Meet The 63-Year-Old Female Skateboarding Pioneer Breaking Barriers & Go...

So this went live this morning. The video launches March 8th at noon on the Santa Cruz Skateboards YouTube

Thank you Alex White for producing and making this happen. Thank you Minna and Moniz for being apart of this project.

Photos by: 

Richard Oyama (my dad)

Daniel A. Anderson (studio shot)

Gary Medeiros (SJSU plexi ramp and Soquel Skatepark shot)

Michael Smiley Goldman (Pink Pool and Modesto Heat Wave)

Bill Golding mixed

Jesse Perrin (Portrait in the garage)

Reg Caselli (Black and White Capitola Classic Shot)

John Krisik mixed

Dan Devine (Hawaii and Capitola Classic speed shot)

Slalom video at Salem Oregon by John Ravitch 

Follow video at Worlds that has been getting a lot of attention on the Outside Magazine IG page by Collin Kruse

Filmed by Joey Digital Edited by Richie Valdez

Skaters in the garage Cliff Coleman, Jamie Hart, Josh Harvey and HC.

I'll add more information and links later.

Thank you

Santa Cruz Skateboards

Bronson Speed Co. Bearings

Mob Grip Tape

Clip of the Side view of the tight race

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxBZOWBaju8s84QNTHnGntbnErD-uerXo1

My 50 years of skateboarding documentary 1 day shoot with NHS Fun Factory Crew

I'm honored to be asked to be part of a short YouTube Doc created by the NHS crew since it's their 50 year anniversary and I have been skateboarding for 50 years. I was sponsored by NHS when I was 16, I'm 63 now. OMG!

This year we have had the most rain and storms ever. I live near Seacliff and Rio Del Mar Beach and they got hammered by the storms. So much so, President Biden visited both Aptos and Capitola. I have barely skated slalom since the World Skate Games in Argentina in October. I usually go 4 months without riding slalom and get back on it as the weather warms up. It's not so much it's cold but I like riding parks and doing other forms of skating. 

I was not going to go to the Presidents Day Race because I always question myself before going to race because it's an extra thing I do that takes time and money. Two my dad is under Hospice care and his birthday is the day I drive home he turned 94. 

The only day I rode at any speed is the day NHS or Santa Cruz Skateboards did an all day shoot organized by Alex White the brand manager of Krux Trucks, commentator and world's first Women's and NB Rider Relations Manager over at NHS. She had Pro rider Minna Stess and her mom Moniz come to my house and skate my ramp and tour my she shed of skate herstory. Joe Ruiz the videographer documented it. That evening we met in San Jose his brother Jesse Ruiz a photographer. They both are skaters and documented my skating with my two former Santa Cruz Skateboards Teammates Cliff Coleman and Jamie Hart both in their 70's. They inspire me to keep riding and slalom racing. I invited Michael Smiley Goldman, his skater wife Karen Goldman and John Hutson known for his Hut tuck that was actually started by Goldman.

Met up in the morning to shoot in my backyard with Minna and Alex.

We went to lunch and met up at the NHS museum to shoot an interview. My downhill board I rode in the Capitola Classic is on the wall with me riding in that photo above. Joe the videographer.

Ended the day skating in a 8 story parking garage. Got this awesome
 portrait taken by Jesse Ruiz in the garage after skating with Josh Harvey, Cliff Coleman and Jamie Hart. I wish I would have asked him to take photos of Cliff and Jamie. They are still skating strong into their 70's!

I will post about the Presidents Day Race results and some photos. I am super stoked about an Instagram post that was reposted on Wearageist of the World Skate Games race Instagram video on weareageist IG that is has over 60,000 views in two days. Thank you for posting!

I put the video on YouTube this morning. Here's the Slalom Worlds link:

Will Slalom Skateboarding and Downhill Racing make the next Olympics? Oldest skate career making some Herstory!

First slalom race with Lisa Harner Capitola 1975 Photo: Richard Oyama

Second downhill race Capitola Classic 1980 from the Independent Trucks Built to Grind book. Photo: Reg Caseilli

Santa Cruz Sentinel Article my mom cut out. I was the only woman racing downhill the year before. I have no photos and placed middle of the pack.

