Womensport
& Recreation
Tasmania
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Girls in Action Sports Project (GASP)
June 2021
The GASP was designed to better understand the enablers and barriers for girls in three male-dominated action sports – mountain biking, skateboarding and surfing. It builds on from a 2018-19 project, an interview study with Tasmanian girls engaged in any of the three aforementioned action sports. Girls are less physically active than boys (a pattern that continues across the life-course) so finding ways to engage, re-engage and retain girls’ engagement in physical activity is important for individual and societal level benefit.
The GASP captured the perspectives of young people who used to, wanted to or were participating in either mountain biking, skateboarding or surfing; parents/carers of young action sport participants or enthusiasts; and adults who had administrative, coaching or officiating/event coordinating roles in any of these three sports.
GASP was designed to better understand the enablers and barriers to girls engaging in male dominated action sports (mountain biking, skateboarding and surfing) with a view to providing more opportunities for girls to be physically active. Capturing perspectives of young people, parents and adult stakeholders (e.g. board/committee members, CEOs, coaches, officials), along with a policy review and collation of membership data, GASP has provided novel and rich information to help more girls get involved in these and possibly other sports.