In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Lagos, Abimsola Naiwo, feeling bored, decided to try out her brother’s skateboard. With a few tips from him, she began skateboarding around the house. As Lagos gradually reopened after the pandemic, Naiwo often joined her brother and his friends to skate on the street behind Freedom Park, near St Nicholas Hospital on Lagos Island.
By 2021, they had moved to the National Stadium, where the ample space allowed them to skateboard freely.
In late 2020, Naiwo met Blesson Ewona.
“It was amazing to find another girl like me skating,” she told The Record. “We skated together a few times on the street behind Freedom Park before we all moved to the National Stadium. She decided to create Dencity and asked me and a few other girls to join, and that’s how we started.
Dencity is a female-only skateboarding community in Lagos, aiming not only to enjoy skateboarding but also to grow, connect, and empower the female skateboarding culture in Nigeria.
In an interview with The Record’s Omon Okhuevbie, the 24-year-old skateboarder and streetwear fashion entrepreneur shared the challenges of building a skateboarding community for young girls and women in Lagos and other states in Nigeria.
She also spoke about their efforts to promote skateboarding among girls and their dreams of seeing Nigerian girls win Olympic medals in the sport.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Omon Okhuevbie: How did Dencity move from just a community in Lagos to creating communities in Ibadan, and other states in Lagos?
Abimsola Naiwo: When we created our social account and a group chat, other girls reached out and mentioned that they were in a particular state not in Lagos and they were interested in skateboarding. So we had girls in, for example, Port-Harcourt. We linked everyone up in that state to form their own skateboarding crew. So, we are not only in Lagos; we are in Ibadan, Abuja and Port-Harcourt.
OO: How do you think skateboarding empowers young girls?
AN: Skateboarding as a sport in general teaches you resilience. I told you I sprained my ankle, and when I heal I will still try it again. So, generally in life, it teaches resilience. You fall, you get up and go again after what you love till you get it.
Also, skateboarding is now an Olympic sport.So, if you want to go pro, or you want to be in the Olympics, it will help you. So, you can be an athlete, a proper athlete that will get recognition. It’s not just a hobby anymore.You can basically make a living from skateboarding. Brands like Nike, and Adidas have even reached out to us. We have Red Bull, Power horse. There are a lot of brands that are interested, if you know what you are doing.
OO: How old is the youngest girl in your community?
AN: We have 19. I know that we have 10 but she does not come here. She stays around the National Stadium. So, whenever we go to the stadium, she comes.
OO: What has been the most rewarding part of building this community of female skateboarders?
AN: People look out for each other here, even for non-skateboarding things. For example, if you don’t have a place to stay, you can easily find somewhere within ourselves to crash. Job opportunities also. Within our community, we have creatives. People are DJs, people have clothing brands, we have artists and we put them on to job opportunities. We look out for each other.
OO: Did you face any challenges when first starting the group?
AN: Before WafflesNCream (WAF)) created this skate park in Lagos, we didn’t have a spot to freely skate. Then, some people in the National Stadium would disturb us while we were skating and start asking us why we’re skating there. We used to go to the University of Lagos (UNILAG) sometimes to skate also, and we would face the same thing. They would ask us if we were students of the school and why we were skating before chasing us away.
We didn’t have a place to call our own before this skatepark was created.
OO: Any other challenges?
AN: Most girls don’t have boards. That’s also a setback.
You can’t just use any shoe. There are some certain shoes you have to use for skateboarding.
Some girls don’t have shoes, they don’t have skateboards, they can’t afford it. We also reach out to brands, non-Nigerian brands, so they send us shoes and boards to interested young girls. Your parents don’t like skating, so you’re not going to ask them for money. So we try to reach out for boards, for support, money, so that our girls can afford these things.
Even if they can’t afford it, we buy for them and give them. That’s why I also said that, apart from skateboarding, we try to better our lives here. So imagine I give you boards now, and you’re skating, but you don’t have money, no money to eat. So we also try to find job opportunities for ourselves. So you can also have a source of income, and you can enjoy skating.
Our community is just like a church for some people. Some people go to a certain church because they know they’ll see opportunity there. So that’s how it is here.
OO: Have you noticed any changes in the attitudes of parents and the community toward girls skateboarding?