Hood River World Championships 2012 Photo: Steven King

Nevada City 2018 Photo: John Ravitch

The Bar (Bad Ass Ramp) at the Texas Sizzler is 9' tall on the far right and left images. It is tall and wobbly. No joke and you can't see the bottom and you go in kind of blind. You have a choice for a regular ramp and a shorter one. I am not sure if they are going to do that at the March race coming up. 

Currently Ranked 1st ISSA International Slalom Skateboarding Association World Ranking

Slalom World Rankings posted this may not last long since the Europeans have so many more races then we do. I am going to the US Nationals in Oceanside and the World Championships in Kentucky this year. Crossfit and Skateboarding helps the elder in the pack to keep skateboarding and racing. I'm the oldest skateboarder and racing longer than any woman in the sport but that doesn't really matter you can get inducted to the Skateboarding Hall of Fame if you do freestyle handstands and rode in the 70's. No one cares if you've ridden bowls, vert, downhill, freestyle and supported kids in for 4 decades. I skateboard because I love to skate that is the only reason. Like many skaters around the world that get no coverage and just ride. Skate on! Skater for Life!

Back from the Sk8Kings US Slalom Nationals 2014 Day 1

Had a great time racing for the past two days. Saturday was the Hybrid race a dual slalom course. Jamie Hart and I pushed each other. We both had not made the course from the top when we had to run our two qualifying races. Jamie said he was going to start on the side of the ramp. Which is common and then someone hit the timer tape while you go. We both climbed on the ramp and waited for the start. The start has a 4 beep system you go on after the forth beep. We'll is random and the forth beep seemed to never come so I was like is that it after the third and then I started Jamie stayed and then the forth beep went. Someone said at the first cone I was like G-Damn it! We both made the run and got times. The second run we did the same. I ended up placing 8 th in the masters with the men.

After the race we headed to the Reunion Social/Exhibition Race where many of the original slalom racers were running cones. Di Dootson organized the La Costa Reunion Social/Exhibition Race. We made a circle and held hands and Dennis Martinez officiated a prayer for all the skaters, surfers and friends we had lost this year. On this same day they had a paddle out for Shugo Kubo on Venice Beach and a memorial for Sonny Miller. We had lost slogger and skate Legend Chris Yandell earlier in the year.

After this we headed to the Racer/La Costa Reunion Dinner Party & Signal Hill Documentary Screening Got to meet Tina Trefethen at the event and many other legendary downhill skaters. Great to see Guy Grundy, Michael Williams, the Logan family and many others.

Sk8Kings US Nationals - July 18-20, 2014 Oceanside, CA So Cal Racing and La Costa Boys - are hosting the biggest racing event in North America AND have joined forces with the 2nd Viva La Costa Reunion crew – for one epic weekend.

Results from Day 1 dual hybrid.

Pro

1. Joe McLaren

2. Richy Carrasco

3. Mike Maysey

4. Paul Price

Masters

1. Scott Hostert

2. John Ravitch

3. Rick Floyd

4. Brad Jackman

Amateur

1. Bruno Silva De Oliveira

2. Oshean Lehrmann

3. Josh Harvey

4. Nathan Favero

Event Schedule: Friday (7am-12pm) Golf

Friday (12pm-4pm) Beach Party

Friday (6pm-9pm) Sunset Hour

Saturday (9am-4pm) US Nationals Race events - Head to head Hybrid Slalom @ Loretta Street Oceanside

Saturday (11am-4pm) La Costa Reunion Social/Exhibition Race

Saturday (5pm-10pm) Racer/La Costa Reunion Dinner Party & Signal Hill Documentary Screening

Sunday (9am-5pm) US Nationals Race events - Giant and Tight Slalom @ Loretta Street Oceanside

Big thank you to Chris Morse at Crossfit West. Yes Crossfit twice a week made for stronger legs and a stronger core. Chris use to be one of the children Jenny Hutson had at her day care. Jenny is the wife of famous racer John Hutson!

