THE SHOCK LADIES NIGHT FEAT SHANNON RODGERS
Enlarge the picture. Photo: Jero.
I have noticed that in blading there is a heavy imbalance between the amount of males and females.
A female on blades is the exception; men seem to rule the sport in every aspect—from shredding to company ownership to sheer numbers. I take this to be a supreme bum-rush. What are we doing wrong?
One time Frank Stoner and I had a conversation about this and I think he put it best. In sports like surfing, skiing, and snowboarding, there is a strong female following.
Granted they are still male dominated sports, but the ratio of male to females in those sports out weighs rollerblading. Anyways, those activities are more family oriented and I think that’s one reason the females are plentiful there and not in rollerblading. Families with little girls will go on a ski trip every winter, exposing that little girl to the snow, balancing her ski’s, witnessing demo’s, etc.
That type of exposure at a young age makes all the difference in the long run. But, the rollerblader girls get pretty spoiled for sure.
Check the full Shannon Rodgers Interview on Shock.
Check the video in HD Streaming.
Tags: girls, shannon rodgers, shock
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:31 pm
sometime ago shannon asked me about Nathalia Kamura (female skater from brazil who is a friend of mine), she wanted to know more about her and stuff…
i admire your initiative shannon…
girl, boy or skateboarder (haha just kidding), it doesnt matter, everyone is able to practice inline skating.
Nice job!
Hugs from Brazil
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:41 pm
out here in new york i tryd to organize a all girl sesh once a week and this is in new york u would think we have at least 10! girls but the feedback we got 4 girls willing to meet up and skate out of the whole new york city!
girls cant choose to run there life around skating like guys do, if a guy drops out of school an trys to persue skating its a dumb choice but if a girl does that its almost a tragedy like yo think about your future, girls have a heavy sence of responcibility and a majority of the girls that did skate around the 1990 – 2000+… the real life kickd in and since they werent gettin money to live or any oppertunitys to benifit them in a living sence then they went on to persue more managable realistic dreams and goals,
its much bigger then familys bringing there kids to ski trips because psshh if ur family can afford to bring u to a ski trip then your in a league of your own a majority of us are broke and mostly because instead of working 6 days a week we are out there skating around for free doing lil grinds all over the place,
much props for you skating and your skill is there not to mention style is great! but on a bigger note if u do look at girls skaters {not all girls skaters} there more groupie type chicks that hang with there hero’s dont get me wrong theres tons of ligit girls skating and if u ask them they even no that a majority of the girls they see skating are groupies and dont take it serious enough ,so just be bhappy that your doing it and that you have the girls u do have to skate with eventually theyl be more but it wont be because we rant and complain that there arent we have to show them this is a fun friendly enviorment and then theyl come, besides if u look at how many girl skateboarders there are now it shows that just because thre more girls skating doesnt mean there actually skaters by heart
props to any woman who puts on there blades esspecially in a male dominated sport only way i can compare it is if i did ballet i would feel kinda akward being with 20 females for every 2 guys …. hahah ino u guys are like wow thats the life lol
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:32 pm
My homegirl SHannon never ceases to amaze me with her top notch skating in the name of a GOOD TIME!
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Yes, there aren’t a lot of female rollerbladers. There aren’t a lot of rollerbladers period. We’ve got to fix our culture before this can change. We’re STILL taking a lot of stuff from skateboarding, etc. Don’t get me wrong: Our styles of skating and tricks have grown into our own in recent years. We’ve started to skate in interesting and unique ways that aren’t similar at all anymore to the way skateboarders approach tricks. This is a good thing. Now we’ve got to fix our industry. WRS is a start but a poorly marketed one. My main problems is I don’t think any of the companies have figured out how to sell more than products — sell rollerblading itself. We have something special and it’s not hip-hop, it’s not punk, it’s not some other trendy scenester crap for us to latch on to. We have to show the freedom and joy of rollerblading in a way that is pure and true to the realities of it.
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:07 pm
i love watching girls skate
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Shannon keep rolling!
Mitch, please leave this industry ASAP – You’re the supreme definition of a misguided nit-wit.
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Hey Shannon, way to go girl…sick edit.
I think its definitely great to see the girls popping up on here from time to time. I think now, yes, female skaters are not plentiful overall, but I can’t say enough about the level of female inline skating at the moment. Between girls like Fallon, Jenna, Fab, Chyna, Shannon, myself, and more, are always looking to push the level of woman’s skating and its amazing to watch right now.
Rollerblading as a big picture is not the most popular sport at the moment and I feel that has a big part of our exposure to the younger generation females. I think its great that places like Woodward West, who every summer has a week devoted to women in action sports. The first week of july is always girls week and we get quite a few girls from all sports…Some summers we have had more female inliners than skateboard and bmx put together.
I think places like Woodward, contests all over (AIL, WRS, Chaz’s comp, etc.), sessions at any park, and of course things like what Shannon just put out are all positive influences on getting out the word that woman’s inline skating is out there…the numbers will come in time as our sport continues to grow.
