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ABQ skater defies skating's bias against women

Born into an industry dominated by men, 19-year-old Mariah Duran represents New Mexico as one of the few female professional skateboarders. This year alone, she defeated gender norms by taking silver in the 2016 X-Games and signing to go professional.

Having grown up in Albuquerque, Duran started skating at the age of 10 after her brother suggested she try the sport. Since then, she has been sponsored by BZ skate shop, eS shoes, and Meow Skateboards.

It was the Meow Skateboards endorsement that marked the beginning of Duran’s professional career. On Oct. 6, at the premiere of “Quit Your Day Job,” an all-female, skateboarder documentary, Meow Skateboards announced that it was recruiting Duran to the team.

“Dreams do come true,” Duran said.

To date, Duran has participated in seven competitions from local events to the 2016 X-Games in Austin, Texas. To get there, she first had to compete in Wheels of Fortune in Seattle.

“Now, Wheels of Fortune is like the audition to get into the X-Games,” Duran said.

This year, she traveled to Austin to compete against 12 other women in Women’s Street Skating. Duran scored second place, and met others who are just as passionate about skating as she is.

The majority of the young women Duran competed against in the X-Games, including Vanessa Torres and Lacey Baker, are all featured in “Quit Your Day Job,” the first all-female skateboard documentary in over 11 years.

However, Duran’s accomplishments go further than the X-Games and being recruited by Meow Skateboard’s team; her involvement in the skateboarding community is breaking down gender barriers and bias against female riders.

It wasn’t until recently that women have begun to make it big in an industry where so many spectators still don’t view them as equal to men. For example, at the 2015 Nike Skateboarding Street League Championship, the grand prize thousands of dollars more than the women’s. Duran views that circumstance as a prime example of gender inequality in skating.

Unlike many male skaters, the majority of women in the skateboarding community have to work another job to make ends meet. A prime example is female skater Leticia Bufoni, who models for Nike on top of being a professional street skater.

As for Duran, she is tackling the inequality by letting her skating speak for itself. She believes that the world of female skating needs to start somewhere, and by being part of the Meow Skateboarding team she can influence the movement.

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Duran has put Albuquerque on the map and through her accomplishments as a skater she remains an inspiration to her peers and supporters nationwide.

“Skateboarding for women is still growing because, when you think about it,” Duran said, “the very first professional girl skateboarders are still skateboarding today. That’s how young it is. So right now, we are just growing it and trying to take it to the next level.”

Luisa Pennington is a journalism and mass communication student at the University of New Mexico. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com.

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