Top female skateboarders highlighted at event benefiting domestic violence shelter

A feature-length skate video, titled “Exposure X,” featuring top female skateboarders from across the world will be premiered Nov. 6 at the historic La Paloma Theatre in Encinitas.

The event will screen footage of 150 skaters from 14 countries. The winners of Exposure’s competition will be highlighted during the show and awarded a total of $55,000 in prize money.

Since it started 10 years ago, Exposure’s annual women’s benefit has grown into one of the largest skateboarding events for amateur and professional female skateboarders. Proceeds from the fundraiser, presented by Core Hydration, will go to the local nonprofit Community Resource Center’s domestic violence shelter, Carol’s House.

Typically, the event is a live showcase featuring street, vert and park disciplines. Last year, because of the pandemic, the event included video parts and 230 female skateboarders from 23 different countries submitted curated compilations of their best skateboarding tricks.

“Making video parts is clearly where women and other nontraditional skaters need to go in the coming years and Exposure used COVID to help our community take a step in the right direction,” said Kristen Ebeling, executive director of Skate Like a Girl.

This year, participants across age divisions submitted individual, two-minute videos for Independent Best Video Part Transition and Santa Cruz Best Video Part Street.

Krux Best Crew offers a division focused on three or more skateboarders coming together to show progression and camaraderie. The Impala Skate Rising Award recognizes skaters who work to make a difference in their communities. Those with standout tricks are honored with the Independent Best Trick Street and Skatelite Best Trick Park awards.

The event will be judged by legendary female skaters Jaime Reyes, Elissa Steamer, Vanessa Torres, Alex White and Olympic skateboarder Amelia Brodka, co-founder of Exposure Skate.

“It was super rad to see how Exposure 2020 went down,” said Jordyn Barrat, who competed for Team USA in skateboarding’s inaugural Olympic competition in Tokyo. Barrat competed in her first Exposure event as an amateur in 2012.

The event will also feature a legends panel with female skateboarding trailblazers Cara-beth Burnside, Nora Vasconcellos, Jaime Reyes, Lisa Whittaker, Lizzie Armanto and Alex White sharing their experiences in the skateboarding world.

Tickets are $10, starting Monday, Nov. 1, on exposureskate.org.