Pro Skater

Speaking at:

Rage Against the Gaze: Prejudice and Allyship in Skateboarding

Iconic would probably be the best word to sum up professional skater and queer role model Leo Baker. From winning contests like the Super Crown World Championship in 2016 and The Berrics Populist contest in 2017, to releasing the incredible ‘My World’ part and a signature line of footwear with Nike SB — Leo has been a huge champion of queer visibility within skateboarding and continues to inspire skateboarders all over the world.

@leo_baker

Pro Skater / TV Presenter

Speaking at:

Skate & Educate: From Classrooms to Communities

Rick is a professional skateboarder and TV-presenter from Vancouver, Canada. Having spent over two decades hitting the gnarliest handrails on the planet, Rick has turned his hand to television — most recently hosting Vice’s Post Radical series, shining a light on skateboarding’s weird and wonderful subcultures.

Rick skates for Girl Skateboards and is the co-owner of Antisocial skateshop in Vancouver.

@mccranker

Founder, Mahfia TV

Speaking at:

Stay Core Stay Poor

Kim is the founder of MAHFIA.TV, the first digital media platform for women’s action sports, and co-founder of the Women’s Skateboarding Alliance, a global management and consulting agency dedicated to authentically representing the industry voice of women’s skateboarding.

Kim works as the Development Director of Skate Like a Girl (SF Bay Area), an organisation whose mission is to create an inclusive community by promoting confidence, leadership and social justice through skateboarding. She also sits on the Advisory Board for the Centre for Sports and Social Justice at CSU East Bay.

@kimwoozy

Pro Skater / Skate After School

Speaking at:

Skate & Educate: From Classrooms to Communities

Ryan Lay is a professional skateboarder from Phoenix, Arizona. When he’s not travelling around the globe, Ryan can be found working at Skate After School, a non-profit he co-founded to provide after school programming to underserved youth.

Ryan is an ambassador to SkatePal and co-host of the Vent City podcast; a show working to explore the broader social and cultural context of skateboarding.

@ryan_lay

Local Co-ordinator, SkatePal

Speaking at:

Globally Stoked: Grass-Roots Skateboarding

Aram started skateboarding in his hometown of Ramallah, Palestine in 2012 after a visiting skater left a board for him and his friends to skate. Since then, he’s been helping the SkatePal team build ramps and teach skateboarding across the West Bank.

Recently graduated from university in Tunisia, Aram will be returning to Palestine in Summer 2019 to continue his role as Local Co-ordinator and help inspire the next generation of Palestinian skateboarders.

@aramsabba7

Pro Skater

Speaking at:

The Revolution Will Not Be Patronised

Candy Jacobs is a professional skateboarder and youth worker from the Netherlands. Besides competing at Street League, X Games and Dew Tour, Candy teaches mental health at elementary schools. She recently realised one of her biggest dreams by building an indoor skatepark with her dad, in her hometown of Venlo.

@candy_jacobs

Isle Skateboards / Adidas Skateboarding

Speaking at:

Stay Core Stay Poor

Paul grew up skating the legendary Fairfields spot in his hometown of Croydon, South London and representing the now defunct Blueprint Skateboards in seminal videos like Waiting For The World, First Broadcast and Lost & Found.

In 2013, he co-founded Isle Skateboards with Nick Jensen and in 2016 took on the role of Team Manager at Adidas Skateboarding. Paul currently lives in California and after two decades in the industry, still manages to hold down two jobs and continues to have one of the best 360 flips in the game.

@paulshier

Concrete Jungle Foundation, Peru

Speaking at:

Globally Stoked: Grass-Roots Skateboarding

Leyla began skateboarding when she was 12 years old, in her hometown of Trujilo, Peru. In 2017, she began volunteering with the Concrete Jungle Foundation, working on programme management and promoting positive social change within her community.

Leyla is currently based in Lima. She has a degree in Psychology and is hoping to move to Spain to study for a masters degree.

@leylaskater

Founder, Girl Skate India

Speaking at:

Globally Stoked: Grass-Roots Skateboarding

Atita found skateboarding in Bangalore, India at the age of 19 and went from being the first woman in India to skateboard to volunteering on skatepark projects with Make Life Skate Life and becoming an ambassador for the Vans India team.

Atita started Girl Skate India as a platform to encourage more women in India to get involved in skateboarding and has spoken on panels with pro skaters Lizzie Armanto and Vanessa Torres as part of a panel discussion about women’s skateboarding in California.

