15-Year-Old Wins Motherland Girls Skate Contest (Press Release)

RANDBURG – NT Dludla, fifteen, won the Open category at The Motherland on Sunday, beating a field of adult skaters at South Africa’s biggest dedicated women’s skateboarding competition, held on Women’s Day at the Ferndale Recreation Centre in Randburg. Dludla went on to take Best Slam in the Big Ramp Finale that closed the day, an award given not for the heaviest fall but for the one a rider gets back up from. Last year she was hospitalised after a collision at a competition.

Words by The Skate School. Photos Clifford Els and Sunday Skate Mag.

Forty-five girls entered across three categories. Around thirty skated on the day. The youngest was five years old and had travelled up from Tzaneen. The oldest was twenty-seven. Entry was free and so was admission.

The competition was judged by Boipelo Awuah, South Africa’s Olympic skateboarder, alongside accredited World Skate judge Pieter Holtzhausen.

e.tv broadcast three live crossings from the event during the day, and closed the evening with a studio interview at 21:00 featuring three skaters from Rise n Grind, the academy’s community partner in Tembisa.

The day finished with a Big Ramp Finale on a ramp built by hand over three weeks by coaches and parents on a municipal recreation centre court. Two weeks before the event, the academy’s container was broken into, and every tool was stolen. Borrowed tools finished the build.

Nine-year-old Harper May, who flew up from Durban to compete, was the youngest rider to drop in on the big ramp and won the Most Heart award. In the Beginners category, thirteen-year-old Charlie de Beer took first place after only seven months on a skateboard. Ashley and Angella Chimwenye, both of Rise n Grind in Tembisa, were second and third.

 

Ashley Gindre, eleven, won the Under 16 category and Best Trick in the Big Ramp Finale, and took the Blunt Full Throttle Award. Chloe Shaw was second and Auralia Robinson third. In the Open category, Olona Ramoitheki was second and Jessica Whitten third.

The Motherland was hosted by The Skate School Academy, South Africa’s only full-time skateboarding academy, which runs from the Ferndale Recreation Centre. Seventy percent of its students are girls and three South African national champions train there.

“South African girls have always skated. What they have not had is a day that is theirs, at a scale that takes them seriously. That is the whole reason The Motherland exists.Forty-five entered. They came from Tembisa, from Tzaneen, from Durban. A fifteen-year-old beat a field of adults. A nine-year-old dropped into a big ramp in front of a crowd.Girls who could not stand on a board six months ago finished a competition run. Thatdoes not happen because of a ramp or a prize table. It happens because somebody makes the space and then gets out of the way. We will run it again next year and it will be bigger, because now the girls know it exists. We are here for the little wins.”- Shayne Robinson, Founder and Head Coach, The Skate School Academy.

Full Results

Beginners 1st Charlie De Beer · 2nd Ashley · 3rd Angella Chimwenye

Under 16 1st Ashley Gindre · 2nd Chloe Shaw · 3rd Auralia Robinson

Open 1st Nt Dludla · 2nd Olona Ramoitheki · 3rd Jessica Whitten

Big Ramp Finale Best Trick Ashley Gindre  

Best Slam Nt Dludla  

Most Heart Harper May

Blunt Full Throttle Ashley Gindre