((PKG))  SKATEBOARDER  
((TRT: 08:56)) 
((Topic Banner: Bombette))    
((Reporter/Camera: Aaron Fedor))  
((2nd Camera: Lachlan McClellan))  
((Producer: Kathleen McLaughlin))  
((Editor: Kyle Dubiel)) 
((Map: New York City, New York)) 
((Main characters: 1 female))  
((Sub characters: 2 female; 3 male))  
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Bombette Martin, Olympic Hopeful)) 
My name is Bombette Martin. I'm 14 years old and I'm a 
skateboarder. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Bombette Martin, Olympic Hopeful)) 
My parents do not skate. They cannot stand on a skateboard for 
their life. My little brother, he is a really talented skateboarder. 
He's 11. His name is Kayo and he also competes a lot. 
((Kayo Martin, Bombette’s Brother)) 
I'm way better. I’m totally better. 
((Bombette Martin, Olympic Hopeful)) 
No, you're not. 
((Kayo Martin, Bombette’s Brother)) 
I'm way better all around. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Courtesy:  Bombette Martin)) 
((Bombette Martin, Olympic Hopeful)) 
Well, I was nine years old when I started skateboarding. So, that 
was like almost six years ago now. And we're really lucky to have 
a world-class skate park right down the street. So, actually like 
when we were really little, me and my brother, we'd go watch the 
skaters through the fence. And one day, we decided to go in and I 
just fell in love with it. So, here I am. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Mary Apple, Bombette’s Mother))  
Just for your warmup, can you do back and forth on the five-foot 
hip? Just, just really work on frontside, backside ollies on the five-
foot hip and then also try to include...just try, try because you 
might need to do this in England. Just try to make it a backside air 
with a grab. 
((Mary Apple, Bombette’s Mother))  
You know we live local. So, the kids used to come and like we 
would just be playing in that park over there. And we used to 
come kind of hang on to this fence and like watch the guys 
through and, you know, cheer them on. But it just looked so 
intimidating. I don't know about for the kids, but for me. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Bombette Martin, Olympic Hopeful)) 
When I was really little, I used to be like obsessed with monkey 
bars [playground climbing frame]. Like I would go around like to 
all different parks around the city and just like, you know, do 
monkey bars and I would do like all different like tricks and stuff. 
And so, I used to think that one day, I'm going to go to the 
Olympics for monkey bars, even though there is no such thing. 
((Andrew Gelles, Owner - Substance Skatepark; Bombette’s 
first teacher)) 
When I first saw Bombette and her brother, they were pushing the 
wrong way, couldn't go down a three-foot ramp.  I started 
teaching them because I thought they were hilarious. They were 
really funny kids who would like make weird voices and amp each 
other up. But after those first six months had passed between her 
and Kayo, it was clear that these people were long-haul kids. 
They were in it for the right reasons and they were going to make 
this work. 
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Bombette Martin, Olympic Hopeful)) 
There's like competitions that gain you points, the Olympic 
Qualifiers. They were all supposed to be last year for the 2020 
Olympics in Tokyo, but obviously that all got postponed because 
of COVID. Now it changed from five competitions to like what, 
three now. That gains you points and that goes towards the 
rankings for the Olympics and I have to be in the top 20 to go. 
((Bombette Martin, Olympic Hopeful)) 
Yeah, style comes into it a lot and the difficulty of tricks. So, like 
it’s, I mean, it's really confusing. You have to like really know 
skateboarding. Even like I still don't know. We like try to ask 
people like oh, what scores better, like this trick or that trick? And, 
you know, people, they can't give us a like a straight answer, but 
like it’s all based on, a lot of it's based on opinion, like oh, this 
judge thinks that looks better than that or whatever, that's more 
difficult. But yeah, it’s, you know, based on difficulty mainly. 
((Bombette Martin, Olympic Hopeful)) 
Our lifestyle is pretty much changed so much just because of 
skateboarding. And I mean, it's all over the place but it's fun. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Bombette Martin, Olympic Hopeful)) 
When I first started skateboarding, just something I mean super 
simple that would be like such a big accomplishment for me. But 
now that I’ve like grown so much, something like, there’s, I 
learned a trick like a couple months ago that only a few girls in the 
world can do and so that was a very big breakthrough for me. The 
big trick was kickflip Indy. 
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Courtesy: Bombette Martin))  
((Bombette Martin, Olympic Hopeful)) 
I've been trying it for like a couple of years now, and then the one 
day, I just got like super close and I was just going over and over 
and over, falling and falling again for about like four hours and 
then I finally landed it. 
((NATS))  
((Bombette Martin, Olympic Hopeful)) 
And it was, it was really cool. 
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Jiro Platt, Skater and friend)) 
I’ve always like skated with her at contests a lot. She’s always 
been really good at vert [vertical] skating. 
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Bombette Martin, Olympic Hopeful)) 
Well, I actually enjoy being a girl skateboarder because you 
honestly, when you're a high-level girl skateboarder, you tend to 
get more praise. You’re just, I guess, you're noticed more 
because boys, there's just so many of them and there's fewer of 
us. So, they’re like, people are shocked, honestly. I love to see 
the girl skateboarding community grow because it's becoming 
more normal. There's, I mean, so many of my friends, they've 
started skateboarding and I mean it's nice to see. 
((Lucinda Jacobson, Skater and friend))  
I mean, Bombette's obviously an amazing skater. The first time 
that I met her, she did like a kickflip front-rock, which is like a 
really hard trick. And, I don't know, seeing another girl skating at 
Substance, it was really cool. I think it's cool that skating is going 
to be an Olympic sport because I think people are starting to take 
it a little bit more seriously. They don't just think it's like a thing 
that burnouts do. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Bombette Martin, Olympic Hopeful)) 
It's like a drug. It's so addicting. When you're just learning 
something new or just accomplishing something that you've been 
working so hard for, like that feeling is just the best feeling ever. 
And I'm sure it's like that for other sports, but I just feel that 
skateboarding, unlike other sports, is just so welcoming and 
everyone's so encouraging. You'll rarely meet someone that's like 
an ass to you because there’s just, everyone just loves to see 
others progress. And that's really nice. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Popup Banner:  On April 11th, Bombette Martin, a dual 
US/British citizen, won the UK National Championships, taking 
her one step closer to her Olympic dream.))