Lacey Baker Finally Quits Her Day Job | “… being a girl skater is more punk than being a dude in skating now.”
Despite being one of the best female skateboarders out there for years now, Lacey Baker JUST quit her full time day job. She still has to do some freelance work on the side, but now has much more time to dedicate to actually skateboarding. You know, like what thousands of sponsors guys get to do.
In her full ‘Quit Your Day Job‘ interview in TWSkate Lacy goes on record about sexism and lack of money in the skateboard industry, how being a girl skateboarder is very punk, her hardships growing up like her dad passing away from contacting HIV from a blood transfusion, and much more…
That’s sick. That was actually one of my later questions. Do you think they should even have a girls’ division?
Yeah. I mean the difference between men and women—men are just biologically stronger than us, so they can take harder slams and jump higher and do more shit like that. But the ability to understand skateboarding and the physics of it doesn’t really change. I feel like if I was a dude, or had the body that could take a slam like that, I would probably be doing gnarlier shit. As far as working hard and skating every day, we don’t do anything different than the guys do. They just do gnarlier shit.
Sometimes that can add to the style side. Like I always thought Elissa Steamer had one of the raddest styles, period.
For sure. That’s kind of how I try to skate. Just approach it in a more creative way or different way so that I don’t have to break myself off. I can’t afford to get injured anyways. I don’t even have insurance right now.
I read your interview from last year getting at the sexism in the skate industry. I suppose it’s part of a wider societal problem. But has your opinion changed at all?
Well, I think what’s happening now is that there is some progress because people are speaking out about it. So people are maybe paying attention more now. But you’re right, I think it is a construct—it’s just how the world is to a degree, and it bleeds over into everything. Skateboarding obviously having been a male-dominated sport, as much as I hate saying that and hate hearing it, it is what it is. I feel like from the girls’ side of it, we’re sort of on the outside looking in. At this point we’re just trying to do our own things—start our own companies and do our own thing. Because the overall feeling is that there is no place for us here in this industry.
Click over to Transworld SKATEboarding for the full Lacey Baker interview.
Follow BOARD RAP on Insta for more updates.
