Amber Clyde has fond memories of learning to skateboard in her mechanic stepdad’s garage. Smiling, she reminisces, “He would use old skateboards to prop the cars up and I’d take off on them. He’d be like, ‘Hey, I need that!’”
After watching the skating movie Lords Of Dogtown at 10 years old, the Aucklander was determined to teach herself to skate. She didn’t know anyone who did it, apart from a few boys at school who teased her relentlessly down at the skatepark, so she stuck to the garage and eventually stopped skating altogether.
Eight years later, at just 18, Amber gave birth to her daughter Ella. It was an exciting and scary time for Amber, now 28, who had fallen pregnant to her high school sweetheart. Unfortunately, Amber suffered from postnatal depression and, just a year later, the couple parted ways. During that difficult time, Amber took up skateboarding again as a way to relax and clear her head.
“My boyfriend would come down to the park with me in the beginning, so I wouldn’t have to worry about the boys picking on me,” she recalls. “One day, I saw an 11-year-old girl standing in the far corner of the skatepark and it reminded me of myself at that age, too scared to drop in.
“I went up to her and asked if she wanted to skate with me. I held her hands and we skated for about an hour. She learned so many new tricks. I asked if she wanted to meet at the same time next week to skate together. We did that for a few weeks. I remember feeling so good each time.”
One week, Amber’s little prodigy brought a friend, who later brought another mate.
“It grew very organically. Before I knew it, I had 10 girls coming along each week!”
Due to demand, Amber started lessons at another park and word spread even further.
“It went crazy,” Amber tells. “Within six months, I had three or four classes a week with 20 to 25 girls coming along.”
Today she owns and runs her own skate school, Girls Skate NZ, at various locations across Auckland. As well as learning the basics of skateboarding, young women are taught how to be safe, prevent injury and to break down barriers, such as intimidation and gender discrimination.
She explains, “A lot of guys try to tell me that skateboarding is an inclusive sport, but they’ve never been a little girl – they don’t know what it’s like. Teen girls really care and worry about what people think of them.”
Those girls that Amber taught at the skatepark when she was 18 are now around that age themselves.
“Some of them are really good, and they’ll come down and coach. It’s cool to see the effect it has had on them as people. Some of them went from being quite anxious kids to super-confident adults.”
One of the girls Amber started teaching just a few years ago recently went to Shanghai to qualify for the Paris Olympics. “She just missed out, but she’s only 14 and we had our eye on the 2028 Games in LA anyway, so this was good experience for her.”
Amber says there’s a huge link with solo sports, like skateboarding, and neurodiverse individuals, with a recent survey suggesting 35% of skaters may have disorders such as autism and ADHD.
“I was diagnosed with ADHD myself about a year ago,” tells Amber. “It explains a lot about my life. Looking at the kids I taught, a lot of them have found their place and their squad. That’s what keeps me going.”
For her daughter Ella, who is now nine, the sense of community with all the girls Amber teaches has become her happy place.
“I don’t think she’d skate on her own because it’s not her passion, but she’s really good.”
Amber now has another daughter, Kaia, who is three. With two kids and the skate school, life is busy, but she’s set to run a free skateboarding programme throughout the summer with Auckland Council. Amber is also a spokesperson for Beef + Lamb New Zealand.
Her iron levels dropped significantly when she had Ella and then again when she was pregnant with Kaia, possibly because she was a vegetarian.
“I decided to start eating meat again after that and it changed my life,” says Amber.
Her advice for girls who want to try boarding but don’t have access to a skate school?
“Find a friend, share the fun and be confident. Don’t worry about what others might think. Just do your thing and go for it!”
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