This month on Drop In Podcast, our very own crew mate Bowzer dropped in for a chat. You only have to watch Bowzer skate for five minutes to see that his expression on eight wheels comes from a much deeper expression of his connection to his body. His style is free, flowing, and delightfully flailing.
Bowz spoke to us about his relationship with skating, how it has helped shape who he is, and how it helps him as a trans person during times of dysphoria.
See some snippets from our chat below and make sure to listen to the full episode here.
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Skating as a space of becoming
“Derby… is really the space that I became Bowzer in, in many senses… It’s where I was introduced to name and pronoun rounds… At the time I was queer, but had a very binary view of the world, because I just hadn’t been exposed to anything else. That was the space where a lot of people educated me and uplifted me in this dual process where I was like ‘skating, whoa, cool! I can do all this stuff I never thought I’d be able to do with my body’ … while also learning about all these things and challenging my own views of the world and of gender… I felt really seen by everyone around me.”
Skating is the friend that’s always there
“Skating is like a really special friend. In the sense that skating has changed me and is integral to who I am… I don’t always have a heap of time for skating… there are times when I feel like we are in and out of sync with each other. But we are always there for each other…”
No two bodies are the same and that’s okay
“Everyone’s body is so different and what works for some people is not going to work for others. Reconciling that in yourself is a big thing you have to do if you want to have an enjoyable relationship with skating… The thing that motivates me is seeing lots of different people skate and the different ways that can look.”
Skating during moments of dysphoria
“Skating is so creative, I think… When you find that moment when you’re like ‘oh I just feel like this would make sense as the follow on from that movement I was just doing’ and then you do it, and it happens, it’s just like such an exciting feeling. You can feel so aligned with your body, in this way that you don’t always get to feel… I have phases of feeling really disconnected from my physical body, especially as a trans person I go through big waves of dysphoria… Skating really allows me to take that connection back in a way that I can view my body in terms of what it can do…”
Thank you to Bowzer for dropping in, and remember to subscribe to us on Spotify if you want to be notified about future episodes!