It’s not uncommon to find Jessica Ready spending an entire weekend at the skatepark with the boys.
Her talent, mindset and charisma earn genuine respect as the teens push each other to land bigger, cleaner tricks.
Despite traditional gender norms in sport, Ready isn’t excluded or underestimated – she’s celebrated, and perhaps even a little envied.
That’s because the 15-year-old Macleans College student has just returned home with a bronze medal from the pinnacle of action sports: the X Games.
Competing in the women’s street event in Utah, she scored 83.66 on her final run to secure a spot on the podium. The teen admits she didn’t have high expectations after receiving a late invitation just six days out from the competition.
“I was not expecting to get on the podium,” Ready told the Herald. “I was very surprised – it was amazing.”
Ready was told on the Sunday about her X Games invitation after an injury withdrawal, and by Wednesday, she had arrived at the park for her first practice in Salt Lake City.
Her mum Diana told the Herald it was a whirlwind to get her daughter there.
“I just went online quickly and tried to figure out how we could get flights to get her there on time and accommodation, and get sorted, try and figure out what was what.”
The Year 10 student had been invited last year; however, the family couldn’t quite make it work financially. This year Diana promised her daughter she would make sure this trip could happen.
“We just had to try and get her there really by Tuesday night, so we jumped on a flight to Utah. We went through Houston and we arrived about one o’clock in the morning.”
Adding to the drama was that on their arrival at the airport, Ready’s skateboards were lost.
“It was an adventure.
“It was one of those things where we sort of went into panic, ‘we don’t have a board for tomorrow’.”
After rushing around various gates, the decks were eventually located, and they were finally on the road that would lead to Ready becoming the first New Zealander to claim a medal in skateboarding at the X Games.
“It’s always an adventure with her; she just makes it happen,” Diana said.
Skateboarding since the age of nine, Ready fell in love with the street version because of its realness.
“You’ve got to go out into the streets and get good tricks in the streets to get respect in skating,” Ready said.
Her rolled ankles and constant bruised hips have been made worthwhile through the thrill and camaraderie.
While enjoying another session with her boy mates at Victoria Park in central Auckland, Ready told the Herald girls are just as capable as boys when it comes to skateboarding.
Relying as it does on skill, balance and creativity, it’s an inclusive sport by nature, making it more gender-neutral than most other codes.
“I don’t have the physical strength the guys do, so I enjoy doing more technical tricks. People are surprised to see some of the tricks I do,” Ready said.
The confident teen said female skateboarders can keep up because it’s less about muscle and power, and more about bravery and belief.
Ready’s skate mate, Matatau Halsey, told the Herald he’s in awe of the teen sensation.
“She’s one of the most positive skaters that I know, and there’s nobody that skates like she does.
“If you’ve watched X Games, you’d see all these people doing like big tricks, and then [Ready] did all the technical harder tricks that mean more to the people trying to learn those tricks.
“She’s mentally taught me a lot of things and a lot of tricks. She gives me the confidence to try new things.
“I haven’t been skating for that long, so it helps to skate with people better than you.”
Halsey, 13, said gender doesn’t play a major role in his sport and that other sports should learn from it.
“For most skaters, it doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a girl. If you’re skating, you’re skating.
“There’s just something about skating that makes everything peaceful. I don’t know how to explain it.
“We all have our own stories and we’re all different, so we just include everyone because everyone’s just trying to do the same thing,” Halsey said.
Ready – who has previously won three consecutive Women’s Street titles at the New Zealand Skateboarding Nationals – is now targeting bigger things.
“I want to go to the next Olympics.
“To get to [the Los Angeles Games], I’ll have to keep skating, pushing myself, and I’ll need to go to the qualification like competitions to try and get enough points to [qualify].
“So up until 2028, there’s going to be lots of World Skate competitions around the world.”
Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She was named New Zealand’s Best Up and Coming journalist in 2025. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Fever podcast and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a fulltime journalist.