Girls learn differently from guys and guys don't always understand that. They e-mail me saying they are frustrated and don't know how to help them learn. The only way to help that is to try to better understand what they are going through. 

I recently got the best letter I've ever received. Not only is it a perfect example of what its like for a girl rider starting out, But is a reminder of why I do this site. 

Thank you for this letter, you made my day  :)

Hi Kim~

Well, 1st off my names Ana. My friend told me about this site but he didn't remember what the address was. All he told me was to search for WOF. Anyways, how did you know my SN or knew that I ride? I mean I hardly talk to people online. Oh well, I'm glad you found me and gave me the address to your link. It was AWESOME!!!! I ride but not as well as the girls on your site. I'm enlightened to see all these girl riders doing tricks and whatnot. And then I feel like a retard because I can't really pull anything. I've been riding for 4 or so months now and by the looks of my riding style and all, it still looks like as if it were my 1st day riding...that's how bad I am. I do get help from a friend of mine who drives me insane. Him and his friends are cool but sometimes I feel like they don't want me around.

I got into riding from one of my friends b/f's. I hated him because he was ugly and annoying (but mostly because he was ugly j/k). I was at my friends house and her b/f comes w/ some friends on their bikes. She was at the store and so I was the only one at the house when they came by. At first I didn't give a damn about their bikes and I was just trying to be nice and so I started to strike up a convo w/ all them and asked if they can teach me something. Well, her b/f gave me his bike and was happy to show me how to do some kind of barspinny thing. When he was showing me how to do it I was like What the hell...that's crazy but tried it anyway. I kept falling and falling but kept on trying. When they told me that they have never seen a girl ride I got some kind of insane feeling and right there I was hooked. It took me 1week or so to finally do the barspin thing, which I got so excited about and from there on all I wanted to do is ride BMX. I finally became good friends w/ her b/f and I hung out w/ him and his friends. They would try to teach me all kinds of stuff - it was so fun. I didn't have a bike; I just rode one of theirs. I did work though (well, I baby-sat 24/7) and saved up for a Hoffman SD-4, but I got beat up (it was so random) and these kids took off w/ my bike. God that killed me. I was crying because I know the guys were kind of sick of letting me use theirs and it was just my bike. My own bike that I worked hard for...UGH! My dad felt sorry for me I guess and he doesn't know much about BMX and he heard me talk about a DK SOB to friend and so he got me it. I wasn't even expecting it. I was thinking of getting like an 8 pack but was surprised w/ this one. Anyway, I moved to go to college from Tucson, Az to Phoenix, AZ (about 100 miles apart). This was such a bummer because I still didn't know anything much about riding and thought I was going to have to go at it alone. I would try to ride by myself. Teach myself new things but it sucked. It sucked so bad that I was considering quitting. Until I ran into a guy at a bike shop who then became a friend and was showing me all sorts of stuff. It's fun riding w/ him but it's not the same as riding w/ the guys from Tucson. Him and his friends are really good and they're nice and all but they all seem to have such a little tempers when it comes to riding. They get mad at me when I don't understand how or what something is on a bike. They also get angry at me when I'm learning a basic easy (to them it's easy) trick and it takes me so long to figure out how to do it. They say stuff to me like I got that trick down in like 2 weeks or whatever. They'll also laugh when I don't know a certain rider or spots or you know the whole riding scene thing. I try though. I've gone out on my own to see if I can progress by myself. I get all the mags. (RIDE, Snap, Plus etc...) that deal w/ riding. I even buy BMX video's to watch and search on the net for websites and whatever. No matter how hard I try to learn about the history and present days of BMX I'll always be 5+ steps behind of understanding any of it. All I wanted to do was ride I didn't know that there was so much else that I had to know about. Anyway, ever since I've been riding w/ the new guys they really intimidate me because - well they're just really good. I don't know that when they yell at me if its some kind of motivation thing all I know is that they make me feel like shit and sometimes I'll come home thinking maybe I should just give it up. Maybe I won't ever pull a DP grind or a wall ride or whatever. And then you show up and give me the address to your website. When I saw it I was in Amaze ((eyes wide open, mouth dropped) looking at Nina do a feeble grind on the home page and then checking out all the other riders...I was so much in Aww that I was checking out your site for like 3 or so straight hours. This website gave me so much hopes that I can and will be as good as the girls on there. I thought I was alone in this sport dominated by guys. It's nice to be proven wrong. Anyway, Thank You So Much for making a website for girl riders. You rule Kim.

Ana
Sorry I wrote so much just to say 2 words of thank you.