Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
VIDOR, Texas — Kendra Long, an elite skateboarder who recently celebrated her 14th birthday, does a lot of fancy tricks at the small skateboard park that lives in her family’s driveway in this rural patch of southeast Texas. There are varials, board slides, fakie full cab flips. Kendra is 5-foot-6, with long blonde hair that swirls around her face when she twists and drifts and spins and soars. The neighbors’ horses sometimes amble up to the fence to watch.
Not so long ago, Kendra had ambitions that mirrored those of the typical budding competitor in extreme sports: Add to her portfolio of skills and improve enough to compete in some events, maybe at the X Games or on the Dew Tour.