Skateboarding is fun. Having strangers give unsolicited tips on how to skate “better”, much less so. Community organiser Briana King shares on the dos and don’ts of skaters giving advice to skaters.
This story is part of ‘New Year, New Rules’ which welcomes columnist Ian Browning and his ‘Rules of Skateboarding’ series of interviews to Skate Bylines.
Interview by Ian Browning
Briana King (left) at Pushing Boarders 2019 in Malmö, Sweden by Norma Ibarra
What is the worst well-intentioned advice somebody has given you at a spot or a skatepark?
Let’s say I’m learning how to do a trick switch—this is something that happened recently. I’m learning how to switch flip right now and they’re trying to tell me how to kickflip. I’m like, “Yo, it’s switch.” Even when I’m pushing, I’m just like, “Bro. Nobody pushes mad normal all the time.” Sometimes you just look crazy and have a wide push. I’m like, “I don’t need you to follow me to tell me how to push correctly.”
Is it usually unsolicited?
100%. Every single time.
Why do you think you get so much uninvited advice from other skaters?
Because I’m a girl and they probably want to talk to me. And they don’t understand how to speak to me otherwise. I know, you just want to talk to me. You can just say “hello”, you don’t need to give me tips, bro.
Yeah, it’s a weird icebreaker. So, on the flip side of that, what do you think is the best way for skaters to be welcoming to someone that they don’t know who shows up to skate? Instead of coming up and trying to give unsolicited tips?
Oh, I feel like sometimes I feel uncomfortable to say “hello” to someone because not everybody wants to talk but it’s not intimidating to say, “Hi, how are you doing?”
When I see that someone is working on a trick, because I know that a lot of people that are beginners do want help, I’ll just be like, “Hey, are you working on anything at the moment?” Like, do you need help? Or do you want help with anything at the moment?”
Almost every single time, someone wants help. Even if someone’s a crazy skater, better than me, I’m like, “Hey, what are you learning right now?” If you don’t know how to say hello, you can just be like, “Are you trying to learn any tricks right now?” It’s pretty similar.
“Just because you’re in a public area doesn’t mean you want to be doing public person things. It’s just overwhelming. It took me a long time to know that it’s okay not to have a full long conversation with everyone.”
Briana King at L.E.S. Skatepark, Manhattan, New York
October 2020
What about cool-guying people? Do you think that essentially being ignored is also something that intimidates beginners or people that are just getting out into parks or spots for the first time?
I think the “cool guy” thing is weird. I haven’t experienced that. I saw that people will say that about me. I can go on online or search my name and they’re like, “I saw Briana King at the skatepark and she didn’t say ‘hi’ to me, or she was really short with me.”
I feel like a lot of the time people that have a pretty good following or are just really good skaters, you get overwhelmed by everyone talking to you the whole entire time. And you just want to go to the park and skate. Just because you’re in a public area doesn’t mean you want to be doing public person things. It’s just overwhelming. It took me a long time to know that it’s okay not to have a full long conversation with everyone. I feel like people misunderstand that. It’s just like, “No, I’m just tired of talking all the time. I just wanted to go outside and skate.” I think that happens to a lot of people.
I always wonder what percentage of cool-guying comes from not wanting to talk to people, as opposed to people that only hang out with the same social circle and aren’t great at socializing with new people.
It’s hard for a lot of people to socialise outside their circle. And it’s not necessarily that they don’t want to, it’s just difficult when they’re very comfortable within their own circle.
“It’s hard for a lot of people to socialise outside their circle. And it’s not necessarily that they don’t want to, it’s just difficult when they’re very comfortable within their own circle.”
Briana King at Borough Hall, Brooklyn, NYC
October 2020
Yeah, exactly. So you’ve said in the past that you’re an introvert. Was it tough for you to then switch over to being the ringleader when meetups started to get really big?
No. At that point the only thing I had to speak about was skateboarding and I knew enough about skateboarding where I felt comfortable speaking. I feel like I ended up being an introvert because I was so insecure.
Spanish is my first language, it’s kind of hard for me to speak English. I’m basically like the only child—I have a sister that’s 11 years older that suffered with depression and wouldn’t let me in her room, and a mama that was never home—and it was just always just really uncomfortable.
So I feel like I was accidentally an introvert. And [skating] really showed me how to socialise a lot better. Skateboarding was just the topic that introduced me to being comfortable speaking.
“I feel like I was accidentally an introvert. And [skating] really showed me how to socialise a lot better. Skateboarding was just the topic that introduced me to being comfortable speaking.”
Briana King’s community organisation Display Only is a travelling skate meet-up aimed at fostering inclusivity. Recap by Norma Ibarra
How have the meetups been going in the past year since this pandemic has gone down? [Ed note: this story originally published in late 2021.]
They’re pretty non-existent. I’ll reach out to a few super duper beginners and meet up here and there with our masks and stuff. But I feel like I’ve just created a new space on TikTok, where I just uploaded hundreds of trick tips for beginners, like, how to get on your skateboard, how to push, how to do everything.
It does suck that we can’t do it in person. But I’ve reached a new audience online, where I can still teach and do everything that I wanted to do. Honestly, I was super self-conscious again when it came to creating content, or how-to videos. And since I was no longer able to have meetups in person, I felt like, not forced, but I really still wanted to teach and I was like, okay, now I really have to do this online. And now I don’t care. I’m not insecure about uploading these videos. I’m like, okay, I’m good at this. Everyone understands what I have to say. And it’s not that hard.
You’ve been doing these meetups for a few years now. I’m curious if you have an end game. Are you trying to work in the industry? Is this all for fun? What’s the goal? Or is there a goal?
What is the goal? I guess throughout my meetups, I had traveled around the world. And after I leave, I continue to help other people continue the meetups, help them with flyers, teach them how to run their own meetups. The only reason why I was doing this was just to get more people skateboarding. And I have no other intentions for my meetups. I have plenty of other work that I do outside of skateboarding, like producing and directing on shoots and smiling. So that’s what’s always been on my mind, and this has always been just a hobby of mine, and accidentally turned into a job.
Ian Browning is a journalist and essayist based in New York who writes about the intersection of skateboarding and culture. He has written for Quartersnacks, Simple Magic, PLANK, Closer Skateboarding, Jenkem and Eater. As a columnist for Skate Bylines his ‘Rules of Skateboarding’ series explores nuances with notable characters.
More with the author
“It’s an accessible first point of, like, ‘How do I connect with this culture?’” — Ian Browning examines municipal space in New York City through the lens of his Quatersnacks story on the Lower East Side Skatepark in ‘The Civic Center of New York City Skateboarding’.
“Why does this story matter? Why is it relevant to the current moment and that publication? Why are you the person to tell it?” — Cole Nowicki, Ian Browning, Josh Sabini, Claire Alleaume, Norma Ibarra, Greg Navarro and Alex White share insights on pitching stories to skate magazines ans brands from a variety of creative perspectives and backgrounds in ‘Making The Big Leagues’.
“One of the main ideas that led to this series was wanting to be able to bring the type of debate that happens during a slow shift at a skate shop, or on the periphery of a wound-down session, where skate nerds air out their strong opinions.” — Ian Browning discusses the origin of ‘The Rules of Skateboarding’ and his highlights from the series.
This story was originally published by Village Psychic on February 21st 2021 under the headline ‘The Rules of Skateboarding #16: Briana King’. Browning joined Skate Bylines in 2026, bringing over his previous columns and continuing ‘The Rules of Skateboarding’ series.
