By Carolyn Schuk

 

If you had to describe Nicole West in two words, they would be "free spirit." The athletic ninth grader is always ready to try something new, and she wants to do it her own way.

 

But what makes this slender girl with the friendly, open smile unique is that she's a skateboarder, one of the few girls in a heavily male sport.

 

West has played other sports including track and basketball – "anything that's fun," she says. But skating is her passion. Her middle school graduation present was skateboarding equipment – Spitfire wheels, Tensor trucks (axles) and Bones bearings.

 

Skateboarding is a perfect match with West's independent style. "It's not like any other sport. You can put it together in any way that reflects your style."

 

West describes herself as a "street skater" – taking the paved, urban terrain as its challenge rather than the bowls and ramps of "vert" skateboarding.

 

"When I started taking it seriously, I wanted to skate almost everything," she recalls. "The skate park where we lived wasn't really god, so I just started going where there were stairs and interesting things to skate."

 

She doesn't think of herself particularly as a 'girl skateboarder.'

 

"I grew up in a neighborhood where there were only boys," West explains. "All my friends were boys." And since her friends were skateboarders, it seemed natural to try it. "I thought, well they're doing it and they're my friends."

 

She learned the way most skateboarders do: by watching other skaters and through the camaraderie of skateboarding community. "We learned together by teaching each other. Most skaters are pretty nice," she adds, "and will help you if you're trying to learn."

 

When she's never had a problem being accepted by the skateboarding fraternity, it's a different story when it comes to school, where, she says, skateboarders – male or female -- get a "bad rap."

 

"Teachers at school think you're going to mess up everything at the school, that you're going to wax everything so you can grind it." (Grinding is sliding along a hard, smooth edge like a curb or rail, and skateboarders sometimes wax the edge to make it slicker.)

 

She does try to promote skateboarding among the girls she knows by teaching them to skate and lending them equipment. "I know a lot of girls at school who want to get into it, but they don't have the money to do it or don't have someone to teach them."

 

While West skates everyday – her definition of "serious" – she also enjoys downtime, spending time with friends and playing video games. Her current favorites? "Rock Band and Guitar Hero."

 

Carolyn Schuk can be reached at cschuk@earthlink.net.