“I was always going to be a skateboarder,” Nora says. “I just didn’t know that anybody was going to care.”
The first quesiton usually asked is How old is Nora Vasconcellos? Nora was born on November 28, 1992 so at the time of this writing that makes her 27 years old and a 20202 Olympic hopefull.
It’s hard not to https://www.metsyhingle.com/ scoff at this statement now considering the 27-year old has been called ‘the future of skateboarding.’ She has been the muse of a film by an award-winning director, and has lucrative sponsorship deals with massive skateboarding brands.
Nora Vasconcellos may have just http://www.princessmonkey.com/ turned pro in 2016, but she is already at the forefront of skateboarding’s renaissance. But just who is Nora?
Who is Nora Vasconcellos?
Nora was born in 1992 in http://www.chetroy.com/ Pembroke, Massachusetts – a small town known for its preps rather than the alternative lifestyles affiliated with skateboarding.
It was here that Nora received http://www.gadata.org/ her first skateboard at age 5 for Christmas in 1997.
A young Nora receives her first skateboard.
In an interview with Huck Magazine in 2018, Nora says that she immediately knew that she was made to be on https://www.smartpromocodes.com/ a skateboard.
“Even when I was really little and didn’t skate, I always identified with it,” says Nora now. “It’s strange, but I knew it was something I was going to do.”
She shares that when she was 11 years old, she failed to make it to the soccer team. As a preteen in a small town that was built on structure, this was a devastating blow. But instead of faltering and complying with societal expectations, she simply followed what made her happy – making goofy skate videos and skits. But even this did not come without a cost.
Growing up relatively poor, Nora had to work as a clerk at a grocery store just to be able to afford gas to drive down to New Hampshire so she could skate at a real park during the weekends.
Although now increasingly popular among girls, skateboarding was not always something associated with girls when Nora was young. She tells us that it even came to the point that she stopped going to skateparks.
“I remember being a kid and I stopped skating in my neighbour’s driveway because I was intimidated by someone driving past and seeing me,” she told Refinery29 in an interview.
After graduating from highschool at Pembroke, Nora held a full time job for a year at a production warehouse but it left her with little time for skating. Around this time, Nora’s family also lost their house.
The whole experience was what provoked her decision to make skateboarding her career. Next thing she knew, she had packed her bags and was on the way to California. Moving to another state is already a big deal in itself for anybody, but Nora had it harder. Her claustrophobia manifested in riding planes so her anxiety turned into panic. This was why she travelled by train all the way down to the West Coast. Sometimes life comes down to how bad do your REALLY want it?
Coming from a family of passionate pursuits, Nora was eventually followed by her mother, Joan Fontaine, to California to support her. They were roommates for about three years before Nora’s career had picked up enough for her to be able to afford more.
Albeit sponsored by Hoopla Skateboards, Nora still had to pick up a job at a local mall. Around the same time, her parents had also split up.
“It was a miserable, depressing time… but in my head it was just temporary,” she said. It was also then that Nora was diagnosed with a Panic Disorder.
“It’s a weird thing that I don’t talk about all the time,” she says. “I don’t know why, because I’m super comfortable talking about it now. I’ve had anxiety since I was a really small kid. It shaped me back then – I had gnarly separation anxiety.”
Nora describes her first anxiety attack at age six years old as having punched a glass pane door out of panic that her parents have gone away and left her.
She confesses that her phobias have held her back a lot. But now that opportunities are rolling in by the dozen, she can no longer let her fears control her and she needs to control her disorder. We can all learn how to Program our Minds for Success, but it takes practice
and effort.
“I had to learn to stop saying no to things, and that totally changed my life – that and some therapy and breathing exercises,” she says. “Phobias were taking over my life. Now I can travel spontaneously, which is what I need to do as a pro skater.”
Nora Vasconcellos Journey to becoming a Professional Skateboarder
Nora got her first working experience in the skateboarding industry after meeting with Jason Celaya, the Welcome Skateboards founder who offered her an admin job. She worked for him for four years, learning how to use Quickbooks, aiding with shipping, and everything else under the umbrella of running a skateboarding company.
