Past To Present – The History of Rogue Skateboards
Rogue Skateboards was founded in 2005 by Jenna Selby. Jenna who at the time was riding for Gallaz and Carhartt felt that the coverage given to female skateboarders wasn’t reflective of the riders ability but instead focused predominantly on the health and fitness aspects (how many calories you can burn doing an ollie etc…), rather than on the skating in the way that their male counterparts received. Impressed by the skill level of female riders she had worked with through her skate photography, and the girls and ladies she’d met through the annual Girl Skate Jam (that she’d founded in 2002), Jenna decided to start up her own company. Her idea behind the company was to create a team that brought these talented riders together. That way people were more likely to take note of these riders for their skating. The team could choose the coverage they wanted and create role models for the future generations of female riders coming through.
The original team consisted of Lucy Adams, Maria Falbo, Fran Stroud, Sadie Hollins and Laura Goh (Crane). Other riders who joined over the years included Helena Long, Emma Richardson, Georgie Winter, Dora Horvath, Helen Lovelee, Emily Russell and Claire Thompson.
Rogue ran for 12 years as a skateboard company, producing 10 different deck graphics; working alongside the artists on the team to produce them. Rogue also created the first UK and European signature board for Helena Long followed a few years later by Dora Horvath. As a team they also undertook three nationwide skate tours where they invited other riders to join them along the way. Throughout it’s time the team received extensive coverage in skate media as well as national media.
In 2009 Jenna created the first European female skateboard film – ‘As If, And What?’ The film included all of the team plus other influential UK female riders. The trailer alone had over 130 000 hits on the first day. ‘Days Like These’ followed this up in 2015, which again included the team riders and this time around European riders who had seen the first film and had asked to be part of the second. The last film to be made before the team disbanded in 2017 was Scratch the Surface; a short documentary focused on the stories behind the ladies involved in the skate scene in the UK. Its aim was to introduce an outside audience to the fairly unknown world of female skateboarding. Shown at the She Extreme film festival in the same year it won the ‘People’s Choice’ award. These films now serve as essential historic documentation of top female skateboarders from the UK
Rogue’s New Direction
Rogue’s original concept of promoting women in the same capacity as their male counterparts still stands true. In 2019 Jenna joined forces with filmmaker Rachael Sherlock and web developer Liz Shaw to look at creating a media platform not only to promote female skaters but also to showcase the talents of those who work behind the scenes.
There is already a diverse amount of great platforms promoting female skaters. The aim of Rogue is to produce original content; this is not only because we love skateboarding and want to continue promoting female skaters but because women are also majorly underrepresented in the media in so many sports.
Contact
If you are a brand and want to get involved or collaborate on a project then please do get in touch: info@rogueskateboards.co.uk