@rattyatty

Founder, The Quiet Leaf

Speaking at:

Editor’s Note: Brutally Honest Skate Journalism

Jin Yob is an editor, photographer, and translator based in Seoul, Korea. He first found skateboarding in Germany, where he grew up. After studying at SOAS in London and the Korea Literature Translation Institute in Seoul, Jin decided to move to the Korean capital and become part of the local skate scene. Soon after, Jin founded The Quiet Leaf, a magazine that is currently in its fifth year of existence.

@jinyob

Founder, Women’s Skateboarding Alliance

Speaking at:

The Revolution Will Not Be Patronised

Mimi is a pro skater, advocate and entrepreneur from the US. She has dedicated her life to growing skateboarding for the next generation by creating the Action Sports Alliance, Hoopla Skateboards, The Skate Exchange and the is founder of the Women’s Skateboarding Alliance (WSA). Mimi played a large role in securing prize money equality for men and wxmen at the X Games in 2008, and was recently named USA Skateboarding's Women's Team Manager and Coach.

@mimiknoop

Photographer & Journalist, Neon Stash

Speaking at:

Editor’s Note: Brutally Honest Skate Journalism

Hannah Bailey is an award-winning photographer, freelance journalist and director of Neon Stash, a creative communications agency focused in action sports.

On the side of her work as a communications specialist including over two years with Skateistan, Hannah has spent the past eight years working to create coverage opportunities to shine the light on female skaters as well as documenting the scene. Her skate journalism has featured in media such as Dazed, i-D, Broadly, Huck, Sidewalk, Vice, Asian Geographic, and the BBC.

@neonstash

Pro Skater

Speaking at:

Bad Design is a Crime: Skate Friendly Cities

Leo is a professional skateboarder from France who rides for Magenta Skateboards.

In 2017, he initiated the ‘Skate(z) Zen’ movement in his home town of Bordeaux to change the city’s policy towards skateboarding from repressive to generative. Along with Arnaud Dedieu and consultancy agency DEDICATION, he developed the concept of ‘Skateurbanism’ to integrate skateboarding with the urban development of the city. In June 2019, Leo created PLAY!, a series of skatable public sculptures around Bordeaux that will be skateable for the entire summer.

@leovallsconnected

Display Only

Speaking at:

Tech Will Save Us

Briana is a skateboarder and model from Los Angeles. She rediscovered skateboarding in 2017 after a series of serendipitous events led her to New York City. Dedicated to creating collaborative and uplifting spaces for womxn and LGBTQ+ skateboarders, Briana uses social media to organise skateboarding meet ups across the United States using her Display Only account.

@brianaking

Operations Officer, Skateistan South Africa

Speaking at:

Globally Stoked: Grass-Roots Skateboarding

Ayanda began skating aged six in the Troyeville suburb of Johannesburg. He joined the Skateistan team as a volunteer in 2014 and now works as Operations Officer, helping to coordinate between Skateistan’s facilities in South Africa, Cambodia and Afghanistan.

Ayanda also runs City Skate Tours — skate classes and tours of downtown Johannesburg, giving tourists and locals a different view of his city.

@skateistan

Pro Skater / Skateboard England

Speaking at:

The Revolution will not be Patronised

A household name in UK skateboarding, Lucy is a well travelled pro skateboarder and the Chair of Skateboard England. At the top of the British skate scene since 2009, winning the UK Skateboard Champs and Girls UK Skate Jam numerous times, Lucy has been a tirelessly upbeat presence in UK skateboarding for years now. Lucy's efforts to make skateboarding more accessible for girls includes setting up Brighton based She-Shredders coaching sessions.

In 2017, Lucy celebrated over twenty years in the game with a Pro Model on Lovenskate, a 12 page interview in Grey Skate Mag, and a new part 'Master of Camouflage'.

@lucyadamsskate

Photographer

Speaking at:

Rage Against the Gaze: Prejudice and Allyship in Skateboarding

Sam became obsessed with photography at a young age. Growing up in Iowa, he started photographing his friends skate around the streets of Waterloo. He slowly started travelling and photographing neighbouring towns, and hasn’t stopped for the past 15 years. A few years back he came out publicly after spending many years shooting in the closet. He’s dedicated the last few years of his career to working with brands to become more LGBTQ+ friendly and is currently the photo director for SKATEISM.

