The crowned queen of skate, Leticia Bufoni together with local pro skater Brandon Valjalo visited the local skate community in Pimville Skate Park last Wednesday.
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Great emotions of excitement played out as the Pro Brazilian skater, Bufoni made her first appearance in front of local skaters. Skaters were given boards to showcase their skating skills and that marvelled Bufoni.
“I am really surprised by how many girls are skating in South Africa. It is inspiring to see them skate like this because when I started it was a male dominated sport,” said Bufoni.
Supersport launched a “Here for Her” campaign which aims to create more female heroes; to increase viewership and talkability around women in sport; and to unearth more female talent across the continent.
It was less common to see female and non-binary skaters among them. Since its creation, skateboarding has been a male-dominated sport, made up of about 77% male skaters and only about 23% female skaters.
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According to Lindi Mnukwa, a skateboarder from Orange Farm, seeing Bufoni being one of the best skateboarders in the world and being recognised means that there is more representation for females.
“At first, I was the only female skateboarder in my community and today there are more of us here. It just gives me hope that females want to do more and are open in trying out things that were stereotypically reserved for men,” said Mnukwa, who has been skateboarding for six years.
It is important for the youth to find a hobby and they do not need to be good at it but as long as they love it and positively benefit from it.
“I looked for a hobby and fell in love with skateboarding. It trains your mind to have new mentalities that I may not get it today but eventually I am going to get it,” Mnukwa added.
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Brazilian-born Bufoni is a world-renowned skater that has spent her life breaking boundaries. She fearlessly stepped onto the scene when she entered the X Games in California at the early age of 14.
“I haven’t been out to South Africa to experience the culture and skating with the locals. I’ve only been to SA for a couple of contests and to film a commercial. I have always been curious about the skateboarding scene there and this has been an opportunity of a lifetime,” she concluded.
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