Introducing Sky Brown
When the conversation about Sky Brown starts, it’s hard to stop. She’s one of those people who just seems like she does everything well. Watching her skate, surf, snowboard, BMX, kick-box, dance or sing, is a good reminder to all of us that barriers are made to be broken, standards are there to be challenged, and, above all, life is about having fun!
A few cool facts about Sky: she turned pro at age ten, making her the youngest professional skateboarder in the world. She was the youngest girl ever to compete in the Vans US Open Pro Series in 2016 (that’s right, she was only eight – but she’d been skating for four years already by then). Training, to her, is much more like playing. She says she just goes out and skates.
Other Sky Brown tidbits: Venice is her favorite skate park because it “has a lot of flow and the vibe is one that I really love.” One of her favorite songs to listen to before skating is Drake’s “God’s Plan” (yes, that’s the one where he gives away all the groceries in the store and scholarship money for college). Her top-rated snacks while skating are CLIF Kid Zbar® Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie, Chocolate Chip, and Iced Oatmeal Cookie and CLIF Kid Zbar® Filled Chocolate Peanut Butter. Her favorite foods to have for dinner are ramen, sushi and Italian food (and her record for most sushi pieces eaten in one sitting is currently 16!).
Sky and Ocean
Imagine having a built-in training partner and competitor who you spend most of your time laughing with. That’s Sky and Ocean Brown. Her brother is three years younger and a super-talented skater and surfer, too. The two live half the year in Miyazaki, Japan (their mom is Japanese and both kids speak Japanese and her dad is from Britain) and half the year in Oceanside, California. When you see videos of the siblings, they’re always pushing each other to land tricks, cheering each other on, playing jokes on one another or cracking up.
Frontside 540
Sky has a few signature tricks, including JAPAN AIR, Blunt Flip, Air Reverse Full Rotation and the Frontside 540. She says the Front 540 was the one that took the longest to nail, because “you’re blind when you spin frontside for the landing, so you have to trust it. Learning a new trick can be a battle, but I love that feeling of winning the battle and getting a new trick. It’s really addicting!”
The Big Fall
Skateboarding is all about falling and getting back up. Any skater will tell you that. Before you master a new trick, you’ll get some serious bumps and bruises along the way. Sky says that is just part of the process! And when she has friends who are just starting out, she tells them to keep practicing because it’s ok to fall and it’s worth it in the end.
In May of 2020, Sky took the biggest fall of her career. She fell fifteen feet onto a concrete floor and had to be flown to a hospital to recover. It was a scary moment for everyone. But Sky says: “Falling and not being able to skate or surf (for a while) has made me more focused and determined. Now, when I feel scared for a minute, I just tell myself to commit and believe in myself. I think about the little girls who are looking up to me and I know I can inspire them to push themselves. That makes me feel so motivated.”
Girl Skater
When she started skating, Sky didn’t even know about contests. She just loved skateboarding. Now she loves the contests because that’s where she gets to see other girls skating and pushing themselves. But she doesn’t believe that girls and boys are different in skating.
“I don’t think gender matters,” she says. “What matters more is individual skating style.”
Her role models in the sport are of both genders: Pedro Barros (“because he’s really fast and just goes for it”), Oski (“he’s one of the most creative skateboarders”), Dora (“she is amazing and has great style”), and Leticia Bufoni (“I especially love that Leticia shows that you can be a girly girl and still love to skate – plus she has the coolest pink hair!”)
Fear
It would be pretty easy to assume that nothing could possibly scare Sky Brown. But this little-known fact about her proves otherwise: “I am so scared of insects and bugs! I just hate them!”
Sky and Music
One of Sky’s most recent pursuits is music. She released a single called GIRL in 2020. It starts off with a bang. The video shows her on the beach and then at the skate park. She says: “They know I’m fast on my feet/Gravity got nothing on me.” The song is a testament to Sky’s philosophy about being a girl and proud, all while pushing herself to do everything she has ever dreamed. She wants the world to know that the traditional idea of being pretty doesn’t mean you can’t be gritty.
Later in the song, she sings:
“You can find me shredding half pipes/Or riding waves at sunrise/Nails done but I keep it sporty/Y’all mind if I hit a 540?”
GIRL finishes with Sky’s view of her world. And we hope everyone who hears it will take it to heart:
“I can do anything, and you can too/There isn’t anything you can’t do/We can be gritty and shake up the world/We can do anything/We are GIRLS!”
Sky Brown Athlete Profile
Sky Brown is a professional skateboarder and surfer from Miyazaki, Japan. Sky began skating and surfing at age two and quickly became a phenomenon when short videos of her gained millions of views on YouTube.