@samuelmcguire

Bryggeriet Gymnasium

Speaking at:

Skate & Educate: From Classrooms to Communities

John is one of the founding members of Bryggeriet Gymnasium, where he currently holds the role of both Vice Principal and skateboard instructor.

As a life-long skateboarder and long-term educator, John has become a friend and role-model to many of the students that pass through the doors of the famous high school. He can still be found shredding the streets, (both in and out of class) and is a continual role model to young skaters across Sweden.

@semesterskate

Founder, Girls Shred

Speaking at:

Tech Will Save Us

Imke is the founder of Girls Shred, a community for girls to meet others and form a womenhood. When she started skating in 2004, Imke only knew a handful of women skaters — one of them being Candy Jacobs. She’s stoked to see community grow and help to inspire more women skaters using her platform.

Imke is based in The Hague and working as social editor for SKATEISM - the diversity magazine.

@girlsshred

Skate Malmö

Speaking at:

Bad Design is a Crime: Skate Friendly Cities

Gustav is the Official Skateboarding Coordinator for the City of Malmö. Gustav grew up skating in the supposed ’dark ages’ of pressure-flips and is best known in the London skate scene for his immaculate nollie down the famous London Bridge steps in Blueprint's Waiting for the World.

Gustav previously worked for Bryggeriet, the first school of skateboarding in Europe and now uses Malmö taxpayer’s money to help grow skateboarding and promote Malmö as a cultural and skate-friendly city.

@skatemalmo.se

Art Historian & Satirical Skate Critic

Speaking at:

Tech Will Save Us

Ted Barrow is a writer, lecturer, and professor finishing his PhD in Art History at the Graduate Centre, City University of New York. He has contributed to Jenkem, Skateism, the New York Times, and Transworld Skateboarding, and he runs the semi-popular instagram account @feedback_ts.

In addition to his duties as an ageing satirical critic of internet skateboarding, he also guest hosts Vent City, a skateboarding podcast with Ryan Lay, Ted Schmitz, Kristin Ebeling, and Kyle Beachy. A lifelong skateboarder, he mostly skates curbs now.

@feedback_ts

Jenkem Magazine

Speaking at:

Editor’s Note: Brutally Honest Skate Journalism

Christian is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn and Editor-at-Large for Jenkem Mag, where he has contributed since gaining his Master’s degree in Cultural Reporting and Criticism from New York University in 2014.

His writing has appeared online at The New Yorker, Hyperallergic, and the L.A. Review of Books, and he is currently ghostwriting a memoir for a prominent U.S. diplomat, which has nothing to do with skateboarding.

@cnkerr

Co-Founder, Women Skate the World

Speaking at:

The Revolution will not be Patronised

Amber is Co-Founder of Women Skate the World, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to break through gender barriers by engaging, inspiring, and empowering women through skateboarding worldwide.

Amber is currently based in Athens, Greece and works as the Programs Director for Free Movement Skateboarding — looking after both the Women's and Volunteer program, as well as covering the monitoring and evaluation for the organisation.

@womenskatetheworld

Co-Founder, Harold Hunter Foundation

Speaking at:

Skate & Educate: From Classrooms to Communities

Jessica is a Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Harold Hunter Foundation,​ a non-profit based in New York who aim to provide support, opportunity, and advocacy for NYC youth to enable them to reach their full potential as skateboarders and young adults.

Jessica has a PhD in Counselling Psychology and has worked for over a decade as a clinician to diverse populations including adjudicated youth, gifted students of colour, college students and survivors of torture seeking political asylum.

@haroldhunterfoundation

The Palomino

Speaking at:

Stay Core Stay Poor

Nick is the owner of The Palomino, London’s premiere online skateboard shop specialising in independent skateboard products. Since starting in 2012, Nick has amassed the biggest selection of independent skate videos, zines and magazines you can find anywhere in the world.

Nick continues to support his local skate scene and can be found in the deep end of Clissold Bowl each morning before work.

@thepalominoclub

Independent Researcher

Speaking at:

University of Skate: Support Your Local Academic

Adelina Ong is just learning to skateboard at 39 years of age. She is a PhD graduate from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Her thesis proposed a theory for compassionately negotiated living inspired by skateboarding, parkour, art du déplacement, breakin’ and graffiti. Adelina’s research focuses on young people from low-income families who struggle with mental wellbeing.

