Because shredding isn’t just for the coasts.
The Midwest isn’t “flyover country.” It’s skate over country.
Skateboarders, roller skaters, roller bladers, WCMXers, and adaptive skaters live here too.
All my life I’ve been a book nerd, so when I started taking my roller skates to skateparks in 2019, the first thing I did is head to the bookstore and the library. I asked around for books about skating––skateboarding, roller skating, rollerblading, anything––and nearly every book I found was either about able-bodied cis white dudes skateboarding in California and NYC or photo books with only a couple of paragraphs of the skater’s story.
I’m Southern by birth and Midwestern by the grace of Menards. When I go out skating around my home in Columbus, Ohio, I see everybody––Black, brown, white, every letter in LGBTQIA+, all body types, all genders, and all dis/abilities––skating all kinds of wheels. I wanted to read their stories. Our stories. I’m a plus-size, queer lady and I want to see skaters like us reflected in skate media, including the pages of a book.
There’s an old saying that if there’s a book you want to read that doesn’t exist, you have to write it. So I’m writing Midwest Shreds and it’ll be out in fall 2022 from Belt Publishing.
Writing Midwest Shreds has led me to skate spots throughout the Midwest and I’ve met some incredible skaters along the way. This site is a travelogue in real-time and will be photo-heavy, unlike the book, which will focus on the written word. In addition to sharing book updates, I intend to make this site a resource for Midwestern skaters.
You can learn more about me here and if you have any questions or know a skate spot I should check out, shoot me an email. I’d love to hear from you and skate in your neck of the woods!
xo Mandy Shunnarah