Meet a natural-born skateboarding ace

By STACEY BODGER

TAURANGA - Georgina Matthews is used to being the only girl at Tauranga's 17th Ave skateboard park.

The 13-year-old had never seen another female skater before she won the 2000 Skateboard and Inline National Championships title from six other women in Auckland last month.

Her parents, Ally and Janice, were so impressed by Georgina's talents that two weeks ago they flew her to the Australian Girls' Street Skate Jam in Melbourne to meet her idol, United States professional Jaimie Reyes.

Georgina fought her way to second place in the overall competition and won the best single trick title by performing a kick-flip, where the board is rotated 360 degrees in the air before landing.

"The competition was much better over there, and Dad said I'd have to pull out all the tricks I had to match them, so I gave it a go," she says.

But the highlight of the trip was sharing the limelight with Reyes, including interviews with Australia's Extreme TV crew, and picking up a sponsorship deal with a skate clothing brand, Gallaz.

"It was so cool talking to Jaimie," says Georgina.

"I'd read heaps about her in magazines and it was wicked doing interviews with her.

"I got to see all her moves and how she does things and I'm going to try some of them out."

The fearless teenager began skateboarding 15 months ago when she convinced her parents to buy her a board so she could keep up with her mates, Luke Gosden and Tane Lloyd.

The trio spent about six months "mucking around" at weekends and after school before learning tricks and graduating to the skateboard park and attending Friday-night sessions run by the Tauranga Baptist Church.

Mr Matthews says Georgina has a unique skating style for a female - an advantage he attributes to the fact that all her skating companions are male.

"She's got a lot of guts, that's for sure - she'll be out there doing everything that the guys do and shocks the ones who haven't seen her before.

"Given that she's really just a kid, we think she's got a great future."