Waialua Teen Sets Sights On X-Games Skateboarding Gold
Haleiwa’s Jordyn Barratt shows her talent in the bowl. Photo from Island Style Images.
Haleiwa resident Jordyn Barratt has returned to the island from Newcastle, Australia, where she took second place in the Hurley Australian Bowl Riding Championships.
“It felt really great,” she said. “I had a lot of fun doing the contest and I loved it.”
This 14-year-old skate-boarder was featured as Girl on the Board website’s February Girl of the Month and has only been skating for a few years. But her raw talent has taken her to great heights.
“My friends from school said they were going to the skate park after school, and I went and started skating,” explained Barratt, a student at Waialua Intermediate School. “I loved it, and I’ve been doing it ever since (I started at age 11).”
Before her success in Australia, Barratt competed in the third annual Vans Girl Combi Pool Classic held Jan. 19 at Vans Skate Park in Orange, Calif., where she placed third.
Barratt trains as much as she can, despite a full school load.
“I just get all my school-work done,” Barratt said. “I get it done at school on breaks or on the bus.”
She trains at a skate bowl about an hour away from her house three to four times a week, and when she isn’t there, she is skating at Banzai Skatepark on the North Shore.
“I train every day that I can,” Barratt said, who also surfs as a hobby. “Every time I go to the skate park, I just try to work as hard as I can.”
Her hard work has paid off in the recent past and will prepare her for upcoming contests on the Mainland: The U.S. Open of Surfing at Huntington Beach, Calif., and the Rocky Mountain Rampage in Colorado.
Although she is back home, there is no rest for Barratt in the near future.
Besides training for the big contests coming up on the Mainland this year, she also is striving to reach her goal of becoming an X-Games athlete by next summer.
“I want to keep skating and get better and better,” Barratt said. “Eventually I want to get into the X-Games.”