Griffith University / Girls Skate Brisbane

Speaking at:

University of Skate: Support Your Local Academic

Indigo is a Research Fellow at the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research and Lecturer in Sociology at Griffith University in Australia. Building on her experiences as a war orphan, refugee, adoptee, a mother and an older skateboarder in her late 40s, her research focuses on understanding various minority populations in youth scenes, subcultures and the broader societies they live in.

Indigo is currently based in Brisbane where she co-runs Girls Skate Brisbane.

@girlsskatebrisbane

The World of Skateboarding

Speaking at:

Tech Will Save Us

Hans is a skateboarder from Holland who set up The World of Skateboarding Instagram account in 2016. What started as an experiment quickly grew into one of the largest accounts sharing skateboarding video online, with over 360k followers.

Hans has witnessed first hand the positives and negatives of social media in skateboarding, including having his own account hacked in 2017, losing 200k followers in the process!

@theworldofskateboarding

Skate Like A Girl

Speaking at:

The Revolution Will Not Be Patronised

Kristin is the Executive Director of Skate Like a Girl, a non-profit organisation that reaches over 7,000 skaters in Seattle, Portland, and the SF Bay Area each year. Her experience as a youth mentor, skater, and activist, informs her unique approach to improving equity and access in skateboarding, inspiring non-traditional skaters globally.

Kristin founded the Wheels of Fortune event, co-founded The Skate Witches zine, co-hosts the Vent City podcast and contributes to Thrasher Magazine, and SKATEISM.

@andawhamybar

CEO, USA Skateboarding

Speaking at:

Stay Core Stay Poor

Josh is a former professional skateboarder, co-founder of 411 Video Magazine, co-creator of Innoskate and CEO of USA Skateboarding.

Josh has worked with the the Olympic organising committees to help bring an authentic representation of skateboarding as a sport, art, and culture to the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 and beyond.

@joshfriedberg

Founder, Drop In Ride Out

Speaking at:

University of Skate: Support Your Local Academic

Sophie is the founder of Drop In Ride Out, a skateboard therapy initiative in Freiburg, Germany that combines skateboarding with Gestalt therapy to improve the wellbeing of young people struggling with life’s challenges.

She holds an MA in Peace Studies and travelled to Afghanistan in 2009 to teach with Skateistan. She loved it so much that she returned several times before writing The Art of Living Sideways, a monograph that explores the action of skateboarding as embodied approach to conflict transformation.

@dropinrideout

Former Pro Skateboarder / Nike Skateboarding

Speaking at:

You Can Talk to Me

John is a former professional skateboarder from Aberdeen, Scotland. In his early twenties John rode for the legendary Blueprint Skateboards, before moving to California where he joined the handrail chomping, gap slaying crew over at Jamie Thomas’, Zero Skateboards.

A decade passed, filled with video parts, tours, signings, photos and interviews, before John’s sister tragically took her own life. This event prompted him to quit being a pro skater.

In 2017, 6-years after his sister passed — when the searing, gut-wrenching pain of losing someone that close to you had finally settled a little — Rattray embarked on an annual fundraising quest for mental health in memory of his sister, Katrina.

University of Chicago

Speaking at:

University of Skate: Support Your Local Academic

Luke is a sociology PhD student at the University of Chicago. He is interested in how groups, like skaters, inaugurate urban spaces that bear potentialities for alternative political futures.

Luke has been skateboarding for 16 years. After all that time, he’s realizing he’s better at thinking about skating than actually skating. He blames his ankles.

Journalist

Speaking at:

Stay Core Stay Poor

Born and raised in France, Claire spent most of her teenhood producing independent zines and travelling to comps and on skate trips with the all-girl Poseuz Crew. At 19 she founded the communication and consulting agency 7bis specialising in skateboarding, working with local authorities and experts in sustainability, design and architecture on the integration of skateboarding in the city.

Now based in the UK, Claire continues to advise local government with skatepark projects on a voluntary basis. She also writes for on and offline publications, including Caught in the Crossfire, and is working on a new magazine entitled Two Set.

@clairealleaume

Smithsonian Institution

Speaking at:

Sacred Spots: Defining Heritage in Skate Culture

Betsy is a Project Manager at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Working exclusively in museums for over 35 years, her diverse portfolio of projects includes exhibitions, publications and public programs. She curated the traveling exhibition, Ramp It Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America, founded the public program Innoskate, and is currently writing Smithsonian Skate — a book on the Smithsonian’s skateboard collection.

