1999 is already a great year! The planning of the first annual “ALL-Women’s Skate Festival” Is well on the way. Check here for more information and pre-registration.

This event will be the very first of it’s kind just like The W.A.S.N. - It will be held in NYC, my hometown, and will have an ASA am qualifying street contest and a pro/am mini-ramp contest.

The planned date is July 17th.

One of the high lights of the event will be a fashion show featuring girls clothes from the hottest designers modeled by the top female skaters from all over the world. So I expect to hear from all of you.

For the holiday season I was down in Florida visiting relatives and a few awesome skaters. Florida is home to some of the best Skate Parks in the country. So of course I had to go skate them.

First I went to probably the oldest park in Florida, Badlands, in Altamonte Springs which is north of Orlando. I didn’t find any girl skaters but many pro skateboarders hang out there.

However it was at Badlands that I met my dear friend Carrie Forys about 4 years ago. Carrie is an awesome vert skater and traveled on the pro circuit for a year. Then she landed a job at Hyper Wheels running their aggressive wheel line.

So we hung out and skated like old times. She took me to Central Skate Park in Clearwater. Let me tell you….this park rules!

When we got there I felt like if I was at an ASA pro tour stop. The ramps were very challenging. They even have a foam pit launch. You definitely need a few days before you find all the lines in their Camp Woodward like street course.

There Carrie and I met 15 yr. old Robin Solotoff who was visiting from Miami. We had a rad mini-ramp season. Robin has an interesting story about her skating. She e-mailed me:

“I started aggressive skating in January sometime, but I've been interested in the sport for a while...watching Competitions, reading magazines. My friend Eryn, knew a kid who’s uncle owned a skate park so that’s how I started. Ever since then I've been addicted.

I skate whenever I can usually with my little brother, Mark and his best friend, Chase. Ever since I was little I loved trying weird things that took a while to master. I learned to ride a unicycle just because it was a challenge so skating really fits in.

I think its awesome that you are getting this whole women's aggressive skating thing together. Thanks, Robin”

This is what I love about traveling - hearing the stories.

Next, Carrie put a together an extreme launch show for the Citrus Bowl Holiday Parade in Orlando.

We were called Team Performance, named after the store that sponsored us, Performance Ski & Surf in Orlando. It was a blast!

Performing was myself, Carrie, local inline skater Billy Benedict, Skate boarders Rodney Mead and James Knight, and Pro BMX rider Dave Mavro.

It was cool to see Dave Mavro again. Just as I have, He’s traveled on the ESPN B3 pro tour.

My next adventure was in Jacksonville, home of the new generation of bad ass girl skaters.

Katie Brown, who has been on the pro tour for the past two years, Fallen Heffernan, who won the 98 ASA am vert championship, Jessie McCave who’s qualified ASA pro, and Andrea Billik new comer just waiting to bust out onto the scene.

I’m telling you, there must be something in the water in Jacksonville because these girls rule! We met at Skate World and had an awesome session.

I barely skated because I had to watch. I got a chance to sit down with Fallen to ask her about her skating. Check out her interview:

Well ……..until next time, spread the word about the All-Women’s Skate Festival, and plan on coming! I know most of the local guy pro’s will be there to support the girls. The Disla brothers, John Ortiz, Joe Dedentro and Ryan Jacklone just to name a few. So guys are welcome to hang, skate when competition is not going on and throw their support our way.
Later Skaters, Kate