Peggy Oki almost needs no introduction considering her legacy as the lone female skateboarding member of the gritty Zephyr team, a Venice Beach crew which formed in the mid-1970s and took on mythic proportions thanks to the 2001 documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys (dir. Stacy Peralta) followed by a fictionalized version, Lords of Dogtown in 2005 (dir. Catherine Hardwicke).
In an interview by Ben Marcus for his book The Skateboard: the good, the rad, the gnarly: an illustrated history (2011), Peggy shared that she started skateboarding around age ten, “when my father bought my brother and I our own ‘Black Knight’ skateboards from FedCo, fully equipped with Fred Flintstone (stone-age) rock wheels. We skated around the neighborhood which later was named the Territory of Dogtown.” From Peggy’s perspective Dogtown “was bordered by Boxer Blvd, Labrador Lane, Beagle Drive, and Poodle Place. And of course, ‘no outsiders!’ OK, just kidding.”
Photo: Joseph Glass or James O’Mahoney, Peggy in 1975 skating Bicknell Hill
To Marcus, Peggy couldn’t think of any early influences as a beginner until she started progressing with her Zephyr teammates, but her brother stepped up and made her a new skateboard in woodshop at Venice High to replace the Black Knight. “It was a small swallowtail, set up with Bennett trucks and Cadillac Wheels. So great to be rolling on urethane! And then I got on the Zephyr team and rode the Zephyr skates, eventually Z-Flex.”
Photo: Pat Darrin
The Zephyr sponsorship came about around 1974. “I had begun surfing at Bay St., and was intro practicing down Bicknell Hill on the days without surf. While there, I think it was Jay (Adams) who started talking with me and asked if I would be interested in being on a skateboard team. So I went to the Jeff Ho/Zephyr shop up the road, and ‘the rest is history’” (Marcus). And it’s cool to note that Peggy was also studying fine arts at the Santa Monica City College simultaneously.
Photos: Glen E. Friedman (Jan 1977) at Kenter Canyon
Caroline Ryder shared that Peggy was the oldest of the Z-Boys 12-member team but connected best with Jay Adams, the youngest. “I had a driver’s license so he would call me and say, ‘We’re gonna go skate at this school,’ or wherever and so I would pick him up and go out and practise… I liked him. He was quite a character.”
Photo: C.R. Stecyk III (Jay & Peggy)
Peggy especially enjoyed going to skate the schools Bellagio, Revere and Kenter Canyon (Kenter was her favourite) as seen in this footage from the 1976 film, Go For It.
This footage is especially fun when the kids are whipping through a tent tunnel, to mimic surfing!
And not only was Peggy a surfer and skateboarder in the 70s, she was also into motocross racing! In the official results of the July 1974 Powder Puff Nationals, Peggy placed second in the 100 Beginner category!
In an Oprah Daily feature called “100 Women of Color First Encounter with Racism—and how they overcame it,” Peggy shared that, “I was lucky in my childhood because I grew up in a neighborhood where about four of the 14 families on the block were Asian American… But I do remember being on the playground in elementary school and being called ‘Jap.’ A few years after that, I remember wishing the shape of my eyes looked different… It was a weird feeling to want to look like somebody I was not… I think that experience on the playground went deeper than I fully realized. It’s such a powerful slur that anybody like me who is of Japanese heritage really understands it as an attack.”
Peggy persevered and found her positive outlets. She enjoyed bombing hills and racing slalom, but “I loved skating the banks at the schools. I think that like most of the guys on the team: ‘tricks are for kids.’ I didn’t see any other women skateboarding wherever we went” (Marcus). And yet, Peggy wasn’t particularly phased by this. “I just knew that I loved skateboarding. I wanted to skate, and these guys wanted to skate, and that’s all we focused on” (Ryder). Although, she would encounter female skaters at the few contests she competed in.
Above: Peggy Oki on the cover of Swash Buckler zine in May 2001
In April 1975, Peggy made her presence known at the Del Mar Ocean Festival contest, also called the Bahne / Cadillac National Skateboard Championships. Peggy was riding for Zephyr and her win, ahead of Robin Logan and Michele Brunot in the freestyle division was controversial at the time.
Not everyone was supportive of Peggy’s performance, style or appearance. Peggy showed up “with my Levi’s jeans and my Vans shoes and team t-shirt and just like the rest of the guys on the team. They [female competitors] may have felt intimidated seeing me in that way… I was a really good skater at that time compared to what the other girls were doing” (Willing).
And, in the Dogtown and Z Boys documentary she said, “Some of the girls didn’t like the fact that I skated like a guy and so they protested me to the judges and one of the judges said that I skated better than some of the guys!”
Jim O’Mahoney painted a more idyllic picture of the contest saying that, “Zephyr’s only female member surfer, skater Peggy Oki was called up. When rolling into the arena she immediately slowed down the pace with a controlled and focused routine, hand down low turns, wheelies, 360s, a perfect flowing surf skate presentation softening the blow of rad. When the smoke cleared, Peggy Oki had won the gold and became the first National Freestyle Skateboard Champion.”
The contest wasn’t exactly an “arena,” more like a 12×12 plywood parking-lot coated in urethane… and the Zephyr Surf Team also included two female surfers being Elaine Davis and Lisa Copper as seen in this photo of them hanging out at the remains of the Pacific Ocean Park pier (Cove side) and on a surf trip.
In the Summer 1975 issue of Skateboarder (Vol. 2.1), Peggy is photographed by Stecyk competing and in a group photo by Ray Allen for winning. She’s also included in an ad for Zephyr along with Jay Adams, Stacy Peralta, and Paul Constantineau. The ad states, “Peggy Oki: 1st Girls’ Freestyle (Del Mar-Ocean Festival Contest), 1st Girls’ Slalom (Santa Barbara Contest), 4th Girls’ Free Form (Santa Barbara Contest).
