Shredding Pretty, in Pink

Shredding Pretty, in Pink

by, Allysha Le

The “California Amateur Skateboarding League (C.A.S.L) MINI RAMPS” competition, a discipline in the C.A.S.L. for young skaters just beginning to compete, held a small but fairly supported all-girls division on Saturday, February 20th at The Outlets at Orange Vans Skatepark, having almost a hundred supporters in the crowd and where Bella Kentworthy stole the hearts of the three judges with her impressive maneuvers as well as with her adorable, girly pink outfit, contrasting to the typical boyish skateboarder apparel.

Companies including Powell Peralta, Vans, Hosoi Skateboards, and Bones, all sponsored the event, giving product to C.A.S.L. to give to the winners as prizes. C.A.S.L. held events are first split up by male and female skateboarders, and then by age groups fourteen and under, and fifteen and up in the three disciplines: street course, bowl, and mini ramp. Each skater signed up for the discipline that they wished to enter, depending upon their skateboarding abilities. The street course is for those who want to jump down stairs and grind handrails, whereas the mini-ramp is for small, technical tricks and the bowl is for doing big airs.

There were just five girls riding in the mini-ramp event, and since there was such a small number of girls, they were all thrown into one category of all-girls. Most of the observers in the crowd seemed to be loud and proud parents of the skaters from all the disciplines that C.A.S.L. held that day, so there was a substantial amount of supporters for these young female skaters who are essentially competing in a male-dominated sport, an activity where seeing many girl skateboarder is rare.

“I want my daughter to understand that I am there for her wherever her little mind takes her, even if that means bruising and scraping herself up trying to be rad on a skateboard,” said Jason Kenworthy, the father of the contest winner, Bella Kenworthy.

At just 9-years-old, Bella was able to pull off the best trick out of the five girls in the mini-ramp contest, who were skating in a long stretch of U-shaped transition that began one end at six-feet-tall, then as one looks down the ramp, the middle escalates to a seven-foot extension, and then to a ten-foot extension at the other end of the ramp. What these girls were riding was no joke. Bella won the judges highest score with an invert handplant, a maneuver where she bends down to grab her board with her left hand, then plants her right hand down on the top of the transition, or the spot where the ramp curves up right before the metal coping, or edge along the deck, and flips herself upside down, making a one-eighty degree rotation just before landing back down and rolling away.

“The level that these young women are riding at nowadays is incredible. It’s pretty breathtaking to me that I just witnessed these little girls pull off tricks half the boys can’t do,” the announcer, Heidi Lemmon, says while wearing an expression of excitement.

The contest was filled with tons of aerial maneuvers from the girls, in which they would get air out of the ramp and land back in and roll away. These young ladies were airing and grinding their way into the hearts of their loving spectators and not to mention, the judges.

Bella won with a total of 203 points, 8-year-old Relz Murphy landed herself into second with a score of 198, 6-year-old London Meza just making top three with 196 points, beating out Ella Myer by just two points, and lastly, London’s sister, Teagan, takes the fifth spot, ending with 192 at the finish and competing at just 3-years-old! The youngest in the competition, and most likely one of the youngest competitive skateboarders to exist.

To Sonja Catalano, the director of the California Amateur Skateboarding League, the scoring and judging could have possibly went in different directions with the top three girls. “Most of these contests we hold are hard to judge, regardless if it’s all girls or all boys competing. All of these kids kill it these days, and it is so, so difficult to pick the winner because they’re all so deserving.”

The girls were called up to the podium to claim their prizes of a trophy, a free skateboard, stickers, t-shirts, socks, and other items included in a goody-bag and none of them showed any sour expressions towards one another or acted with poor sportsmanship. The girls smiled for group photos and congratulated each other after; then the girls’ parents continued to plan a get-together at one of the restaurants in the Outlet.

“We’re all friends who want the best for our daughters in the skateboard world,” says Jason.

These girls are tough and can shred on a skateboard, but they still bring the girly to the table; Four of the five girls had bright pink helmets and three of them, London, Teagan, and Bella were wearing cute little skirts.

“I’m on a team that’s called the Pink Helmet Posse and it’s cool because I get to say that I am on a team with all of my friends.” says Bella, who is a strong believer that all girls should try at least once to skate in their lifetime. “That’s what’s the most fun about it. Not the competing. I mean like being with girls I love and having fun learning tricks with them and not alone.”