Slalom Skateboarding a good test of coordination at any age

Site 17 with the NorCal skate crew. Mikko who took this footage sold me my second skateboard some 4 decades ago. Who'd of thought we'd still be skating on new better gear and in our 50's. I want to skate as long as some of the men I skated with. Might not be as fast or ride the bowl as high but I'll still go out and try. And as Yoda says "Do. Or do not. There is no try."

Skate Collector Website launch personal project

Something I have always talked about and thought about is finally in production. A mini website to show some of my skate collection and to sell some of the dupes I have. My kids for the first time got a walk through the NHS skate museum last Sunday for John Hutson's B day party. My kids who usually don't care much for my skate passion actually said you are going to keep this stuff right? It was a nice surprise that they even realized that this is in the end all for them. The Skate Collector in the works. Little by little. Please be patient as I have lots to add to the site. Need to clear out lots of snow and surf stuff from the 70-90's as well that will be phase two.

Skateboard Typography & Lettering assignment Jim Goodrich and others

Thank you to Jim Goodrich for letting me use his photos as reverence and inspiration for this project. A few other photos were taken by Ted Terrebonne, John Krisik, Brad Bowman and Mike "Smiley" Goldman. This past Spring 2012 I took a class at Cabrillo College down the hill from my house. I went there after high school and drive by daily. I have been trying for a year to get into the Final Cut Pro Class. No luck last Fall so I took a Photoshop class that I loved. Helped me fine tune some skills and learn about new features. This Spring they only offered the B intermediate Final Cut class so I took Carl Rohrs Lettering and Typography class. I had always wanted to take it and since the students enrolled get priority in registering it was worth it. If you ever have a chance to take his class do. He teaches around the world and we have him in our backyard. His knowledge about type is amazing, his lettering skills to die for.

Illustrator vector art from photoshop work.

Wood laser cut 1/4" final piece. Still have a paper cut project to finish and it is on black paper hand cut. Can you say sore fingers.

Duane Peters

Curt Kimbel (Old Santa Cruz Teammate who has a son that rips named Willis Kimbel)

Skated with all of the skaters in this letter but one. The two women in this are Cindy Whitehead and Leilani Kiyabu, Tony Alva, Steve Alba, Jay Adams, Steve Olson, Duane Peters, Brad Bowman, Scott Foss, Steve Caballero, Chris Strople, Curt Kimbel, Randy Katin, Bobby Valdez, Mike Folmer, only skater I didn't skate with John Gibson. Yes I have two skaters in twice. Was running out of time and had a deadline.

Classic Facebook skate photo find Santa Cruz Skateboard Team 70's

I was tagged last week in two team Santa Cruz photos taken by Bill Golding from back in the mid 70's.
Bill Golding Photo — with Judi Oyama, Robert Garrett, John OShei, Billy Maille, Don Bostick, Thom Merrick, John Krisik, Don O'Shei and Ross O'Shei.

Independent Built to Grind Spread Day 1 Newark

Classic day. So many people in the photo. It is fun to meet up with people and have them show you exactly where they are in the pic. Were you there?
Independent Built to Grind 25 years
Book signing slide show link

Lords of Dogtown and Z boys Press Kit & wheels ebay

Disc inside on the back cover and a OSX viewer with the following. Captions (word docs), Contact Info., Logos, One Sheet (highres poster image), Photos (25), Production Notes


Poster image on disc high res tiff



Screen shots of disc OSX





24 1/4" tall by 6" wide
15 pages
Hard cover skateboard cover saddle stitched with CD with press kit info inside. 18 two side pages. Back Skatedeck cover is thick card stock heavier than the cover which is laminated to the back.






Lords of Dogtown Trailer



Dogtown and Z Boys Trailer



Feel cool to see friends that I still skate with in it. Jack Smith of the Skateboard Journal, Chris Chaput of Abec 11, Jim Muir, Steve Olson as a judge. Very fun. Though I think Dogtown and Z boys is much better.
Putting this on ebay today. I have a few and thought I'd clear out a few skateboard, Lance Armstrong, Madonna, barely used wheels.

Ebay
Foyster2
Item number: 120751188283
Will post links later.