Even with these results, Peggy explained that, “I faded from the scene after the first few contests. From the first, the Del Mar, I didn’t like the politics. It wasn’t always about the best skater, and it wasn’t fun for me to hang around all day, hardly actually skating” (Marcus).
Peggy’s last contest “was at the LA Sports Arena, and did little to change her mind about skateboarding politics. They had artificial terrain set up — a wooden ramp for slalom, and an obstacle course. ‘It was dangerous. Fold-out tables as the start, a plywood board that you roll down, and a speedbump thing made out of wood. It was this ridiculous stuff that they set up all for the benefit of the tv people. I injured my hamstring pretty badly, and I thought, ‘If this is what skateboarding is going to be, I’m not having fun doing it, and I don’t think I want to continue” (Williams 3).
Photos by Jim O’Mahoney. The image on the right is from the Northridge contest in 1975.
Peggy’s legacy would never fade from the collective memory of skateboarders though, as seen in an article from Push magazine by Denise Williams from the Summer 2002 issue called “The Lady of Dogtown.”
There’s some fantastic quotes that reveal how unaffected Oki was in regard to her Dogtown legend. “Oki was always one to follow her own path, hanging out in Dogtown (‘A place where you had to have eyes in the back of your head,’ says Wentlze Rumi in the motive), running away from home at age 16 (for a whopping two weeks), and competing in motocross competitions against her mother’s wishes… When I raced motocross, I wouldn’t even tell her I was going to a race. I just sort of said, ‘I’m going riding’ and came back with a trophy. Same thing with skateboarding, I just said, ‘Oh, I’m going to San Diego’ and came back with a trophy. I had to catch rides with Jay’s mom and stepdad” (Williams 2).
Photo by Scott Starr (RIP) featuring Peggy with a signature board circa 2015
Surfing and artwork became Peggy’s focus, which then merged into an environmental mission. Initially inspired by a common bond between surfers and dolphins, Peggy would go on to study environmental biology and discover her passion for protecting ocean creatures through her artwork. “For me, I guess, since I’m a surfer and feel connected to the ocean, and feel really close to whales… I feel the need to speak out and do what I can” (Williams 3).
In 2004, Peggy began the Origami Whales Project to symbolize a dedication to protecting whales from slaughter and the concept also aligned with her Japanese heritage, in reference to the 1000 origami cranes story of Sadako Sasaki who died from exposure to radiation from the Hiroshima bomb (Peggy’s parents are both from Hiroshima).
Peggy’s commitment to environmental activism and animal rights is described in a fantastic Huck magazine interview from 2015, and the more recent book Skateboarding, Power and Change (2023) by Dr. Indigo Willing and Anthony Pappalardo, as an example of radical empathy, engaging with heavy topics through hope, and leveraging one’s platform to do something positive. “I never sought fame but thanks to the documentary [Dogtown & Z-Boys] I have been utilizing my celebrity status as a voice for the things that matter to me… It’s fulfilling for me to inspire and empower people to follow their passion and to be of service for the things we care about.”
In 2006, Susanne Tabata featured Peggy in her documentary, SkateGirl where she shared that,
“I was not well received by the other girls. I’ve pretty much just been the lone person on things that I do… I guess I got so fed up with that early scene with the skateboarders that I didn’t want to go for sponsorship or do anything that I didn’t want to do and just do it only for fun. Unfortunately, things seem to revolve around marketing on what sells to the mass public… be true to yourself and hopefully somewhere sponsorship or some means of support will come through. I would rather be a woman or a girl in skateboarding or surfing competitions now than back then because it is getting better slowly but surely.”
In 2014, Peggy even appeared in a music video by Emil and Caroline for their song, “No Swag” and her confident style is still very evident!
In September 2009, Juice magazine recognized Peggy in their “Venice Wall of Fame,” amongst a mob of bros who called Venice Beach their home. And a few years later, in 2012, Peggy was inducted into The Skateboarding Hall of Fame! Photos below are by Xavier Lannes, alongside Patty Segovia of All Girl Skate Jam fame, OG skater Patti McGee, and photographer / skater Glen E. Friedman.
Peggy is now well into her sixties and continues to be an environmental activist, artist, and public speaker including a Tedx Talk, while balancing her life with rock-climbing, mountain-biking, surfing, skateboarding, and yoga. She made an interesting comparison between skateboarding and activism – “You have to be determined as a skater if you’re going to get a frontside grind on the coping in the pool. You have to keep at it. It’s the same with being an activist. You don’t win victories easily” (Ryder).
Photos: Matt Dakya, Paul Mann
Tune in to Sentient Planet for an episode called “Ocean Love and Activism with Peggy Oki” from January 6th, 2022 to learn more about Peggy’s activism and artwork, and stay up-to-date on her latest activities by visiting Peggy’s website.
Photo: 2015 SHOF – Peggy Oki congratulating fellow legend, Cara-beth Burnside on her induction.
References:
- Chon, Monica. “100 Women of Color First Encounter with Racism—and how they overcame it,” Oprah Daily (March 25, 2021).
- Marcus, Ben. The Skateboard: the good, the rad, the gnarly: an illustrated history (MVP Books, 2011).
- O’Mahoney, Jim. “Z-Girl,” Santa Barbara Magazine (Summer 2020): 130-135.
- Ryder, Caroline. “Dogtown legend Peggy Oki is fighting to protect our oceans,” Huck mag (April 22, 2015).
- Williams, Denise. “The Lady of Dogtown,” Push Skateboarding Magazine (Summer 2002): 2-3.
- Willing, Indigo and Anthony Pappalardo. Skateboarding, Power and Change (Singapore, Palgrave MacMillan, 2023): 258-259.
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