For the last episode of Crushing, Alie and Liza of Missfits surf and yours truly talk surfer boys (we love to hate ‘em), being a twin, and being an entrepreneurial badass. Our advice? FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT. Put yourself out there and get in the ring. In love and life, you create your moment. Don’t wait. Try new shit and get after it. There’s no limit to how you perceive what you do. Yeah, we’re all insecure and we all doubt ourselves and what other people think of us. It’s hard to figure out who you are in this big blue world. But do what feels good. Do it 4 u., and when you are your authentic self, people will notice. And if they don’t like you, then let them go!!!!- Maija for withitgirl (June 2023)

Look out for the full story in late June at withitgirls.com

Meet the Skate Retreat, Europe's first luxury skate retreat for women, trans, and non-binary skaters and their allies to learn, connect and grow through skateboarding. They host lessons, workshops, and retreats. Their focus is not just skateboarding but also self-growth and nature connection.   

Bridget traveled 3,836 miles from Chicago, Illinois, to the home of the Skate Retreat: Sheffield, England. I could immediately feel that this place was very special. There was a beautiful, optimistic, and calm energy flowing through the air. Owls sang their unique songs, and dragonflies flew around us.   Surrounded by 42 acres of forest and autumn leaves shedding their skin, I sat down on a mini-ramp with Danni Gallacher, Founder of The Skate Retreat & Girl Skate UK, to learn more about their inspiration for starting a skate retreat and what it’s like to be a skater in the UK.   

See the full story at: https://www.withitgirls.com/post/uk-girl-skate-retreat

See the video of this podcast on our youtube channel: https://youtu.be/Y3PttQ7-a60

As Withitgirl gears up to attend the Vans Pipe Masters in Hawaii 2022, Lena and Grace discuss the theme of what it means to show up. Grace herself works with Withitgirl doing social media outreach, strategic planning, and event coverage. On top of talking about Grace growing up, her move to California, and her passion for photography, we discuss how she will offer a new perspective to the likes of other female photographers by showing up and making waves at Pipeline.

Host : Lena Damico

It was a blast to sit down with Withitgirl’s Violet Reed and to learn about Violet’s zine, Bucky Fan Zine. In this episode, Violet and I chat about how social media has impacted alternative culture and how alternative culture has changed yet stayed the same nonetheless. Violet’s advice to her middle school self? Keep crushing! There’s more on the horizon.

PS It's no surprise that Violet has the most epic playlist to accompany our conversation. 

Just press play and playlist also here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5BDTbQSIarqSXGPgeqVfwk?si=f575edfcd90040c1

In collaboration with the Withitgirl podcast talkaboutit, Maija, the host of CRUSHING, will be interviewing people who are CRUSHING on something rad and CRUSHING IT at what they’re doing! Maija starts off with a creative and brand strategist, filmmaker, and photographer, Beth O’Rourke, who was just in New York where her film debuted at the Women’s Surf Film Festival in Rockaway Beach, one of the beaches she grew up surfing at!

Beth O’Rourke unveiled a pleasantly unexpected way of thinking to me, and it was a gift to have her guide me through the discovery. We discussed The Human Shore and the notion that the ocean is our new frontier. We also explored how humans are unreliable narrators and how we tell ourselves myths about the world around us and project our narratives onto others. In the social media era where everything feels fake, Beth emphasized how it’s essential to challenge yourself to find sincerity in the ways you see fit—for us, it’s going into nature. Finally, we discussed how surfing is so remarkable not because of the act itself but because of how it brings people together. Beth urges us to remember that those who have come before us have passed through similar doorways that we are passing through. She encourages us always to create our own narratives, to unleash the savage beasts within ourselves, and to do things that make us feel free.

https://www.withitgirls.com/post/crushing-podcast-xbeth-o-rourke

Jessica Thornton Murphy, the founder of Plunge, celebrated the two-year anniversary of the creation of her company. Located in San Francisco, California, Jess first began her creative endeavors with Plunge at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic. Like Jess, many of us can relate to the difficulties of adjusting to indoor life while struggling to find inspiration and productivity. The slow pace of pandemic life, however, roused Jess to create Plunge. Using her experience from the many people she’s met, and jobs and experiences she’s had, her creations began to involve artfully made 100% cotton, Jacquard-woven towels (meaning woven on a loom instead of printed or dyed).  