Again, Shannon you rock!
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:01 pm
camp woodward is un affordable and althought its facility is amazing there still is no way anyone middle class and under can find there way into it so there for it just supports spoild rich kids who are ther for weeks at a time instead of the less fortunate kids who really do love the sport and simple relize they will never have a months rent for a week of skating, tss tsss talk about supporting our sport
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:08 pm
scholarships are available and saving money helps too? Many people have done it…even people who are not rich..but just an idea. I think anyone who rollerblades does it because they love to rollerblade. Bottom line, hating on things doesn’t help anything, so how don’t worry be happy, just rollerblade :-)
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:12 pm
nice skateing deffintly gota skate some timee & kill kayyyy ahhh imiss you havnt seen u since b4 i left jerzy =[ ill beb ak
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Rollerblading is one of the hardest sports ever, that’s why just few girls in the world do it
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:04 pm
I would say 50% of the kids at Woodward are not rich. If you can’t plan and save 900 dollars in the course of a year, you’ve got much bigger problems. I think many women don’t participate because they have no one to teach and encourage them. I was fortunate to have a little help from the guys when I started to blade but i also received a lot of discouragement from friends, family, and other male skaters afraid that I would get hurt. If everyone was more helpful and encouraging towards girls and beginners, our numbers will continue to grow.
Great job Shannon and I admire you for sticking with our sport and I admire you for your amazing skills!
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:42 pm
hahahahahahahhahah thats it! cant take it anymore.
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:46 pm
brandigr i bet you didt pay for woodward out of your own working money like i said 900$ is a months rent out here if ur lucky! so i dont see how any kid can really afford it, it just doesnt make sence unless your rich
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:46 pm
brandigr i bet you didt pay for woodward out of your own working money like i said 900$ is a months rent out here if ur lucky! so i dont see how any kid can really afford it, it just doesnt make sence unless your rich
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:48 pm
i disagree with this statement at the top.
I run a mobile roller disco, and we have many females and family members taking part in them. We also bring out fly off rampsa and help everyone to get involved.
Problem is, surfing is just surfing…as in bar big wave riding there is only one real discipline.
Rollerblading has numerous disciplines (aggressive, recreational, speed, hocky, dance , slalom freestyle ect) so as a result the females tend to take those avenues of creativity.
Look at slalom for instance, there are alot of females involved in that as with rec skating.
I think people just need to be shown the correct way to start ag skating, and as a result more people will get involved.
I think the main problem with our sport like this is a lack of accesibility and the fact that the sport itself is intimidating from an outer perspective.
We need to make our sport more accessible through the use of qualified instructors and special teaching sessions.
It will happen one day!
June 4th, 2009 at 5:14 am
lol is thhaatt billyy?
June 4th, 2009 at 5:19 am
whatever, rollerblading is awesome, who cares who does it?
who cares if people make a living doing it?
who cares, as long as you love it what’s the problem?
it’s an individual sport remember.
fuck woodward. I’ve skated park under 20 times in 10 years. that’s not what it’s about for me. but I agree that it’s inaccessible to most kids, most kids don’t have 900 bucks over the course of a summer job let alone to save, plus most kids who even have an income are working because they have to buy other things, like clothes and skates, and new wheels for this summer – although when I was a teenager I used to think it would have been amazing.
no one I skated with in 1995-2000 skates now. but I do, I go by myself and have a great time. I’m a 28 year old who walks down the street and jumps on a wet piece of wood and slides it in my feet because I have to.
I bet as long as Julio is alive and able he’ll be producing skates, because those guys love it, and I’ll keep buying their products – so as long as I am able I will skate.
if you like it, your friends will see that love and that’s all we need to promote it. for me and my crew: people got older, went to school, got married, and as much as I did all those things too, I just can’t stop going to rollernews.com and buying DVDs and commenting in ridiculous threads like this one and there’s lots of people like me out there.
what happened to that chick from Montreal (sorry for forgetting your name and calling you a chick, Tasha maybe). I remember she got hurt skiing, she was sick, and worth the hype, worth the front page of this site. I think this chick in a couple years will be front page worthy, but for now it’s a bit too much hype considering there’s some young dudes not getting product that deserve it over her.
no offence. but if I was wrong that we aren’t seeing a gender biased bit of exposure there wouldn’t be that stylized glam shot with grover at the top of the thread. equality rights baby, equal rights, goes both ways.
June 4th, 2009 at 5:24 am
I guess the article is: THE SHOCK LADIES NIGHT FEAT SHANNON RODGERS
so maybe I am off base. but whatever, it’s the internet, that’s allowed.
June 4th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
butthurt roller, i don’t get free stuff. i just skate and film.
June 4th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Girls for the win
June 5th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Your awesome Shannon..LMAO at the end with you Fish Kay and Pazzo …Looked like fun..nice edit also..make it longer next time!
peace girl
-Lurk