I'm Quita and I'm 30 years old

learning how to skateboard.

Skateboarding is something that

I've always wanted to learn how to do.

It's always been on my bucket list since I was a child.

I couldn't really learn because I lived in a very rural area

with not very many concrete roads to practice on.

Not only that, there just

wasn't a lot of representation for black and brown girls.

So that kind of discouraged me as well.

But I figured, you know what?

F it.

You only live once.

It's time to learn.

Cause I want to learn how to do the Ollie.

An Ollie is done by using your back foot

to snap the tail of the board to the ground

so that the board goes almost vertically in the air.

Right as the tail hits the ground,

you're sliding your front foot

against the board to level it out.

I have made myself a list of three things that I need to be

able to do to make me feel like I have mastered the Ollie.

Number one, all four wheels have to leave the ground.

Number two, I have to be able to do this on concrete

without my skater trainers.

Number three, to be able to do the Ollie while moving.

And the cherry on top would be

to jump over something very unintimidating.

I studied a few videos that made me feel

confident enough to go outside and try it.

I tried as hard as I could for two days,

but something just wasn't clicking.

Then this complete stranger came up to us

and started showing off.

This is when I knew I needed to phone a friend.

So I reached out to Latosha Stone.

You are the first black woman to own a skateboarding brand.

How do you feel about that?

- [Latosha] Feels weird.

Like I didn't really think about being the first,

until my past couple of months here.

And like people really pointed that out.

It's a great thing.

It feels awesome.

- I have been watching Betty.

When I was looking you up it was saying

that your boards were featured in an episode or two.

- It was like in the beginning.

A couple of episodes that came out,

I was just watching every single deck.

Like was that one mine?

Trying to spot it.

- I'm definitely interested in getting one of your boards.

But my thing is I don't want to mess it up.

- I hear that from so many people.

They're like, "It's so pretty, I don't want to ride it".

Just message me which one you want,

and I'll just send you one.

- Oh! Thank you.

I wasn't expecting that.

- I do have completes coming out, in two months.

And I have this really cute collab coming up

with Black Girls Anime.

- That's exciting.

Okay, so I'm trying to learn the Ollie for this video.

Do you think that's too ambitious?

- No.

Ollie is the base of every trick you're going to learn.

So that's definitely one thing that

you should work on getting down first.

- I'll send you the video of me doing this Ollie

and maybe you can critique me on what I'm doing wrong.

- You know what, my friend Latisha is in LA.

Maybe you can meet up with her

and she can show you how to do it better.

Oh, that'd be so much easier.

- Yeah, that'd be perfect.

- You got this.

- Thank you.

I took Latosha's advice and I reached out to Latisha

and she got back to me.

- My name is Latisha Nicole.

I've been skating for about 10 years.

You can start off by showing me what you have

and then we can go from there.

Super good.

It's awesome.

You started off with your back foot

a little off of the tail.

I personally think that you'll get a better pop

if you put your foot more on the tail.

And your goal should be that when you pop,

you want to try and land on your bolts.

- There's just so much to think about all at once.

- [Latisha] Yeah.

Perfect.

In your head, say the steps.

It's all about like muscle memory.

You already know that as soon as you step on

you bend your knees.

So don't say that.

You're working right now on remembering to pop,

then say pop and then jump on the bolts.

Then your body will get used to doing those,

and you won't have to say the mechanics.

You'll just automatically kind of start doing it.

- Pop, slide, jump on the bolts?

- Yeah.

Use your toes.

Your board's not coming with you.

So that's what you're gonna do is

you're going to use your tippy-toes.

- Oh!

I don't know why it's messing me up now.

Why?

- Main thing is really getting

that tail to touch the ground.

- I'm okay.

- [Latisha] Cool, that was perfect.

- Okay, I think we might've unlocked something.

(laughs)

- Right now you're kind of just doing this,

but what about that finesse?

Put that finesse in it with your ankle.

Nice.

- That was scarier, but it felt right.

- [Latisha] Yeah.

Perfect!

- All of a sudden I'm scared.

Like now that the board is actually doing (beep),

now my mind is like.

- [Latisha] Wiggle it out.

Perfect.

So good.

Good.

- Oh my god!

Why is my board flipping all of a sudden?

(upbeat music)

I think I need to do something else for awhile.

- [Latisha] Yeah.

(upbeat music)

- [Quita] I just want to take a few minutes

to actually chat with you

and learn more about your experience in skateboarding.

- I wasn't really allowed to skate until

I was out of the house and all that.

So I was like 17 years old, bought my own skateboard

and started doing what I wanted to do.

There wasn't like very many women in skateboarding at all,

much less women of color.

I've always been like super attracted to skateboarding.

I thought it looks like magic to me.

How can you make something that's under your feet

move without touching it?

- [Quita] Yeah!

- It's magic.

- All right, I guess we've had enough of a break, right?

I feel revived.

Now it's time to cross off number two on my list.

But first I'm going to put these skater trainers on

because I'm scared and I'm going to slowly remove them

as I get used to working on the concrete.

Oh, dope.

Wooo!

Feeling kind of brave.

Medic on standby.

- Oh, that was good!

- That really moved.

Yo, that was pretty good.

- [Latisha] Take one off.

- Take one off.

- Take the last one off.

- Oh word.

I'm not even going to think that anything changed, you know.

Except that - I just rolled.

Whoa, I'm rolling before I'm even ready.

I got scared.

- [Latisha] You got it.

I think we did a lot today.

- [Latisha] Yeah.

You've come far.

You've come a long way.

- Oh man, I don't think I would've got this

with just the internet and videos.

So thank you.

- [Latisha] Probably not.

- I'm 30 doing this,

so I feel like I'm starting real late in the game.

- I'm 33.

I don't feel like there's ever like an age that's too late.

- There's ladies that start and they're like 50.

They have cancer and this is their thing

that they're going to put all their energy into

that takes their mind off of

all their stress and their problems.

- You skate clinics where people from the community

can come and learn how to skate.

And I was one lady that was like 57 that showed up.

She learned how to roll and go down the ramp and stuff.

Yo, this is dope.

- Skating has no age.

You can skate forever.

- My dad literally asked me

if I was having a midlife crisis.

So today's my first day outside practicing

since my lesson went Tish and I'm gonna go for it.

(upbeat music)

Ow.

I really wanted to get the Ollie nice and locked in.

So I kept practicing and practicing

until I felt like I can jump over something.

Something nice and small and not intimidating.

(upbeat music)

I didn't hit it?

I went all the way over?

- [Spectator] Yes.

- What!

(laughs)

When I was younger, not seeing people who look like me

do this was a big factor in me not being interested anymore.

It is really cool to be part of a community of women

who skate and who uplift each other.

It's so pretty.

Thank you, Latosha.

This is awesome.

This is where it's gonna go.

It's kind of perfect actually.

(upbeat music)