Lucy Adams: Building belonging in skateboarding

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

Episode Transcript

Sue Anstiss (00:02):
Hello and welcome to The Game Changers.
I'm Sue Anstiss, and this isthe podcast where you'll meet
the fearless women drivingchange in sport.
From breaking records tobreaking down barriers, these
trailblazers are changing thestatus quo for women and girls
everywhere.
Each episode we'll dive into apowerful conversation that
explores not just theirincredible careers but also the

(00:24):
bigger issues shaping equalityin sport and far beyond.
A huge thank you to ourpartners at Sport England who
support The Game Changerspodcast through a national
lottery award.
My guest today is Lucy Adams, askateboarding pioneer, who has

(00:44):
been immersed in the sport forover two decades as a
professional skateboarder, acoach, a leader and a loud and
proud advocate for inclusiveprogression.
From winning national titles tolaunching her own boards and
making documentaries, lucy hascarried her passion into every
aspect of her work, whetherthat's founding 'Brighton's She
Shredders' to support girlsgetting into skateboarding,

(01:07):
commentating for the BBC at theOlympic Games or helping shape
the future of the sport asprogression project lead at
Skateboard GB, previously chairof Skateboard England and GB,
Lucy now focuses on developingand supporting the next
generation of Britishskateboarders, creating
environments for progressionwhilst navigating tensions
between what skateboarding was,what it is and what it could be.

(01:29):
So, Lucy, can you take us backto Crawley Skatepark in the late
90s, when you swapped yourroller boots for a skateboard?
What was it about skateboardingat that time?
That just clicked for you .

Lucy Adams (01:46):
Oh yeah so I think it was the fact that it seemed
magic, just the very sort ofpractice of skateboarders being
able to make this wooden plankwith wheels go into the air, and
I thought there must besomething 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 forme I could already tell there

(02:10):
was like this kind of culturalpiece about it.
This lifestyle, like those thatI were observing at the skate
park, were just brought intothis whole community here and
this is how we dress a bitdifferently and the music was
playing quite often on like boomboxes and things, and I just
thought, wow, this is sodifferent to.

(02:31):
I was a sporty child but it wasso different to what I'd
experienced in different sportsin the past a bit rounders at
school, very much.
You know you're out on thefield having fun, but it was
what you expected and thenswimming up and down in the pool
was just a bit monotonous forme.
The fun times of that came whenyou went to the gala and you got

(02:51):
on the coach and you were allexcited going to different
leisure center.
But you're just going to aleisure center in a different
place.
This skate park was like justso different and I mean yeah, so
yeah, combination of thatculture piece.
But just seeing the magic ofskateboarding, how hard,
wondering, how hard that must be.
How are they doing it?

Sue Anstiss (03:12):
and were you just walking back?
It was a.
There was a skate park that waslocal to you.
How did you had it come acrossyour radar, as it were?

Lucy Adams (03:18):
yes, it was so.
The swimming pool and the clubI swam for was crawly swimming
club and they were around theside of the pool.
They were building a park, soI'd seen a ramp before, just
like a metal half pipe.
Um, I was aware that there wasone in the town I lived, but
this town was sort of the nextone down and they were actually
building more to it than that,like a whole piece, and it was

(03:41):
like this wooden structure for afew weeks and like just sort of
skeleton of a form of a skatepark, and then, obviously, they
started to lay the plywood overit and each, each week, I was at
the pool, like looking out thewindow, and it was more like
coming together.
So then, once I was able to goout there and watch some of
those lads skateboarding, that'swhen I was like, oh, wow, like
yeah and you say those ladsskateboarding, so it was a very

(04:03):
male-dominated scene.

Sue Anstiss (04:09):
What gave you the confidence to enter that and to
get started?

Lucy Adams (04:11):
I think, because I'd had some of that experience
with my roller skates.
So my mum roller skatedactually she played roller
hockey, did she?
Yeah?
So we had a local roller discoevery couple of weeks or so in
our local leisure center andwe'd go there and we'd play that
and, um, I mean, I just don'tthink it would pass now, but you

(04:34):
know, we'd play games likethere was sit down tag and all
sorts and you'd, um, stuck inthe mud and roller skate.
So like sit down tag was crazybecause you got tagged and you
sat down.
So then you're like weaving inand 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.
I don't know, I'm sorry, I amfrom the 80s, but what's the

(04:54):
vinyl?
Is it a six inch, a seven inch?
Yeah, well, the smaller one, asmall record.
We'd been a small record and Iremember I won itsy bitsy, teeny
, weeny Yellow polka dot bikini.
Was that Timmy Mallet?
I won that for a game of sitdown tag.
But I had that experience likeshooting about, darting, about
being on roller skates.
So I was quite confident onwheels.

(05:14):
So I had them and I was likeDad, I need to go out there and
take my roller skates, becausehe was the one that took me to
swimming on the Friday.
So we'd go out, we'd get therea little bit before and I'd have
a little roller skate aroundand he'd sort of stand by the
side At the skate park.
Was that At this new skate?
park yeah, and I'd barely touchthe ramps.
There was a lot of flat groundspace.

(05:35):
I'd sort of just skate aroundthem and be a bit sort of scared
.
But some of the older boys saidto me like, or they, you know,
they just sort of didacknowledge me and they said, oh
, you need a skateboard, escape.
Skateboards are cool.
Like, essentially, what you'redoing is a bit rubbish.
You, you know, you could have a, get a skateboard like one of
these.
And they'd show me the thingsand like even the skateboard.

