© Jared Souney
Five with Fab- Inline’s Leading Lady, Live from San Diego
Sep 24 2006 / San Diego, CA The top woman in inline skating, Fabiola Da Silva, talks with Lat34 about the Action Sports USA Championships, skating with other girls, and the future of women’s action sports.Fabiola da Silva is easily one of the most recognizable faces in inline skating. The 27-year-old from Sao Paulo, Brazil has plenty of accomplishments to her credit. She was the first and only woman to pull a double back flip, owns six X Games gold medals, and has appeared on TV shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live and MTV’s Switched. She is in San Diego this weekend for the Action Sports USA Championships, where she qualified in a tie for 4th place for the finals. Sharing the 4th place slot was fellow female competitor Ayumi Kawasaki, proving inline skating isn’t just a man’s world. Japan’s Takeshi Yasutoko soared into the final in first with especially impressive amplitude, but enough about him. Fab took a minute out of her busy schedule to talk with Lat34 about being one of the top females in action sports today.
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BG: So, where are you living these days?
FDS: Costa Mesa, CA
BG: Is it nice to have an event so close to home?
FDS: Oh my god yes. I can just drive here, but I am staying at the hotel actually because I had to do some media really early and it’s easier for me to just stay here instead of driving an hour and half two hours every day.
BG: Seems like there’s a pretty small field of athletes for this event, why do you think that is?
FDS: I don’t know why. This season was pretty intense all over Europe so some people went home. I know some other skaters from Europe had some demos to do so they couldn’t make it. But they are missing out, this event is gonna be great with a brand new ramp. It’s the best ramp.
BG: You’re not the only woman on the roster, Ayumi Kawasaki is also here. Is it nice to have another girl up there?
FDS: Oh yeah, definitely. Ayumi has been around for as long as I have. I didn’t even know that she was gonna be here, it’s nice. She is my roommate actually. It’s always nice to have women around; these sports are not only made for men.
BG: You’ve been competing against the guys for awhile now, so you must be pretty used to it, huh?
FDS: Yeah it’s not easy, but at the same time we don’t have a choice, we don’t have enough girls so we can’t have a girls division. It’s pretty hard; the tricks these days for rollerblading are hard, with all the doubles and stuff. It’s motivating to ride with guys though. If I see them doing a trick it’s doable so why not myself or any other woman out there.
BG: How did you get into it in the first place?
FDS: I used to skate all the ASA competitions and we used to have a women’s division. The years came by and less women started coming to events. It went from 10 to 8 to 5 and then just 2, so it didn’t look every good for TV. They decided to launch women against men to see if it would motivate the women, but it was the worst idea for some of the women. A lot of them just gave up and these days it’s only myself and Ayumi that kept going.
BG: How is riding against the guys different from riding against all women?
FDS: I like riding with both, on street we have a lot of girls, about 7-10 girls that are really good. These days the level of skating for women is so high. You see women tying tricks that you never thought they’d be doing. Since I ride with guys all the time it’s really great to ride with girls, I am so motivated when I ride with girls. It’s really great to hang out with women. It’s such a different environment. But I like both.
BG: It’s only Vert here in San Diego, but usually you compete in Street too, right? Which do you like better?
FDS: I like both. I started on vert, but I like both. But vert is pretty cool.
BG: What do you think of what girls are doing in sports like skateboarding and snowboarding?
FDS: Women in action sports in general these days are crazy. You see women out there that are amazing, talented and doing tricks they never even thought they would try. They really enjoy what they do, I think from now on its just going to get better and better. I get motivated watching other sports and see people succeed and do crazy stuff.
BG: Do you do any of the other sports yourself?
FDS: Surfing, snowboarding a little bit, nothing major just cruising around. That’s what I do the most pretty much.
BG: What do you think the future holds for women in action sports? Do you think they’ll ever catch up with the guys?
FDS: It’s hard to say, because every sport is different. I know in snowboarding some of the women can beat some of the guys. Every sport is different. The way I personally think is that women are capable as being as good as the guys. It depends on yourself and your goals in you career but I think women are capable to be as good as a guy.
- Check out Lat34 coverage of the LG Action Sports World Tour
