‘Why doesn’t this exist back home?’
Ashley Slaton
Honey Skate Club
Honey Skate Club
January 2026
Can you tell us something about Texas that no one knows?
RoboCop was filmed partially in Dallas, and RoboCop 2 was filmed almost entirely in Houston. They liked that the city was essentially shut down at night. And it mostly still is, which makes for great night sessions downtown.
What inspired you to create ‘Honey Skate Club’?
In 2022, I went to an adult summer skate camp hosted by ‘Skate Like a Girl’ and immediately knew I wanted to create a similar group in Houston. I had never experienced skating and hanging out with a group of so many women and trans skaters before; the energy was high, support and encouragement was loud, and the progression I saw from that environment was an aha-moment… like why doesn’t this exist back home? I already had a small crew of women skaters, but we knew that there were many more girls skating throughout Houston and this seemed like the perfect way to try and get a larger group together to share that same hype, energy, and progression. My friends and I brainstormed names, created a flyer for our first meetup in September 2022, and have watched this grow into something cooler than we ever imagined. I want to take the time to give a shout out to the other women that helped kickstart and/or run ‘Honey Skate Club’ with me. Here’s to Zahra, Mae, Annabelle, Victoria, Ale, Lucy, and Anthea!
Your mission is to instill confidence, motivation, and encourage progression in skateboarding while building up the Houston community of women and LGBTQ+ skateboarders. How are you going to achieve this?
By making the time and the space. ‘Honey Skate Club’ is a recurring monthly meetup; there’s no programming, we don’t offer lessons, we just want to have fun and create a women and LGBTQ+ focused session that’s here for you if you need it. Through this open space, I have seen women form their own groups of friends to skate with regularly, girls who were too scared to visit a skatepark alone show up confidently for a session outside of the meetup, and folks pushing each other to progress further and land new tricks. We’ve also received invaluable guidance and partnership through Skate Like a Girl’s Skateboarding Inclusivity Cooperative (S.I.C.), which is a cohort of grassroots skate organizers coming together to share insight and ideas. In addition to the monthly meetups, Honey has peppered in some collaborative community meetups, giveaways, board building workshops, and youth-focused events that we hope will continue to push that mission.
Why didn’t your brother and the miniramp in the backyard fired you up for skateboarding?
Oh, it did fire up my love of skateboarding – I was so envious in a way. At that time, I was in ballet classes, so all of my free time was dedicated to that. But I would daydream about being a skater, I dressed like a skater and hung out with the skaters. Looking back, I do realize that the lack of representation did weigh on me. I wasn’t seeing girls or women skating besides the select few icons that I did know about (Cara-Beth Burnside, Elissa Steamer, and Vanessa Torres). I hadn’t seen any of the all-girl skate videos like “Getting Nowhere Faster.” I didn’t know any local skater girls. I did know I was fired up about skating, but I just didn’t know it was also for me.
How satisfied are you with the progress you made with this community?
That very first meetup we had back in September 2022 was attended by 12 women. Since then, we’ve continued to reach more and more people, seeing one or two new faces at each meetup and event. Our bigger events can pull between 50-65 women, LGBTQ+ people, and allies. To be honest, nothing has pleasantly surprised me more than looking at how far we have come. The amount of genuine support and love we get for ‘Honey Skate Club’ from the established skateboard scene is humbling; it’s such a noteworthy feeling to be told that what you’re doing is much needed and making an impact. My goal is not to become some sort of authority on women’s skateboarding in Houston. Quite the opposite, actually. I would love to further intertwine women and LGBTQ+ skaters into the already diverse skate scene, promoting equity and acceptance for all.
What are some of the challenges?
It’s easy for the wrong people to see a group of girls skating and treat that as a spectacle or gimmick. I want people to recognize that we are serious about skateboarding, progressing our skills, and respecting the culture and history that comes with that. We’re just skaters, we just want to skate. Another big challenge was figuring out how to fund everything we were doing, and for a while all the money was coming out of my pocket. Merch sales help for sure, but we also relied heavily on the local skate shops to throw us a shop board every now and then for giveaways. This year, things improved drastically when Victoria was able to secure a grant for ‘Honey Skate Club’ during her fellowship program with ‘The Skatepark Project’. This funding is allowing us to have a greater impact on the community through more events, workshops, helping to clean up the local DIY, and giveaway items purchased from the very same shops that helped us when we needed it most.
‘The amount of genuine support and love we get for ‘Honey Skate Club’ from the established skateboard scene is humbling.’
Anything that was particularly funny or embarrassing?
Oh, God. Getting kicked out of a spot downtown by the police while trying to take promo pics for our shirts. I think there were nine or ten of us all wearing ‘I Love Skater Girls’ crop tops trying to flee the scene. I’m guessing the cops definitely did not find us to be a threat.
Interesting. Do you think the cops would have acted differently if you were all boys?
Yeah, I do. We’ve all seen or heard of guys getting yelled at, chased down, had hands put on them, and even getting ticketed or arrested just for skating street spots. These cops didn’t even bother going after us, which I assume is likely due to the fact that they saw a group of women in matching tees as a mild inconvenience. Thanks to some deep levels of societal misogyny, we got basically shooed away for an activity that our male counterparts are treated as criminals for.
Are there any women and inclusive skate communities that you follow?
Cat from Cherries Wheels is doing some amazing work in Austin, and I really can’t wait until we partner up with her again. Skull Shredders is another crew in Houston led by a rad quad skater named Pepper – we recently supported a bowl jam they hosted at the local DIY. There’s a fast-growing network of women and LGBTQ+ focused skate groups across North America that we’ve had the pleasure of forming connections with. Some special shout outs go to: tutifruti (Miami), Skate Nymphs (Miami), Bronx Girls Skate (NY), FroSkate (Chicago), Part Time Babe Club (CA), Forbidden Fruit Skateboards (Los Angeles), MamaSkate (Los Angeles), Burque Babes (Albuquerque), Sleep Talk Skate (CA), Shred Your Fears (PA), Queer Skate Denver & Queer Skate Toronto.
‘Looking back, I do realize that the lack of representation did weigh on me.’
If you have to name the godmother of the female skate community in Houston, who would it be and why?
I’m giving this to Carol Sandel, the co-owner of Surfhouse in Houston for over 55 years. This is the oldest skate shop in Texas, and Carol has been a staple in the scene for decades. She’s supported all skaters, but especially girls and women, from the beginning. I have a fond memory of a time that my dad took my brother and I there as kids. I picked out a Deca board (Daewon Song’s 2000s brand) with a woman on the graphic and as she was checking us out, Carol genuinely told me how happy she was that a girl was buying that board. I’ve never forgotten that.
Last question. If you could interview one person, who would it be?
Jake Johnson! Because he’s so elusive and I want to know the secret to wall rides.