(05:57):
I was like, oh my god, that's socool, like the graphic on the
bottom and just how it looked.
And I was like, dad, I do needa skateboard.
And really fortunately he had acolleague of his, had obviously
been a skateboarder or playedabout with it, and he said, oh,
80s, got one, get you on thatfirst, see how you go.
So I was like, oh sorry, so Iwas.

(06:20):
I remember going um to my nan'shouse and she had a path, just
a pathway, in the middle of thegarden and I was just back and
forth, back and forth, back andforth up this path, just working
it out.
So once I had a bit about me, Icould go along on the thing I
was like.
Well, I'm taking that next weekand away we go.

Sue Anstiss (06:39):
I love that it was the lads that said come along,
you need to try this.
Did they always make you feellike you were included?
Did you ever face any kind ofpushback or discrimination there
?

Lucy Adams (06:49):
So I always reflect on this because there's periods
where I can remember bits likethat.
But in those early days I verymuch 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 andwere part of the group that you

(07:09):
know got the park built.
So there were the older onesbut there were new, younger
people to skateboard in becauseof this park, because it was big
for then.
You know, back then in the 90s,you still were getting little
half pipes built, little, verysmall things, little token
things, and this was quite largeand so it did bring out and
because it was of its situationbehind a leisure center, lots of

(07:32):
people you could see it.
So I think that at the time inthe late 90s, rollerblading was
was going through quite a bit ofa boom.
So actually quite a lot of theyounger crew were on blades, but
I wanted to be on theskateboard.
I knew that it was harder, likeit was definitely the hardest

(07:53):
one of the lot, but there weresome BMXs, there were some
rollerbladers and there was theskateboarders and I became more
friends with the youngerrollerblader crew, but everybody
sort of tried a bit ofeverything.
It was really nice, like somedays you'd get on someone else's
bike and you'd have a go atthat and then so yeah, I just
sort of felt part of the groupthat was learning and yeah, I

(08:15):
just it felt quite good.

Sue Anstiss (08:17):
And what was the gender balance like across the
park, across the?
You know, inline skating andthe BMX and this?

Lucy Adams (08:23):
oh, I was the only girl there, wow, only girl there
.
For years, I mean, girls wouldcome to the site like, and that
may have been friends with theboys or whatever, and but
generally they sat at the sideand sort of get on it and try
and maybe have a go, but I wasthe one that was there like day
in, day out doing it.

(08:44):
And that's, I guess, when, whenI started to travel a little bit
for skateboarding.
So when we got a bit olderbecause I started at I was 13,
going on 14, so it wasn't untilI was about 15, going on 16,
that I could take the trainindependently and things like
that and then some of those ladswere like we're going to go to
a skate park at this place orthis place on Saturday, and I
was like, oh, cool, so we'd allsort of go together.

(09:07):
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 otherpart, would obviously be like,
oh, it's a girl doing it andlike, yeah, so it was a bit.
I kind of noticed then that itwasn't like we were all the same
, I was different.

Sue Anstiss (09:27):
How did it make you feel at the time?

Lucy Adams (09:30):
I still didn't really mind it because I still
felt quite protected and in agroup of my own and actually
sometimes I went to an all girlsschool so I was completely like
the only skateboarder there andI felt I guess it was a bit
cool, like and that's whatskateboarding was.
It was cool and it was a bitlike a sort of a secret club and

(09:51):
like we had our own language,we had our own like music that
we listened to.
We had our own stuff that wewore.
You know, you got into theshoes that you know you needed
for skateboarding and you ranall these new brands that
weren't just sort of Nike,adidas and like your trainers
anymore.
There was like this skate orfootwear, and it was just like
finding all of that stuff, allthose different brands, was

(10:12):
really cool and so, like Iwasn't too scared to sort of
represent via that at school, Iquite liked it.
People were like, oh, what'syour bag?
I was like, oh, it's askateboard bag.
You know it was cool.
So, yeah, I was okay with it.
But going then, starting tomove out and travel to those
spots, that's when you'd hearabout, oh, there's another girl

(10:33):
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, Iwant to see her, I find her.
So it was like I did sort ofstart to pick up, like there are
other girls that do this in andaround sort of where I lived
and I wanted to find out whothey were and where they were.

Sue Anstiss (10:51):
I love that, almost like knowing there's another
little group or individuals outthere.
Was there a moment early onwhen you realized it.
I love the way you talk aboutyour passion for that culture,
but you felt it could, you know,be an important part of your
life moving forward, or did thatcome a bit later, but when
you're kind of 14, 15.

