Video: Skateboarding with BU Girls Skate
“It’s something about feeling the bumps on the road, feeling the wind in your hair, that makes me feel alive”
Skateboarding with BU Girls Skate
Skateboarding with BU Girls Skate
Sarah Reeves was 11 when she got on a skateboard for the first time. The Redondo Beach, Calif., native was immediately smitten. “I really enjoyed how exciting it was and how awake it made me feel,” she says.
Reeves (CGS’22, COM’24) continued to skate through high school, but when she arrived at BU, she set about looking for other women who shared her passion for the male-dominated sport.
Inspired by the HBO series Betty, about a group of diverse young women skateboarders in New York City, Reeves wanted to start a similar community on campus. So she created an Instagram account—@bugirlskate—in fall 2021 to find fellow female skaters and soon met Penny Hill (CAS’23) who was connected to the BU skate community. The two put up posters and flyers across campus and began hearing from women interested in joining.
Today, BU Girls Skate (BUGS) meets every other Sunday from 1 to 3 pm on the BU Beach and is open to Rollerbladers and roller skaters as well as skateboarders. The group welcomes women who have never been on a skateboard before, urging them to come to one of the regular skate sessions. BUGS has two extra boards available for novices to try out. Members offer support and encouragement to newbies (along with a helping hand when someone takes a spill).
“You get them relaxed and they feel comfortable with it and at the end—always, every time—I see them skating by themselves, and it’s this rewarding feeling of we did that!” Reeves says.
The group, led this year by Reeves and Ysatis Tagle (ENG’24), skates on campus on the BU Beach as well as in front of the Booth Theatre. They also travel to local skate parks (Lynch Family Skatepark in East Cambridge and Smith Playground in Allston are two favorites).
“When you have an idea for something you’re super, super passionate about and you work hard to make other people passionate about it, people will take to that and join you,” Reeves says. “Sometimes you have to create that community to have that community.”
Interested in joining BU Girls Skate? Contact them on Instragram @bugirlskate.
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