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Not Your Average Ladies’ Night 

Boone, NC — The First Friday Art Crawl is back in Boone, and this month’s festivities found a crew of  women in the parking lot of Lily’s Snack Bar with skateboards in hand. The funky college watering hole  isn’t a typical location for skateboarders with its limited parking and proximity to an ever-busy App State  intersection, but this First Friday it was turned into a skate park for a couple hours. 

© Ryde Media

This temporary skate park was the idea of Alicia Green and Ashley Galleher who have partnered to tell  the High Country all about the local skateboarding scene and to tell it from a woman’s perspective.  Skateboarding has been a lot of things in its past — mostly male-dominated, imposing, and intimidating,  but it’s not always those things.  

Skateboarding has always included female riders, but very few of those women are captured in images  where the masses can see them, and so the sport has touted more men than women historically. But that is changing around the world and here in North Carolina. In the waning Summer of 2020, Ashely opened her backyard skateboard ramp up to a group of women looking to break out of their covid-induced house arrest. Guys were invited to skate too, but on Tuesdays it was a dedicated Ladies’ Night where strangers became friends around a cooler of Mexican beer and the challenge of skateboarding. It wasn’t a typical ladies’ night scene, and that’s a big part of why this group of women kept coming back. Alicia, a  professional photographer and budding skateboarder, felt the magic of these Tuesday nights was  something worth sharing so she picked up her camera to document what this group of women were  creating with a few skateboards in a Zionville backyard. 

© Ryde Media

“In our society, women spend a great amount of  

time and energy doing for others so it’s a true gift to  

be able to provide a space and facilitate an  

environment where we can be our best selves, for  

ourselves. Amazing things happen when groups of  

women get together guided by positivity,  

encouragement, and grit. Watching women unearth  

the toughness and courage we are all born with is  

the highlight of owning and operating Zionville Ramp  

Company.” 

Ashley Galleher, Founder of ZRC 

The magic of those images was tangible to the staff in charge of the Turchin Center’s 20th anniversary of  the Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition (AMPC) and selected six images to display on the  gallery’s walls for this Spring’s exhibition. 

© EddyLine Creative

Alicia wanted to share the images and the experience of skateboarding with more people and Ashley  was the one to do it. Through ZRC she builds ramps to build community. Best of all, skateboarding is  available to everyone. Girls, moms, boys, dads, and all the rest are welcome at ZRC to learn how to  bring the joy of skateboarding to their lives. But the question remained, how do they tell more people?  The answer: Show off a little by hosting a skateboarding event in Boone on First Friday to promote ZRC  and bring people to the Turchin to see and feel the magic of those photos for themselves.  

From March until June 13th, visitors can see and feel for themselves the joy and challenge that took  place those pandemic Tuesday nights in Zionville by visiting the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts on  King Street. To see more of what Alicia does with her camera follow @_eddylinecreative_ on Instagram or  visit www.eddylinecreative.com. ZRC is open to the public for group and private lessons, open skate nights for riders of all abilities,  summer camps for kids, and anyone can purchase their very own ZRC ramp to keep skating in their own  driveway, backyard, or basement. Come this June, ZRC is opening an indoor skatepark to ensure the  love of skateboarding is open and available to all people in our mountain communities no matter the  weather. Follow @zionvillerampco on Instagram and FB and online at www.zionvillerampco.com to keep  pace with their construction progress and for the Grand Opening announcement.

Courtesy of EddyLine Creative.

© EddyLine Creative
© EddyLine Creative
© EddyLine Creative
© EddyLine Creative
© Ryde Media
© EddyLine Creative
© EddyLine Creative
© EddyLine Creative