Check out the story : https://www.withitgirls.com/post/taking-the-plunge-jess

Breaking the Barrier chronicles Chicago-based OnWord Skate Collective’s undertaking to build and bring a portable public skatepark to city parks and other public spaces that are void of such structures. The collective was formed in the early months of 2021 by Lid Madrid, T Smith, Cath Hodge, Deb Hwang, and Bridget Johnson. Most important to OnWord is to provide a safe space for the historically under-represented people of the skateboarding landscape: women, LGBTQ+ and non-gender-conforming (NGC) skaters –not to forget either the younger or older subsets as well. These skateparks also provide (smaller) obstacles catering more to beginners thereby eliminating one of the more intimidating aspects of skate parks. 

On June 9th from Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, four women will throw their rain boots, crab traps, and sun hats on a small 28 foot North Pacific to embark on a two month trip through the waters of British Columbia.  Annie Means (21), Emery Hansell (23), Uhane Johnson (22), and Erin Beaudoin (23) are setting out to follow the course first set 100 years ago by the writer and BC icon, Muriel Wylie Blanchet.  Means, a videographer and student who inspired the project, will skipper the boat.

In the early 1900s, Blanchet and her husband purchased a boat: the Caprice. After her husband’s suspected drowning, Blanchet (nicknamed “Capi” on behalf of her role as captain) took her five children up the Inside Passage on annual summer voyages.  Her influential book, The Curve of Time, was published in 1961 and anachronistically details these summer adventures.

Beaudoin, Means, Johnson, and Hansell will cast off from Friday Harbor and cruise up the west side of Vancouver Island, filming their entire journey along the way.  Their trip and its accompanying documentary are both christened after Blanchet, inspired by her legacy as a trailblazing woman in the outdoors.  Onboard the boat, the crew trip will explore the poetic landscapes described in The Curve of Time and investigate how the coastal biospheres have changed since the time of Blanchet’s writing.

Following the vein of the Canadian author, Beaudoin, Means, Johnson, and Hansell aim to maintain a low impact lifestyle while onboard through responsible fishing and foraging practices.  In addition, the crew plans to carbon offset the diesel utilized through the course of their voyage to further mitigate their impact.

To follow along with the crew’s journey this summer, follow @capimovie and @em.hnsl on Instagram.

https://www.withitgirls.com/

SeaBlue Collective started as The Ocean is Female, a women-run, and women-supported Instagram page highlighting female surfers worldwide. SeaBlue launched when founders Clarissa Kusel, Tiare Hogerman, and Lauren Sander were frustrated with the amount of plastic they would pick up in the ocean while surfing. The SeaBlue Collective was born with the vision to create a shopping place for individuals to purchase sustainable items, from clothing to utensils to beauty products, in an effort to stop mass production and plastic use at the source. Taking her company to graduate school at USC, Clarissa met Lauren Sander, another founder of SeaBlue, and they worked to build the company into what it is today. Clarissa emphasizes the importance of making small changes in your daily life and buying from companies that match your ethos.

Sustainability is so much more than beach cleanups, and SeaBlue highlights the need to minimize the use of plastic before it even reaches the ocean or other natural areas. Clarissa most notably reminds us that sustainability is not perfect, nor should one think it is. By simply being aware of the environmental impacts of plastic use and trying to incorporate small sustainability actions in our everyday lives, anyone can pride themselves on their efforts towards helping the environment.

See the story and Interview: https://www.withitgirls.com/post/sea-blue-collective

The Seablue Collective: https://seablue.co/