Lucy Adams (11:10):
So back then we sort of at the time I guess where
internet's come about but wedon't very much dial up Things
were slow.
I think we were still on likeNokia with snake, you know that
sort of screen.
So if you can imagine like itwas quite hard to connect the
dots, things were word of mouthand finding people and going

(11:32):
places was all done in the waywe had to do it.
You just went there.
We'd have a day off school andwe'd be arranging to go up to
Northampton to go to a skatepark.
For me that was like athree-hour journey on a train
and we were just going to gothere.
We didn't check if the placewas open.
That's where we're going toRavlands today.
We're going there and we justsort of did it and I suppose I

(11:56):
didn't think there was a careerin it or anything like that,
because that wasn't visible.
You didn't see people makingmoney out of doing skateboarding
.
But I just thought this is athing that I want to get better
at and I want to do more of allthe time.
Already skateboarding seemedinfinite to me from like the
whole progression side of things.
Like you can learn that trickand that can go to a variation

(12:17):
on that trick.
I mean, there's so much thatyou can keep doing, you can't.
You can't completeskateboarding, like it just
keeps going.
And then you, through videosand things like more exposure
and traveling, you saw thingsthat you wanted to skate,
different things, because it'snot like a court or a pitch or a
the, the thing that you play ondoesn't stay the same, it's

(12:38):
everything is different.
So you might find thatcombination of rail and ramp and
that is at that place, but butthen if you go to that place
they've got a differentcombination of it and so, like
again, it's just infinite howthe field of play definitely use
that word in skateboarding atthe moment whilst it's
competitive, but the skate parkor the landscape, because we

(12:59):
skate in the streets as well,right.
So like I was really keen forthat, I'm a small, I was from a
small town and our sort ofstreet skating was pretty
non-existent.
We had like a central kind ofbit in town we'd skate at, but
you know, once sunday tradinglaws all went the other way,
that just became every sundayyou'd be there at those places

(13:21):
and they were dead and you knowyou could skate there all you
liked, but then it got harderand harder to sort of skate in
in spots.
We call them spots.
It's a place where you you knowyou skate on, but you'd see
that in, like america, and you'dsee them in australia and
through for exposure, throughvideos or people telling you
where these things were, andyou'd be like I've got to go
there.
I've got to go there to skatethat spot, and skate tourism is

(13:44):
a massive thing it's really sadin a way, isn't it?

Sue Anstiss (13:47):
when you think about all those girls that have
missed out on the chance toenjoy something as from when you
were first taking part.
So my, uh, youngest tessdiscovered skateboarding maybe a
couple years ago on holiday andgot 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 feelof the boards and everything

(14:08):
about it, but how sad that somany girls kind of missed out on
that.
But why is that?
Was that the lads made it sothat they didn't feel that they
were welcome?
Was it the fear of falling andgetting hurt?
Was it the culture?
What do you think it was?

Lucy Adams (14:25):
Yeah, I do think that definitely back then, the
generation that we're gettinginto skateboarding were
definitely a bit older than whatthey 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 sortof yeah, having the confidence,
like you say, to just go for it,knowing like falling is part of

(14:46):
our journey, we do, it's, it'sgoing to happen pretty much
every session.
You're going to take some sortof like like wobble, but to just
be out there and do that infront of potentially a lot of
like your peers but a big groupof boys yeah, you've got to
really be okay with that, and Ithink I might have just got into

(15:06):
it just before.
That became quite a prominentsort of that.
13 to 14.
But then year 9 and 10 is thatbit where suddenly everything
like the world must be watchingme and, like you know, you just
feel self-conscious abouteverything like Like.
Just back then, like walkinginto a skate shop was quite a
daunting thing because it wasgenerally like early 20 lads

(15:30):
sort of working in there.
It seemed like it's a specialplace that you sort of had to
have a code to get into, and sothe parks probably did feel a
little bit like that as well toa certain extent.
Whereas, like now, I think thatkids are getting into it a lot
younger and so they're alreadykind of getting that experience

(15:50):
in the environment before thatmaybe that change of like that
identity piece starts to come inand has an impact for people.
And also because kids aregetting into it a bit younger,
nowadays that generally meansthat a parent or somebody is
with them at the place, so theseparks are much more family

(16:12):
oriented environment, whereasthen it was teenagers and, like,
I guess, early 20s really, andthere were much older people
that did take part inskateboarding, but for the most
part it was dominated by thatgroup.
So teenage boys through toearly 20-year-old men yeah, it's
hard.

Sue Anstiss (16:32):
Yeah, it's really interesting, though, isn't it
how you begin to shift that?
I've heard you say thatskateboarding is more than a
sport.
You cannot hear that from theway that you talk about, I guess
, whether it is the shoes andthe music and all that, but how
would you describe its role onyour identity of who you are
today and what skateboarding isto you?

Lucy Adams (16:51):
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 olderthan us, all in the same

(17:13):
environment and pass on the kindof info, like that peer-to-peer
learning.
That for me it was a reallyimportant thing and and still is
, in terms of like who I guess Imeet and spend time with and
who I kind of value within mylife now.
But like, yeah, also down tothe material things, like the

(17:33):
shoes, the clothes, likeeverything about that is sort of
like how I've come to knowmyself and how I feel feel
comfortable and confident tothen also, yeah, just travel,
because travel is so importantin terms of connection and
skateboarding.
Like I said, like you're, you'rechasing down to go to these far

(17:54):
off places where there'sdifferent spots and parks to
skate, but then also then thissort of shared, the
skateboarding is this sharedlanguage of like right, well, I
can see you're doing it too.
We're friends, we're instantlyfriends, 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 youngerand walking down my local high

(18:20):
street and seeing somebody in apair of skate shoes with like
ripped laces and a bit ofscuffing, and you'd be like
you're right, you know likethere's an acknowledgement
straight away, like you do whatI do, and it's them and so we're
cool.
So yeah, I think I couldn'timagine it's in everything.
Like you know, I can be driving, driving, walking whatever down
the road, or sitting on thetrain, looking out the window
and see something and go, ohthat looks good to skate, like

(18:42):
about everything, likearchitecture, everything you
know.

