By Beth Jones
From Paris to Paraguay, Poe Pinson is leaving her mark on the international skateboarding scene. The 20-year-old from Fernandina Beach spent last summer in Paris, where she made her Olympic debut, placing fifth in women’s street skateboarding.
Last week, Pinson was in Asuncion, Paraguay, for the Junior Pan American Games. She captured silver on Aug. 11, placing second to Maria Lucia DeCampos of Brazil. Pinson scored a 62.46 in the run phase and an 80.85 for best trick, for a 143.31 total. DeCampos edged Pinson with a combined 151.21. Morena Abril Dominiguez of Argentina was third with a 113.81, taking the bronze, and Esmeralda Butler Cantellops of Puerto Rico finished fourth with 111.44.
“We at Friends of Fernandina Skate Park are tremendously proud of her, and the other kids who are following in her footsteps,” said Waldemar Borrero, president of FFSP.
It wasn’t Pinson’s first appearance at the Junior Pan American Games. She took the bronze medal in 2021 in Colombia.
But, it was her first visit to Paraguay.
“It was really beautiful,” Pinson told the Nassau NewsLine. “It was so chill, and everyone was really nice. We stayed in the corporate district. It was so sick.”
Pinson said everyone was friendly, including a couple of skateboarders she met.
“I got their Instagram and WhatsApp, and we ended up skating the next day,” she said. “It was super cool, and everyone was hyped on the event.”
Pinson said she was able to practice her Spanish, too.
“Not a lot of people spoke English, so I was forced to practice my Spanish, which was really nice,” she said. “I want to at least try.”
Pinson, who started skateboarding at the age of 4 at the park at Main Beach that now bears her name, is the first northeast Florida athlete to qualify for the Olympics in skateboarding. She nearly qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, when the sport would have debuted. The Games were postponed a year because of the pandemic.
“I’m kind of glad honestly,” Pinson said. “Because if I were to go to one, I’d rather it not be during COVID-19 and I would also like to be mentally prepared.
“I would have just been thrown into the mix if I had gone. I wasn’t really ready at all, mentally.”
She was ready last summer, and Pinson said she is still adjusting to her life since Paris.
“It’s so crazy,” she said. “I’m not really used to it all. I’m just used to skating, and chilling.
“It’s kind of funny. It’s a whole different world for me, even though I was in that world. People always ask me about it, and it’s like a different realm, a different universe.”
Pinson said she fields “crazy” questions, like, “Don’t you have to train all the time?”
“No,” she said. “I just skate.”
When she’s not skating, Pinson is filming and being filmed. She has a video coming out in October, and it will be available on YouTube, she said.
“I feel like the video parts are reflections,” Pinson said. “How skating started. Me skating, and how I make videos.”
Pinson said parts were filmed in cities around the country, including her hometown.
“For a skater, it like watching a good movie. It just inspires you,” she said.
bjones@nassaunewsline.net
