April Hoffman (Weems) was a freestyle skater in the 1980s who was sponsored by Gordon & Smith (G&S) and Independent trucks. She was the grand-daughter of the legendary couple Jeanne and Stan Hoffman who opened and operated the Pipeline Skatepark in the Badlands from 1977-1988 in Upland, California. And, her uncle Don Hoffman is a surfer and skater as well, and has been rallying the past five years to produce a film on the history of the park through his initiative Pipeline Digital Media.
April Hoffman within the zine Skate Aggression (1984, Issue 2) – thanks to The Ragged Edge Collection.
April explained that there were often “skateboard contests in Upland skatepark, many skaters would camp out at my grandparents house, including Tony Hawk and Frank Hawk. And when there were contests in Del Mar Skate Ranch, I used to stay at Tony Hawks’ family house along with a slew of other skaters. My grandmother, Jeanne Hoffman escorted me to all the contests and of course helped run the contests with Sonja Catalano and Frank Hawk” (September 25, 2023).
April’s freestyle success began back in her early teens. There’s an article in the October 1983 issue of Thrasher reporting on the Oceanside Freestyle Amateur when April came second behind Diane Veerman (Desiderio) and ahead of Michelle Sanderson. It was noted that, “Ever since [April] saw Rodney Mullen skate some months ago, she’s been hooked on freestyle, and her repertoire consists of the more gutsy moves instead of the fluid femininity of her contenders.”
April confirmed that Rodney was her inspiration. “I saw him compete in 1982 in a Whittier skatepark competition and I said to myself, I want to do that! The next week I went into my grandparents’ Pro shop, and with their permission built my first freestyle board. Prior to that, I had a pool deck that I would ride around in the back bowls at the Pipeline but nothing serious, just for fun. I also worked at the Pipeline from age 15 to 18. It was the family business.”
Photo: April Hoffman in the December 1984 issue of TransWorld
At the Del Mar Holiday Classic at Del Mar Skate Ranch (December 30-31st, 1983) there was a banked freestyle contest, again with April taking second behind Leslie Anne Miller and ahead of Michelle Sanderson and Wendy Carmona, with little detail in the February 1984 issue of Thrasher, although a brief acknowledgment in Poweredge magazine (Feb 1984).
April also competed against the guys. At the NSA Summer Olympics #1 at Del Mar on April 21st, 1984 a photo sequence by Mofo of April doing a rail flip appeared in the June 1984 issue of Thrasher, although her official results weren’t shared. Her name did appear for the results of a July 1984 Venice Beach NSA contest, as she came 7th in freestyle against all the sponsored amateurs which could attract 50 to 70 competitors!
Within the October 1984 issue of Thrasher reporting on the Embarcadero Freestyle contest in San Diego it was stated that, “There were a couple of girls in the amateurs that were real good freestylers. April Hoffman got eighth place and Michelle Sanderson did pretty good, too.” Michelle and April were obviously pretty close friends, motivating each other to compete. There are photos of them competing at the NSA Summer Olympics #2 at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco within the July 1984 issue of Thrasher (above). April also remembered a few other females occasionally competing like Dee Dee Devine and Leslie Anne Miller.
The Olympics theme was because 1984 was the year of the Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games. April recalled performing a skateboarding demo as entertainment for a foreign Olympic team with Jason Catalano. It was “a social event at one of the hotels for the French fencing team and Jason and I were the entertainment. Lol. Kind of like Primo and Diane (Desiderio) style” (September 25, 2023).
April was featured in an interesting article by Ann Japenga for the Los Angeles Times called “Head over heels in love with skateboarding” (August 10, 1984). The majority of the article is about the LA girl gang, The Hags but a good portion is about April.