Barely used Avalon 3DM longboarding skateboard wheels.
Item number: 120751240184

Found slides of the old Soquel Skate Park from 1977

Ed Daroza skating the back bowl. I was taking photography at Cabrillo College at the time and asked them to help me with an assignment thus the interesting photo of the letter T in the second picture. Third shot is the snake run which was really hard to ride. Skaters like Kevin Reid, Tony Carter, Robert Garrett and a few others could master it. That is Mike Julien on the wall, it was still in construction. All you skaters complaining about what you have to ride. No tears here just think what we got to ride and the old equipment we use to use.

Thirty-one years later Frontside grinds at 50

Never say never has always been my motto. Never give up and don't say you can't. Especially if you have a great skate coach and photographer like Gary Holl skating with you. Skating Lake Cunningham Skate Park in San Jose on May 1 with Raymond Beltran, Gary and friends was a blast. Never thought I'd ever be skating parks again after they closed down decades ago. If only we had what these skaters have. Wait we do. Now we have age and the mental game to add to the mix. Go skate! and wear a helmet.




Great to see more girls ripping!

Skateboardmania flashback

So there are times in your life you do things knowing it is not exactly what you envisioned yourself doing but you do it for the experience. This was one of those times. In the late 70's their wasn't many ways to make money as a skateboarder, so when the opportunity came up to try out for this skateboard tour that was going to pay you for skateboarding and take you on a 6 month journey across the US and then go worldwide you go for it. I was 18 at the time and knew this was something worth trying, since their wasn't money in skateboard racing unless you were a guy and I had bad experience with competing in skate parks after Winchester skate park contest because of what one competitor did to get second. That's another story.
They had 150 skaters try out for it. They picked the ones that they could choreograph and make them wear silly Earthling and Alien outfits. Of course they didn't tell us about the H&R Puff n Stuff style costumes until after we were committed and already in rehearsals in Hollywood.
We spent three weeks in Hollywood, stayed on the Queen Mary for a week and practiced in the Long Beach arena. Then took a Rock n Roll bus to Fresno to do a 10 day practice in their new arena. I remember we were 7 semi trucks and a million dollar show. 40 roadies and filled the hotels as we traveled. On our way we over heated the bus playing PONG (at the time it was so modern) every TV and Stereo on 10. It was hot and I'll never forget cause DP (Duane Peters) got out and laid on the side of the road to sun himself like being on the beach. We all were like what? Newport Beach surfer just enjoying the time.
While in Fresno we heard about the new skateboard park they had. We were told we could not go and if we did we would be jeopardizing our spots. Don't know how it transpired but Lelani Kiyabu, Steve Shipp, Duane Peters and I were asked if we wanted to go one night but told not to tell anyone. I think it was kind of a marketing thing cause there was no way a bunch of skaters at the skate park were going to not say something. We were doing a couple practice shows in Fresno and I think they wanted to get some buzz going. I remember it had a metal full pipe that was really nice. It was smooth, grippy and had a perfect transition. They asked us to promise not to get hurt. Well of course we said no worries. I think all of us had some sort of scrape or bruise. The next day without even saying we went our cohorts said you guys went to the park!
Once in awhile a memory will pop up in the head so I like to try and write it down.
Yeah we looked like dorks, yes we stayed in top of the line hotels, got fed, got paid and got driven around like rock stars. We were 16 - 27 years old. Many of us still friends, many of us still skate.

Photo shoot for Skateboard History book

Despite the rain yesterday we found a dry spot at the Lake Cunningham skate park and once that was rideable it seemed the park started drying up pretty quick. Lucia Griggi shot Rick Blackhart in the Pipe, Gary Holl by the backside of the cradle. Looks like a concrete sphere and Cab at home since his son was sick. I got a fun pick but it won't make the book as I've just been the conduit for a bunch of skaters like Keith Meek, Mike "Smiley" Goldman, Don and Danielle Bostick of World Cup Skateboarding.
Check a few picks out on Ben's site. Some great stuff.
There are a ton of skaters that made a difference to skate all over the World in every nook and cranny. We skate because we love the sport. I'm looking forward how many of us will be the first generation of skaters that will be the over 50 skaters. NOT the same age growing of generations of the past.

Skater for Life!