Jessica Krause loves skateboarding, and if you witnessed her skills during the 1990s and early 2000s, consider yourself privileged because she was always willing to step up and take on the burliest rails, gaps, and ledges.
I was fortunate to learn more about Jessica’s story during an interview February 1st, 2024, including her experience with sponsorship and the whole industry that fuels it which was at times a rollercoaster. Combined with health challenges including epilepsy, endometriosis, and a cancer scare, Jessica’s healing journey is one of resilience, on multiple levels. And based on her approach to skateboarding, you know she’s a fighter and will persevere!
Photos: 2003 Sunnyvale kickflip gap by Aaron Jones
Jessica was born in Santa Cruz and grew up back in forth between Santa Cruz and Hollister, attending schools in both areas. Jessica shared that, “I have three older brothers and one of my oldest brothers skateboarded a bunch growing up and we had this little Snoopy Nash skateboard from Kmart or something like that, and he taught me how to push, turns and stuff when I was probably six or seven. And then I didn’t start skating until I was 12 because that’s when they built a skatepark in my town. I saw some kids skating, and I was like ‘that looks cool.’”
At the time, Jessica had been playing football for four years, and was fully immersed in it, “but one of my neighbors down the street, he was our quarterback, and he had a skateboard that he never used. I was like, ‘hey dude, let me have your skateboard,’ and he’s like ‘yeah, sure.’” The skateboard was a minor upgrade to the Kmart set-up, but Jessica was stoked, even with the classic tiny wheels from the early 1990s.
The scene at the skatepark in Hollister was supportive even though all the kids who were actually skating were older and in high school. They just thought it was funny that this 12-year-old wanted to skate, and offered to teach Jessica how to drop-in, do rock to fakies and kick flips, etc. The older skaters became an extension of her family, like older brothers and Jessica felt welcomed to hang out – “they kind of made me feel like I was the cool kid.”
Jessica started to get noticed and because the local indoor skatepark required an entry fee, she ended up being part of team representing the park at demonstrations, which included BMX riders, rollerbladers, and skateboarders, and she even got paid to be on the team. One of the CASL contest stops was at the park, so Jessica took part with her team and continued to compete. Although, she did get a little scare at one of her first CASL contests, when she mistook Caswell Berry, with his super long hair as a fellow female competitor! The CASL contests sounded fun “because in Northern California there’s only so many parks and you see the same people.”
Photo: San Diego ASR tradeshow by Patty Segovia
While there weren’t other local girls skating that Jessica was aware of, she did meet Alex White who was over in Monterey, and they occasionally got the chance to meet up and skate. Myriam Gurba quoted Jessica in an article called “Betties on Board” for Clamor magazine that came out in March/April 2003 regarding the motivation to meet other female skaters. Gurba wrote, “In a recent interview for Heckler Magazine, Jessica Krause (sponsored by Think) described talking a friend into driving her from California to Wyoming after seeing a picture of a lone girl skating there” (p. 25). [Would love a scan of this Heckler issue if anyone has it?]
Jessica’s parents were supportive and her dad would drive her to the Monterey Bay Skate Station an hour away, when her team had practise sessions on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Jessica got the chance to skate vert, which she enjoyed and received support from some of the older dudes to progress.
Photos from Jessica’s “web exclusive” interview for Thrasher in November 2002
Around the same time, the local shop called Scab in Aptos started sponsoring Jessica, and it was through Scab that Greg Carroll and Bruce Rodella from Think skateboards tracked her down, when she was only 13 years old to see if she wanted to ride flow for them! Jessica’s response was, “Hellz ya! What little kid wouldn’t want to get free skateboarding gear. I was so absolutely thrilled. So, all I had to do was skate and get footage.” But it wasn’t always that easy. In fact, on December 25, 2023, at age 40, Jessica took time to reflect and open up about her experience in her own words via Instagram.
Photo: Think team from April 2003 issue of Thrasher
Jessica took the challenge of accumulating footage seriously. There’s the monster noseslide down the John Cardiel ledge, her boardslide on the Presidio rail at age 15 shot by Brad Staba (which is still buried), and a variety of other tricks at iconic skate spots. But the question remains, why was her skill suppressed when her sponsor had opportunity to celebrate her skill on team videos, on par with how Toy Machine treated Elissa Steamer? Jessica said, “I wonder if my skateboarding career would have been a little more different, maybe get taken a little more seriously” if she was skating today?
Clips from Think video “Free at Last Vol. 2” (2002).
Jessica knows there’s still footage out there of her considering that, “last year I finally saw the nose slide of the Cardiel ledge that Kyle [Camarillo] filmed 22 years ago.” And you can see in these Instagram comments how blown away everyone was… one skater said, “Holy shit why isn’t this talked about more.” It shouldn’t take two decades to offer this courtesy.
Noseslide circa 1999 – never included in any promo
It’s frustrating because Jessica was putting out incredible energy, pushing herself, getting injured, accumulating awesome footage only for it to be buried and not see the light of day because this was an era before smartphones, and you couldn’t just share or post a clip in an instant. Even more frustrating was how Jessica was portrayed by her sponsors in skateboarding media, as a kind of joke, just getting trashed and partying. But the reality was that Jessica was a 15 year-old girl trying to be recognized in a scene run by 35 year-old men. Jessica asked, “Why would you encourage that image of me amongst the public?”
