Huntington Beach’s Brooke Benton, 6, an emerging shredding star
Brooke Benton has only been skateboarding for a matter of months, but it doesn’t take the 6-year-old long to come up with her favorite trick.
It’s called the 180 no-comply, which involves a change from a regular to a switch stance.
“I’m working on mastering it,” Brooke said confidently.
Though she doesn’t appear all that much bigger than her skateboard, she already has the game of an emerging talent in the sport. The kindergartner, who lives in Huntington Beach, loves to spend time at skateparks like Vans in Surf City, Volcom in Costa Mesa and even the Venice Beach skatepark. Her first trip to the latter lasted for six hours; Brooke didn’t want to leave.
It’s rare to see her without a skateboard after she first picked one up late last summer. There are three mini-ramps set up in her family’s garage. And her parents, Ruth and A.J., got her a practice board with cushions underneath so she could even work on mastering her craft indoors.
“We had a neighbor who had an old skateboard and Brooke was messing around with it,” Ruth Benton recalled. “He asked her if she wanted it because she was obsessed with it, just playing with it and trying to get her bearings on it. Now she’s taking lessons and competing and getting sponsors. It’s been a wild ride, and she’s really fallen in love with it. It’s done a lot for her confidence and just passion. It’s been really, really fun.”
Brooke got to meet two of her skateboarding idols, Huntington native Sky Brown and Leticia Bufoni, at a recent autograph signing. Sky, 13, won a bronze medal in the park skateboarding event at last year’s Tokyo Summer Olympics.
“It was really cool,” Brooke said. “I asked her how to do a kick flip.”
Brooke, who has an Instagram account @skatebrookie with nearly 3,000 followers, has started competing in California Amateur Skateboard League events. Often facing girls at least twice her age, she placed third in the first CASL event of the year in Santa Clarita. She also finished first in street skating and third in the halfpipe at a “Mini Ripperz” event in Long Beach in January.
She said there are only three times when she doesn’t have a skateboard: when she’s at school, at another activity or sleeping.
She does have other things to do. Brooke is a member of a large Huntington Beach-based Girl Scouts group, Troop 1272, and enjoys doing service-based activities with the other members of the troop. Her parents also thought it was important for her to compete in something as a team, so she is a jazz and ballet dancer.
Her Girl Scout troop will likely be planting a tree this spring as part of the Girl Scout Tree Promise, a national initiative to plant 5 million trees across the country within five years. The organization, founded by Juliette Gordon Low in Georgia in 1912, is also celebrating its 110th anniversary.
“Could [Low] have even imagined a little skateboarder in Huntington Beach, California doing this thing and embodying that spirit?” Girl Scouts of Orange County communications director Caron Berkley said. “I think that’s really cool to think about. What she intended for the Girl Scout movement and what it is today, they’re still the same thing. It’s about getting to pursue your passions and interests, becoming your best self. It’s really cool to see where the movement has come and where we are today with girls like Brooke.”
Brooke has learned valuable life lessons along the way. Her dance team had a competition in Las Vegas last weekend — which meant she had to miss the second CASL event of the year in Palm Springs.
“When you’re missing and you’re a part of the team, it affects the team,” Ruth Benton said. “You have to be there for your teammates and support them. She totally got it. She was like, ‘Oh, there will be more skateboard competitions.’”
Brooke’s brother, Duke, 4, hasn’t caught the skateboard bug, but he’s a fan of his older sister. She has big goals for herself, including competing in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Brooke would be 12 at that point. It seems like a long time away, but she sees no reason why she can’t achieve that goal.
“There’s a girl in the X Games who competed at 10,” she said.
Her parents try to keep her humble. Until then, there are smaller goals, like learning how to kick flip.
Brooke falls occasionally, which is part of skateboarding, too. But she’s full of moxie, so she usually gets off the ground with a smile on her face.
Her mother also smiles when asked about watching her daughter grind away the hours.
“She hasn’t done anything yet that has truly terrified me,” Ruth Benton said. “It’s been a fun immersion. We knew nothing about it, and now we’re deep in this world. It’s been really positive, so we’re really enjoying it.”
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