Sue Anstiss (18:45):
And what's the gender balance like now?
I know it's very broad acrossskateboarding.
Is it still much of a boys'club, do you think, or has that
shifted since those late 80s,early 90s?

Lucy Adams (18:56):
It's definitely shifted.
We don't have sort of figuresand stats are sort of bandied
about everywhere, so I couldn'treally put a number on it, but
you can feel now, just by, youknow, just if I went to a skate
park on a Saturday, I wouldn'tbe surprised to see two, three
other sort of girls, women sortof're taking part and and now,

(19:21):
you know, there's so much moreprovision as well.
So there's definitely likegroup sessions, um, and stuff
like that and it's busy, youknow.
So if people are putting onlike a a women and girls or
women, non-binary, marginalizedgender 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 wesort of tried, like you

(19:42):
mentioned in in their intro,when we set up she shredders and
I can't really remember theyear, but it must have been
around 2010 or something likethat it was quite a while ago
and it was quite hard, you know,for the first six months trying
to justify that session becausethe numbers were sort of so low

(20:03):
.
But it was like you've got tostick with this, we've got to
make sure that people are awareand keep going.
Why are these groups calledlike hard to reach groups or
whatever it is, you know,because you've got to stick at
it, you've got to do it andyou've got to prove that you're
around for for the long haul,for this, to to capture those
people and and not everyone'sgoing to go.

(20:24):
Oh, I've seen that I might dothat like straight away.
It takes some time and it takesa, but we were there and we, we
went through it and we gotourselves out there and now like
yeah, these groups arehappening weekly.
So like that group has reallyevolved that she showed that I
set up and it happens once aweek at the little skate park in
Brighton and they're busy, likeyou know 15 to 20 people.

Sue Anstiss (20:45):
And you came out in that sort of male-dominated
subculture, a time when LGBTQplus visibility in sport wasn't
where it is today.
So what was that experiencelike for you Early 2000s, I
assume?

Lucy Adams (21:01):
is today.
So what was that experiencelike for you, early 2000s, I
assume?
Yeah, it definitely felt, Iguess because I was like one of
the boys for a long, long time.
This is where it probablystarted to get difficult was
when the boys suddenly didbecome interested in girls and I
didn't necessarily like fit.
I wasn't fitting into some ofthose sort of conversations or

(21:22):
the groups, or I started to feelexcluded because obviously they
wanted to talk about stuff, butthey didn't really want to talk
about it in front of me andthen, or if they did, I'd
obviously be like I don't knowif we say that or if we say like
that or you know.
So I started to become a bitlike oh yeah, this is all sort
of becoming a bit awkward.
And um, then I think whathappened was some, definitely

(21:46):
some, of the more famous womenskateboarders.
Maybe the internet got betterat this point, but, um, you know
, you become aware that they,they were gay and so it was, I
guess, some of the role modelsthat I had.
That was kind of cool to knowthat that was possible.
And these women skateboardersweren't like sort of superhero,

(22:08):
famous people as much as likethe best of the men
skateboarders, but you'd startto hear about them more and some
companies were backing them.
So yeah, so that was quite niceto know and some companies were
backing them.
So yeah, so that was quite niceto know.
And then, as I just met morewomen and girls through
skateboarding in this country,it seemed like there was quite a
large percentage of people werequeer, which is just sort of

(22:30):
nice to sort of feel part of acommunity, really, that there
were other people like me andthat grew quite a bit.
It took a long time inskateboarding for there to be
like an out male sort of proskateboarder, but when it
happened, I think it really feltsuper positive because of how

(22:51):
sort of famous he was and howwell well renowned and respected
he was.
People just really backed thathard um, and it felt like that
that was, that whole piece wasquite an inclusive and
celebrated thing.
So yeah, it was.
It was.

Sue Anstiss (23:09):
It's always felt to me that skateboarding is quite
inclusive of lgbt stuff and haveyou thought it's important to
you to make queer women and menand non-binary people feel that
it is a sport for them?
Do you feel that you need tochampion the visibility side?
But is that an important partof who you are within the sport?
Do you feel?

Lucy Adams (23:29):
Yeah, I really do, because skateboarding is so
individual.
We're not part of a team in anyway or whatever, but we
differently form like crews andlittle groups and things like
that and so and it could havebeen and it has been quite
cliquey.
So I definitely feel like youknow, you should try and speak

(23:53):
up or use the platform.
I have to just talk about mereally 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'tmake any kind of secret about
that and we've always been quiteproud about that and that's,
yeah, definitely I've got a lotof support from that yeah, and

(24:17):
had a huge impact for, I'm sure,kind of thousands of young
people too.

Sue Anstiss (24:21):
It's kind of very powerful stuff, isn't it?
You were crowned UK championmultiple times and I wonder what
those accolades mean to youpersonally, especially when
you're trying to balance, Iimagine, but that competitive
success, with skateboarding'sroots in freedom and rebellion
and creativity and so on, it'salso a bit a bit of conformity,
isn't it amongst it.
So how does that sit with you?

