I remember the first time that I saw Valeriya. A clip was going viral online of this woman who just looked so effortless on a longboard. Cross stepping, dancing with her arms in the air, spinning round, she looked free and in a world of her own.
I wanted that. I had started skateboarding that year, had never really heard of longboarding, and most definitely had not heard of longboard dancing. I love dancing, but I wouldn’t describe myself as someone who looks effortless doing it, more lively, smiley (previously, drunk).
In the guise of this new version of myself that I was painting since discovering skateboarding at 45, I booked myself onto one of Valeriya’s weekend courses with The Longboard Camp. It felt firmly out of my comfort zone, but also like somehow I was booking some joy into my life (if that’s a thing you can buy).
A whatsapp group was set up before the camp, and weirdly I recognised the details of a woman who I knew via a friend and lived up the road from me on the group. Gill and I had both independently booked on the weekend, and so it was lovely to see a familiar face. I needn’t have worried about being solo though, it was a lovely group of women & one guy, who turned out to be the group entertainer (for anyone who was on it, I don’t think we will forget Angelo’s speech on situationships for us all).
It was a flurried weekend of brilliant food, an intensive bootcamp of the basics of longboard dancing from Valeriya and Axel Massin (French Longboard Dancing Champion and Videographer). It was fun and silly and challenging. I was not graceful, but joy was absolutely had, in abundance.
These camps are always filled with people in transition. Seeking time out from the day to day to work things out, to find pockets of themselves that have been locked away, undiscovered. Myself included. I loved it so much that I booked on another one of their trips, this time a full week away in a slightly more luxurious location on the beach at Feel Viana, north of Viana do Castelo in Northern Portugal. Mornings longboard dancing, afternoons surfing, and time inbetween wandering between the pine trees that separated the hotel from the beach.
We were there for my friend Gill’s 50th birthday this time, and sadly she had an ankle break while there, but we still found time to appreciate our surroundings and our time out from normal life. Holding space for these moments, for these transitions, and people’e emotions is a tough gig when you’ve set up a camp for people to learn a new skill, but it’s an inevitable part of it.
When I started Board Women I knew I wanted Valeriya to be part of it. She has a calm energy that is enticing when she talks about the world of board sports, an introspection about what life means and leaning into the quiet spaces of our existence. This is a lovely chat, and although my podcasting skills are probably a little bit rough round the edges at this early stage, I still look back on it really fondly as I found my feet, metaphorically and physically in this new world of boardsports.
We talk about:
Learning that it’s ok to fall
That you’re never too old to start
Burning out and finding balance again
Skating as a way to find flow and self expression
Welcoming insecurity & lack of confidence
I hope you enjoy it and for those who have joined the podcast in later episodes, that you go back and give this one a listen!
Caroline x
Board Women Founder
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