Girl On: Holly Lyons
Jun 27 2007 / Los Angeles, CA
|
Now she's competed in four straight X Games (this year will make five) and was named the number one woman concrete pool skateboarder of 2006 by the World Cup of Skateboarding (and she was #2 in Vert).
But Lyons is about much more than competing these days. In addition to film/TV work, she has just started her own skateboard clothing company, Sk8Grl, to help develop the sport among young women. She has also been running an "Ask the Pro" column for one of her sponsors, Cool Girls Skateboards, on its website (the company also carries a signature Holly Lyons deck).
|
||||||||||
Through Sk8Grl and "Ask a Pro," as well as appearances on shows like "Hannah Montana" and "That's So Raven!", Lyons is showing girls around the globe that skateboarding is not just a guy thing anymore.
Recently Lyons sat down with Lat34 for an interview and photo shoot and discussed her career and what's next...
Lat34: So you recently started Sk8grl. What can you tell us about it?
Lyons: More and more girls are getting into skateboarding and I want them to have their own identity. There are a lot of great companies out there but most of them are surf-based. So I want there to be a place where girls that want to get into skateboarding or love the lifestyle can have to develop their own identity.
As it grows, I want to have things on the website where a girl can design her own shirt and have other girls vote on it and in time we pick a winner. Then we make the shirt, we feature you on the website and we put you on the hangtags. So it kind of helps empower girls and makes them realize "Wow, I could be a designer" or "I could be an artist" or I could be this or that or whatever, but I can do it...
So far I've had a great, positive response and lots of online sales.
Lat34: You were an Economics major, so did that help when you were setting it up?
Lyons: Yeah. It's been awhile, though. It took some time to discipline myself because I'm not used to sitting in front of a computer as long, And it's hard for me because I have a lot of energy. But it's been great and I feel like I know what I'm supposed to be doing now. I love skateboarding and I love being out there but I now feel like it's time to do this as well, and to offer something to give back to the girls.
I also have an "Ask the Pro" page on CoolGirlSkateboards where girls write in to me from around the world. I've had girls write in from Iraq, Iceland, Scotland, Ireland -- places I never thought girls skated. Peru, Mexico, Canada, America of course, New Zealand, Australia... Just so many places.and it's really cool that girls around the globe are getting interested in the skateboard lifestyle.
It feels really good to me, also, because I learned how to skate back in the early 90s and there was nobody to look up to and nobody to ask... And so I feel that's another way I can give back to girls and to let them know "you have a friend."
It's really cool to be able to connect with other girls and inspire them.
Lat34: You were a professional snowboarder before becoming a skateboarder. Why do you think snowboarding is more popular right now with women?Lyons: I think because skateboarding is more prone to injuries, probably than snowboarding... I think it takes a certain kind of girl that is able to keep going after injury. But I also I think the more girls that are out there inspiring other girls to do it, that'll give them the desire to want to do it more...
There are a lot of girls who write into to me from small towns and they're alone and boys tease them and they don't know what to do. We live in Southern California where you see a lot of girls, but if you to the midwest or another part of the country, or another country, they still feel a little insecure or unsure about it because it's not so accepted. But I think it's getting there.
Lat34: Why did you make the change?
Lyons: I always felt like I was a skateboarder that loved snowboarding. I love them both in different ways. You can catch more air on your snowboard, but there's something really gratifying about skateboarding because it is more difficult. And I think the difficulty, too, might be why girls surf and snowboard more....
I snowboarded awhile and competed and then I had a couple of injuries. I was still doing well... but I just started getting this pull like "I want to skateboard more." I'd come down to SoCal and visit Cara Beth to skate and other girls and I felt myself drawn to it.
I got really lucky everything worked out. I think it was meant to be
Lat34: What's the most asked question you get on your "Ask a Pro" Page?
Lyons: A lot of girls ask me "How do I learn to skateboard quickly?" or "How long does it take to get good?" But I think skateboarding is something that is unique to every person and it just depends on how much passion you have for anything that you do. Someone could skate for five years and never really progress a lot because they like it but they don't really push themselves.
Skateboarding is so cool because it's such a unique, individual free-spirited activity. And most skateboarders don't like to call it a sport because they don't want it to be in that realm of team sports. It's like surfing. It's a soulful sport and you do it for yourself.
A lot of "How do I get started?" questions...
So I say just get on a board, learn how to tic-tac, feel comfortable, learn how to push... Just start doing it and see what naturally seems like "I want to learn that..." That's kind of how I started -- I watched people on vert and I was like "I want to learn that." I didn't even know how to stand on the thing and here I wanted to be on a vert ramp.
Lat34: Who are your current sponsors?
Lyons: Cool Girls Skateboards, Sk8Grl, Nixon, Manitoba Harvest, Anarchy Eyewear, Independent Trucks, Etnies Girls.
Lat34: And do you have any final message to our readers?
Lyons: Yeah -- if you're a girl and you want to get into skateboarding, do it because you love it. Do it because you want to do it for you. Because it's personal, you have passion for it and it makes you feel good.
- Greg Baerg
- Win your very own skateboard from Cool Girls Skateboards! Click Here to Enter Now!
