The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Girls on Shred comes to Big Sandy again. Kim Peterson teaches first and second grade in Missoula. And has been skating for more than 30 years. After interviewing her at Big Sandy's Skate Park, I looked her up on the internet and discovered she's a powerful name in the skateboarding world of Montana. "Girls on Shred is a nonprofit organization centered around empowering girls. But when we come to the smaller communities the guys are welcome too! We started as a gathering for girls to snowboard together like one day on the mountain and then then we evolved into doing skateboard events in Missoula. We now travel farther and wider to hit smaller communities where young girls don't get to see girls skateboarding every day and don't understand that it's for everybody. We're not exclusively just for the girls here. In rural towns we expect boys are going to come out too and it's just like, the more the merrier. If we're in a bigger city like Missoula, then it's definitely for the girls. We aren't exclusively for girls. We're a very inclusive group. We serve people who maybe would not be your nontraditional skateboarder, somebody who feels intimidated to go out there. So that might be a girl. It could be a really shy boy. You know, it could be anyone from the LGBTQ plus community, trans women, trans men, just not your average guy. That's just who have always dominated the sport of skateboarding."

"So we try to we to do this tour every year. This is the fourth time visiting these communities. We have relationships with kids that come back every year from Big Sandy and Box Elder, and they look forward to us coming. We could go to other places and visit as many places as possible for the first time, but we've really valued building relationships with the kids in these towns and so instead of going to other new places, we choose our priorities to come back here and just do the same thing again every year. The kids have something to look forward to and then you get to see progression happen over a long period."

"If you're looking at skateboarding, you have to conquer your fears. Yes,

big time. Very brave. You have to do it. You have to conquer your fears. And every time you conquer one thing, it just builds your worth and your confidence. I do think girls can conquer skateboarding. They can conquer any fear. They'll become courageous.

And it carries over. The lessons you learn in learning how to skateboard translate across your life in every way. So yeah, we've seen kids pick up skateboarding, struggle but stick with it and then become more confident young adults. Hopefully, more kind and inclusive as well. At the end of the day, skateboarders stick together. And when you're a beginner every skateboarder is cheering you on. Everybody wants you to succeed, but it's very scary to be out there and you're thinking everyone's going to think I'm dumb. And while it's so hard to cross that line to get from, I'm scared and I don't belong here to Oh, my gosh, people do want me here. I am welcome. Not every community is like that. But across the board, a real true skateboarder is somebody who is going to support everybody who's out there."

We talked about Jeff Ament. Yes, he loves to skateboard but it's far more. He realized what confidence he got from the sport. The confidence that helped him go out and do what he loves. And maybe anybody from a small community can do the same thing if they have the confidence to tackle it. "That's what skateboarding is all about.