‘We all deserve to take up space’: The changing face of London’s skate scene

When Esther Sayers, 53, had a go on her son’s skateboard in her kitchen six years ago, she had no idea what the moment would lead to. “Never in a million years did I think this would happen when I first stepped on the board. I didn’t know what skateboarding was, apart from just rolling on this thing with wheels. I just liked the feeling in my body of rolling along the pavement. I liked it as a mode of transport to school with the kids, but I didn’t think I would ever go to a skatepark. I had no idea that there was this culture and community,” says Sayers. Now, skateboarding has become a huge part of her life, and it’s something she does at least once or twice a week, fitting in sessions around family commitments and her work as an academic.

Initially, Sayers learned to skateboard with her , and while she still loves having this shared hobby with them, she’s also developed her own community in the skateboarding world. It started with, but the community she’s found most recently is . “It’s very freeing for me to skate with other women who have similar constraints around their lives. I think London Skate Mums occupy a space in skateboarding that wasn’t there before,” she says.