Wendy Gooding

Wendy Gooding was born in Santa Monica, CA making her way to the San Fernando Valley. She was featured in the August 1978 issue of Skateboard World magazine at age 16, interviewed and photographed by Marc Margulies. Wendy had had a great year competing “in the short and giant slalom, bowl riding, and speed runs, she rode away with seven first place awards, four second place trophies and some nice prizes – all in one summer.” As a result, Wendy joined the Sims Pro Team having previously been part of the Five Dollar Lid Team.

Wendy was also fortunate to have “scored a job at Reseda’s Skater-Cross as a secretary and cashier. As an employee of the skatepark she was able to use her employee’s card to skate as much as possible in all the new parks in the area.” With unlimited riding, Wendy made great improvement but even with access to skateparks, she preferred empty pools and pipes. Margulies shared that, “Among the distaff riders, Cindy Hernandez and Kerry Cooper of the Malibu Team get points from Wendy on style and energy.” Skatercross, owned by Lou and Louis Peralta was a gamechanger for those who lived in Reseda with an unusual section that was partially under a roof, which one skater described as giving the space a cocoon feeling.

Wendy’s results as a pro skater included a first place at the 1^st Annual Endless Wave Pool & Pipe riding contest in Oxnard, CA ahead of Brenda Devine and Terry Verdoia in August 1978. A photo of Wendy competing by Craig Fineman was included in the December 1978 issue of Skateboarder. Fineman noted that “Wendy Gooding, a resident of the San Fernando Valley had a consistent routine and skated with a style and grace still largely absent among women skaters.” Margulies had also commented on how Wendy was “one of the few women riders who aggressively attack the coping in the side-by-side empty pools.”

A few months later, Wendy took third place in the November 1978 Free Former event in bowl-riding at the Runway Skatepark in Carson. She was up against some heavy hitters, with Terry Lawrence in first and Vicki Vickers in 2^nd, and newcomer Rosemary Cortez in fourth. There were no photos in the March 1979 issue of Skateboarder, and Curtis Hesselgrave simply noted that Terry was looking very strong.

Wendy competed in the Hester bowl series in 1979 as pro, up against the likes of Patti Hoffman but unfortunately the fate of skateboarding was in rapid decline. It sounds like Wendy also made her way to Hawaii and lived there for twenty years based on a skateboarding forum.

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