Skateboarding is having quite a moment. From its history-making introduction into the 2020 Olympics to its sustained presence across subcultures, the sport has been able to ties together communities and conversations with radical ambition. Once a sport that was seemingly relegated to stereotypes and misrepresentation, it has since become renewed and represented across industries. The combination of acclaimed skate productions (Skate Kitchen, Mid90s, Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone) and grassroots persistence has dominantly carried over a new image of what a modern-day skateboarder can look like. The relentless rejection of categorised stereotypes and the embrace of much-needed change has been driven by those grinding through hard work.

Marie-Ermelinda Mayassi is one of those people. The 25-year-old is the founder of Skate Gals & Pals and Melanin Skate Gals & Pals, an East London based collective for marginalised skaters: QTBPOC, BPOC, marginalised genders and folks in deprived areas. An experienced workshop facilitator, a public speaker, and photographer, she (and her fellow collective) are fighting for a representative, accessible, and more inclusive skate scene. We sat down with the skateboarder in their makeshift Hackney Wick headquarters to talk big questions, progressive change, and next steps for Melanin Skate Gals & Pals.

We’re big fans of the Melanin Skate Gals & Pals initiative, so how did it get formed?

I’ve been skating since 2017. I quickly realised that there was something missing in this case soon, especially people who look like me and people that I could relate to. That’s when I started the collective Leeds Skate Gals and Pals, which was a collective for marginalised gender. We tried to create a community that was not centred around male perspectives on skateboarding. But, I realised the group was only attracting white women and that is something that didn’t really resonate with me because it didn’t feel like my experience was being valued.

For so many years, I felt like I was the only Black girl skater in the UK. I felt like I was providing the service to a community rather than being part of that community. So, when I moved to London in January 2021, I wanted to start skating again and to have a community around it. And after everything that happened with the death of George Floyd, and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, I just wanted to create a space for Black and other people of colour. So, I started doing a video series on skaters of colour around the world – of non-male skaters of colour around the world. That was another factor that inspired me to create a group dedicated to BIPOC skaters and queer skaters, so then started Melanin Skate Gals & Pals in March 2021.