This Girl Just Wants to Have Fun--and Skate

At first glance, it appears to be a group of boys that is warming up for the Beach Games skateboarding competition, just a few hours away.

A second look, however, reveals that hiding underneath the baggy pants, T-shirts and baseball caps are several girls, trying to get in some runs before the women’s pro-am street final begins.

“There’s a girl under there,” said Gus Miranda, whose 12-year-old daughter, Ashley, is competing. “When it comes time for a school dance she’s got all the makeup and perfume bottles. But this is her most of the time. This is what she loves.”

It is the first competition for Miranda, of Huntington Beach, and Friday’s event is the first women’s skateboarding competition at the Beach Games.

“I just want to see how I stand against the other girl skaters,” she said. “I’m a little bit nervous.”

Miranda, who gave up playing club soccer to concentrate on skateboarding, has been training for three years under Brian Mank of Newport Beach. Her father said he hopes this is just the beginning.

“Her goal is to one day get a shoe and skateboard named after her,” he said. “This is where it’s going to start and hopefully she can get some sponsorships out of these competitions.”

Ashley goes through a board in a about a month, at $120 a pop, and there’s the wear on tear on skateboarding clothes and gear.

“That’s why she needs a sponsorship,” Gus Miranda said with a grin.

When his daughter first began skateboarding, Miranda said he knew she would take to it. A skateboarder himself, he could tell Ashley had the talent. Her enthusiasm for the sport has spilled over to her younger brothers and the whole neighborhood.

“She’s got everyone doing it,” Gus said.

At times, Friday’s atmosphere seemed to intimidate Ashley, as she stood at the top of a ramp and watched boys sliding down rails, jumping over picnic tables and defying the laws of gravity.

“They are so good and so fast,” she said. “They go a lot faster and jump a lot higher than me.”

However, she says she didn’t enter the competition to prove anything; she was just hoping to stay on the board and get all her tricks in.

Miranda didn’t win the event, but she made it to the second heat before missing the cut for the finals. Elissa Steamer of West Hollywood was the winner.