MOUNT PLEASANT — Pink or black? Mary Claire Morgan couldn’t decide which color helmet she should pack before the five-hour drive to Florida in the morning.
Black is her favorite color. But there were other factors to consider as she prepared for the Grind for Life skateboarding competition in New Smyrna Beach.
Mary Claire folded a T-shirt and set it next to her bag. She read the message on the front: “Girls Can."
She smiled to herself. The pink helmet it would be.
Six years ago, when Elizabeth and John Morgan of Mount Pleasant gave their 7-year-old daughter a skateboard for Christmas, they never would have guessed how much the sport would shape their lives. Now, their family vacations are planned around skateboarding competitions and visiting different skateparks and new friends across the country.
Mary Claire Morgan, 12, and Josh McFadden, park manager at SK8 Charleston, left, cheer on a fellow skater in the bowl at SK8 Charleston on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020. Lauren Petracca/Staff
Since receiving her first skateboard, Mary Claire, 13, has placed in several women’s skateboarding competitions across state lines. She has received sponsorships from San Diego-based skateboard manufacturer Sector 9 as well as her local skateboarding shop, Parrot Surf & Skate.
She also has the scars to prove it. A small scar above her left eye is a reminder of the time she ended up in the hospital with nine stitches and left a puddle of blood in the bottom of the skatepark bowl after trying to do a frontside air. The fall rattled her for a few months, but now it's her favorite trick to do.
While COVID-19 has changed up her routine and cut the amount of competitions she's been able to attend in half, it hasn't deterred Mary Claire, who's also known as "MC." When Sk8 Charleston, a skatepark operated by Charleston County Parks and Recreation, was closed for two months in the spring, Mary Claire skated on the streets of a nearby neighborhood that was under development. This school year, the pandemic prompted her family to test out homeschooling, giving them more flexibility in their schedule and allowing them more time to go to the skatepark.
Fighting for her turn
On a sunny January afternoon, Mary Claire dropped in off the edge of a bowl with ease and skated up and down the steep walls with confidence. The sound of the skateboard's wheels grinding against the concrete only ceased for brief moments as she twisted her body at the top and ground the deck of her board along the coping before dropping back in. She gained enough speed to launch herself back out of the bowl and grabbed the bottom of her deck. Her tongue instinctively stuck out as she got several feet of air.
Mary Claire Morgan, 13, does a frontside air at the top of a bowl at SK8 Charleston on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. Lauren Petracca/Staff
But learning the technical aspects of the sport isn’t all that Mary Claire has had to navigate. When she first started learning how to skate at camps, Mary Claire was the only girl.
“She had to have her own confidence to go in there and say, ‘Well, I’m going to do this because I think it’s fun, and I don’t care if I’m the only girl,’” recalled her mom.
Mary Claire hasn't just challenged gender stereotypes in the skatepark. In sixth grade, her band teacher encouraged her to play the clarinet rather than the instrument she requested: drums. She told him if she couldn't play percussion, she would quit band. She became the only girl to play drums.
At 5 feet, 2 inches, with blonde hair, Mary Claire usually wears a mix of pink and black paired with a colorful pair of Vans and brags about the fact that sometimes she even wears a dress while skating. She is rarely seen without a smile on her face.
"I don’t think there’s such a thing as girl things and boy things," Mary Claire said. "I can like makeup and like skateboarding."
Since those first skate camps, she has had to fight for her turn in the bowl at skate parks because other skaters around her age assume she doesn’t have skill because of her gender.
“A lot of people will ignore you and they won’t skate with you because they don’t want to be seen skating with a girl,” Mary Claire said.
While hard statistics remain elusive, gender equality in skateboarding has become a hot topic in skating circles. With the addition of skateboarding in the 2021 Olympics, new opportunities could arise for female-identifying skaters to be sponsored by big-name brands.
"Just in the last few years, (female skateboarders) went from basically not earning any money outside of competition to being able to make a living, and I credit the Olympics for a lot of that," Alexis Sablone, a U.S. skateboarding team member, told Vice Media's i-D magazine in 2019.
In 2005, a group of female skateboarders boycotted ESPN's X Games when it was announced that the winner of the men's vert would make $50,000 while the winner of the women's would only win $2,000. It took four years for ESPN to agree to award equal prize money.
Josh McFadden, park manager at SK8 Charleston, acknowledged that skateboarding has historically been a boy's club. He said that Mary Claire is by far the most talented female skater around her age in the area.
"I think she's been motivating a lot of the guys in our area to step up their game," he said.
McFadden views it as important for him and his staff to encourage female riders at the park. He said Mary Claire has been a huge part of that mission in attracting other girls to the sport.
"I really think she is the future of skateboarding," he said.
