“Might as well jump” – Van Halen

This might have been the best way to rise and shine, as participants appeared to be empowered by a weekend skateboarding event. 

The Rise and Shine Skate Jam took place August 3-4 at the Second Haven Skate Park in Whitehorse. 

The event was a collaboration between Rise and Shine Skateboarding Alliance, Triple J’s Collective and BYTE Yukon, an organization empowering youth society. 

Ashley Swinton, the founder of Rise and Shine, was the organizer. 

“It’s really all about supporting and encouraging girls and women to get into skateboarding and to create a fun and safe space for them to learn and just have a fun weekend together.” 

Swinton said she’s been doing workshops all over the Yukon for the last five years. 

“Every year, there’s more exposure, more interest, kids having fun.” 

Swinton said she worked with more than 100 youth last year doing workshops in Whitehorse, Watson Lake, Dawson City, Teslin and Haines Junction. 

“This year has been even more, so it’s really great to see it.” 

Swinton explained why they hold these events. 

“When I grew up, there weren’t many girls skateboarding, and it changed the dynamic. 

“For me, I just have so much fun when I’m supported and uplifted. You progress and you grow and I’d like to be able to share that with other folks as well.”

Swinton said there are many benefits to skateboarding. 

“Not only having fun, but learning lifelong skills, like the determination and perseverance I learned from skateboarding. Ninety-nine per cent of the time, I’m not landing things. Sometimes you try a trick over and over again, and then something clicks. 

“And being able to transfer that through the rest of my life … as long as you put the time in and do the work.” 

Saturday Rise and Shine events included a skateboard and griptape (the tape applied to the top of a skateboard) art workshop, skate demo and community skate. Sunday, there was a graffiti workshop with resident tattoo artist Jamie Law from Triple J’s, a skate contest and a community barbecue.  

Between 50 and 60 people attended the Saturday morning events. 

Three women, two of them skateboarders, traveled north from British Columbia to conduct workshops and judge the skate contest Sunday. 

Violet White, from Vancouver, was one of them. She said the skate demo was designed to show what to do at the skatepark and how to use it. 

A second, Kira Urbas-Johnson, from Kelowna, said “I am living my childhood dream, getting back into skateboarding. I kind of hit my prime 15, 16 years ago, (and) went to nationals when I was a young kid. 

Urbas-Johnson competed in nationals in 2006-07 at the age of 12 and 13. 

“I was the youngest competitor back then.”

“I think I was always missing the female skateboarding community and I kind of phased out of skating,” recalled Urban-Johnson. “When I heard about this, I knew it was something I’d be very honoured to be a part of, so got back into it, and it’s been amazing getting to hang out with a bunch of girls and do what we love.” 

Urbas-Johnson helped out with the workshops Saturday. 

“It was so cool to see a whole bunch of little girls on skateboards and knowing that they have the support now that (previous) generations maybe didn’t have as much. It’s super-inspiring to see the young women coming out.” 

Urbas-Johnson said the women look at themselves as role models for the young girls. 

“I feel like there was definitely something missing and I felt like that’s changing for the better really well right now, and I’m just really excited to see how it goes from here.” 

The third woman from B.C. who judged the skate contest was Alexandra Kolebniak.

Ada Toews, a work colleague of Swinton, said she wanted to come by and show her support. 

“I wanted to show up and see what it was all about because I’ve never actually known much about the skate world.” 

“It’s pretty cool. They got me pretty interested in this. They got me on a board, which I didn’t think I’d do today, so that’s pretty fun.” 

Toews had never been on a skateboard before. 

“This is all brand-new for me. It seems pretty fun. Everyone just hanging out and having a good time.” 

The main sponsors were Air North and Triple J’s, as well as numerous other ones. 

“The community always comes together so beautifully to make things like this happen and it was a really community-driven event,” added Swinton.

The Yukon Star will feature the skate contest online tomorrow.