Twenty-two years after the inaugural Skate the Lake, the annual fundraising event is still going strong

On a steamy August day on Tahoe’s West Shore, motorists honk and cheer as bands of pink-clad skateboarders, bicyclists, one-wheelers and roller skaters cruise down the paved path paralleling the busy road. 

Author Kayla Anderson rides a longboard along the West Shore of Lake Tahoe in the 22nd annual Skate the Lake on August 2

This year’s “pink movement” is particularly robust, with some 210 participants embarking on a 28-mile route (or an 8-mile alternative) from Sugar Pine Point State Park to Palisades Tahoe, then back again to Tahoe City—pushing, pedaling and striding in the blazing heat for their girlfriends, their mothers and their snowboarding buddies. 

All in the name of preventing breast cancer.   

The record number of participants are here in support of B4BC (Boarding for Breast Cancer) and its annual Skate the Lake fundraiser, which, in its 22^nd year, raised nearly $72,000 for breast cancer research, awareness and education—the most ever from a single B4BC skate series event. 

“It means something to be involved with it,” says Tina Basich Haller, a former professional snowboarder and original B4BC spokeswoman. “People from New York fly in for this. It’s special for the Tahoe community—and for those who can’t be here who we keep in our minds.”

Skating for Moms

Longtime Tahoe resident Curt Sterner was heavily involved in the Vans Warped Tour and X Games scene when he met Chuck Buckley Vogt, founder of Tahoe Longboards, in the Alpine Meadows parking lot in 2004.

While they shared interests in skateboarding and snowboarding, both also had mothers who had survived or were fighting breast cancer. 

Buckley Vogt had made it a personal mission to skateboard around Lake Tahoe by himself in his mom’s honor when he met Sterner, and they talked about opening a long-distance skateboarding event to everyone.

“We got to talking about events and our moms being survivors, and Chuck was like, ‘You’re the event dude, what should we do?’” Sterner recalls. “We wanted to do a relay-type accomplishment around the lake. We talked to Red Bull, and they said to do it on the bike paths we’d only need one permit, whereas if we did it on the road around the lake, we’d need to get several permits and all the fire departments and police involved. So, we came up with a 32-mile route.”

Buckley Vogt and Sterner organized the first Skate the Lake in 2005 with nine participants, all signing up through Sterner’s MySpace account. That event raised $3,800. 

Twenty-two years later, Skate the Lake has raised more than $1.2 million.  

Born From a Tragic Loss

Nearly a decade before Buckley Vogt and Sterner created Skate the Lake, a group of girlfriends was making waves in the action sports industry around Tahoe. They included Basich Haller, pro snowboarder Shannon Dunn Downing and video game/mobile app developer Lisa Hudson. 

The “pink movement” rolls together through Olympic Valley en route to Tahoe City

In the mid-1990s, their good friend and fellow snowboarder Monica Steward, who cofounded Bonfire Snowboarding in 1989, was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. She was 26. Doctors had told her that the lump was nothing to be concerned about as the disease progressed. 

Steward had always advocated for people to stay active and do what they loved to do, but now she had a purpose—to host an event that raised awareness of breast cancer, and to share solidarity with anyone who was going through what she was. 

Her friends—Basich Haller, Dunn Downing and Hudson, among others—rallied around her to help make it happen. 

Steward died in 1996 at age 28, just a few months before the inaugural B4BC Snowboard + Music Festival at Sierra-at-Tahoe, where Basich Haller and Dunn Downing served as spokeswomen. The Beastie Boys headlined the event, which drew between 5,000 and 8,000 people. 

B4BC was born. 

“The first five years of B4BC, we just did a big concert; Linkin Park played, Primus, Moby, and then there was that first concert at Sierra-at-Tahoe with the Beastie Boys,” Basich Haller says. “There were no nonprofits at that time focused on young women in action sports.”

Flash forward to 2005, and B4BC went from being the beneficiary of Skate the Lake to its producer, expanding the skate series and its reach.

“I always saw B4BC at events and loved what they did in educating young people about ways they could pay attention to their bodies to prevent breast cancer,” Sterner says. “When I met Chuck, I said I wanted to support these guys. I liked that they were all about prevention and were on a mission to decrease the number of people affected by it.” 

Buckley Vogt and Sterner drew up a course along Tahoe’s West Shore that was possible for skaters of all abilities, came up with an iconic logo and invited everyone they knew to come push for the cause, making B4BC its beneficiary. 

Still Skating for a Cause

Over time, support has continually grown for B4BC and Skate the Lake—which, along with Skate the River in Portland and Skate the Coast in Los Angeles, is now part of the nonprofit organization’s Summer Skate Series.

To facilitate Skate the Lake, the Tahoe City PUD allows B4BC to take over Commons Beach on both days of a busy summer weekend, providing an ideal outdoor venue. 

From left, Skate the Lake founders Chuck Buckley Vogt and Curt Sterner with B4BC president and cofounder Lisa Hudson

Families already at the beach meander over to see what’s going on and end up donating money or signing up. Others come specifically to participate or donate, or to take part in the free registration party filled with food trucks, live music, yoga, auctions and more.

“It all helps us fund our mission to continue,” says Basich Haller.

“Once you do the event, word spreads, because not only is it for a good cause, but it’s fun,” Dunn Downing adds. 

B4BC estimates that it reaches about a million people per year by giving out breast exam shower cards, listening to people’s stories and providing hands-on breast exams with silicone molds, which is particularly popular among the adolescent boy crowd. 

“We’ve done so much education to get people on those breast molds,” says Hudson, who serves as B4BC’s president. “A lot of 14-year-old boys come up and ‘want to feel the boobies,’ but so many have learned how to do breast exams that way, and most of the time, partners are the ones who catch it.” 

While Sterner says organizing Skate the Lake is a lot of work, he will always clear space in his schedule to be a part of it. 

“The last Skate the Lake was a prime example that we don’t need to change anything about it,” he says. “We had the most participants and the most money raised. It is a lot of work for me to fit it into my schedule, but every time I think I’m done I have a little kid who comes up to me and says thank you for what I’m doing. I hear it all the time, and it means the world to have their trust and to be there to listen.”

“It’s cool to see how it went from just a kid wanting to skate around the lake for his mom to the growth of it and partnerships made,” Buckley Vogt adds. “I had been trying to get some Tahoe local buddies to come back out, and after 20 years, they showed up. It’s cool to see these upper-50s- and 60-year-olds out there skateboarding. 

“Skate the Lake is magical.” 

For more information about B4BC, go to b4bc.org. 

Tahoe-based journalist and author Kayla Anderson participated in her 19^th Skate the Lake event in August. While she nearly reached the finish line unscathed, she fell off her skateboard in the final 2-mile stretch and landed on her dominant arm. Fortunately, she was able to shake it off and heal in time for a trip to Tahiti.