Women's skateboarding collective Les Manon en skate draws hundreds to Montreal parks

Every Thursday evening, women roll into skateparks across Montreal to do something that once terrified them. Les Manon en skate—a collective born from a coaching mix-up—has grown from a handful of learners into a movement that counts nearly 1,000 followers on Instagram and keeps expanding.

Naya Koussa, 34, carries three words on her skateboard: "Do it scared." She discovered the group after spending 15 minutes sitting in her car gathering courage to walk into a skatepark alone. "As an older woman, you see kids, you see teenage boys and you're like, 'Is it my place here?'" she said. Now she doesn't hesitate. The difference is simple: other women are waiting.

Members range from their 30s to their 60s. Many are mothers, some grandmothers. At Ahuntsic Park Skatepark on a recent Thursday, they took turns rolling down ramps, cheering each other on, celebrating every small victory. Instead of competition, they find encouragement. Instead of judgment, community.

The group started two summers ago when member Geneviève Tremblay sat on a bench watching her husband and children skateboard. She enrolled in an adult lesson at Montreal's Le TAZ indoor skatepark and met the women who would create Les Manon en skate. The name came from coaches who kept calling Tremblay by the wrong name—Manon instead of Geneviève. "I just gave up," she said with a laugh. "I told the girls, there's no point. I just think we're a bunch of Manons."

They decided to own it. What began as a playful mistake became a badge of pride: a bunch of middle-aged women with skateboards, taking up space in a place where women—especially older women—are rarely seen. That visibility matters. "Just being there, even if we don't do any tricks, it shows that the skate park is ours also," Koussa said. For women who spent years watching from the sidelines, showing up is the whole thing.