“There is another faction of skateboarders who are inspired more by surf fashions than punk. Thirteen-year-old April Hoffman, for instance, is so straight-edged, as the Hags would say, she doesn’t even have Hag potential. April was one of only two girls competing on a recent morning in a Venice meet sponsored by the California Amateur Skateboard League. She wheeled onto the concrete stage wearing pink high-top tennis shoes, rolled white socks and a tiny gold skateboard on a chain around her neck. She began her routine to a Go-Go’s tune, ‘Head Over Heels.’ Her bobbed blonde hair bounced jerkily as she attempted a ’50-50,’ a trick in which the competitor jackhammers the tip of the board into the ground by jumping up and down. ‘Go April,’ roared her fans, mostly boys in baggy trunks. ‘Rippin’ April.’”
The article explained that April’s sponsor G&S was supplying her with a new skateboard every three weeks. Japenga also gives acknowledgement to April’s grandmother Jeanne and quotes Sonja Catalano as spokesperson for the National Skateboard Association. April shared via Instagram that while competing in that Venice Beach contest she “took 5th place in the Sponsored AM group. On very rare occasions we would compete in a girls group but for the most part I competed against men in the sponsored AM division where I frequently placed in the top 10 out of 70+ competitors” (September 24, 2023).
The following year in 1985, April was back competing at Del Mar, and she had her best result against the guys, placing 5th overall at the NSA Border Wars in Vancouver, Canada. Footage of her performance can be enjoyed here:
Thrasher finally clued in that there were women consistently skateboarding and in April 1986 readers were graced with the writing of Bonnie Blouin, and her game-changing article, “Sugar and Spice..?” A photo of April is included, along with Sanderson, Stephanie Person, Babs Fahrney, KZ Zapata, and the author who went on to be the first female columnist for the magazine.
Vancouver became an important location in August 1986 with the celebration of Expo ’86 and the Transworld Skateboarding Championship. It was an international field with several of the skaters having never competed against other women, but rather pitted against the guys in their community. Corina ‘Go Go’ Spreiter of Switzerland was first, Sue Hazel of England took second, and April came third, followed by Sophie Bourgeois, Sanderson, and Person, as reported in the December 1986 issue of Thrasher.
Photos: Expo ’86 awards ceremony with the female competitors clustered up front, including Diane Desiderio who competed against the pro men.
While it’s wonderful to have footage of the Expo ’86 competition, as featured in the Transworld video Radical Moves (1986, dir. Larry Dean), the awkward commentary by Kim Blackett, which included dismissive commentary towards the female participants was painful. Fortunately, Blackett did acknowledge that April’s grandmother (Jeanne) owned one of the only skateparks left in the U.S. and how April was the top amateur NSA Freestyle skater when she was only 13.
The results of the female skaters were not included in the overall Team award for Expo ’86, nor did they receive any cash, but the experience itself was still positive.
April shared some fun facts like how she had the opportunity of being the stunt double for the female lead “Chrissy” in the cult classic film Thrashin’ (1986) featuring Josh Brolin. “She only gets on the board once and does a 360. Those are my feet. Unfortunately as was the culture back then, not only did I do it for free (while I was at a sound studio for 4 hours in the middle of the night with my grandma), but they didn’t put my name in the stunt credits. I supposed that was because they didn’t pay me. LOL” (September 25, 2023).
That same year, April was also invited to go to Sweden to be an instructor at a skateboard camp, but her mom squashed the idea. In 1987, April competed at a CASL Freestyle contest in Anaheim, CA where she placed 8th out of 12 competitors in the Factory Sponsored division for all genders. Apparently there were 154 freestylers at this event and a photo of April was included in G Turn ‘zine.
April now lives with her family in Texas and thanks to Instagram, we were able to connect and update this post on September 25, 2023.
Photos: Tod Swank, Mofo
Reference:
- Editor. “Jeanne Hoffman, Skateboarding’s Good Friend.” Transworld Skateboarding. June 16, 1999.
- Hoffman, April. Instagram conversation – September 24 & 25, 2023.
- Japenga, Ann. “Head over heels in love with skateboarding.” Los Angeles Times. Friday, August 10, 1984.
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