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| The inimitable Ms. Zhou from Skate Invaders powering her way to victory |
More Women Skaters Please!
Skateboarding is a heavily male dominated sport -- there are many more men who skate than women. This can lead to a self-perpetuating, testosterone-laced sub-culture which isn’t very open to distaff participants. It can be intimidating, awkward, or simply not receptive to women. (Not that it’s necessarily intentional.)
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| FUBU Race Weekend Poster |
This continued sporadically until this year, when it was decided to hold a larger, more organized gathering to which newer women skaters would be invited, with the intent of fostering a supportive, friendly atmosphere.
A considerable amount of planning, logistics, and stoke later, it all came together in the form of FUBU Race Weekend...
Two Frenetic Days of XX Skateboarding Fun
On Saturday, there was a casual ‘twilight cruise’ along the waterfront, followed by a unique film screening and then a raucous after-party at Club 54 (a notorious Hogtown skater-haven). Alas, I missed out on these festivities due to the Tour de Bloc bouldering comp, an altogether different form of stoke...
Meanwhile, Sunday witnessed a slalom race which was extremely popular and hard fought. Finally, the weekend was capped off with intense toonie-races from the top of the Red Canoe at Canoe Landing Park, as well as a secret BBQ. We unfortunately didn’t get to the butt-boarding contest...
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| A fantastic turnout at the 1st Annual FUBU Race Weekend - Nov 6, 2011 |
My good friend Aubrey Iwaniw is one of the motive forces behind FUBU, so I volunteered to help out on race day with some of the start and finish line judging.
I always relish the opportunity to hang around and do very little while ostensibly ‘helping out’, so this was an easy task for me to perform. I also helped my pal Bill guard the swag table from sticky-fingered interlopers -- this mostly consisted of Bill drinking 2L of chocolate milk and talking about hydraulic systems...
[In case you were wondering, guys were also welcome to attend, but primarily in a supportive role as spectators and volunteers, rather than competitors in the races.]
Race Results
The day was crisp and clear, the temperature cool and refreshing. Perfect conditions for racing against friends and foes! There were a lot of big smiles and laughter -- and a couple of hard bails. Joyce: hope your ankle heals fast!
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| Chantell weaving through the cones Photo: Jonathan Nuss |
The official results (via Aubrey) are listed below. Congratulations to everyone who participated!
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| 2011 FUBU Stoke Award Winner Diane S. Observe the lovingly hand-carved and personally autographed trophy, crafted with exotic African hardwoods by hydraulic artist Bill Flynn |
Amateur Slalom (Top 3)
1. Irene
2. Binny
3. Lee-Anne
Pro Slalom (Top 3)
1. Lisa
2. Andi
3. Chantell
Time Trials (Top 6)
1. 1:19.3 Chantell
2. 1:19.7 Andi
3. 1:24.6 Lisa
4. 1:25.9 Diane
5. 1:26.9 Aubrey
6. 1:27.3 Mioche
See the full race results here for everyone
Toonie Race (Top 8 )
1. Cindy
2. Chantell
3. Andi
4. Ponyta
5. Knives
6. Lisa
7. Diane
8. Micki
FUBU Photos & Media & Official FUBU Video
More photographs I took from the Sunday race day: here.
However, mine was a drastically limited perspective of the event -- I also want to share some other people’s rich experiences (may require being logged into Facebook, and/or being in the respective person’s networks to view...).
Check out:
- Jonathan Nuss’s set -- Nuss always takes wicked shots (I’ve used a couple for this post); he’s an up and coming photographer
- Cindy Z’s album -- lots of great pics (by Brad Statham) from the slalom racing, which I missed out on as I was guarding the swag table with Bill.
- Michelle S’s album
- Rob C’s set on Flickr
- RPG’s set on Flickr
I’ll update this post with other photo and video links, as others upload them...
Bonus photo: From the archives -- OG OLF FUBU!
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| Back in the day... Photo by ?? (We miss you CT) |
Maybe I haven’t been going to enough skate throw-downs lately to judge this properly, but the organization for this session was phenomenal. Aubs, Christina Takaoka, Cindy Zhou: you should be extremely proud of your success holding this event. You’ve created a huge amount of stoke, in a way that was super fun and supportive -- and I look forward to seeing more women skating as a result of your efforts.
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| Organized organizers organizing the FUBU organization... Photo via Jonathan Nuss |
Props also go to the fellows helping with the logistics and other details: Ryan, Jonathan, Bill, Chris, Rob (C&S), Adam, Mike, Matt... Chivalry isn’t dead after all.
Thank you, sponsors
Thank you to FUBU’s generous sponsors! I was impressed with the support given in terms of prizes and general swag. It’s really important that vendors and distributors do everything they can to encourage women to participate. A little swag goes a long way...
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| Tons of awesome swag and prizes from our generous sponsors! |
• Loaded Boards
• Orangatang Wheels
• Sector 9
• Rayne Longboards
• Switchback Longboards
• Longboard Living
• S&J Sales
• Concrete Wave Magazine
• Skate Invaders
• UofT Longboarding
Congratulations once again to the organizers, the volunteers, and most especially the participants. I’m sure next year will be even bigger and better! Female skaters are a key part of our skate community -- I’m thrilled that inclusive events like FUBU are taking place.
Secret bonus: more archival FUBU photos...
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| A classic FUBU poster |
This weekend may have been the ‘1st Annual’ race, but as I mentioned above, the gals have been getting together for several years...
Herewith a brief selection which I am delighted to share with you...
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| FUBU ladies slashing up the Skywalk Photo: Janelle Leclair |
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| Janelle was a significant documenter of early OLF sessions. Her colourful and expressive photos contributed to my starting to hang out with the OLF crew... Everyone always looked so infectiously enthusiastic. Photo: Mickey Vonesh? |
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| Bex bringin’ the steeze. Photo: MV |
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| Pulchritude at the Poop Chute... Photo: ?? |
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| Female Fiesta! Another session poster |