My awareness of Christy Jordahl (Hurst) from Huntington Beach, CA began almost like an unfounded rumour. I had read an interview with Saecha Clarke in the magazine Check it Out back in 2005 who explained that she only knew two other female street skateboarders in the late 1980s being her friend Christy and Anita Tessensohn. Apparently, Christy knew Steve Rocco, who sponsored her, and would compete in contests around Long Beach, CA. There was mention that Christy phased out of skateboarding to pursue her education in the medical field, but that’s all Saecha could remember.
When I stumbled upon a photo of Christy in 2022 (and then wrote this original bio entry), after Lynn Kramer sent me the PDF scans of her zines Girls Who Grind and Equal Time (Vol. 1, No. 2) from April 1989, I was completely floored. It was evident that Christy Jordahl was an early street skateboarding pioneer but there was no acknowledgement of her in mainstream skateboarding magazines.
The Girls Who Grind zine was technically Vol. 1, No. 1 of Equal Time, and within it was a report by Lynn on a streetstyle contest called “Street Life” in San Diego, hosted on November 19, 1988. Five women showed up and represented being 8 1/2 year old Jennifer Burbank, Karen Trimble, Lainey Edwards, Lisa Forman, and Christy. A blurry, heavily photocopied page said that Christy was sponsored by SMA (Santa Monica Airlines) and “won the event with handrail slides, ollie tailsliding on the steel boardslide machine, and ollie kickflips.” Fortunately, the photo by George Medlock was repeated in Equal Time and was a better-quality image.
Christy’s name also appeared as the winner of the “Zimbabwe Skate Safari” at Long Beach, CA November 12-13, 1988. She was ahead of Clarke, and Germany’s amateur vert champion, Nathalie Richter visiting the U.S. The following weekend she won again, as reported in Girls Who Grind zine.
I posted what I found to Instagram, and thanks to a skater / photographer named Edwin Carungay, I was able to update this post on February 21, 2024. Edwin reached out with two photos of Christy, back in 1988. He recalled that it must have been 1987 when he first met Christy, sometimes picking her up to go skate. “Christy was such a nice, sweet person. She would appear shy and timid, but was actually pretty snarky and funny! When we’d skate, she would kick it in the back – and then have these sudden bursts and bust out!”
With the first photo, Edwin explained, “One of the spots we would barge was a retirement community in Seal Beach called Leisure World. They had this fountain in the front, drive-up roundabout area of their apartment tower.” And then the second photo includes Christy in the back observing Steve Roberts (who was also sponsored by Steve Rocco) slappy the “PO curb” which Edwin describes as a mecca of SoCal curbs. Very cool!
Even better, Christy and Edwin got back in touch and Edwin encouraged her to reach out to me, which resulted in an interview on December 4, 2024!
Christy forwarded an adorable photo, receiving her very first skateboard at age five, and she remembered rolling down the driveway over and over, trying to make the turn onto the sidewalk. Christy said that a skateboard wasn’t an unusual toy to receive because living in Southern California, everybody was skating and surfing. Christy stated that her parents were always supportive, “they always just let me do whatever I wanted.”
“After that, you know, I have an older brother, so I just got hand-me-downs for awhile. And I think I must have been 13 when I actually got my own, real skateboard that was new and not used by somebody else. It was the 80s.”
Christy credited her older brother, and keeping up with all the neighbourhood kids, for her on-going interest in skateboarding. “We had this park right next my house that had this tree with a huge planter around it, and these kids dug out like half of it so you could do turns all the way around three sides, basically.” The park also had benches to skate, and it was a real community hub since almost all the kids were “latchkey kids” and had a lot of freedom. Christy was often the only girl in this neighbourhood scene but acknowledged that there was a girl in junior high and early high school who skated named Jennifer Case.