@smithsonian

Sabotage Crew

Speaking at:

Sacred Spots: Defining Heritage in Skate Culture

Brian is a skateboarder and filmmaker from Philadelphia who was an integral part of the Love Park skate scene from 2008 to 2016. He filmed for, skated in, and produced the unforgettable Sabotage video series, the final instalment of which documents the destruction of the park both from the perspective of skateboarding and urban planning.

Even after the destruction of his beloved plaza, Brian continues to live in Philadelphia and documents the skate scene on his VX1000.

@brian_panebianco

Sheffield Hallam University

Speaking at:

University of Skate: Support Your Local Academic

Dani (she/her) is an artist-academic and skateboarder whose work explores skateboarding, gender politics and public space. Dani works as a senior lecturer in performance at Sheffield Hallam University, she is an ambassador for the skateboarding charity SkatePal and a member of Re-verb Skateboarding.

Dani is currently writing a book on ‘girl’ as a conceptual category within skateboarding, practised by female, gender-non-binary and male skateboarders.

@skeeterdani

Lingnan University, Hong Kong

Speaking at:

Sacred Spots: Defining Heritage in Skate Culture

Paul is a Research Assistant Professor in Sociology at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. He has performed a variety of research on middle aged skateboarders, skateboard pilgrimage, and has a book Skateboarding and Religion with Palgrave to be published later this year. Originally from Devon in the UK, Paul lived in Hong Kong for 18 years and recently moved to Prague on sabbatical. He is a veteran skateboarder with scarcely a handful of tricks.

@peejhk

Skate For Life

Speaking at:

You Can Talk to Me

Madeleine started skating in Malmö ,where she grew up, in the mid 90s and was one of the first female skateboarders in Sweden. During 25 years in skateboarding she has competed internationally, been sponsored by major skate brands and been a mentor for other female skateboarders.

Madeleine played a significant role in starting the Bryggeriet Skatepark, where she was the representative voice for female skaters to convince the government of the need for a skatepark in the area.

In 2009 her life took a drastic change when she found her boyfriend (Johan Florell) dead after committing suicide. Following that were times of trauma, PTSD, depression and grief.

Today Madeleine is working as a yoga teacher, inspirer and motivational speaker to help others in mental health by sharing her experiences.

@missinka

Vent City

Speaking at:

Tech Will Save US

Ted began his journey into skate media by producing satirical videos for the Arizona-based Brimley Skateboards. He has since published humour pieces in every single major American skateboard magazine, self-produced and published a long-form piece of ‘journalism’ for the No Coping podcast about the Love Bowls.

He is currently a cast member and the editor of the Vent City podcast along with Kristin Ebeling, Ryan Lay, Kyle Beachy and Ted Barrow.

@theorydoor

University of Sussex

Speaking at:

Sacred Spots: Defining Heritage in Skate Culture

Pollyanna is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Sussex, focusing on the media’s role in the construction of social and political change. Her collaborative project You Can’t Move History examines different generations of activists’ involvement in the campaign to save the London’s iconic Southbank skate spot from re-development.

Pollyanna’s current work, Remembering and Forgetting; develops and extends these dynamics by asking whether the internet can maintain memory across different generations of activists.

Skate Witches / U Can Skate

Speaking at:

Editor’s Note: Brutally Honest Skate Journalism

Norma is a skateboarder, photographer and social media marketer from Mexico, who is committed to documenting non-traditional skaters and shedding a light on lesser-known skateboarding communities around the world.

Norma is currently based in Vancouver, Canada and has collaborated with communities and brands like The Skate Witches, UCanSkate, Skate Like a Girl, Thrasher, and Vans.

@lapir0

Mission Statement

Speaking at:

Editor’s Note: Brutally Honest Skate Journalism

Lee was born and raised in San Francisco, where he discovered the famed Embarcadero plaza and became infatuated with skateboarding. Lee was hand-picked by Mark Gonzalez to ride for 60/40 skateboards, before turning pro for City Stars and riding for Santa Cruz towards the end of his career.

After retiring from professional skateboarding, Lee started FTC Barcelona in 2010 and now lives in New York, where he started his new podcast The Mission Statement and works in television production for MTV.

@leester415

White Arkitekter

Speaking at:

Bad Design is a Crime: Skate Friendly Cities

Fredrik is a landscape architect from Sweden with a background in skatepark design. He began skating in 1998 and is part of Stockholm Skateboard Collective, a non-profit working towards a more inclusive and skate-friendly Stockholm.

