Skateboarding mums come out of the closet

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Say "skateboarding," and most people think of underachieving, preadolescent boys personified by television's cartoon slacker Bart Simpson.


Say "mum," and skateboarding is probably the last thing to come to most people's minds.


Barbara Odanaka, the founder of the International Society of Skateboarding Mums, wants to change all that.


"I like to challenge the stereotypes of mums and skaters," said Odanaka, who lives in Laguna Beach, California, with her husband and 7-year-old son. "Not all skaters are 12-year-olds challenging authority."


Still, most women who like to skateboard think they're the only ones who practice the sport, even though it was popular among girls as well as boys during its heyday in the 1970s.


"Thirty years ago, it was so acceptable to be a girl skater," said Odanaka, 41. "To me, it stands to reason that I couldn't be the only one who has grown up and still obsesses about it."


Her organisation seeks to help these women find each other. Through her Web site www.skateboardmom.com and media coverage including a recent appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America," the group has grown to about 70 women from two since February.


Members, who don't have to pay any dues or fees, are from across the United States, as well as Britain, Canada, Argentina, Australia, France and Denmark. They range from beginners to competitive racers, and despite the organisation's name, motherhood is not a requirement.


"I encourage all women," Odanaka said, "but especially women of a certain age."


Among these women is 80-year-old Liz Bevington of Santa Monica, California, who took up skateboarding 28 years ago when her son Jason was a child.


"I thought it would be fun," said Bevington, who has earned the nickname Skateboard Mama.


SKATE-O-RAMA


She and 18 other women showed their stuff in May -- on Mothers Day -- at the group's first "Mighty Mama Skate-O-Rama" in Laguna Niguel, California. A second gathering, in New York in late June, drew seven participants.


Other skate-o-ramas are planned for Long Beach, California, and Portland, Oregon, in August and Newburyport, Massachusetts, in September.


In New York, Odanaka and the other skateboarders showed off their best moves and helped each other learn new ones.


Lisa Woodward, who with her teen-age daughters races in the American Cup Slalom Series for skateboarders, had never tackled a ramp before but was happy to find that she could handle it fairly easily.


Alison McGuire skated on two boards at once, a move that drew admiring glances from parkgoers.


The 38-year-old mother of two came up from Exton, Pennsylvania. "You never find another mum to skate with," she said.


At each event, members also take part in the group's Rolling for Reading program to promote children's literacy. In New York, the women handed out free books to children in the city parks where they skateboarded.


A former sports reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Odanaka has written her own children's book, and it's about her skateboarding obsession. "Skateboard Mom" is the story of a mother who rediscovers her passion for the sport when her son receives a board for his birthday.


John Allen of New York had brought his 7-year-old son Miles, a skateboarding fan, to see the group in New York after reading about them in a local newspaper.


"You don't see a lot of women" on skateboards, Allen said.


YOUNG AND MALE


Statistics bear that out.


Of the 2.3 million Americans who skateboard at least once a week, nearly 90 percent are under 18, according to SGMA International, a trade association for sporting goods manufacturers and retailers. Only about 1.1 percent are between the ages of 35 and 44.


The number of frequent skateboarders aged 45 and older is "too small to calculate," said SGMA spokesman Mike May. "This is obviously a sport skewed to the young."


And toward males, who make up about 76 percent of all skateboarders.


Outside of the racing circuit, "I never met another adult woman skater until I was 36," said Woodward, who is 37.


But Odanaka expects her Web site and organisation will bring together what she believes are a significant number of "closet" skateboarding women.


"It's not like the Million Man March," she said, "but I'll expect a few hundred by next Mother's Day."