Over the summer, fifth-year communication design student Fern Fournier took on the project Curbstomp, a zine focused on skater culture.
When meeting fifth-year communication design student Fern Fournier, the first word that comes to mind is “cool.” From their shaved eyebrows to the hand painted handprint on their pants, Fournier gives off an aura of “here I am, take notice and don’t forget.” No one could forget Fournier, especially with the work they have been doing to make the local skate community around the University of Cincinnati (UC) a more inclusive, vibrant place.
Over the summer, Fournier took on the project Curbstomp, a zine focused on skater culture. But, it quickly grew to be more than that. Curbstomp started as an experiential explorations program through DAAP in place of a co-op for Fournier. What came from it was a discovery of their own voice, and the influence a community can have.
The News Record (TNR): What exactly is Curbstomp?
Fern Fournier (FF): Curbstomp is a three-part zine series about women, nonbinary and queer skaters in the Cincinnati area. Its goal is to encourage this group of people to go out and skate freely in this male-dominated space.
TNR: What drew you to this project?
FF: I started skating at the beginning of the pandemic, like a lot of people did. I feel like that was the perfect time to try out individual activities. I feel like a lot of people, especially women, nonbinary and queer people, can feel hesitant to get into this hobby. But I think COVID provided a lot of time to finally try this out.
Very quickly you realize it’s pretty scary to get into this space that is male-dominated. It’s scary as a beginner, and then on top of that you’re part of this group that are very much minorities at skate parks. From that, Gail Kreisler, Sam Ruah and I created “Skate Takeover.” That was a way to create skate meetups and make it a safe space. We wanted to encourage women and queer people to take in these spaces and, for once, not be in the minority there.
From that it kind of became this zine series, Curbstomp. It was furthering the idea of encouraging people to start skating, to continue skating and to feel comfortable in these spaces.
TNR: Why do you think skateboarding needs to carve out a space for women, non-binary and queer people?
FF: It’s just always been so dominated by men, and it’s kind of a lifestyle that can be seen as kind of judgmental toward anyone who’s not a white man, which is many spaces. I think anything with that male majority can be scary for other people to get into. It is a gender-neutral hobby, it should be. It doesn’t make sense why it has to be mostly men. I think that should push people to reevaluate their own views on skating.
TNR: You do not make a profit on the zine, it’s all a labor of love. Why?
FF: I do not profit off this. I put my own money into printing, I let people know this is a donation thing. I did not want to profit off this, largely because I think it would feel yucky. A lot of the content inside it is submitted photography. Each zine includes an interview from a local skater, so I felt like it would be weird if I profited and they didn’t.
TNR: What’s the story behind the name “Curbstomp?”
University of Cincinnati communication design student Fern Fournier.
FF: It’s the type of word that is so declarative, like we are here, we are proud and we are gonna make ourselves known. A curb is one of the first obstacles you mess around with when you first start skating. A large goal of Curbstomp is to be an outlet for beginners. I feel like stomp is so related to movements and skating, it goes back to the idea of being proud and bold.
TNR: Talk about the type of people you’ve interviewed?
FF: My good buddy, Gayle, who is a co-creator of Skate Takeover. We started skating at the same time. She was another beginner, so I could relate to her.
Then there’s Ivy, she has been skating for I think ten years. She’s a trans woman, so she has a super unique experience of skating at a young age while presenting as male. She really knows the dynamics of skating with men versus women. Her insights were so cool.
I interviewed Cleo, she’s a roller skater. She’s been skating for years, she did roller derby. She mostly does park skating now. I met her at a Skate Takeover event, she’s one of those people who tears the place up. She’s a lively person who knows the skate community so well.
TNR: What’s your favorite part of making an issue of Curbstomp?
FF: It was a design project, but my favorite part was interviewing people. The whole goal is relating to the skate community and talking to people lets you understand it more. Hearing people speak about it is more exciting than sitting at my laptop. It also helped me meet the community and connect.
TNR: Has anyone ever offered any meaningful feedback or responses to your work that have really stuck with you?
FF: I was really, really surprised by the reach Curbstomp has. How I got them into the world was to leave them out for free at various locations. Skateparks, skate shops, I left them in Shake It Records, I handed them out personally too.
The reach was much larger than I realized. I had strangers finding me on Instagram, messaging me to ship one, or say it was wonderful. It’s just all these names I was unfamiliar with, that wanted my work and seemed interested. It started as a personal project for me, I didn’t think people would want them, but they did. People wanted them to hang on their wall and to read. That’s really awesome as someone into graphic design, it’s cool when something leaves your computer screen and gets into the hands of other people.
TNR: What’s in the future for Curbstomp?
FF: I would enjoy making more issues of Curbstomp. It’s not within reach for me right now with co-op and school. For now, it’s on the backburner but I would love to revisit it again. But as for skate takeover we plan to do more meetups. We have a Halloween meetup scheduled for Florence skatepark hosted by Cincinnati Skate Collective, so, we are collaborating with some other skate collectives.
TNR: What advice would you offer to people trying to get involved in the skating community for the first time?
FF: Just try to push away your feelings of doubt, that’s the only thing that can hold you back. In terms of getting started, find other people who are interested. Grab a buddy and go to a skatepark before others show up, connect with the skating community here. We started this group thinking we were filling an enormous gap, but we quickly found that there’s more of us out there than we ever imagined.
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