Lucy Adams (24:42):
Yeah, good question.
Yeah, because I have probablysaid this quite a few times, but
definitely, even as I got olderin skateboarding the
competition side of things themain thing about it, and I guess
the main pull to take part incompetition was the fact that

(25:04):
you get to be with other womenand girls, because even though,
like, we'd started to find outwhere each other were, the
internet did come and that wholesocial piece definitely made
like the connections form a loteasier.
You could speak to people, youcould see more like you could,
you know, you can create yourown sort of feeds to what you
want to see and you would see it.

(25:24):
Like back in the days ofdial-up, I was refreshing, like
the same website which wascalled um I can't remember what
it's called, but it was.
It was about women and girlsskateboarding, refreshing for
new content and it took weeks,like weeks went by and then
there'd be some new contentcompetition.
You, you've got to be in agroup, skate in a park together,
bouncing off each other, like,oh, I can do this and oh, she

(25:47):
can do that.
And like, oh, no, now she coulddo that.
Like I can do it too, and likesort of seeing it because you
skate with the lads.
But like there was definite sortof sometimes things fell out of
your reach, like they could dothem, but you're like, oh, I've
never I don't know, I don't knowthat's.
You know he's a big rail orsomething, something about it.
And I was like wasn'tnecessarily as reckless.

(26:09):
I was like, yeah, I wouldn'thave ever called myself like a
gnarly skateboarder.
I didn't want to just likethrow myself off of things.
I wanted to like learn theintricacies of it, and I still
do like all the technical sortof side of it.
But yeah, you got to see othergirls doing things and women
doing things and it was like itgives you like that boost and
that motivation.
And but again, like I you knowI make no bones about it, I was

(26:32):
competitive.
I did like the fact that you'vegot a bit of time to put
together some stuff and showpeople and like I don't care
about being judged or whateverand didn't necessarily always
agree with the result orwhatever, but like you still got
that time to put yourself outthere and I think that that is a
real part of skateboarding.

(26:52):
And you see it now in the wholesort of digital age where
instagram is such a massivething for skateboarding, like if
you didn't film it and uploadit to Instagram?
Did you really do it?
It is so important to be sharingyour content and for
skateboarders everywhere.
So, yeah, it's a definite thingto kind of get yourself, put

(27:13):
yourself out there.
So I did enjoy competing, forsure.

Sue Anstiss (27:18):
And you've worked with some incredible brands
across the time.
So what have been the mostmeaningful partnerships to you?
And I'm interested to know whatmakes a great partnership?
So where do you think feelingsupported and impactful?
Where does that really matterfor athletes?

Lucy Adams (27:33):
yeah, and I think in in skateboarding.
So I will talk about some of myother things.
But I think in skateboardingit's still there's a real lack
of kind of good support forskateboarders.
Knowing how much skateboarderswork and put their bodies on the
line, I think you'll probablyget like a real small percentage

(27:56):
of top tier skateboardersgetting any kind of proper
support, small percentage of toptier skateboarders getting any
kind of proper support.
And for me those sort of earlydays partnerships were very much
based on recognition, I suppose.
And then getting free productand and obviously like as a
young skateboarder, like that isthat is super helpful, that

(28:16):
this stuff doesn't come cheap.
I mean it's quite accessible.
You can be going, or youcertainly could sort of in the
days when I started you could begoing on a pretty top tier
board for about 120 quid andthat will last you.
You know it's a wooden board,you can snap it, but generally
you can last on that for quitesome time, like six months to a

(28:37):
year.
Yeah, so getting free gear,shoes, gear shoes, boards, the
components, like it was good andyou would certainly got super
grateful.
But I guess as you, as youdevelop in skateboarding, you
start traveling more.
Some of the partnerships I hadstarted to support with a bit of
a travel budget, um, which wasnot necessarily always able to

(29:01):
sort of pay the lot.
But you know, you were gettinga little bit of help here and
there and then I guess once youstarted to get on bigger brands,
that became a little bit moresort of helpful in terms of
right, you've got somewhere tostay and a way to get there and
some connections.
You know, in terms of.
Probably the best support I hadwas from vans and it was good

(29:26):
like it lasted quite some timeand I got a sort of small
contribution by way of travelbudget and some monthly money.
But I think if you think abouthow much like, if you're a
skateboarder and you get injuredand it's quite a serious injury
, there's nothing by way ofsupport for that really like I

(29:46):
don't know many people that weregetting anything to help them
in terms of like rehab ortreatment or costs like that.
So you're just in there with therest of us, like sort of NHS
kind of waiting and hoping.
And that's why I think so manyskateboarders get back on the
board and get back on the boardtoo quickly that I remember
seeing like people that wouldjust be skating in wrist

(30:08):
supports and ankle supports allof the time and thinking like
you know, yeah, you've had a badwrist 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 sortof the bits that hurt on us all
the time and that's becausewe've never really had them
treated properly or or rehabbedin the way we have.
So I think that there's thatthere's a gap there in

(30:28):
skateboarding that brands andand any kind of sponsors of
skateboarders should reallystart to look into and help in
that respect, because it's it isbad.
You know, you can really sortof hurt yourself in this game.

Sue Anstiss (30:43):
Both for men and for women.
You feel there there needs tobe more sponsorship and support
from the brands.

