Deirdre “Dee Dee” Devine was a freestyle skater in the 1980s who lived in Los Angeles as well as Arizona. According to her friend, legendary street skater Anita Tessensohn, Deirdre was sponsored by Airwalk and Powell, as they were on the same team together. In the photo below from the 1987 “Camp Bones” Powell Peralta team meet-up at the Santa Barbara warehouse, you can see Dee Dee and Anita hanging out up front – documented by Jim Knight.
When I first started looking into Dee Dee, without knowing her full name I had confused her with the 1970s ripping pool skater named Brenda Devine, who was also sponsored by Powell and went pro for them! Obviously, the women were skating in different eras, but it would be so cool if there was some distant relation?
Anita and Dee Dee often hung out, going to skate contests and street spots together, along with another girl named Heather who worked at Alva and married a skate shop owner in Florida. When Anita was filming the Public Domain (1988) video, which happened over the course of a day at some banks in Gardena, CA, Anita said, “My friend Dee Dee Devine was there with me. She’s passed away; hearing her laugh in the video always fills my heart!”
There’s footage of Dee Dee competing in July 1985 in Freestyle at Vancouver’s NSA “Border Wars” contest. Her routine is accompanied by “Love Cats” by The Cure. Unfortunately, because she was competing against the Amateur guys her placing is unknown, but her friend April Hoffman is noted as placing 5th overall.
In the ground-breaking article, “Sugar and Spice…?” within the April 1986 issue of Thrasher, Bonnie Blouin explained that Dee Dee Devine, along with Gigi Gits and Trish Wright were officially the only three female skateboarders she had met in the previous three years. Granted, Bonnie was in Virginia while the west coast tended to draw the majority of skaters including women, it was still great to know that Dee Dee was one of Bonnie’s early connections.
The following year, in 1987 there was a freestyle contest called “Life’s a Beach” in Carlsbad, CA and it was reported in GTurn zine that Dee Dee placed second behind Michelle Sanderson, and ahead of Karen Trimble, including a photo. Dee Dee then appeared in the June 1988 issue of Transworld (Vol. 6, No. 3) on pp. 76 & 77 demonstrating a freestyle “walk-the-dog” maneuver. The caption reads, “One of the top women freestylers. Dee Dee Devine. Showing a basic walk the dog.”
Unfortunately, Dee Dee passed away too soon, but her friends remember her amazing smile and laughter. She was born September 18, 1964 and died January 20th, 1994. Rest in Peace, Deirdre.
If anyone has more photos of Dee Dee skating or memories to share, please reach out.
Womxn Skateboard History 