ABSTRACT
As a physical culture, skateboarding practice is hugely varied, but it originates in and is often elaborated through its link with surfing, employing an imagery of flow and fluidity of movement. It is also typically identified through physical displays of stoicism and struggle. The first part of this chapter explores these two major aspects of the physical practice of skateboarding in relationship to, and beyond, narrow conceptions of gender identity (particularly masculinity).
Having situated skateboarding in this way, the chapter then focuses on examining skateboarding in relation to ‘bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence’ – the body-based know-how that enables practitioners to perform skateboarding activity. Through a focus on understanding body-based intelligence, this chapter argues that skateboarding learning sites are public and autonomous (and therefore tend to be dominated by the most confident and capable), and that learning typically occurs through social frameworks that can (often unconsciously) distance or exclude ‘feminal’ participants.
This chapter suggests that more awareness of bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence is needed to democratise and support people’s development of physical activity, and that within skateboarding inclusive space-making practices, which need to be initiated by people who hold social power, are crucial to enabling broad participation whilst maintaining skateboarding’s participant-led and DIY culture.
