Nicole Phillips is an up and coming women’s skimboarder trying to break through the gender barriers of the male dominated sport one competition at a time.
Phillips is from Tampa and began skimboarding at a young age after being inspired by a beachgoer while on a trip to her local beach. She began taking lessons with a local professional skimboarder who taught her the fundamentals of the sport. This was the beginning of Phillips rise into the competitive skimboarding scene.
“Starting out was a bit tough since most of the contests were far away and even when I did compete, there wasn’t anyone to look up to on the girls side so it was a little discouraging,” Phillips said. “Eventually I went to skim meetups and met an awesome group of friends who pushed me to compete more and helped me get better.”
Phillips, who is 17, competes in the “Women’s” division which is open to any competitor from 15 to 99 years old. The competitive men’s divisions are split into much more even age ranges since there are many more male competitors. Phillips has been advocating for skim competition organizers to add more divisions on the female side of the competition in order to make it more fair for all the women involved. She also believes that this would make it less intimidating for new female skimboarders to begin competing.
Phillips said, “in the last few years they’ve added more girls divisons to separate the ages more and make it more fair for all of us. This mimics the boys side of the sport more and is a great step towards gender equality in skimming.
Phillips is not the only woman trying to pave the way for the next generation of young female skimboarders. Current professional skimboarders such as Chabe White, Amber Torrealba, Sydney Pizza, and Julia Dias all serve as inspirations and mentors to the girls and women competing in the amateur divisions.
Phillips is now a team rider for Apex Skimboards and competes multiple times a year all across the east coast of the United States. Phillips won the Skim USA “Women’s” division tour with four competition wins and 5,800 total points across seven competitions.
See Nicole’s interview and short video below to learn more about her story: