Japanese American Female Skateboarder posts by Jason Chu

Cool Japanese American Instagram post from Jason Chu Hopefully people will see it's two different skaters and not get us confused.

We now tag each other if people post wrong photos. Google has Shugo Kubo and images wrong. She is super sweet and we would probably skate together if we lived closer.

Video about me was great to see.

@jasonchumusic
Judi Oyama, Born in Santa Cruz to parents who’d survived America’s WWII Japanese American concentration camps, Judi Oyama started winning skate contests in her teens. At 18, she went pro on Santa Cruz. Then nearly 25 years later, she came back to downhill - winning world slalom championships and repping the USA at the world skate games. She’s still an active skater today.

This IG post on Jason's IG page about Peggy Oki who is more well known than I am for being in the Z boys and an early pioneer in skateboarding.

Peggy Oki, The Z-Boys changed modern skateboarding forever with their raw, fast, street style. And Peggy Oki (@peggy_oki) was the only woman on the team. The daughter of a master bonsai gardener grew up surfing, biking, and skating around Dogtown Venice Beach on a board her brother made for her in shop class.

She took 1st place at the legendary 1975 Del Mar nationals, but quickly tired of the artificial atmosphere of skate contests. Peggy just wanted to skate. Her love of the outdoors became an ongoing passionate commitment to conservation, creating the Origami Whale Project (@cetaceans_org) to stop the commercial hunting of whales.

Slalom skateboarding race in Los Osos racing against the clock

Last weekend I drove to Los Osos to skate at Jonny Miller's slalom skateboard race. I had not raced cones since October 2020 cyber slalom weekend with anyone because of Covid-19. I ran cones on Saturday the day before in front of my house. My last run was fast and clean and I was happy to go out and get some exercise.

6 footers

Practice run Powerlines

Jack Smith, Stephen King, me, Wentzle Ruml, Cliff Coleman and Jamie Hart.

I placed first place after Cliff Coleman told me that he had beaten me by .2 of a second. I went back up the hill and got my fastest run of the day even with the stronger headwinds. They were closing the course at noon so I had to get a last run in. Super fun and stoked to have won the Grand Masters against men I have been skating against and with since the 70's. Jamie Hart Cliff and I skated for Santa Cruz Skateboards back in the day. 

Fun photo from Shreddie Mercury check out his website.

Thank you to everyone for being super kind and awesome. Thank you to Brad Jackman for loaning me Sk8kings Turbo wheels since I didn't have any of the bigger faster wheels. Thank you Jonny for reminding me to do a few things to get more speed. I was rusty but did well. Here's to pushing yourself and not letting your head get in your way of what your body can do.

Homemade Mask Template Passion Project Shared

I am happy to see my mask design shared and available. I have put tons of weekend and early morning hours into making a mask template. I stared as making masks for my family and a few of the templates I found and made didn't fit well. I over designed and made a more complicated one with pleats and straps. David at LifeAid the project manager told me I had to make it one page and simple. That was harder than I imagined but in the end I am super stoked on the final Mask Template download available for Free on a LIFEAID Beverage Page Erik Designed.

Cindy Whitehead my BFF was kind enough to share it on her amazing Girl is not a 4 letter word site.

One of the best messages I got yesterday was this one from Stacy. I hope to go to San Mateo and shop at her family business Takahashi Market soon. One of the things Japanese Americans have in common is having parents interned in Japanese Internment Camps. I'm a product of Poston 1 and 2. As our parents age it's a topic and a little history we learn each time we communicate and share stories. Family history note. Beyond Barbed Wire Movie produced by my Uncle Yukio Sumida 442nd member and Purple Heart recipient.

Beyond Barbed Wire - Trailer from Steve Rosen on Vimeo.

Badass Skatemom CrossFit Video Skateboard Hall of Fame

May 4th I was inducted into the Skateboard Hall of Fame. Here is a quick post about how this video got made. I'm currently in Madison WI working in my hotel room before heading to the Scoring Bat Cave room where I'm working on all of the event score cards for the judges. The past two years I've done score cards as well as worked in Media in photography and downloaded and ingested photos of the games. It has always been fun but so stressful to have to be in two places at the same time. When you leave one room and they say hurry back and then the other room is waiting for you to power and get their work done which is super time sensitive and accuracy is to the detail. 10-12 hour days the norm and last year the food was awful this year they are trying but they still don't get the Crossfit style diet. Fresh vegetables not from a can, no sugar and no preservatives please.

Big thank you to Tyson Oldroyd Coordinating Producer, CrossFit HQ Media he had the idea to do a video on my skateboarding and CrossFit. Thanks Sevan (Executive Director of Media and Content, CrossFit Inc.)for letting him do it. Thanks to the awesome Lindsay and Elliot Schrock of Schrock Films

The Schrocks arrived on Tuesday night. They videoed me working out at the regular 8:30 HQ class with Jenny Lau the most awesome coach. We met two hours later at the NHS museum thanks Rich Novak and Bob Denike for letting me shoot there with them. I ran home they went back to HQ. We got to use the CrossFit Sprinter Van and they came by the house and picked up my family and we all headed down to Anaheim. We had plans on hitting a few parks on the way down but we lost a day so we had to compress everything. We arrived late on Thursday. Friday am we met in the Hotel they did a interview while my family went off to a sporting goods store. I'm not comfortable getting photographed or interviewed I prefer the other side of the camera photo art directing or styling the shoot. After the interview in my hotel room we met up and went to a local park. I had scouted a few close by. It was hot in the 90's and it was more of a street course with tons of guys. We went to another park in Fountain Valley 10 minutes away the traffic was a mess from construction. Found the park it had guys in it but it was more my style with rollins and coping but nothing too gnarly.

When I first arrived I was a bit intimidated with the guys there looking at the big black van that rolled up me getting out and then Elliot following me around with the camera. I was thinking they are going to be so unimpressed with my riding but fuck it. By the time we were done the guys were so nice and they were snapchatting and we were stoked to have met.

We drove back to the hotel I had two hours to get ready for the Skateboard Hall of Fame. I practiced my speech a few times. I was nervous but happy. My friend Frances arrived and we went to the event.

Thank you to Maria Carrasco for the slalom racing footage my slalom racing sponsor Sk8kings. James Cassimus for his Capitola shot, Michael "Smiley" Goldmann for his Winchester footage, Gary Medeiros for the plexiglass shot. James Sweigert for the N-men footage. I'm honored to get this video. Thanks John Ravitch, my dad Richard Oyama who I've not had the time to go by and show the video too.

Thanks friends that I asked for high resolution images.

Don't miss the N-men Documentary Trailer link

Women's Bowl contest at the Van Doren Invitational a full on event

Congrats and good luck to all the women skating in Monday's event. It is great to see an all women's skateboard event. Rare these days. Most events back in the 70's had a handful of women skating. That is when the camera crew usually took their break. It is nice to see decades later the women are finally getting their due. Have a great event and congrats to all of the women skaters.

Women's Invitational

The Women's Bowl contest at the Van Doren Invitational will be held at the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, CA July 28th­ - July 29th, 2014 hosted by Vans. The Alliance has teamed up w/ the Boardr to bring together the top female bowl riders in the world to compete in a custom concrete bowl on the beach. Please contact Mimi Knoop with any inquires at: mimiknoop@gmail.com

Event Details

Monday July 28th

12pm – 6pm – Women's Skate Practice and Registration

Tuesday July 29th

12pm – 2pm – Open Skate Practice

2pm – 4pm – Women's Skate Practice

4pm – 6pm – Women's Skate Contest

Qualifying — 4 Heats of skaters • 10 minutes each Heat • Jam in running order • Skate until you fall • 40 sec max run **Top 6 overall advance to Finals**

Finals — 1 Heat of 6 • Jam in running order • 15 minute Heat • Skate until you fall • 40 sec max run

Awards ceremony

Invited Athletes

Alana Smith

Allysha Bergado

Amelia Brodka

Arianna Carmona

Beverly Flood

Gaby Ponce

Hunter Long

Izy Mutu

Jordyn Barratt

Julz Lynn

Justyce Tabor

Karen Jonz

Kisa Nakamura

Leticia Bufoni

Lizzie Armanto

Lyn-Z Pastrana

Mimi Knoop

Nicole Hause

Nora Vasconcellos

Poppy Starr Olsen

Sarah Thompson

Vanessa Torres

Let me know if you want a different link I found these via the internet.

Early bowl riders that competed back in the 1970's were mostly male not very many women skaters. Here are a few that I have photo's of. If you look on line you will not find very many. And many woman skaters didn't get much coverage. Most of the photos are of freestyle and handstands. I like the pool photo's like this one of Cindy Whitehead Sportstylist® who has a great blog Girl is not a 4 letter word and supports women skaters. The "Girl is Not a 4 Letter Word" skateboard is a collab between Cindy Whitehead x Dusters California in conjunction with Longboarding for Peace. A portion of the proceeds benefit GRO (Girl Riders organization).

GNA4LW Store link to by rad shit.

Terri Lawrence regular Lakewood Skatepark female skater was a top vert rider back in the day. It is hard to fine 70's vert riders from back in our era. Stoked the current female skateboarders are getting center billing.

Leilani at Newark in NorCal and ripping at Spring Valley skatepark around December 1977.

Vicky Vickers ripped pools back in the day.

Denise Fleming, June 1978 Lakewood Skatepark halfpipe. Getting Edgy, Oct 1978 Photo: Bob Ballou.

Me skating Winchester Skatepark 1979 on of my favorite skate shots.