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If you have spent any time on Instagram in the surf skate space, you have seen GRLSWIRL. The aesthetic is unmistakable — women on Carver boards, sunset light, Venice Beach boardwalk, an energy that is equal parts serious about skating and serious about having fun. But there is a lot more behind it than a great Instagram feed.
Who GRLSWIRL Are
GRLSWIRL is a women-founded skate collective that started in Venice Beach, California in 2018. Nine women — surfers, skaters, creatives — met at a party, realised they all skated but had nobody to skate with, and decided to do something about it. They started a group skate. Twenty women showed up the following week from a single Instagram post. Then forty. Then sixty. Within months they had over a hundred women showing up twice a month to skate the Venice Beach boardwalk together.
That grew into something much larger. GRLSWIRL now has 541,000 Instagram followers, 11 chapters across the globe, a nonprofit arm that teaches underprivileged communities to skate worldwide — from refugee camps in Tijuana to the first women's skate jam in the Navajo Nation — and a formal partnership with Carver Surfskates, the brand that built the trucks most of their community rides.
The collective's mission is simple: make skateboarding accessible to every woman, regardless of ability level, background or how long they have been riding. Their motto is that they are the world's okay-est skaters. You do not have to be good. You just have to show up.
Why It Matters — Particularly in Australia
Skateboarding has always been a male-dominated space. Walk into most skate parks in Australia on any given day and the numbers reflect that. Surf skating has changed the demographic more than any other development in the broader skateboarding world — the combination of surfing culture (which has always had more female participation than street skating), accessible movement patterns and an aesthetic that does not demand you look or act a certain way has brought women into board sports in significant numbers.
GRLSWIRL did not create that shift but they accelerated it. The visibility of 541,000 people following a community built around women skating together — not performing, not competing, just riding for the joy of it — gave women who were curious about surf skating a reference point. A community they could see themselves in. That is not a small thing.
Australia has a massive surf culture and a growing surf skating scene. The overlap between those two communities — women who surf, who come to surf skating as a training tool or a standalone pursuit — is a natural home for the GRLSWIRL ethos. Follow them. The content is genuinely good, the community is real and the tips they share are useful regardless of your ability level.
GRLSWIRL and Carver — The Partnership That Makes Sense
GRLSWIRL's partnership with Carver is not a sponsorship in the traditional sense — it is a values alignment between a brand and a community that both genuinely believe skateboarding should be for everyone. Carver boards are what the GRLSWIRL community predominantly rides, which is part of why the partnership works. The CX truck is accessible enough for beginners, rewarding enough for experienced riders, and the complete range covers shapes that suit everyone from a 55kg first-timer to a 90kg experienced surfer.
We are one of the largest Carver retailers in Australia. If GRLSWIRL's content has made you want to get on a board — or get back on one — the Carver setup they ride is what we sell, with free shipping Australia-wide and staff in our Richmond store who can match you to the right board for your background.
Follow GRLSWIRL
Instagram: @grlswirl — 541K followers, consistently excellent content. Tips, community, events and the kind of content that makes you want to go skate right now.
Their app is also available on the App Store and Google Play for community connection beyond Instagram.
If you are a woman who surfs, skates or has ever been curious about either — follow them. The community they have built is the most welcoming entry point into board sports culture available anywhere online.
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