CRUISING ON CRUTCHES

“Experiencing the world as I’ve experienced it, I know there needs to be more positive visibility thrown out there,” said adaptive trans skater Adalyn Brigham. Born with Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia, a condition that affects muscle strength and stiffness in the legs, Brigham’s been cruising on crutches since she was 4 years old. Working with crutches for so long, the mobility aid has become an extension of self, and no time is that more obvious than when Brigham throws a casual back tail shuv out combo at the park.

As a kid, Brigham’s introduction to the world of wheels came in the form of rollerblades. Skating with the neighborhood kids, catching the X-Games on T.V., and of course playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Brigham grew up with a fascination for action sports. Finally at 13 she got her first board. As she explained, “I moved up North, and nobody rollerbladed. You were super lame if you rode rollerblades. So I was like, okay, I guess I’m going to skateboard. Once I got my first board, I fell in love.”

Reflecting on those first years learning to skate she smiled, “My first pop shuv it was unreal. I was freaking out. Three flip was the next trick that was like, oh my gosh. Never thought I’d be doing three flips.”

The sport stuck, as Brigham has now been skating for over half her life. Skateboarding grew with her, filling different roles for Brigham in her adolescence. In particular during her pre-transition period, it served as an escape. “When you’re skateboarding, all you can think about is skateboarding,” Brigham explained. “It made my mind go blank. Skateboarding was much more destructive [for me] in the early days. I didn’t care if I took a heavy slam because I hated everything anyway. Recently though, it’s been such a safe haven and a great place to express myself.”

Young Brigham couldn’t have landed in a better spot for her early aggressive, destructive skating than Traverse City, MI. The home of Jonathan Pierce, Tyler Franz, and Jake Keenan, Traverse City has brought up countless talented skaters. “The crew that’s out here, we’re very tight knit,” explained Brigham. “Everybody is super supportive of everybody. Because of that, we have really good athletes and some of the gnarliest skateboarders.”

“Plus,” she continued, laughing. “All the spots around us are either really small or pretty freaking big and sketchy. The one spot we all go to, nobody actually cares for it that much. The ground is so bad. It’s like a cheese grater. You could be going with zero speed and fall over. It’s gnarly.”

That terrain doesn’t just mean skinned knees for Brigham, it also means broken crutches. A lot of them. “I’d say a pair will last me three months in the summer if I’m being good on them,” she said. “When I get my crutches there’s little pins that hold them together. I’ll [replace them] with actual steel hardware so they’re a little more durable. I try to be precise with where I’m placing [the crutches] while doing tricks to not damage them as much. But they still break so fast. If I’m out filming all the time, then I’m going to go through a pair of crutches a month.”

For Brigham, filming and creating content is a priority. By putting out weekly edits on socials, she hopes to provide representation for both trans and adaptive skaters while working toward her personal pro skater goals. “It’s stressful, especially with a day job too,” she said. “Because Tuesday to Saturday I work, and then I get out of work and I don’t want to go skate. Then I also play music and have a gig a week. Then [finally] I have Sunday and Monday for filming.”

But even with the challenges, Brigham can’t help but to enjoy the chaos. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s so fun. I love filming. I love putting together videos, the editing, everything. I love it.”

The act of creation adds further dimension to each skate session. The scene, the skating, and the skateboarder; each key to the balance of an ideal clip. “I hate having a clip where I have two different outfits on,” she laughed. “It’s dumb, but it’s a real [concern] for me. And the scenery is such a big thing for me. I’m very much looking at my surroundings when putting together a video. My best friend Parker, [that films me], he’s so good. He knows how to capture what I’m trying to do while [incorporating the environment]. There’s a video he filmed at Heart Plaza in Detroit, I do this fire cracker drop and then front spin off, and he pans to this sculpture. There’s a plaque and it says ‘transcending’. It’s fucking perfect.”

Beyond her short form content, Brigham has begun experimenting with longer edits for Youtube. “My friends were bugging me about it, because I should do more than just Instagram,” she laughed. “I haven’t [fully] dove into it yet. I would like to come up with a video in the Fall though. I’ve been talking to my friends about it, so we’re going to shoot for Fall. [But in general], I’d like to just do cool videos. Make a space where [trans] people can come be inspired by another queer person.”

What is perhaps even better than creating content for the queer community is connecting with skaters in person. Brigham discovered the power of queer joy first hand when attending the Wheels of Fortune (WOF) event for the first time. She was stoked to chat with other trans skaters she’s long looked up to and to finally connect outside of Instagram comments. “I saw Marbie the first night at this big party,” she grinned. “We were dancing around and got to hang out a little bit. It was good to make connections with other trans skaters, because I feel like there’s a lot of us. But also it’s not like every town has a trans skater. So it was very nice to be in a space with a bunch of other queer people.”

She continued, “Skateboarding definitely changed for me on that trip. I feel like skateboarding for a long time for me was: you get a new place and prove yourself. You throw down the best you have to show that [you belong]. But [at WOF], it was very much [the mindset of], we’re all just having fun. If you want to try something that you’ve never done before, this is the space to do that. We were all there to hype each other up. It was amazing! [It was] more about the joy of skateboarding.”

The best place to see that joy is in the WOF video featured on the Thrasher site. “That’s the dream,” Brigham grinned. “To be on Thrasher. It’s unreal. My friends were like, ‘You’ve made it!’”

Thrasher is just the first step in Brigham’s skate roadmap. Planning to move to Detroit, Brigham is excited to have access to indoor facilities and be able to skate throughout the winter. However, hitting the park will have to wait until Brigham gets back from her competitions.

“There’s this contest, Omarisquino #24, out in Spain and I’m super stoked. It’s the first year they’re doing an adaptive category,” she explained. “I’m taking my cousin with me, it’ll be really fun. Then there’s going to be Unity festival in October, so October San Francisco and then November there’s Exposure in San Diego. I’m going to that for sure.”

At the core of all Brigham’s plans is the desire to show more people what’s possible in skateboarding and make it accessible to everyone. A top item of that plan: crutches that don’t break quite so easily. “I’ve written down loads of stuff,” she said. “A lot of people, like myself, that use crutches to skate, are going to have to figure it out and design something. Strengthen up a couple spots. I also think they could look a lot cooler, more personalized.”

With the rest of her year packed with competitions and filming for longer edits, Brigham pushes herself closer to that pro dream, all while working to show that skateboarding is for everyone. Looking forward to that potential pro future, there’s one important question every skater must ask themselves: what shoe sponsor?

“Converse,” Brigham grinned. “I don’t skate in anything else and I don’t think I would want to skate in anything else. That’s something I’d love to achieve.”