Skateboarding turning into popular sport for Calgary girls

CALGARY -

It's one of those activities that any guy with a little courage and talent could try out, but these days skateboard coach Becca Ballantyne is seeing a new trend: more girls taking up the sport.

"Gone are the days of this is a boys sport or this is a girls sport," said Ballantyne. "I remember growing up and I was one of the only girls out at the skate park with my brother and his friends and I was like this is kind of intimidating."

"Now," she added, "you look around and there's mostly girls here."

One of Ballantyne's star pupils is 10-year-old Isla Graven who took up the sport at five. She's a snowboarder as well and those skills fit perfectly for her on a skateboard.

"I like airing over skateboards," said Graven. "And I like dropping in on bigger things like the bowl here."

Her favourite place to ride in Calgary is the New Brighton Skate Park in the southeast but it took her a while to get used to the concrete surface.

"The first time I came here I fell quite a lot because of the bumps and how slippery it was to me," said Graven. "I guess I just got used to it."

Her skating partner is 12-year-old Calla Stauch who likes half pipes and mini ramps. Stauch likes making friends in the skateboarding community and admires Graven's talent.

"She's basically almost better than me and it's like crazy," said Stauch. "She's just really good in the bowl, she carves really well and can have great runs."

The girls are fans of 13-year-old British skateboarder Sky Brown who just took home a bronze medal in the women's park final in Tokyo.

"To see a 13-year-old girl come in second, that's crazy," said Christine Graven, Isla's mom. "And the girl doing back to back 540's there, who would have thought it?"

Isla's mom said she's not pushing her daughter to compete, but wants her to have fun skateboarding and progress at her own pace.

"We don't like to say hey Isla how would you like to be an Olympian?" she said. "We'll just see how it goes really, if she wants to pursue it then for sure we're 100 per cent behind her."

Isla said she wants to spend the next few years learning as much as she can in her sport and continue to train to get better. But at 10 years old, the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics are too far away to plan for.