Over the years, Gale Webb has been dubbed “Mrs. Skateboard,” “The Skateboarding Mom,” “Rad Mom,” “Motocross Mom,” “Mrs. Moto,” and “America’s Sports Mom,” all of which she embraced. In Gale’s Skateboarding Hall of Fame bio, it’s explained that she was born in Brooklyn, NY and at age 12 she had dismantled her old roller skates, applying them to a 2×4 to create a skateboard.
Gale Webb on her first set of wheels.
Gale was always a devoted athlete, so it was natural that she would return to skateboarding with intention, along with her son in 1976. Gale bought herself a Logan Earth Ski set-up and started frequenting the Concrete Wave skatepark where she was welcomed by Stacy Peralta and Russ Howell.
Wild World of Skateboarding magazine gave Gale a six-page feature in their October 1977 issue, describing her progress after only five months of skating in an article called “Mrs. Skateboard: Gale Webb.” Gale shared that she had been injured in motocross but was still looking for exercise when she got excited about skateboarding.
Her advice for adults taking up skateboarding was not to try and compete with kids, “Just go out and have fun and do what you’re able to do, don’t do what a ten-year-old might do. I try to keep that in mind and I fall, but I roll with the fall. I don’t try to do things over my head… your body can only take so much.” Gale was even pro-active and took a tumbling lesson to learn how to reduce her injuries.
Gale even had the centrefold within this October 1977 issue of Wild World of Skateboarding!
By 1978, Gale was sponsored by Powerflex skateboards and featured in their ad for the May 1978 issue of the National Skateboard Review. The ad explained in more detail her sporting accomplishments: “She’s won over 40 trophies in two years in motocross racing. She’s a sky diver, auto racer, semi-pro softball player, a long-distance bike rider, tennis buff, has an interest in stunt work, and is one of the hot riders on the Powerflex skateboard team.” She was also included in “The Special Women’s” feature from the June 1978 issue of NSR.
Gale was also one of five women who were featured on an International Skateboard Association (ISA) trading card in 1978, along with Deanna Calkins, Ellen Berryman, Kim Cespedes, and Rebecca Williams.
Gale gained a reputation as an advocate for skateboarding safety because she knew what it was like to experience injury, in fact, she survived a near-death parachute jump gone wrong as a youth. For the June 1980 issue of Skateboarder magazine, Don Hoffman wrote a profile about Gale that explained how she jumped from 10,000 feet, pulled the main chute which malfunctioned and only opened partially. “I saw the ground coming at me fast. I guess I didn’t panic because I pulled my emergency chute and was able to get it out. The next thing I knew was when I awakened in the hospital. They told me that my Bell helmet was destroyed, but it surely saved my life.”
Gale had a lengthy stay in hospital, and her recovery took two years, re-learning how to tie her shoes and read. Her Doctors believed she would never lead an active life, let alone compete.
When Gale went to a reservoir called “The Vacuum,” where tons of kids were skating without any safety gear, she was worried that it would result in injury and a reason for city officials to ban skateboarding. So, Gale came up with an idea for safety demonstrations with her “Skateboarding Family,” going to schools, fairs, and malls thanks to a portable, plexi-glass half-pipe with no top deck – 12 feet high and 8 feet wide, designed by Rad Ramp. The family consisted of her son, Mike (who was age 7), and her young cousins Gale Springer (Chorpash) and twin brother, Johnny Springer. Her tour was also called “The Skateboard Safety Clinic” with a sponsor from Ocean Pacific.
Photo: Don Hoffman
Gale eventually became the team manager of Powerflex with Denise Fleming, Gale Springer and Cara-beth Burnside as part of her entourage.