Lucy Adams (30:50):
Yeah, I think there's the way it is, the way
you kind of see it is in theindustry.
You've got like biggersportswear brands sort of
backing in skateboarding againnow, and so they are generally,
as I say, supporting a smallpercent of top tier riders and
that support is good, like youcan imagine, like any sort of
thing where it's to do with ashoe brand, that they somebody

(31:12):
might be getting a colorway of ashoe or they might even be
getting their own pro shoe.
Then there's some serious moneythere and there's help.
You definitely see the peoplesupporting putting out content
of them in the gym and themgetting help when they've got
some injury or talking abouttheir well-being and things like

(31:33):
that.
But then there's this levelbelow where there's a lot of
talent, I guess, that arepushing that bit, but we're back
to just sort of free product.
They're sort of swimming aroundin this area trying to push for
a bit more, but they're theones that are generally like
really sort of breakingthemselves because they're
trying so hard to get to thatnext, to unlock that next kind

(31:57):
of level and try and make acareer out of skateboarding.
And and that's why I guess youget these different bits of
skateboarding like.
So competition, can you know itcan be really good prize money
in our competitions like the xgames and the bigger ones, and
even like our now our worldgoverning body world skate.
You can, you can win someserious money, but it's quite as

(32:17):
hard to do that.
And then then you've got theother skateboarders that are
trying to go down the kind ofcontent producing road to stand
out.
But trying to stand out in andamongst 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 bitlucky.

(32:38):
Maybe this is a bit of a segueinto, but like with Skateboard
GB, in terms of the sort of workthat I'm doing to support some
of those up and comingskateboarders in the realm of
competition we get to offer,like the TAS, supports at the
Talented Athlete ScholarshipScheme and like we're really
noticing how that's helpingthose young skateboarders

(32:58):
because they get to look likethey get to be aware of how to
look after themselves, where thesort of generational fluency
piece in skateboarding is great.
But it can also be a little bitproblematic 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

(33:18):
or whatever.
Like, yeah, hit heels, it'lljust heal, you know, and like
some of that kind of folklorethat gets passed down isn't so
helpful, like it's actually like.
You know, why is it hard foryou to press the buttons on your
keyboard?
Because you, your hands, aremental, because they're broken,
because you never, ever checkedthem.
But we're falling down all thetime on, like hands and wrists
and arms, and you know that'sone.

(33:39):
I think skateboarding is cryingout for that more support for
your kind of your body and yourmind.

Sue Anstiss (33:45):
So you were chair of Skateboard England and
Skateboard GB.
How did it feel to be I guessyou're a bit of an insider
working with them and also, Iimagine, a bit of a disruptor
within the governing body?
So what was the setup likethere for those organizations?

Lucy Adams (34:01):
So in 2015 we founded Skateboard England.
There'd been a couple of sortof pushes in the past to have
some kind of formal body to berecognized, but I think that
mainly came in and credit whereit's due to those groups,
because they definitely helpedwith a voice in terms of getting
good or better skate park andfacilities built at a time where

(34:23):
councils were having some moneyand there was funding there to
be building some better skateparks or a kind of our state of
skate parks in the UK were kindof getting a bit dilapidated
from when they first got builtand they were built in steel and
wood.
And then the groups that weresort of trying to become
something, maybe a governingbody, maybe just trying to get a

(34:44):
bit of a voice, I guess, withinthe kind of wider sort of
sporting world.

Sue Anstiss (34:49):
There's groups of skaters.
Sorry, Liz, is this groups ofskaters regionally?
Yeah, groups of skateboarders.

Lucy Adams (34:54):
Yeah, nationally, nationally trying to do
something to say, right, look,if you're going to build skate
parks, councils, you need to doit in a certain way.
They need to be, they need tobe good, we need to start making
better places out there.
And so they did really good jobwith stuff like that, even in
terms of like coaching.
I remember like people sort ofgiving skateboarding lessons in
the early days, like there wasnever any kind of regulation to

(35:18):
it, um, and those groupscertainly tried to say, right,
let's try and do this in a saferway.
But then by 2015, therecertainly became a need to make
something a bit bigger, a bitmore um, a bit more structured,
um, and then to try and getrecognised by the life sport
England and things, and it wasbefore we knew that
skateboarding was in theOlympics.

(35:38):
So, 2015 and we started upSkateboard England and kind of
by default, I was the chair,really like nobody wanted to do
it and somebody suggested me andeveryone 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 quitesort of working out.
We didn't have any funding oranything, so we were just trying
to kind of work towards what itmight be to be a governing body

(36:01):
.
And then we got the news in Ithink it was 2016 that we were
going to tokyo 2020.
So then there became a bit moreof a like okay, this needs to
be right.
Suddenly there needs to be a gbvehicle here and, um, you know,
people like uk sport arestarting to engage in terms of
are we going to have any chanceat this thing, like blah, blah,

(36:24):
you know, start talking.
So we spawned skateboard gb aswell, and then we did a bit of a
restructure and the whole thingis just a skateboard gb now,
with some home countries as wellthat do exist.
But yeah, I did that for fiveyears as a voluntary chair, so
2015 to 2020.
And it was a slog because wewent through so much sort of

(36:45):
change and so much of learningnew information, taking it on
and then working out how we getto that point, how we keep
ticking off the boxes, I guessgovernance-related stuff, like
to the funding we get to thatpoint, how we, how we keep, like
, ticking off the boxes, I guessgovernance related stuff, like
to the funding, how we wereengaging the community, because
obviously that was reallyimportant because skateboarders

(37:05):
never had this sort of governingbody before and there was a lot
of pushback on why do we needto be organized like this?
And and then a lot of peoplewould sort of make that or had
the perspective of well, you'reonly forming the thing because
you're going to the Olympics andwe 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 aone dimensional thing.
But we had every intention ofright now, we just want to be a

(37:28):
kind of a body or a vehicle thatsupports 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 aboutit in terms of facility
development.
But you can imagine like soyou've got local authorities,
most of the outdoor skate parksonto your local authority park

(37:51):
and so there's a tenderingprocess that happens and got the
likes of play companies thatthat are great at making swings
and slides, but they'll have acatalogue now of prefab skate
equipment and a council is veryyou know it could be take the
easy option to go oh, we've got150 grand budget.
Oh, it's nice to see it in acatalogue.

