Skateboarding her way

It was in June, earlier this year, that roughly 150 skateboarders converged in Bengaluru for the Go Skateboarding Day.

Leading the charge was 22-year old Atita Verghese, who is widely known as the female face of skateboarding in India. Verghese is now gearing up for a tour that begins in Goa, heads to Kovalam and culminates in Bengaluru this month, to promote the sport.

Originally a surfer, Verghese found herself leaning towards skateboarding on her return from a stay in Goa.

“I was itching to catch some waves when I moved back to Bengaluru from Goa. That’s when the city’s first and only skate park was being built. So I gave skateboarding a shot. The two sports are so similar that I stuck to the latter, though surfing is something I keep returning to,” she says.

Verghese dropped out of her 12 standard to make money to pay for her own education. “I decided to take a break for a year and earn some money for my tuition fees. That’s when I found skateboarding and haven’t gotten around to going back to college yet,” she says.

Based in Bengaluru, Verghese’s mother runs a homestay and her sister is training to be a motion designer.

“We lost our father when I was eight years old and it’s only been the three of us since. My family is very proud of what I’m doing and is very supportive,” says Verghese, who has travelled the world and the country building skate parks, working with underprivileged kids and generally spreading the love for skateboarding. Her fondest memories are of the bus tour she did in 2013 that travelled from Germany to Belgium to Denmark.

“We were a big group of skateboarders on a bus and we would stop off at places and help rebuild and repair skate parks. In India, too, I helped build parks in Kovalam, Hampi, Goa and Janwaar in Madhya Pradesh,” she reveals.

While she keeps herself busy with her innumerable interests, Verghese tells us that taking time out, just for herself, is very important to her.