Scooter star Delaney Ball

SCOOTERING TO THE SKY

DELANEY BALL MAKES WORLD CUP, SOARS TO NEW HEIGHTS

THE GRATING SOUND of a ed to represent the country,” Ball said. “It scooter scraping against a railing was a huge deal.” comes to a halt as Palo Alto High While COVID-19 restrictions preSchool sophomore Delaney Ball vented Ball from having a regular Scooter lifts her feet off the deck of her scooter, World Cup experience, she remained enbriefly revealing flashes of its bright yellow thusiastic about her achievement despite color. The deck rotates rapidly around be- the change to a virtual format. fore Ball plants her feet firmly on it once “Instead of going to Barcelona we had again and descends to the ground. She to submit an online video, so it was a lot crouches as the wheels connect with the concrete, then immediately springs back up to cruise around “I’ll film things and I’ll be motivated to land tricks so that I can post them different, but it was still a huge accomplishment and I was really excited to be a part of that,” Ball said. nonchalantly. In the few on social media. I see the Not only was Ball able to compete short seconds of positive comments and it in the Scootering the video, it becomes clear why just motivates me to keep World Cup, but she also saw success at alog her progress. “I became friends with a freshman Ball has gained a reputation for her riding.” — DELANEY BALL, sophomore the competition. “It was a great and an eighth-grader and we started a crew called The Casual Krew,” Ball said. “We talent and accom- experience for me filmed a bunch of YouTube videos, and it plishments in scootering. and Team USA ended up placing first,” Ball started getting to a point where I realized

After only four years of scootering said. I could actually do something out of this.” and only having competed at a scootering Early on in her scootering career, Ball tournament once before, she was chosen to Scootering to sponsorships created an Instagram account dedicated to represent Team USA in the Scooter World Social media has played a significant her scootering videos. Soon enough, her Cup. role throughout Ball’s scootering career. posts caught the attention of a prominent

“It was a big accomplishment for me She first took an interest in the sport after scootering company, Tilt. to be able to join Team USA because only watching a YouTube video about it in 7th “I was super interested in being sponten members from each country got select- grade and continued to use YouTube to cat- sored by Tilt, so I tagged them in a lot of

SCOOTERING STAR — Sophomore Delaney Ball flies through the air, riding her scooter as if it were a magic carpet, hair whipping behind her. “I like how there are no rules, you can be as creative as you would like to and you can always progress,” Ball said. Photo: Sam Kaplinsky

my posts and in about two years into me scootering, I got a DM [direct message] from the CEO and the founder and they were interested in having me join their team,” Ball said.

Recently, Ball started posting scootering clips to TikTok, where she has over 75,000 followers and her most popular video has garnered a total of 2.4 million views.

“I’ll film things and I’ll be motivated to land tricks so that I can post them on social media,” Ball said. “I see the positive comments and it just motivates me to keep riding.” Inspiring the next generation

As a result of her large online presence, Ball often receives messages from girls who see her as a role model.

“I get a lot of DMs from girls that, I wouldn’t say look up to me, but they watch my videos and say ‘I hope I can do that one day,’” Ball said. “I definitely like to be an example for younger girls.”

Though she remains modest about her accomplishments, Ball is paving the way for other girls interested in scootering, a male-dominated sport. At her first scootering tournament, Ball was recognized as the only girl competing out of almost 140 boys.

“At the skatepark, I’m usually one of the only females there, so sometimes you get strange looks or people, when you do a trick, they’ll be super impressed,” she said. “It’s cool but I also wish there were more females in the sport.”

On top of her evident success in the field, Ball is interested in simply enjoying the activity she’s so passionate about.

“Obviously the main goal is just progressing and getting better,” Ball said. “But for now I’m just scootering for fun to hang out with friends.” v