(38:12):
We'll have that ramp, that ramp, that ramp, that ramp, that
ramp go for it, put it there.
And that serves that ramp Gofor 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'sthe ownership of the design and
the space and the maintenanceand all sorts.
So the body itself is like todo that to sort of safeguard

(38:34):
that sort of stuff.
But the Olympics did like to dothat to sort of safeguard that
sort of stuff.
But the olympics did come alongand yeah, it just kind of got
more challenging and I thinkevery volunteer will probably
tell you.
But it has a shelf life and youcan only do it for so long or
so sort of passionately for solong.
It was getting to the pointwhere it was sort of breaking me
in terms of trying to hold downa full-time job and be a
skateboarder still right, youknow one that did it a lot and

(38:56):
yeah, so I couldn't really keepup with it and it deserved to be
someone that could put a bitmore time in.
But also I wanted to have a jobwhere I could say, like, my job
is about skateboarding.
So if this thing ever did gettraction and we got funding, I
was like, oh, I want to have ajob, so yeah.
So I stepped down and took abit of a break from it.

(39:17):
But yeah, fortunately we did doall right and got some funding
and I've got a role there now.

Sue Anstiss (39:22):
So what's your role today Is Progression Project
Lead.
So what does that entail?
What's your day to day?

Lucy Adams (39:28):
Yes, so we got funding from UK Sport as a
progression sport.
So in terms of like the bigones know the big governing
bodies, it's like a world-classperformance program.
They're looking for money tosupport athletes and the pathway
in terms of like trying to getkind of to the medals.
But we were more about we werein a group of sports that were
right, like you guys.
There's definite need to buildout a pathway here in the way

(39:52):
that's relevant to your sportsand so like we've taken the
pressure off in terms of fundingfor kind of a medal target.
But it's more about likedomestic competition for us was
big, like what's going on?
There wasn't really much goingon.
So how are we going to build abit of a pathway with
competitions to supportskateboarders?
How are we going to look atcoaching again, like I mentioned

(40:13):
earlier, but like no one hadreally like looked at what
coaching means for skateboardingand I told you earlier it's
like so peer-to-peer, like youreally you're there and
everybody's kind of up forgiving you advice and and as a
skateboarder even one that isn'tdoesn't care about competitions
and has got nothing to do withit you'll still be on a journey

(40:33):
whereby even a top pro that'snever entered a competition,
will go out with a filmer, goout with a photographer, and
they'll be giving you hints andtips.
Like through my lens, I cantell 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 youdo.
So we coaching existed, but inthis really like lovely, organic

(40:56):
way, and a lot of people willsay that's what makes it so
special and oh, don't lose that.
That's, you know, that's reallygreat about what your, your
sport, your your activity and sosort of capturing that in our
any kind of coaching offer thatwe built.
So this is my role really, justsort of looking at our
skateboarders in our pathway,those that might want to be

(41:16):
competitive skateboarders andmaybe go along to different
competitions, go tointernational staff and try and
like make their like inroadsinto that area.
But, um, I've also, yeah, justlooking at how we create in a
community of people around thatcompetitive skateboarding.
So, with the judging, like howare we getting more judges that

(41:37):
are skilled and good at whatthey do to provide integrity to
the pathway?
And looking at, even in theevents there's so many roles
like there's the MC, there's theevent manager, there's the DJ
and just building that communityof people around what we do to
keep it skateboarding, to keepthat culture there.

Sue Anstiss (41:57):
Does it almost feel like a bit of an impossible
task to your job.
But that goal towardsconforming in competitions on
versus it's almost a questionthat we asked before of the
cultural alternative.
It's very doesn't really carefor the rules, it's all, all of
those things.
It does feel like there's two,not two different sports.

(42:17):
But I'm just interested to know, in terms of the Olympic and
being an Olympic sport, wouldthe average skateboarder say
it's been fantastic for thesport or has it changed the
sport.

