Suzette Owens

Suzette Owens was a competitive freestyle skateboarder out of Long Beach, California in the late 1970s. I was reminded of Suzette during a recent interview with Kim Adrian, as they were good friends at the time being slightly older. While the two preferred skating different terrain, they had the common bond of knowing how to enjoy a party or two! Kim noted that if Suzette ever reached out, to give her a heads up that she would love to re-connect.

Based on the results from the National Skateboard Review, Skateworld Journal, and Skateboarder magazine, Suzette had a series of solid results, a sponsorship from Banzai and possibly Hobie, and she considered her home park to be Skatopia:

August 1977 at the 3^rd Annual Novice-Amateur freestyle championships in Oceanside, CA Suzette placed 1^st in Women’s 12-14 ahead of Kelly Teegarden and Corina Smith.
October 1977 USSA California State Skateboard Championships at The Runway park in Gardena, CA Suzette placed 3^rd behind Julie Cheng and Tara Kaylor.
November 1977 at the Concrete Wave contest in Anaheim, CA for Girls, Suzette won the freestyle event ahead of Kaylor and Canon ‘Bunny’ Price.
April 1978 at the Hang-Ten Skateboard Olympics at Magic Mountain, Suzette won the Junior Women’s (13-17) freestyle contest ahead of Jana Payne and Cindy Whitehead. She represented Skatopia park.
June 1978 was the LA National Pro-Am Freestyle contest at Oceanside. Suzette won the Female Sponsored division for 13-15 year-olds, ahead of Kym Milburn, Bonnie Rose, Jana Payne and Lynette Fraas.
February 1979 at Lakewood park took another first place in the women’s 16-19 2A freestyle category, with a photo by Ruiz.
March 1979 at Skatopia for the Big Five Series, Suzette was first in women’s freestyle 16-19 with a photo of a forearm handstand by Ska.
March / April 1979 the USASA Nationals at Whirling Wheels skatepark, Escondido CA lists Suzette as first in freestyle (16-19) giving her the overall first place point winner for the Big Five series.
July 1979 was the Oceanside Nationals with some 10,000 spectators. Suzette placed 4^th in the sponsored girls (16-19) behind Yvonne Cucci, Jackie Jones and Eli Meyers of Belgium.