Sky High, Sky Brown

By Jenna Herrick

With sun-bleached hair flying, nine-year-old Sky Brown soars through the air wearing a floral dress, straw hat and an enormous smile. The barely four-foot-tall skateboarder from Miyazaki, Japan is fearless.

Sky Brown demostrates her pro-level skateboard skills during an exhibition at the Miniøya children’s music festival. Sky, 9, is a sponsored skateboarder from Japan. The Miniøya stop was part of a European exhibition tour. Photo by Jenna Herrick

“My favorite part of skating is going so fast and flying and feeling like I can do anything,” said Sky. “It is scary in the air sometimes, but I like to beat the scariness.”

Before her performances and competitions, you won’t find Sky battling nerves. “I don’t really practice, I just listen to music before I perform,” she said.

Sky and her 6-year-old brother Ocean are in the midst of a European exhibition tour. They spent more than a half hour on the small children’s festival ramp entertaining a spellbound audience of children and adults.

Fredrik Bratt, an employee of the Oslo Skateboard Union, was impressed with Sky and Ocean’s performance at Miniøya. “They were great. I didn’t expect so many people to recognize them,” he said. “It’s not common to have skaters and applauding, because people here don’t quite understand what skating is. But they managed to get the audience with them and it was perfect.”

According to Sky’s Youtube page, she is the youngest girl to ever skate in the Vans US Open Pro Series. Additionally, she’s a Roxy Girl which comes with a sponsorship from Roxy, a surf, snowboard and fitness apparel brand. Tech Deck, a fingerboarding brand, also recently posted an Instagram photo announcing their sponsorship of Sky.

Sky started skating when she was about two or three years old after watching her father skate and seeing boarders on Youtube. Although her father was reluctant to let his little girl skate at such a young age, Sky was determined.

Her immense success at the tender age of nine has made Sky an inspiration for young girls. She wants to show that you should always follow your dreams, no matter your size or gender. Being an influence to young girls all over the world is one of her favorite parts of being a skateboarder.

“I want to teach girls to do anything and just go for it and don’t care what others think, to just be brave,” she said.

Sky isn’t afraid to skate with the bigger boys at the skate park. She says skating with them gives her the push to beat them and to become a better skater.

“If boys say something or anyone says something like ‘you’re a girl, you can’t do it, you can’t skate,’ just don’t think about it, just show off, just go in there,” Sky said.

Sky isn’t just a master skateboarder, she is also an accomplished surfer – another passion she shares with her brother and best friend, six-year-old Ocean. When asked, she said she couldn’t choose a favorite between surfing and skateboarding.

Sky and Ocean travel the world to demonstrate their skills in countries such as  Norway, Sweden and Australia. Sky’s favorite spot to skate is Venice Beach, California. Sky’s family lives in Japan for half of the year, and spends the other half in San Clemente, CA.

One of Sky’s biggest dreams is to compete at the X-Games. A new dream of hers is to skate at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo representing her home country, Japan.

Nine-year-old professional skateboarder Sky Brown demonstrates a trick for an appreciative audience of kids at the Miniøya festival in Oslo, Norway. Photo by Jenna Herrick.