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Kealy Allen skates at an East Vancouver skate park.
Alia Youssef/The Globe and Mail
Vancouver City Council didn’t anticipate a surge of interest in skateboarding when it approved a renewal of East Vancouver’s Britannia Community Centre that did not include the skate park, which was built years ago atop an old tennis court. But over the course of the pandemic and Tokyo Olympics, grassroots organizations have made a big impact on the popularity of the sport.
Ryme Lahcene is the founder of Takeover Skateboarding, which organizes meetups, events and informal mentorships for women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and two-spirit folks at skate parks around the city. The organization’s goal is to claim space for underrepresented groups in the skateboarding community.
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Ryme Lahcene, founder of Takeover Skateboarding which is a grassroots organization that hosts meetups, events, and informal mentorships for women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and two-spirit folks, at an East Vancouver skate park.
The Globe and Mail
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Lahcene helps a person learn how to skateboard.
The Globe and Mail
“All my life I thought I couldn’t skate because I had never really seen anyone like me skate,” Lahcene said. “When I was first starting, I really felt like I was taking up space because I was slower, I was learning to push, and I really felt like I was in the way, but actually I wasn’t. I was allowed as much as anyone else to occupy the spaces.”
“There’s so few activities for youth that are free and accessible in Vancouver. … It’s BIPOC kids that pay the price. We need to show up for Black, Indigenous and POC kids and offer spaces where they get to be in touch with their creativity, they get to be around community, and where they get to experience movement.”
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The goal of Takeover Skateboarding is to claim space for underrepresented groups in the skateboarding community.
The Globe and Mail
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Two attendees of an informal Takeover Skateboarding meetup skate.
The Globe and Mail
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Allen skates while a group of people join a Takeover Skateboarding meet up in the background.
The Globe and Mail
Skateboarder Kealy Allen attended a recent meetup at the Britannia Community Centre.
“Takeover Skateboarding provides females with a sense of belonging in the Vancouver skate community,” she said. “Their positivity, encouragement and inclusivity always motivates me to skate more. The courts are more than just a place to skateboard. They bring community and are a second home to many, including myself. Taking the courts away from the Vancouver skate community wouldn’t go down without a fight. I’d literally tie myself to a ramp.”
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Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and Tokyo Olympics, grassroots organizations have made a big impact on the popularity of skateboarding.
The Globe and Mail
Words and photos by Alia Youssef
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