, there's women, the fact that they exist and gather in this space already is pushing the norm.

And then the second part to that is trying to just break down barriers of entry for skating by giving away free gear whenever we have our meetups, if we can.

(rhythmic electronic music ending) (wheels rolling) Yeah!

(laughing) - (laughing) That was good!

- And skating is really important because it has taught me in a very low-risk way how to be very courageous.

To push yourself through fear and try something, and then fall and have to get back up again, just teaches you how to emotionally manage yourself and just push through very challenging things in life.

(exciting rhythmic music) - I wanna do the thing where people look cool and they pick it up.

- Oh yeah.

No, it's all about just... (skateboards clicking) (Sara and Alison laughing) - Like that?

(laughing) - Yeah, (laughing) you can just slam it- - Okay.

- And let it pop.

(skateboard clicking) Oh.

(laughing) Yeah, (laughing) exactly like that.

- I'll work on that.

(laughing) - Yeah.

When you're pushing, you're gonna wanna push with the leg that's gonna be in the front.

That's your like, stabilizing leg.

You're kind of doing running strides almost, but with only one leg.

So you wanna get used to just kind of balancing on this.

So you'll just put your toes down, push back, and then stop.

(low rhythmic music) - Ooh.

I'm doin' it, yeah.

(laughing) - It'll be really hard if your foot is in the middle, and then you have to step in and you don't have any space at all.

- Ooh, I see.

- So you wanna make sure that you are set up where you're like ready to get into position, essentially.

As you push, you want to push down against the board.

(wheels rolling) - Ha, yeah.

I feel like I'm surfing.

- Yeah, it's exactly like surfing.

That's amazing.

And then, yeah, I'm tryna think about what will help.

See, and you're getting better at stopping too.

(low rhythmic music continues) - Was I meant to be like a pro skateboarder?

- I mean, at this point, I think you are.

Step on.

Ooh, ooh.

- (laughing) I felt that happening.

(sighing) Okay, let's try that again.

- Okay, I'm gonna not be on my board this time.

- Okay, cool.

Alright, so I'm gonna... - Yeah.

Yeah.

- There we go, okay.

Sweet.

- Oh, yeah, just like that!

- Thank you so much, Sara.

This was so much fun, and I appreciate everything that you're doing to welcome people like me.

- Of course, yeah.

Thank you so much for letting me be here.

I hope to see you at the skate park.

- Yeah.

(laughing) (exciting rhythmic music) - [Sara] I definitely see the culture of skating changing 'cause it has already.

I can see and imagine the skate community growing in such ways where non-traditional skaters are not even questioned for existing in those spaces, they're just allowed to be there.

(exciting rhythmic music continues) (exciting rhythmic music ending)