Crystal Solomon was a skateboarder in the early 2000s from San Jose, and I feel like the skateboarding community needs to know her story. All I’ve got is that Crystal was sponsored by Osiris shoes, Circle A Boardshop, Ball Hitch Ramps, got flow from Enjoi, and was pro for Cherry skateboards (a female-run board company for women, founded by Emily Oliver!).
Photos by: Jen Valenzuela, Richard Devera
On October 13, 2001, Crystal attended the 3rd annual Tim Brauch memorial skateboard contest at the Milpitas Vans Skatepark. It was a loose format, and as the only female skater she competed against the sponsored guys and came 25th overall. She also placed 10th in the street contest at Slam City Jam in Vancouver, 2002.
In 2002, the first issue of SurfLife for Women magazine was launched and also included a “Skatelife” article, which honored Cherry Skateboards through a board giveaway, including photos of Crystal, as a sponsored rider. Crystal is 16 and shared that her worst injury was a twisted ankle and concussion, but advises girls to “Kep skating. Never stop.” The photos show a kickflip sequence bottom left and a noseslide.
She was also featured in Issue #2 (Summer 2002) of Richard Devera’s (RIP) VHS video series called Ghetto Fabulous:
Crystal was skating strong in 2006 / 2007, and there’s some Youtube videos under “SkateboardcDOTcom,” where she provides footage of her landing and practising a kickflip 5-0 and noseblunt slides, and she offers advice on heelflips, kickflips, ollie to manuals on obstacles, and then does everything switch or nollie. There was also mention of a website… www.skatesecrets.com.
According to her friend, photographer Jen Valenzuela, Crystal’s family moved to Georgia and then on to Florida. “Crystal was so fun to skate and hang with! She was all about learning and mastering tech tricks. I think some folks were confused on how / why we skated together, since she was all tech-street and I was into hesh-tranny. But we had a lot of fun rolling around and our personalities clicked. She also had a witty sense of humor, was a great storyteller, and had a very creative, entrepreneurial mindset.”
Here is a great sequence of Crystal nosesliding in 2002 as featured in Frontside Betty website, taken by Jen Valenzuela:
Hope you’re doing well, Crystal!
Womxn Skateboard History 