Fredrik was involved in adapting Stockholm’s meet-up spot ‘Observatorielunden’ for skateboarding and initiated the R&D-project ‘Inclusive skateparks’, a workshop-based study with non-normative skaters investigating how skateparks can become more inclusive through design. The project is a collaboration between White Arkitekter and the Swedish Skateboard Association.

Skateistan / The Goodpush

Speaking at:

Skate & Educate: From Classrooms to Communities

Rhianon is a skateboarder from Vancouver, Canada who has worked in skateboarding and youth development since 2003. Starting out as a community skateboarding instructor and working for Antisocial Skateboard Shop, Rhianon then spent five life-changing years at Skateistan in Afghanistan.

Rhianon works in communications, fundraising and network-building for non-profit organisations, and now heads up The Goodpush Alliance – a knowledge-sharing network for social skateboarding projects worldwide created by Skateistan.

@thegoodpush

Journalist

Speaking at:

Rage Against the Gaze: Prejudice and Allyship in Skateboarding

Tobias is a queer skater from Seattle, and the online editor of SKATEISM. He has given up hope of ever learning hardflips, but is increasingly optimistic that he will live to see skateboarding be as inclusive, diverse and weird as he thought it was when he first started.

@trbmker_

Roosevelt University / Vent City

Speaking at:

Stay Core Stay Poor

Kyle is an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Roosevelt University, in Chicago. In the long trudge toward his second novel, forthcoming, he found escape by writing essays about skateboarding as a process of memory, ontology, and literature. These essays have been published in journals including, and listed here from highest-brow to lowest, The American Reader, The Point, The Chicagoan, The Skateboard Mag, Deadspin, and Jenkem. Kyle is also one of the co-hosts of the Vent City podcast, talking shit on all things skate-related.

He was eleven when he began skateboarding, is now nearly forty, and will be dead or immobilised before he stops.

@themostfunthing

Pro Skater

Speaking at:

Rage Against the Gaze: Prejudice and Allyship in Skateboarding

South Africa’s Yann Horowitz did something this past year that no other gay man has done. One, he won the Vans Park Series in Capetown South Africa, two, he kissed his boyfriend after winning the contest, in front of everyone. It’s not all been wins and kisses for Yann, as growing up a gay skater in Africa has its trials and tribulations. Now riding for Anti-Hero and Vans, Yann has been travelling, filming, and living his best life the past few years.

@horoblitz

Founder & CEO, The Skateroom

Charles-Antoine is the founder and CEO of The Skateroom, a social enterprise that sells limited edition skateboards designed by internationally renowned artists to support skateboarding NGOs worldwide.

The idea began when Charles decided to sell his private collection of rare and limited-edition skateboards to raise funds towards Skateistan’s second skate school in Cambodia. Inspired by the impact of his donation, Charles created The Skateroom which has since donated over $500,000 to social projects around the world.

The Skateroom continues to support grass roots skateboarding by connecting artists, buyers, galleries, museums, retailers and non-profits using their ‘Art for Social Impact' model.

@theskateroom

Co-Founder, Free Movement Skateboarding

Speaking at:

Globally Stoked: Grass-Roots Skateboarding

Ruby is a Co-Founder of Free Movement Skateboarding, a charity that provides skateboarding workshops on a mobile skatepark for refugees and locals in Athens, Greece.

Ruby sees skateboarding as a creative and empowering activity that can enhance confidence and tenacity in many other aspects of your life. With the girl skate scene in Athens just starting to take off, it is the perfect place to be. Free Movement’s workshops promote skateboarding as a gender-neutral activity, which is for anyone and everyone to enjoy.

@freemovement__sb

Filmmaker

Speaking at:

Rage Against the Gaze: Prejudice and Allyship in Skateboarding

Growing up on the east coast, filming skateboarding was Mark Nickels’s dream job. He spent his early days filming all the legends at Pulaski Park in Washington DC until one day a chance encounter would land him that dream job filming and travelling the world with Osiris for the ‘The Storm.’ Only snag, Mark was gay, and when the film came out, so did he. Not surprisingly, some people didn’t take well to that, and so long story short, he showed them by moving to Berlin and becoming one of the most known and respected filmers and a champion of the LGBTQ+ community in skateboarding.

