The Hags

Natalie Porter

This hardcore all-female skate crew was launched in 1983 and was the inspiration of Sevie Bates and her punk friends living in West Los Angeles. Bates had received her first skateboard in the early 1970s at age 9 – a wooden board with clay wheels called, “The Black Knight” and she was an inspiration to many.

The rule of the Hags was that everyone had to skate to be worthy of a custom-made patch for their denim vests. Members included: Gardia Fox, “Little Kim,” Elizabeth Devries, Michel Miller, Keren Sacks, Mimi Claire, Sara Johnson, and Nancy Sefton.

Emily Savage wrote a fantastic article about the Hags for Bust magazine in 2017, although they did receive local media attention back in the day, for example the photos below, which featured the Hags and the Jaks in the LA Times on August 10, 1984. The article was called, “Head over heels in love with skateboarding” by Ann Japenga and gave an overview of the scene, comparing the punk variety of the Hags with a more strait-laced competitive freestyle skater, 13-year-old April Hoffman at a CASL contest in Venice.

Japenga wrote, “At noon on a recent Sunday, the Hag house had the hushed and curtained appearance of a place where people were sleeping off a wild night. On the front lawn were empty spray paint cans and used stencils… Nancy Sefton opened the door a crack. She and sister Hag Gardia Fox, both 21, invited a reporter and photographer inside and apologized for the mess—a club member they call Rag-girl had broken her leg skateboarding and her mattress was in the middle of the floor because she is unable to climb into her loft-bed, they said.”

The Hags were also even given props by script writer Alan Sacks for inspiring him to write, “Skate or Die,” which became the cult classic movie, Thrashin’ (1986). Sacks was in his 40s but interested in the L.A. punk scene. His profile happened to be published in the L.A. Weekly right next to another feature about the Hags. It triggered an idea to film a “Romeo and Juliet” “West Side Story” romance between skateboarders, which resulted in Thrashin’.

Unfortunately, the film failed to include any strong acknowledgment of female skateboarders and how impactful the Hags were on the whole concept. The producers didn’t even bother to mention that April Hoffman was the stunt double for “Chrissy” and her barefoot 360s, or even pay her for the four hours of filming.

A recent review of the movie on YouTube called “Thrashin’ Revisited: the Daggers unlikely origins” by Bread and Cinemas, calls out the inequity. After acknowledging the Hags’ influence on Sacks it’s noted that, “Their visibility can be counted in fractions of seconds. According to Hags member, Gardia Fox from a 2017 article in Bust magazine, ‘It was a feminist statement. We wanted to encourage girls to skate, and show we weren’t just girlfriends of skaters.’ Though Thrashin’ betrayed that ethos perhaps the time is ripe to film a reinvention from the women’s point of view.”

Photo above shows Mimi, Sevie, Gardia, and Kim on the wall with their arms raised.

The Hags were included as extras in a hang out scene on the beach. Mimi Claire just remembers that her board was stolen during the chaos. And a tiny reference was made to the crew via graffiti on wall that said, “Flow or Go Home.” This was the Hags’ motto hung above the door of their headquarters.

Originally, Bates had proposed to members of the Jaks that she should be a member because she could skate better than most of the guys, but it was considered a “dude thing.” Bates was denied entry, hence, The Hags! The crew briefly considered calling themselves “the Jills,” as a compliment to the Jaks, but decided to distinguish themselves, which I think was the right move.

Savage wrote that, “By her late teens, Bates was an aggressive and talented street skater who frequently got into scuffles in then-crime-ridden Venice Beach, and says she was always pushing back against what was expected of her as a girl. She had a motorcycle, a skateboard, and short hair… She was often looked at curiously because of the large, light-red birthmark that sits on one side of her face. As a reaction to all this and more, she gathered up a crew of women she’d become friendly with and started the Hags. ‘I had a lot of rage and a lot of aggression, so I didn’t take shit from anyone. That’s what lead me to the Hags,’ says Bates.”

Bates explained that “we were like a gang—and we’d skate around Hollywood Boulevard. Mostly, it was about going to clubs, partying, and drinking… Everything is more fun in groups, and it was good to have the girl power thing.”

According to Bust: Circa 1984 outside Hags HQ (left to right) top: Gardia Fox, Little Kim, Amanda Brix Toland, Elizabeth Devries. Bottom: Sevie Bates, Michel Miller, Keren Sacks *Note: Amanda was a friend but wasn’t actually a member of the Hags since she hadn’t taken up skateboarding.

Keren Sacks (aka “Raggy”) lived down the street from Alva, who called her “Rag Girl” for tying pieces of fabric into her dreadlocked mohawk. She incorporated the nickname into her vest patch. When Keren broke her leg skateboarding, an all-ages benefit concert for her surgery was organized at the Cathay de Grande club in Hollywood featuring Tony’s band, The Skoundrelz, along with the Screamin’ Sirens and the Lethal Arms. A poster was shared on The Hags’ Facebook page, which reads, “Poor Raggie ate shit on her board… time to rock out and help her out now!”

The back patches were key to the Hags and their identity, and the imagery came from Iron Maiden’s “Eddie the Head” mascot. Gardia Fox was especially pleased when her patch was christened with blood from a skateboarding bail. The members weren’t necessarily good at skateboarding, but they had to be able to do it to receive their “colors” according to Mimi Claire, and skateboards were mainly used for transportation.

In Japenga’s article it was shared that, “‘You don’t have to be a really good skater,’ said Fox, ‘but you do have to skate. A lot of girls want to be Hags, but they don’t want to skate.’” The process of bringing in new members was humorous, especially when the tables turned and guys started wanting admittance. Apparently, there was only one honorary “Hag Dude” whose sole purpose was to hang out, and watch TV with any Hag who happened to be feeling lonely. Even though the crew sounded like a joke to some (including Sefton’s dad who owned the house), it wasn’t since they felt a genuine sense of unity.

Gardia Fox recalled their first appearance as a gang, skating to a Grandmaster Flash show and lining up in the front row, holding their boards. “It was a feminist statement.” Michel Miller released a memoir called Punk and in Love : a memoir about men, music and hair in the 80s (2022) including reflections on her time with the Hags. At one point, they had to run from the cops and hide out in a gas station bathroom after a riot broke out in response to an oversold show for the Exploited.

Some nights it was just about ripping around parking garages or hanging at their clubhouse – a rental property owned by Nancy Sefton’s dad, which became a safe house for their friends. Sefton remembers seeing Bates skate and was starstruck when they met.

Besides the L.A. Weekly, there were articles in the Los Angeles Times, and even a brief feature in Pat Benatar’s video for “Ooh Ooh Song.” You can just glimpse their denim patches on the bottom left, as part of the audience.

The Hags were official for just a year. Savage mentions struggles with addiction, as well as new paths towards sobriety and interesting career opportunities. Even in such a brief time the Hags celebrated resistance, along the lines of feminist scholar Lauraine Leblanc who wrote, Pretty in Punk : girls’ gender resistance in a boys’ subculture (1999). “This resistance against gender roles must be considered when we examine girls’ deviance. While it may be true that males use subcultures to explore masculinity, it is also the case that some females use subcultures to repudiate or reconstruct femininity.”

In 1984, Gardia concluded her interview saying that, “Anybody who skates is great. It’s a fun sport. It’s a good way to get around. We love to see kids on skateboards.”

[Update: October 28, 2023… The Hags are alive and well, partying hard and getting together for reunions! Photo below was from July 2023. All hail the Hags!]

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© Copyright 2025 Natalie Porter