AN: Not really. That’s also an issue. The mother of the 10 year-old girl in our community is not really supportive of her skateboarding and everything. We even had to get her a board.
Even my parents at first, they were like, why are you doing this? Sometimes I come back with injuries. So, sometimes they are caring.
It’s because they are caring but sometimes they also don’t want you to do this. When mine saw that they can’t tell this girl anything, they just let me do my thing.
And then, I also started making some money from it. I started winning competitions. And then, apart from that, we get gigs now.
You see us in some commercials. They pay us now. They pay us good money.
OO: Which ones have you guys done?
AN: Me, in particular. I’ve been on PiggyVest, an Ashluxe commercial. So they put skateboarders on stuff like that. Blessing (the founder) did one on Johnny Walker, she did a couple and they paid well.
We have some brands that have reached out to us, which I cannot mention yet because we haven’t closed the deal.
OO: How do you handle criticism and setbacks from people because skateboarding is not traditionally seen as a women’s sport?
AT: In general, I feel like it’s seen in all sports like football, basketball. Yeah, women in general. They are not encouraged to do extreme sports.
So if you are doing something like skateboarding, you just need to do your own thing. For me, I don’t care about what people say. That’s what it is. You just have to do your own thing. I don’t care.
And it’s just like all these things where people don’t believe you, right? Until they now see that you are excelling in it. It’s just like how I told you about my parents. When they saw that I was making money, they were like, ah, okay. They are not kidding about it anymore. So it’s like, that’s what I’m saying.
OO: What next for Dencity girls?
AN: So, we are going to be doing, like, skate jams. We are going to do another skate tour, hopefully. Inshallah. We are going to do another skate tour. You know, just going around. We need to spread our wings. We need to spread the gospel about skateboarding in other states. We are in just four states.
Yeah, so we need more girls. That’s why I also mentioned going to schools to teach and create skateboarding clubs. Now it’s an Olympic sport, so you can actually recognize us and say, oh, yes, this is something you want your kids to actually do and take seriously. Not just basketball, football.
OO: Tell us more about the Skate night here at WAF skatepark?
AN: It is held every last Friday of the month, from 6pm to 10pm for only females. If you want to learn, we will teach you. So we divided it into beginner, intermediate and pro.
We do this for free. Just come in, we’ll teach you how to skate and just live there.
Because in the end, you’re going to represent us. You’re going to represent your country.
OO: So you mentioned earlier you guys want to introduce some programs in school? How is that going?
AN: We want to just go to some schools for after-school training on skateboarding for girls. We went to three schools in Lagos but we have not really gotten approval yet.
Some of us are certified coaches. We’ve taken courses on skateboarding because you have to know more to judge skateboarding competitions, you have to go on a certain training.
OO: So what advice would you give to young girls who want to get into skateboarding but are scared and intimidated?
AN: I just tell them, just do it. If you fall down, you stand up, you know, and you get better. So that’s it for me.
OO: How does the group sustain itself financially?
AN: We get a lot of support most times. For example this skate night is free for women but normally you are meant to pay 1,500 Naira for entry into the park. We talked to the manager and the management agreed to allow us to use it for free.
People and brands are even the ones reaching out to us sometimes. We get some sponsorships sometimes and we also use our personal money, you know. Like, if we are all going somewhere, we use our own money.
OO: So, how can you describe the skateboarding culture in Lagos?
AN: I think the skateboarding culture in Lagos is very vibrant. And the skateboarding community, in general; skateboarding is not a sport that you just see any random person doing it. So, like, the community in general is unique. Like, the kind of people you are seeing here, we all are like-minded people. We are not conformists, not in a bad way.
OO: So, what do you think needs to change to make skateboarding more accessible for girls in Nigeria?
AN: Everybody needs to change their mentality. Yes, if you want to make it accessible for girls, people need to change their mentality. And maybe that’s even why the schools didn’t even reach out to us because one of their PTA chairman has just liked our Instagram. We know that you guys have talked about this. You are liking, but you guys are not reaching out. So, maybe some parents are not still on that.
Then, also, we need more facilities. Skateboarding is an Olympic sport, so the government needs to buy something for us. Cotonou has. Their government has built a skate park for them. A very big skate park.We need long term government support. We need parents’ approval. Some girls get really good here and then they will just stop coming. Why? Their parents are not letting them come. We need support from everyone.