When I asked about the Equal Time photo, Christy recalled that she was age 15 in 1988 but had no memory of anyone taking the photo, although she did receive a copy of the zine and was delighted to see herself in print. In regard to some of the unsavoury behaviour, where it was reported that some of the guys were skating the course during the girls’ runs, Christy was too focused on her skating, and inside her own head, to notice. Christy admitted that she wasn’t super into contests and that “I never skated contests before I was sponsored… I would have just gone skating with friends.” Sometimes, “a little girl would want an autograph” from Christy at a contest, so that felt pretty wonderful to be looked up to.
Regarding the sponsorship with Steve Rocco (it was originally for SMA, Santa Monica Airlines, before World Industries), the connection happened a few months earlier, when she was still 15. Christy said, Steve Rocco approached her while she was skating with friends in a parking-lot. He asked her if she wanted to ride for him, and “literally just said, ‘I’m going to send you free gear.’” And from there, Christy would call Steve, “ask for a couple of things and then this massive box would show up with way more than I asked for. I would hand out stickers to all the kids in the neighbourhood, like my whole neighbourhood was covered with Santa Monica Airline stickers.” Christy didn’t remember any formal contract with SMA, or any real obligation to compete, but was grateful for the support.
Christy’s connection with Saecha Clarke was equally important as getting sponsored. It “must have been 1987 or 88, and we just became super good friends. It was so weird to meet another girl who actually skated, you know? We were really good friends.” Sometimes the two skaters were the only girls competing, so it was hard to have a separate division for them. I asked her if she had any memory of introducing Saecha to Steve Rocco, and Christy speculated that it might have happened at the Zimbabwe Skate Safari since Jason Lee and Rocco were both there. Christy also confirmed that, while she was always board-sliding obstacles and ledges (as presented in the zine), “I never did a hand-rail, like I think Saecha was the only girl at the time who did handrails.”
Christy’s memories of skating with her crew like Edwin, Adrian Demain, and Terrence Yoshizawa were very positive, and on occasion another female skateboarding friend joined them in 1990 / 1991 named Amy Green. Christy’s favourite spot to skate was Hell Curb at Harbor blvd & Baker street, which was a long curb with an arc and slope. Christy noted that it was a “super fun curb by Dunkin Donuts. I feel like Saecha and I ate a lot of donuts in the 80’s” thanks to that curb!”
Edwin also reminded Christy of a place called the Burger Banks that was another popular destination. There were the occasional incidents of security guards asking them to leave a spot, but no confrontations, and the skaters were content to cruise around the streets and find unusual features. Christy briefly dabbled in skating mini-ramp since there was a local named Scott who had a backyard ramp, known as “Scooter’s Ramp,” but she always preferred street skating.
Another highlight for Christy was meeting Anita Tessensohn after the iconic Powell Peralta “Real Women Skate” advertisement came out in magazines in 1987 and 1988. “I was nervous meeting her because she had this ad in Thrasher, but we became really good friends, too.” Having that street skating connection was important because while there were some other big names skating vert, like Cara-beth Burnside and Stephanie Person, having access to massive ramps was a privilege, and street skating was more accessible. “It was just fun to go out your front door and skate!” Christy mentioned having some regrets. “I regret not staying in [skateboarding] longer ‘cause it was so cool, you know? But I got busy with college and everything, and just got out of it and life took over.”
During the 1990s, Christy skated on and off but noted that these days her knees were too far gone to risk bailing and breaking a hip! There had been some heavy bails in the 1980s. “I never owned any kind of protective gear at all in the 80s. I remember falling on my head really hard a couple of times. I don’t even think I ever told my parents. I probably slept off my concussions, you know.”
Christy ended up finishing her undergraduate degree, lived in Oregon for a time, and then raised a family. She now lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her two kids.
Thanks again, Christy for reaching out, and thanks to Edwin for making the connection happen.
Reference:
- Araujo, Liza. “Saecha Clarke.” Check It Out magazine No. 16 (2005): 54-57.
- Jordahl, Christy. “Personal Interview.” December 4, 2024.
- Kramer, Lynn. “Street Life.” Girls Who Grind Vol. 1, No. 1 (1988).
Womxn Skateboard History 