This Tucson skateboarding crew hopes to bring inclusivity to the male-dominated skate scene 🛹

A local skateboarding crew is bringing a little sugar, spice and everything nice to the male-dominated skateboarding scene.

The inclusive and mostly-female skateboarding group, BABS, aspires to break down the barriers for females in skateboarding. Their goal is to make Tucson’s skateboarding community a safer and more inclusive place for everyone.

And trust us, the BABS can grind, kickflip and ollie just as well as (if not better than) the guys. They have the bruises and battle scars to prove it.

You probably have a hunch about what BABS stands for and you’re probably right. It means “badass bitches skate,” according to Yasmynn “Ylo” Lopez, one of the founders of BABS.

But the acronym can mean anything you want it to mean, she said.

“We just like to keep it as whatever you want it to mean type of deal. In reality, we have our tight crew, but everyone's a BAB,” Lopez said.

You can find the crew skating, cheering each other on when they land a difficult trick and blasting Megan Thee Stallion at a couple skateparks around the city, including Santa Rita Skate Park, where they originally formed the then three-person crew nearly six years ago.

Daija Jimenez became one of those three founding members when she met Lopez and another skater at Santa Rita Skate Park.

“Daija showed up and she just rolled in with like some, you know, pink heart-shaped glasses,” Lopez recalled. “And we were like, ‘Who the hell is this? What a gorgeous being.’ And so, we introduced ourselves to Daija and she was just super excited.”

Jimenez, a Dallas native who became a Tucson transplant when she was a teenager, said she often skated by herself because she wasn’t aware of other women involved in the Tucson skateboarding scene.

“We ended up making a skate crew out of the three of us,” Jimenez said of herself, Lopez and the third founder Cat Gilliam. “And it just kept growing and growing and growing. And I can honestly not even tell you how many girls I know that we skate with at this point. Like, it's a crazy number.”

Now the crew has around 15 members including teens and adults, but both Lopez and Jimenez describe the BABS as more than a skate crew. They’re family.

They spend weekends skating together, hosting BABS-B-Qs, celebrating birthdays and even doing a white elephant gift exchange during the holidays.

“It's just a community of beings sharing the love of skateboarding,” Lopez said. “And for me and the rest of the squad or the BABS, I would say, we're just about being there for others, you know, because we all remember our first time showing up at a skatepark and (having) the butterflies, like, being super nervous because you're the only girl pretty much and there's a bunch of guys.”

Whether you're a kid wanting to take the plunge into the world of skateboarding or you're a lifelong skateboarding enthusiast, the BABS welcome you. 

“Every girl that wants to skate with us, we welcome them,” Jimenez said. “And even kids, we try to help kids out with teaching them how to skate and making the skate park, like, a safe place for them to be because I feel like it can be kind of taken over by the adults. But, we have to remember that that's a safe place for kids too and that's something that we implement in our group. We don't just let people run crazy, because it's not like the skate park has security or anything. It's really up to the community to make sure that everybody's good.”

Breaking the glass ceiling, one ollie at a time

Skateboarding’s popularity has risen and fallen over the last 40 years, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, viral TikToks and skateboarding making its debut appearance in the Summer Olympics in 2021, the sport once again gained popularity nationwide.

For the BABS, skateboarding isn’t a trend that comes and goes. Instead, it’s a passion they carry with them in their daily lives. Just ask Jimenez, who keeps a skateboard in the trunk of her car at all times.

Traditionally viewed as a male-dominated sport, more than 75% of skateboarders are male, with the remaining percentage female, according to the Public Skatepark Development Guide and Skateboarders HQ. It’s important to note that there isn’t any current data on the number of non-binary skateboarders in the U.S.

But as more and more women and non-binary individuals continue to participate in skateboarding, those statistics are sure to change in the near future.

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However, the BABS are changing the skateboarding statistics and overall scene right here in Tucson. And they have received nothing but love from other skateboarders in the city for making their mark on the scene.

“It's something really positive that the community needs, especially for younger girls that don't want to play softball or don't want to play soccer, or, you know, they want to do something different. And so I think the BABS, they have a way of bringing something cool to the table,” said Isaiah Cotroneo, a local skateboarding instructor at Premises Indoor BMX/Skate Park and member of Mortal Skate Shop’s skate team. 

Keeping the Tucson skateboarding scene rolling

Both Cotroneo and Lopez are members of the Tucson Skatepark Alliance, the group responsible for rallying behind the future Cushing Street Skate Park.

The Tucson Skatepark Alliance is currently accepting donations toward the new, proposed skate park located on the Cushing Street underpass below Interstate 10. Although the much-needed shaded skate park is still in the planning process, it already has a touch of BABS. 

If you’ve passed through Cushing Street near I-10 since last August, you may have spotted some large black-and-white portraits plastered to the side of the underpass. The 69 portraits are part of the Inside Out Project and feature the many faces of Tucson’s skateboarding scene, including a few of the BABS themselves.

With no set opening date for the skate park yet, Lopez and Cotroneo are working together to host a series of free skateboarding clinics for anybody who wants to learn how to skateboard this summer at Premises Skate Park.

“I'm excited to see what those girls have in store and to see what we can get going,” Cotroneo said.

“We're all about trying to involve the Tucson community with skateboarding because, today, everyone's just so stuck on social media, especially the younger generation,” Lopez said. “They don't even go outside and if they would just pick up a skateboard or even a scooter, they'll have so much fun... So, just come hang out. Be the nice, gentle being that you are and just skate with us and have a good time. It's literally just about having fun. Like, if you're not having fun, what are you doing?”

The bond among wood, wheels and BABS

For Lopez and Jimenez, skateboarding has been what feels like a lifelong passion. They both started skateboarding in their teens, with Lopez learning from one of her cousins in Baja, California and Jimenez picking up the sport in Dallas. 

Lopez, a Douglas, Arizona native, began her journey on a skateboard with plastic wheels from Wal-Mart but aspired to have a legitimate skateboard like the professionals. So her dad made a deal with her: “go down everything” at the local skate park and he would buy her a new board, Lopez said.

Later that night, Lopez and her dad visited the skate park and as he shined his bright headlights at the park to illuminate the area, Lopez went down every dip and curve at the park. She received her new skateboard a few days later and she’s continued to skate since then.

“Skateboarding has made me the person I am today,” Lopez said. “I didn't have very many friends growing up, because I just didn't know who I was, you know, but because of skateboarding, I found out who I am. It made me confident. It made me patient. And it just made me be grateful for the tiniest little things, like even just learning a trick. Skateboarding has been a big, huge part of my life and I wouldn't change it at all. At all.”

As the BABS continue to expand in numbers and leave their mark on Tucson, they hope to be able to leave their mark in other places too, by traveling and competing in more skateboarding competitions in Arizona and California. And hopefully, one day, the BABS will be able to become a full-blown skateboarding brand, Lopez said. 

They are already getting a head start on that thanks to the support of Mortal Skate Shop, which has an Arizona Green Tea-inspired BABS skateboard up for pre-order.

Regardless of their future goals, the BABS’ core values will never change: keep skateboarding inclusive and continue bringing their love for skateboarding to Tucson’s community.

“We all share something that we love and we allow our love for something else to create our loving connection with each other and that’s beautiful,” Jimenez said. “I'm a very spiritual person and I think that connecting with others is so important. Like, we walk past way too many people without speaking or saying hello, making eye contact, smiling, all of that. So just being able to go to the skate park and, you know, just connect with people over a piece of wood and some wheels, it's so cool.”

For updates and details on upcoming skate sessions, stay up to date with the BABS on Instagram.