“Worry less about fitting into the glass slipper and more about shattering glass ceilings.”
That’s the message from Duchess Rides, a non profit organisation set up by four snowboarders to improve tenacity in young women through boardsports.
Claire Altenau, Carissa Bisnar, Carly Finke and Jaime Schulte, co founders Duchess rides, met on a chairlift while snowboarding.
Together with their joint love of skateboarding and snowboarding, they hatched a plan to get more women out there shredding.
The gang has just completed a 300 mile trip, skating from California, down to the Mexican border over 16 days.
The trip aimed to raise awareness of their plans and inspire girls to go a bit further and be a bit more adventurous, getting out there to surf, skate or snowboard themselves.
Instead of girls just trying to progress and improve, they’re afraid to fail and they stay clear of the sport
Along the way, skaters, kids, mums and dads joined in and skated with them.
The gang decided to start Duchess Rides after noticing a lack of support between young women in boardsports.
Girls are twice as likely to drop out of sports than boys, so the four decided to change the culture surrounding female sport and boarders.
“We feel like girls are pitted against each other when they’re younger,” they told GrindTV in a recent interview.
“They’re told to be competitive, but not in a positive sense. Instead of girls just trying to progress and improve, they’re afraid to fail and they stay clear of the sport.”
Duchess Ride is planning it’s first six-week pilot program for young girls, to start in January.
The program consists of two separate six-week progression sessions on snow, and aims to pay to take six girls from ages of 10 to 12 in each progression session.
THe program’s are about more than just learning to snowboard however, aiming to get girls into the mentality that it’s OK to fail, so long as you persevere and improve through it.
We love this rad idea! If you do to, you can support Duchess Rides here.
Let’s get as many girls out there shredding as possible!