A Normal 22-Year-Old
“I don’t like to talk about myself a lot,” 22-year-old Arianna Carmona says. “I’m not just going to walk around and be like ‘I’m on the national team, I’m an Olympic hopeful, blah blah blah’.”
Arianna is a pro skater from California with a host of sponsors, including Vans and Independent Trucks — and yes, she’s on the USA Skateboarding team. But you probably wouldn’t find out unless you asked.
“People are always really surprised. If someone at the skatepark is being rude, my friends will be like ‘Don’t you know who what is?’ I’m like ‘Can you stop?’” she laughs.
Arianna is as modest as they come, proud of her accomplishments but quick to point out that she’s still just a ‘normal’ 22-year-old, despite making her national team.
“It doesn’t change me as a person — I’m still just me,” she says, then laughs as she adds: “It’s, like, something to brag about.”
Arianna comes from a skateboarding family, so she began learning around the age of six, but started taking it seriously when she was eleven.
“My mom and all of my aunts used to skate. When I was a kid, my sister was always skating and they taught me,” she says.
“I also did dance classes, so I’d kind of go back and forth between the two. My dance teachers were always getting mad at me for getting hurt in skating, so I said ‘Okay, I’ll stop dancing — I’ll just do skating’. I liked it a lot more anyway,” she says.
As a pro skater, an average day in Arianna’s life is packed full of practice — behind each sponsorship and competition, there’s determination and a lot of hard work.
For Arianna, the thrill of skating keeps her going. The rush of landing a new trick, the freedom of catching air — and the lack of rigid structure.
“I like how there are no rules, there are no boundaries,” she says.
Her focus is currently on scoring enough points to make it to the Olympics with Team USA, which she finds both exciting and daunting.
“It would be cool to be able to represent my country, but also scary to let them down,” Arianna says.
If she qualifies, she’ll get to compete on the global stage, among the world’s best athletes. It’s an incredible opportunity — and one that starts with a single push.
After all, you’ve got to get on a board to get good on a board. Arianna says skateboarding really is for everyone.
“Anyone can do it. It’s just such an open and welcoming community.”
Of course, there are those who give others — especially girls — a hard time. You get them in every part of life. But Arianna says their judgement doesn’t hold any value.
“It doesn’t matter. Like, don’t care what other people think of you. Ultimately, you’re gonna find your own group of people who are gonna love and support you and what you do, whether it’s at the skatepark or not,” she says.
“So you shouldn’t care about what some random guy at the skatepark thinks of you. You’re probably never gonna see them again. Their opinion literally should mean nothing to you.”
