Brittany Barrios is one bad ass mama and inspiration for female skaters, old and young. She’s a proven a force to reckon with in the business world in a male dominated sport such a surfing.
Beautiful Britt and the Darling Derby
With two brothers who surf, Barrios was surrounded by the culture at an early age, which equipped her with the know-how to be a successful surf shop employee at Freeline Design Surf Shop. After spending nearly two decades helping to steer the ship at Freeline, doing everything from sales to buying, Barrios became close to the Mel family. It was during the early days at the shop when she met and began to date a skateboarder, who reluctantly brought her to Derby.
Freeline Fam
She found herself out of her element and it didn’t help that her then boyfriend would heckle and discourage her. Being the Boss she is, she canned Negative Ned and started skating Derby whenever she had the chance. It was not long before she began ripping with ease—Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!
Around this time, Barrios and a few other fellow female skate rats decided to start a crew, The Lady Lurkers, giving female skaters more agency in such a male-centric activity.
Ladies...Lurking
“I started seeing other girls showing up [at Derby] with their boyfriend’s, who were all friends,” remembers Barrios.
“We always saw each other, but it took us a little time to start skating together. One day about five of us showed up and we were talking about how rad it was to have a crew of girls to push each other. We jokingly named ourselves the Lady Lurkers and it stuck!”
She also met her baby daddy, Swilly, while skating and hanging at Derby. Swilly just happened to rule the phallic-shaped snake run, so guess what they named their daughter? Derby of course.
Swilli, Derby Dude
These days, Barrios is thoroughly soaked in elbow grease and resin doing ding repair for Sand Dollar Ding Repair, a backbreaking and frustrating male-dominated industry. She remains a fixture at Derby, where you may find her flying down the snake run with grace or grinding ledges with gusto. As an OG Lady Lurker she does what she can to promote the cause on social media.
Follow Brittney on Instagram @brittskies and @santacruzladylurkers
