Armpit zine was the brainchild of Erika Dubé, a Quebecois skateboarder who had spent important time in California, attending to know the crew behind the San Diego zine, Villa Villa Cola. Again in Montréal, Quebec, Erika decided that the native crew of feminine skate boarders, who would quickly develop into often known as The Skirtboarders in 2002, wanted their very own zine.
Making a zine would even be enjoyable challenge through the chilly, bleak winter after the indoor skatepark, the Tazmahal was torn down in 2001, in preparation for a brand new metropolis library, with no different to skate.
Three problems with Armpit had been produced from 2003-2004, digitized right here:
The primary challenge options images of Margaux Walker at Berri park, images and a rant about TransWorld journal by Natalie (me), a roadtrip report by Louise Hénault-Éthier with Maya Credico and myself, artistic writing by Maya, a evaluation of an all-women breakdance crew known as “Strong State,” images of Amy Mattes at Gesus financial institution alongside along with her poetry, extra skate images of Louise, Margaux and Mélanie Nadeau, a California reminiscence by Erika (when she skated the Glory Gap in July 1999 with associates like Faye Jaime and Isabelle Ranger), art work by Erika, a e book evaluation by Gabrielle Papillon.
The ultimate two pages have fun the Skirtboarders first video known as Boy (2002), filmed by Mathilde Pigeon, which got here out on VHS.
The second challenge has a canopy shot of a few of the Skirtboarders, after we trekked up Mont Royal hill for a hill bomb. There’s Mathilde, unknown, Amy, Louise, Erika, Mélanie, Gabrielle, and Anne-Sophie Julien. Extra of the crew seems because of some all-girls skate session at “South Park,” like Julie Lévesque, Indigenous skater, Marie-France Gravel, Brigitte Emond, Lilli Bastien, Eloise Théoret, Frédérique Luyet, Chloe Morin, and extra.
Erika additionally options Hudson Poston, sponsored by the female-owned firm, Cherry Skateboards. An area artist, Dana de Kuyper is well known since she designed our Skirtboarders brand, which we silk-screened onto t-shirts.
For the third challenge, Margaux takes the quilt, and there’s a giant function on the 2003 West 49 contest in Ontario that had a strong ladies’ avenue class drawing in sponsored riders like Vanessa Torres (1), Lauren Perkins (2), Jaime Reyes (3), Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins (4), Georgina Matthews (5), Alex White (6), Lauren Mollica (7), Lyndsey Westfall (8), Carly Fyfe (9) and Louise Hénault-Éthier (10), amongst many others.
The well-known Montreal spot, the Massive-O receives some limelight with Erika capturing images of Anne-Sophie, Margaux, Louise, Fred, and Amy. Erika additionally shared some inspiration from her pal, Mary-Jane Parish of Grass Valley, CA.
Once more, zines show to be a beautiful portal into the world of girls in skateboarding at first of the brand new millennium.