"To make female skaters visible is not only necessary, but our everyday life"
Dolores is a girls-only magazine, created and starred by female skaters, born from a love to skate and a willingness to boost the female skating scene. Raisa Abal and Verónica Trillo define their project as the printout version of Asiplanchaba, a platform for female skaters which is more than 10 years old. In Spanish, “planchar” means both “ironing” and “doing skateboard tricks”. The name “Asiplanchaba”, which literally means “that’s how she ironed/did skateboard tricks”, refers more to women interested in the latter.
What is Dolores Magazine and how was it born?
Dolores Magazine was born as the print version of Asiplanchaba. Asiplanchaba started ten years ago as an online platform to cover and boost the female skateboarding scene. However, we realised that we had a lot of useful graphic material that was worth using in something bigger, something in print.
Why do you think is necessary to give visibility to female skaters?
It should be something natural, female skaters exist and they do things… lots of things! Just like boys do. It’s really cool to see that there are more and more projects where women are involved, so it makes it more normalized and it doesn’t seem so unusual now. We give visibility to women skaters not only because it’s necessary, but because it’s something normal. It’s just our everyday life. Just like men go on a mission, produce, film themselves, take pictures, and carry out long and elaborate projects, we do it as well.
Vane Rodríguez, Tania Vero and Cristina Mandarina por Raisa Abal.
Even though, gender-based discrimination still exists in most sports. What do you think is the main reason?
There have always been prejudices based on gender. Some toys are for boys, some others for girls, as well as sports and jobs for boys and for girls, without false precepts. We have lived with this for many years (and it still hasn’t disappeared), and as a consequence there are fewer women in many activities or sports, like skateboarding. We are less visible, that’s why Asiplanchaba and Dolores Magazine exist.
What would be your advice for a girl that is starting in the world of skateboarding?
I’d tell her not to get frustrated and that we all had to learn. Some days you fall a lot, some others you fall less.
Favourite spots?
Spotter, Barceloneta, and Plaça de la Ciudadela.
Where can we get the magazine?
We always send it to some skateshops in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Málaga, Asturias… As well as some in Bordeaux, Paris, Berlin, and London, but they sell out quickly, so they are always available online at www.doloresmagazine.com
Anything else you’d like to add or assert?
I’d like to add that Dolores is a non-profit project, every euro is reinvested in shipping costs or in the next edition. The expenses are high, and the support is low. 80% of the production is free. The people that work on this do it out of love for skate and in order to help the female skating scene to be more recognised, having their own space through Dolores. We’d like to say a big thank you to all the people that help us, support us, and collaborate.