"As fat people, the first assumption is that we're trying to lose weight."
This skateboarder wanted to make sure no one ever felt like an outsider in a skate park. So he created Chub Rollz, a judgment-free space for plus-size skaters ...
This skateboarder wanted to make sure no one ever felt like an outsider in a skate park. So he created Chub Rollz, a judgment-free space for plus-size skaters ...
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00:00When these videos come out, we always get folks that hit us up in the DMs immediately
00:11after saying, I cried when I saw your video.
00:14I've literally gone my whole life thinking that I could never skate even though I've
00:18always wanted to.
00:19That's really what this is all about, creating a space where all of us feel welcome to do
00:23the things that we want to do.
00:40I went online to find others like me that were heavier or fat, what were their recommendations
00:49for the best boards.
00:50I immediately got hit with some fat phobia in some of the groups.
00:57There was also just really a lot of misinformation out there that boards couldn't handle weights
01:03over 200 pounds, which is completely not true.
01:08A lot of people in my life that were fat said, hey, I really do want to start skating.
01:25It seems really cool.
01:26I'd love to get on a board with you, but I don't know which kind to buy.
01:31I really am convinced that I just can't do it, and so I wanted to create a space where
01:36folks could come out and try just getting on some boards, even if they've never been
01:40on a board before.
01:41Going to skate parks is really intimidating, and not only being fat, but kind of being
01:44a queer person, and we got a lot of those stereotypical body dudes, right?
01:49I know I have every right to be there, it just doesn't always feel good.
01:53A lot of us were really afraid that if we went out into the public, into skate parks,
01:57or even just out in our neighborhood, that we'd get laughed at.
02:00Even online, when we post some of our videos, hoping that our community will support us,
02:04we get a lot of hate in the comments, and so we wanted to create a safe space where
02:09we just would be supporting each other, and if somebody fell down, we would treat it just
02:14like any other skateboarder would when you fall, and just, you know, like, oh, you're
02:17right?
02:18Yeah, cool, get back up.
02:19A lot of times when we're out in the community, you know, as fat people, the first assumption
02:33is that we're trying to lose weight.
02:36One of our members tells a story about how on New Year's, they went for a skate just
02:41because they were really excited about a new board that they had gotten for the holidays,
02:46and then somebody went up to them and was like, oh, are you starting your resolutions
02:50early?
02:52And it was this immediate thought of like, oh, like, fat people don't want to be fat,
02:56and that's just so hurtful, because a lot of us are actually quite comfortable in our
03:00bodies, and it's the world that's not comfortable with us, and the arrangements that have not
03:05been adaptive for us.
03:15True skaters will always support you, will love to see somebody on the board, will love
03:21to see somebody connecting to the art, to the craft, to the activity, and folks that
03:28want to gatekeep and think that only certain types of people should skate, or that it's
03:34only for certain types of communities, those folks have not been very great to us, and
03:40those are the people that are usually really not great to the girls at the skate park and
03:45are not great to people of color at the skate park, and not great to queer people at the
03:48skate park, and also not great to fat people at the skate park.
03:52And so really, it's about folks that have gotten to be the sole image of skateboarding
03:56for a long time being frustrated about that, whereas another whole part of that crew is
04:01really excited to step back and allow that space to be reclaimed by the rest of us.
04:07We're just trying to have fun, and some of us are doing it for commuting, some of us
04:11are doing it for, you know, just for mental health, some of us are doing it as a way of
04:19how we've been grieving through the pandemic and a lot of loss, and so, you know, skating
04:26is for everybody.