@marknickels

Author & Journalist

Speaking at:

Editor’s Note: Brutally Honest Skate Journalism

Anthony is a New York based writer, author, and content creator. As a teenager in Massachusetts, he self-published music and skate centric zines, eventually becoming a regular contributor to Slap Magazine in the mid-90s. Throughout the ‘90s he wrote for several print publications, as well as toured and recorded with In My Eyes, a hardcore punk band signed to Revelation Records.

After moving from Boston to New York City in 2002, he has written and produced several books and his writing and video work has appeared in several outlets, including Huck Magazine, Monster Children, Transworld Skateboarding, and VICE, where he was also the site’s first weekend editor.

@anthony_pappa

Co-Founder, Free Movement Skateboarding

Speaking at:

Globally Stoked: Grass-Roots Skateboarding

Will is a Co-Founder of Free Movement Skateboarding, a charity bringing skateboarding to the refugee and local population of Athens, Greece via a portable skatepark. Having studied International Development and with a background in youth work and disability support, Will applies methods of managing challenging behaviour to support some of the most disadvantaged young people in Europe through skateboarding.

Will has been skateboarding for 15 years and likes doing skids as much as he likes teaching kids to do them.

@freemovement__sb

Former Pro Skater and Professor, University of Oregon

Speaking at:

Bad Design is a Crime: Skate Friendly Cities

Ocean is a retired professional skateboarder (Birdhouse, H-Street) and Associate Professor of History at the University of Oregon. His writing on skateboarding has been published in the Journal of Architectural Education, Space and Culture, and the Harvard Design Magazine, and has been quoted in the Congressional Quarterly (US), the New York Times, and the Guardian (UK).

His book, Making the Mission: Planning and Ethnicity in San Francisco, was published in 2015. He is currently at work on a digital mapping project about the history of unrealised urban plans, in collaboration with Stanford University.

Goldsmiths College, London

Speaking at:

Skate & Educate: From Classrooms to Communities

Dr. Esther Sayers is senior lecturer at Goldsmiths College, London and part of the Centre for Arts and Learning. Her research into creative learning in the cultural context of the skatepark explores the immersive and reciprocal learning that motivates people to push limits and build resilience.

Esther began skating in her early-forties after her children started skateboarding, and says the process of learning alongside them has been a significant influence on her use of embodied research methodologies.

Esther is a trustee for Hackney Bumps renovation project and co-researcher at City Mill Skate

@esthersayers

Co-founder, Re-verb Skateboarding

Speaking at:

University of Skate: Support Your Local Academic

Sander is a skateboarder and filmmaker who recently finished his PhD research on skateboarding in South Korea. He now works at the University of Groningen as a postdoctoral researcher. He co-founded Re-verb to create better relationships between academia, skate charities and the skate industry. Sander is currently working on a documentary about Candy Jacobs.

@sander_reverb

Malmö University

Speaking at:

Bad Design is a Crime: Skate Friendly Cities

Karin is an associate professor in sport science with a PhD in urban geography. Her research mainly focuses on spatial issues in connection to sport and physical activity, from an everyday perspective as well as a marketing and tourism-oriented perspective.

Karin is especially interested in public space from a physical activity and sport perspective, and is responsible for the sport management programme at Malmö University and Malmö Sport Academy.

Long Live Southbank

Speaking at:

Sacred Spots: Defining Heritage in Skate Culture

Stuart is a skateboarder and urban planning graduate whose keen interest in interpreting the urban form took him to study in Copenhagen, where he was taught by some of the world’s leading architects and urban designers.

Leaving behind rainy street missions, but not Long Live Southbank emails, Stuart moved to San Francisco to work as a policy researcher at a leading urban design think tank. Stuart returned to the UK in 2017 to work full time on the current Long Live Southbank campaign, due to be completed July 2019. Stuart is committed to exploring the benefits of high quality urban design and supporting the access to free creative space in our cities.

@longlivesouthbank

Co-Founder, Free Skate Mag

Speaking at:

Editor’s Note: Brutally Honest Skate Journalism

Arthur grew up skating Hotel De Ville in Lyon and has been living in London for the last 7 years. He cut his teeth in skate journalism working at Kingpin Magazine alongside photographer Sam Ashley and editor Will Harmon.

When their publisher announced that Kingpin would be cutting print and going 100% digital, the trio decided to launch Free Skate Mag and distribute it for ahem… free.

Today, Free is the largest magazine dedicated to supporting the European skate scene, and Arthur can be found pulling switch back 360s on jump ramps across the continent.

@freeskatemag