Back in the 1980s, when a female skater heard rumour of another girl who skated, they were destined to meet! This was the situation for KZ Zapata, author of the zine Push, Push, then Go! when she first met Amy Paul in San Francisco, at a famous spot called “The Dish” in Hunter’s Point which was a kind of mecca in the 1980s, as seen in the classic contest video from 1985:
KZ said, “I was watching a contest, and someone said, ‘There’s a girl here, too who’s skating.’ There were girls all over, but a girl who was like really skating. And so, I found Amy and we got each other’s numbers, and then when I took a year off, we would travel all the time. I don’t know if my skating would have been as rich if I didn’t have Amy there. I had male friends who were very supportive and encouraging, but Amy was home base… We would go and skate a curb and we would push each other at the same rate.”
Push, Push, then Go! Issue #4, 1988
When KZ got sponsored by Santa Monica Airlines (SMA) in 1985, she decided to take a year off school to skate and Amy was down to join her! They often went to Sacramento to street skate and occasionally took some photos. The goal for travelling was aligned with Bonnie Blouin’s dream of building a network of female skateboarders.
Photos of Bonnie and Amy appeared in the May 1988 issue of Thrasher.
Blouin had a regular column in Thrasher called the “Skater’s Edge” and in the February 1988 issue she mentioned skating with KZ and Amy (her first experience skating with “dedicated females”) and the Women’s Skateboarding Club, alongside a fantastic article rallying contest organizers to allow for women’s contest divisions.
I would love to connect with Amy, especially since KZ described her as being absolutely consumed with skating! There’s a lawyer in SF who has the same name. Fingers crossed we have a match!
Womxn Skateboard History 