Lucy Adams (42:28):
Yeah, there's a definite dichotomy, that's the
word I was after yeah.
I think they can they do theyare coexisting.
But I think they can that theydo they are co-existing.
But I think we can continue onthat track.
Because it's funny about yourquestion if you say if you ask
an average skateboarder, one areprobably hard to find an
average skateboarder.
But I suppose sort of likeyou're more core skateboarder,

(42:49):
like core to the culture andcore to the the industry and and
connection to justskateboarding in the streets and
as a at its heart is probably abit indifferent to it because
it's like, well, that bitdoesn't really touch me.
I think there's still like thatfeeling well, I can still go out
and just go along to the curbsor the, whatever I want to skate

(43:12):
and just do it and it doesn't,you know, neither thing really
have to kind of touch each other.
But I think that there's adefinite move or shift towards
okay, with some of whatskateboarding that in more of
the mainstream and the Olympicshas brought the sport in terms
of funding to facilities, morelike sort of longevity in

(43:37):
certain careers, that inskateboarding itself, but in
terms of like the coaching andthe like, people do earn a
living off of being askateboarding coach now, like
having skate school, going intoschools and delivering
skateboarding, and like I onlyknow, like if somebody had come
into my school when I was ninewith skateboards, I'd have been

(43:58):
into it on that day I would havebeen like this is the thing for
me and it would have been fouryears earlier like having that
thing that I loved.
So I think you know that peoplecan't.
That that's only a great thing,that that's that's out there
happening.
The exposure to to people isgreat, but it it still can be
tricky because, yeah, it's likewondering if we might go too far

(44:22):
down a path of something that'snot really skateboarding.
And then is it two separatethings like competitive
skateboarding and skateboarding,but at the moment they're kind
of sort of coexisting enough.
It gets a bit deep here if Ikeep talking about it.

Sue Anstiss (44:42):
No, it's interesting though, and
interesting to know where itmight be in five, ten years.
You know you haven't gotcrystal ball, but knowing where
it goes and I guess that's partof your role in the work that
you're doing now is to sitacross those two areas and to
enable them both to thrive yeah,and it's like a push there,
like sometimes, because it'scertainly.

Lucy Adams (45:02):
I guess, if you look at olympic skateboarding, in
both of those olympic games, theaverage age of the women's
podium, I think well, in tokyois like 14, in paris it might
have been a little bit older,but we're still talking about
teenagers, and so you can't helpbut then think, oh, like, where
have other sports, where havethere been pitfalls in other

(45:25):
sports with this type of thing?
Because, like I'm seeing ithappening in within the pathway,
like the kids, the kids we haveare kids, they're children, you
know, and so how you supportchildren that want to go on that
journey and kind of keep afocus on the fact that they are
children and they're inchildhood, and that's a really

(45:47):
unique kind of state of being.
But then also, like, how areyou going to kind of provide
relevant competitionopportunities and how are you
going to kind of give them thatsort of experience, the
competition pressure and all thestuff that is really there if
you're going to go to an OlympicGames and you're a teenager?
It's quite tricky, it'sdefinitely making like getting

(46:09):
me kind of worked up now andagain.

Sue Anstiss (46:12):
I've heard people talk about your work ethic.
I think someone actually saidyou're too productive for the
human race.
But how do you find thatbalance between skating yourself
and work and family andadvocacy and all those things?
You're clearly juggling yeah,definitely.

Lucy Adams (46:28):
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'san outlet.
Isn't it like so obvious?
Like it's somewhere I go to dosomething that's like just
focused on it.
You know, with skateboardingyou have to just be focused on

(46:49):
it because you're gonna, you'regonna fall anyway, but you'll do
more falls if you, if you'renot like keeping your eye on it.
But yeah, and I just love kindof being out there and
progressing and I think the likewhen you don't go as much, you
then just cover an old groundoff.
Each session is like right, canI keep my tricks rather than
like gaining new ones, can Ijust keep the ones I've got?

(47:10):
I miss the progression in theskateboarding when I when I'm
doing it at the moment.
So it's definitely I findworking within skateboarding
it's every day and it's all dayand I do love it and it keeps me
excited, but then I do miss theactual doing of it.
But, as you said, havingchildren, that's been big for me

(47:32):
in these last four years andthe second one coming along
definitely made it.
I almost thought with the firstone.
He was getting to an age whereI was like we could go to the
skate park now and spend timethere together and be there and
yeah.
So sort of stopped thathappening right now.
But yeah, I've just got tocarve out a bit more time.

(47:55):
It's easier said than done.

Sue Anstiss (47:56):
And what do you think you'll do in the future?
How long do you think you'llskateboard for?

Lucy Adams (48:00):
Well, the beauty of skateboarding is that we don't
have people announcingretirements.
You don't do that.
I'm a skateboarder.
So I hope I see my kids gettinga bit bigger and then I'll be
really back to it, becausehopefully they'll enjoy, enjoy
it whatever.
They might not skateboard, butthey might still enjoy the
community and the environment ofthe skate park.

Sue Anstiss (48:20):
And so, yeah, I see myself back there getting all
my tricks back and just gettingbetter again, hopefully
fantastic and just finally, ifyou could share a message with a
girl or a young woman or awoman picking up a skateboard
for the first time today, whatmight that be?

Lucy Adams (48:39):
I think everybody was a beginner once you know, so
you are going to beapprehensive, but everybody was
in that position, so don'tforget that.
Because everybody had that oh,and everybody still gets it.
Every time I skate I'll get akind of oh, like a little
adrenaline rush of like oh, myGod, like I nearly went there or

(49:01):
you're going to get them.
But I think for me and if, like, you're interested in
skateboarding and something'slike kind of tickled that desire
, like when you do make thetricks, it feels so good and
when you are rolling away fromsomething that you thought you
were never going to make, likeit's a great feeling and it
keeps you, keeps you coming backfor more lovely to talk to lucy

(49:29):
and it's almost made me thinkI'd like to try skateboarding,
but I think I might be a littletoo late for me now If you'd
like to hear from othertrailblazers like Lucy.

Sue Anstiss (49:37):
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