Dear all,
Loved to read the articles of Cindy Zhou (BIG UPS!) and Maxwell Storey Dubler about what men and women in long boarding should not be doing. And it was too easy to give this blog this title.. Of course everyone just should visit SYCLD this year!
But now on topic. During the talks about the whole ‘boy / girl thing’ within the competition setup of ‘So.. You Can Longboard Dance?’, past discussions I had within other action sport disciplines came in handy. Of course women are good marketing tools and form a smaller group in many kind of action sports (so less interesting to focus on). But many do not see how also positive discrimination is diminishing. I can say a whole lot about it but within SYCLD we have the privilege to give a ‘big up’ to the grace of longboard dancing. For me it was a big surprise in the past that people thought the SYCLD Dance competition was only for guys. To be honest, I didn’t even think about the possibility it could be only for guys. To my opinion Longboard Dancing should only be divided in male and female if the chance of winning is much bigger when you have more physical strength. For me the maximum needed strength in longboard dancing can be reached by women as well. And contrary to downhill, flatland won’t kill you that fast so you don’t necessarily need balls for it, do you? And for me longboard dancing has components that come more natural to women and components that come more natural to men. And I hope it will continue to develop in this way. Does that mean there is not going to be a ‘Girls Competition’? No. I’m the first who wants to stimulate women to compete and get inspired to get into longboarding. And if this is the way, hurray to that. But.. one day I hope girls say ‘naaahhh we don’t need a girls only competition anymore within longboard dancing’.
See you all in april!!
Love Bianca
and PS. the one thing both MEN and WOMEN in longboard dancing should be doing, is this <3
picture by Marius Landwehr Photography