Angelo Vlcek, owner of Parrot Surf & Skate in Mount Pleasant, first noticed Mary Claire at Sk8 Charleston and started following her posts on social media.
"I was really impressed by her skateboarding, but mainly by her personality," he said. "She always smiles and is always positive. She's the ultimate happiest skate girl."
'That girl can skate'
Over the years, the shop has become a regular hangout spot for Mary Claire. While she was a student at Moultrie Middle School, she would often ride her skateboard down Coleman Boulevard to the shop after school and stay until one of her parents picked her up after work.
Mary Claire Morgan puts grip on a new deck while building a skateboard for an employee at Parrot Surf & Skate in Mount Pleasant on Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021. Mary Claire is on the shop’s skate team, which provides her with some of her skateboarding gear. Lauren Petracca/Staff
Now, she is an official — and the only female — member of the shop's four-person skate team. In exchange for representing the shop, Angelo supplies her with gear before competitions. She usually goes through a board every four weeks.
Angelo doesn't solely base Parrot Surf & Skate sponsorships off talent but likes to make sure anyone representing his shop is a good role model.
"She has, I think, all that it takes to be very successful," he said. "The question is if that's going to happen."
While many skaters, he said, are driven by sponsorships and recognition at competitions, he believes Mary Claire has a different motivation.
"I think she does it because she loves it," he said. "I think when she skates she feels free."
Since SK8 Charleston opened four years ago, Mary Claire has seen more and more girls coming out to skate locally.
“When there are other girls at the skatepark, even if they’re not skating, just with their brothers or their dads, I think it’s really important for them to see that and see, like, 'Whoa, that girl can skate, maybe I can too,'” she said.
In a sport where female athletes aren’t always equally recognized, Mary Claire has had to make room for herself in the skating world and intends to do the same for other girls around her.
Caroline Choi, 9, left, Mary Claire Morgan, 13, center, Nora Blake, 8, center right, and Emmarie Simmons, 8, attempt to flip their skateboards over at the same time in a circle at Mount Pleasant Skate Park on Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. Mary Claire has been giving the girls skateboarding lessons for several months. Lauren Petracca/Staff
On a recent winter afternoon, Mary Claire volunteered her time to teach three 8-year-old girls at the Mount Pleasant Skate Park. In the spring, one of the girls’ moms reached out to her over social media asking if she would be interested in giving a lesson.
“Without a hesitation I was like, yes, we need more girls. Let’s get the girls out here,” she said.
During the lesson, the girls bonded over their shared love of Barbies as Mary Claire hammered in the importance of slamming their front feet down on their boards as they drop in so that the board won't slip out from under them.
Mary Claire Morgan demonstrates a skateboarding trick using her tech deck on the dresser in her bedroom in Mount Pleasant on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020. "I don’t think there’s such a thing as girl things and boy things," says Morgan. "I can like makeup and like skateboarding." Lauren Petracca/Staff
Keeping it fun
It would be hard to imagine Mary Claire’s success without the support of her parents. Elizabeth and John Morgan take Mary Claire to the skate park four to five times a week, spending several hours at the park each time.
John Morgan, who was once an amateur skateboarder himself, enjoys taking photographs and videos of Mary Claire and analyzing them for ways she can improve. A lot of the content also ends up on her Instagram account (@sunshine_o_matic), which John manages with Mary Claire's input and has over 1,900 followers. Mary Claire sees the platform as another avenue to encourage young skaters and put more photographs of women skating out into the world.
While her parents support her, they want to make sure that it is always just about having fun and letting Mary Claire be a 13-year-old girl.
“We have always said that as soon as it stops becoming fun then we don’t want her doing it anymore,” Elizabeth Morgan said. “If she continues to excel and continues to compete and gets invited to competitions and wants to do that, we will 100 percent support that as her parents, as long as she’s keeping up her grades and knows that school is first and foremost."
Mary Claire said she has no aspirations of training to make it to the Olympics, where skateboarding is about to make its debut in Tokyo. She doesn't even care about placing at competitions. She just enjoys meeting other girls from all around the world who love the same thing she does.
For now, she isn’t worried about what her future in skateboarding will look like. She just wants to nail a 360 air.
Photos: Local teen defies physics, expectations through skateboarding
Mary Claire Morgan, 13, was one of the only girls at the skate park when she learned how to skateboard when she was seven. Now, she encourages other girls around her to join the sport.
Mary Claire Morgan poses for a portrait while skating at Bieringville Bowl on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020. The skating bowl is located in the backyard of a Johns Island couple who built and maintain it and has been enjoyed by skateboard legends from around the world. Mary Claire has been invited to come skate whenever she wants. Lauren Petracca/Staff
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