“That was more valuable for me than going to school or getting a degree,” she says about working for Welcome Skateboards. “I had a job here and learned these skills but now I’m skating for them and reaping the rewards of being a full-time skateboarder, it’s insane!”
As Welcome Skateboards grew, so did Nora’s prestige. In August 2018, Nora departed from Hoopla Skateboards to join the Welcome Skateboards Pro team and had a board designed in her likeness.
“I had shaped the board, so I knew it was going to happen in the future, but I didn’t know it was their intention to turn me pro so soon,” she says.
Welcome Skateboards is a brand known for its 1980’s approach on skateboarding. They place a lot of emphasis on stylish and iconic shapes which is why they’re recognized for their popsicle-shaped skateboards.
Nora describes working very hard to earn her keep. “I didn’t have a personal life,” she says. “I just worked and went skateboarding. I had an idea of what I wanted and I was very content [to pursue that]. I don’t know how I did it.”
Since winning her first competition in 2013, she has since become someone to be reckoned with, appearing on Thrasher’s King of the Road and becoming the first female pro on the Adidas Skateboarding team. In 2017, she won the World Skateboarding Championship gold.
“It’s all happened so fast and been a dream come true – actually, it’s beyond my wildest dreams,” says Vasconcellos. “Adidas is a dream sponsor and I feel like I have all these older brothers now and we all travel the world together.”
Skateboarding and beyond
Vis-a-vis being a pro skater, Nora is also a prolific artist who creates imagery using pen and ink and mixed media. Her primary influence is her father, Daniel Vasconcellos who is an independent freelance illustrator. It was he who first encouraged Nora and her brother, Davis, to create art.
“People will mention Shel Silverstein when looking at my stuff – and that is the biggest compliment to me,” says Vasconcellos. “I’ve taken inspiration from artists like him since I was four years old and it feels subconscious how these aesthetics have remained in my head for all these years and find their way into my art.”
Nora has showcased her work in the Adidas Art Show in Tokyo 2018, where she is joined by skateboarding legend, Mark Gonzales.
“To have my art up on the same walls as Mark and the Japanese team, well, it’s just been pinch-me [moment] after pinch-me moment. I can’t believe it’s all real and happening,” she says.
Nora is a rising star and the whole skateboarding industry is taking notice.
Andrew Reynolds, professional street skater and co-founder of Baker Skateboards cites Nora as a positive symbol of women empowerment.
“Nora is putting out her positive message to the world, not just about skateboarding for girls. Guys, girls – you can be a skater, dress how you want. You can be an artist,” says Reynolds.
Lacey Baker, another female pro skater, describes Nora as super unique and ‘breaks the mold.’
“The way she skates and controls the board is iconic – she’s very graceful, but powerful at the same time. It’s still a small community of girls that are out there. But those are the girls that are inspiring groups of girl skaters all over the world,” Lacey says.
In December 2017, a short film called ‘Nora’ was created by award-winning filmmaker, Giovanni Reda, in collaboration with Adidas. It chronicles Nora’s skateboarding story all the way from her humble beginnings in Massachusetts.
“My favorite skaters always went beyond skateboarding. Nora encompasses the style, the personality, and the artist; she’s everything you want in a skateboarder. She’s a future icon – that’s how I see her,” Giovanni says.
Giovanni Reda Interview on ‘Nora’ Documentary
She also says that Nora is a role model in a way that she has persevered and does not let anything get in the way of what she wants.
“Nora does that by simply being herself, which a lot of people don’t always do. She’s a role model for young girls to see that women could become successful in a male dominated world,” Giovanni adds.
With the Tokyo 2021 Olympics debuting Skateboarding for the first time with a male and female division, Nora expresses her excitement over the opportunities now available for female skaters.
“The Olympics are the source of why girls are having success in skateboarding – with all the contests and heavy marketing,” she explains.
According to Nora, at the least, the Olympics make it possible for her and her friends to make money and travel together.
“We still live in a day and age when the odds are stacked against women, so any breakthrough is a step in the right direction,” she says.
As it is right now, Nora is willing to roll with the punches, constantly challenging the male-run skate industry one ride at a time.