Gale loves skateboarding, but she was also ruling at motocross and in 1982 she was asked to represent the U.S. at the 1982 Coca-Cola Supercross event in Tokyo. Gale insisted that other women join her, and she managed to pull together a team of women including Dee Dee Cate (21), Karen Leitinger (20), Charline Ho (27), and Kimi Douglas (19) – from an article by Judith Frutig. The following year, Gale became the 1983 Women’s World Champion in the 30 and over class. She raced for over 36 years, and her last race was at Mammoth when she was 65 years old. Gale’s motocross bio is found on “Women’s MX History,” including her experience in Japan.
Gale competed in a few contests, like the 1979 Winchester Open, placing fifth in pool behind Brenda Devine, Judi Oyama, Cindy Whitehead, and Denise Danielson. There’s a great photo of Gale with Leigh Parkin, gearing up for a competition at Colton skatepark, whom she regarded as someone who was always nice to her and a great skater.
In 1980, Gale was sponsored by Vans on their amateur team, but then appears placing fourth overall as a Pro in the Gold Cup standings that year behind Pattie Hoffman, Denise Danielson, and Cindy Whitehead.
Photo: Ted Tarrab
According to an article in TransWorld (August 1988) Gale would meet talented skaters during her visits to different skateparks and ended up bringing them on to her skateboard demos, some of them known pros (Neil Blender, Jim Bray, Bert LaMar) and up-and-coming amateurs (Christian Hosoi, Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero). She also took gigs as an announcer, like the April 1980 Reseda Pro-Am where Craig Fineman for Skateboarder said she delivered exciting dialogue and honest enthusiasm for the entire long weekend of competition. Even when skateboarding was hurting in the early 1980s, and Powerflex went out of business, Gale forged on and received sponsorship from Vans.
For a time, Powell-Peralta stepped up with equipment for Gale’s tours, and then in 1986, Vision skateboards signed a contract with Gale, that resulted in hundreds of shows, even at coliseums called “Gale Webb: Safety in Sports Shows.” At one point, even Cara-beth Burnside joined in on the fun. The show was also named “Gale’s Extreme Sports Show” and the “Kids-R-#1” Freestyle show, which included BMX riding and a variety of other sports. Gale’s demos received massive attention, with features on National TV Shows, reviews in newspapers, and cameos in productions like Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Gale would add obviously add BMX riding, snowboarding (competing in half-pipe, slalom, and boardercross) and ADV riding to her list.
On Gale’s old website, it was shared that losing her best friend to a drug overdose was another massive tragedy that impacted her life. This meant that Gale was often encouraging kids to “Say No” to drugs and alcohol, “Get high on life,” “Follow your dreams!” and “Never give up!” Gale wanted kids to know that they were loved, and someone was championing them.
Gale operated these demos, traveling across America with young athletes, showcasing a variety of extreme sports, for decades. It’s said that part of Gale’s success was her deep appreciation of what gets kids stoked, as she was essentially just a big kid herself. “The only way to understand kids is to be with them. Grown-ups often forget that they were kids.”
To stay part of the action, Gale took up photography and reveled in the growing talent of young skateboarders, including girls and women at events like Exposure. In 2016, Gale was the official honoree of the Mighty Mama Skate-O-Rama fundraiser, in 2019 Gale was presented with an Icon award from the Skateboarding Hall of Fame, and in 2023 the BMX Hall of Fame followed suit with a lifetime achievement award.
P.S. that’s Gale Webb at age 55 rolling into the Woodward Camp ramp
And now, there’s the “Gale Webb Action Sports Park” in Menifee, CA named after her, considered among the largest action sports’ parks in California. Gale likes to acknowledge her loving partner Jim who passed away May 29, 2011 (they were married for 41 years) as one of her biggest supporters.
P.S. You can see Jim near the base of the ramp on right
References:
- Editor. “Mrs. Skateboard Gale Webb: can your mom skateboard as well as she does?” Wild World of Skateboarding (October 1977): 20, 21, 68-70.
- Hoffman, Don. “Profile: Gale Webb,” Skateboarder (June 1980): 64.
- Webb, Gale. “About Gale,” Galewebb.com (March 2001).
Womxn Skateboard History 