Mami has been active and energetic since she was small. She was always laughing.
She used to imitate comedians when she was little.
Mami was always surrounded by her friends. Just like she is right now. She was always smiling.
She never wanted to leave when I took her to a sandbox.
She had been making something for a long time.
When her friends got in the way, she made them leave.
She was a child who made whatever she liked until it was completed.
At first, her father was skating in the parking lot.
She was always watching that from a distance
One day, on the way to the skate park,
I slammed hard while skating.
I laid down, and my board rolled away.
Mami picked up the board and started pushing while laughing.
That’s when I realized that Mami wanted to start skateboarding.
I think she was about three years old at the time.
It was probably Mami's fate.
There were skateboards and skaters in front of her.
She had no choice but to skate in that environment.
It was Mami's fate.
I got into the transition skating
'cause my home skate park has a lot of transition setup.
I don't think transition skating is big in Japan,
but there's like so many DIY stuff.
And then, it's small compared to the states.
[Lizzie] The first time I met Mami
was at the Exposure contest
and she was skating the Am division
and I just remember she really stood out from all the girls.
I think over COVID, you could see Mami's skating
went from really good to next level.
It's so cool skating with Mami.
Like, she's such a fun person to be around.
It's fun, especially, just because she's so easygoing
and she'll try really gnarly stuff
and I don't know, it's just fun to be around.
It's definitely inspiring;
when I'm around her, I wanna push myself to be better.
- [Mami] I like doing bowl,
but competition is kind of stressful for me
'cause I don't know, I like to see everyone at the contest.
But filming part is more fun for me.
Filming part is like...
It doesn't have to be really hard, tricky trick.
But you can see the style and progress of the skating.
I think that's important.
Gregson - We were at this ditch in Long Beach
and she was trying to do this wall ride with us
and like going for it,
and then she slammed harder
than seriously I've ever seen her slam
just trying to drop in on this bank
and just full scorpioned to her face
and just got up laughing.
Classic Mami, you know?
And then she got the trick after and it was just like,
that determination that she had
and just willing to take a slam and battle it out,
to me was special, you know?
And I could tell that if that's how she was,
she's only gonna get gnarlier, gnarlier, gnarlier.
And I think she has the right people in Japan guiding her
and skating the right kind of stuff
to where it's almost helped her,
skating these rough DIYs her whole life
and all this stuff in Japan.
When she went and skated a pool for the first time,
Tristan Rennie, who's one of the best pool skaters ever,
was like, "Well, in one day you're the best
girl pool skater I've ever seen."
But she'd been like skating all this stuff in Japan
and having the right people guide her
and take her to these spots and I think all that,
her community in Japan, her community here,
has made her this special skateboarder
that I think anyone could relate to,
street skater or bowl skater.
You know, you can't deny how good she looks on a board
and is having fun while doing it all.
We are in California.
We are going to an event where Mami's dream will come true.
Mami has always believed in herself and kept skating.
Getting the recognition and turning pro is such a great thing.
I respect her.
I'm happy for her.
I think it's still just the beginning.
I hope her life will be enriched through skateboarding.
I used to watch all the PStone stuff
and then I grew up watching Grosso's "Loveletters."
All those videos inspires me a lot.
And then Lizzie, she's one of the really good, my friend,
but she does a lot to women's skateboarding
and I wanna be like Lizzie.
I wanna inspire all the girl skaters and young people.
Do what you love and then don't be scared to be yourself.
Yeah!