It was hurtful because Jessica was made to feel like she had done something wrong, to have all that footage squirreled away, and a whole other persona perpetuated. The immaturity of Think is personified in a 2002 ad published in Slap magazine where they chose to feature a sequence of Jessica stepping up to a gnarly fenced rail, and her subsequent bail with the blurb “I would’ve made it if I wasn’t on my period.”
Jessica’s courage to even step up to this rail is mind-blowing, so it seems odd that her sponsor would choose to feature these photos and such an odd quote – the message was off. There was a market of female skaters looking for heroes, and Think’s approach looked like an attempt at sabotage, catering to pre-pubescent boys wanting to mock and demean our efforts.
Photos: Salinas kickflip from Concussion zine September 2000 by Roland; noseslide by Kate Gengo from All Girl Skate Jam 2001 in Encinitas, plus random internet finds.
Back in the day, as a female skateboarder looking in, I only saw Jessica’s skill, talent and vivacity especially at contests like the All Girl Skate Jam, Slam City Jam, and Gallaz Skate Jam all the way in Melbourne, Australia. Being on the outside of the industry, I was able to revere Jessica as someone pushing the boundaries and destined to be on par with Elissa Steamer (and apparently Elissa was pretty cool to Jessica at these contests). It’s upsetting to realize that she had to go through such an ordeal at the hands of this industry that is supposed to be raising up talent instead of degrading and dismissing them.
Photos by Rhianon Bader for Push skateboard mag, December 2002 from Slam City Jam.
Regarding contests, Jessica shared some regret as she discovered after the fact that she had qualified for the 1999 X Games in San Francisco, the same year that Tony Hawk threw down his first 900 and when the Pro Skater video game was released, but no one made the effort to contact her, not even her sponsor. The worst part was that Jessica was literally right down the street at Frank Gerwer’s house, walking distance away, and had been trying to get a pass to the event, and meanwhile she could have been competing.
This quick clip below from the video Getting Nowhere Faster (2004) filmed by Lisa Whitaker with the Villa Villa Cola crew shows Jessica stepping up at the Slam City Jam contest:
At age 18, after moving to San Francisco, Jessica went on her first tour, which was 3 and half weeks, and tore her meniscus on the first day, at the very first demo. In her podcast interview for “Talkin Schmit” (Feb. 19, 2019) Jessica remembered twisting her knee but just forging on, even competing at Slam City Jam, constantly in pain, until she returned home and got the MRI.
And then at age 19 going on 20, she was rudely dropped from Think without an explanation after being part of the team for almost seven years. The experience was cold and hurtful, as she always thought her team was cool and wasn’t prepared to heed the advice of a girlfriend who said, “you need to wake up” that she was being taken advantage of. More recently, reflecting on the attitudes of some the guys associated with this team, guys who actually revered the murderer / rapist / former pro skater, Mark “Gator” Rogowski and thought he deserved a second chance, the conclusion was “fuck those dudes.”
It could have been a much darker time if it wasn’t for a friend, Jesse Erickson (RIP) who had known Jessica since she was 12 from CASL contests and got her hooked up with Santa Cruz and NHS. Jessica wished she had been able to express how much that gesture meant to her, someone who wasn’t around to creep on Jessica, but recognized her skill.
Injuries and frustration continued to plague Jessica into her twenties, but that’s not what turned her off skateboarding. “It wasn’t skateboarding I was mad at… it was the industry.” Her experience with Think tainted her love of skateboarding because she didn’t feel protected, and on Instagram she stated, “I really don’t want another girl, child or human to go through this.” Essentially, an environment that often left young women vulnerable to toxic, predatory behaviour.
Jessica had a special gift as a teen and her story is a reminder that the skateboarding industry needs to be accountable, and we need to pay close attention to how these young skaters are being treated – they are not a commodity, they are not a joke, and they shouldn’t be treated as disposable.
Photos from 2014-2015 by SCMattyC, Kimsck831, and Greg Harbour.
At the age of 23, Jessica disconnected from the scene and moved to Thailand for eight years where her dad was living after breaking her ankle. The injury took nine months of recovery, which included nerve damage, and Jessica realized she needed a fresh start.
Thailand sounded like an ideal setting to heal the body, mind, and spirit. During her interview for “Talkin Schmit” (Feb. 19, 2019) Jessica shared more about her time overseas, teaching English to a Kindergarten class, traveling around to Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Myanmar, and South Korea. It was cheaper to live there, and she even went to culinary school.
Jessica visited home after being away for three years and was immediately spotted in a San Francisco bar and asked if she rode for Think. At that point, Jessica was still angry and thought she would never ride again. But during her time in Thailand, she got to enjoy skimboarding on the beach and started thinking that she might regret not challenging herself to skate again.
Photos: circa 2016-2017 by @scmattyc
Jessica returned to Santa Cruz at age 31 and has been able to slowly reclaim that love of skateboarding even though having epilepsy and health scares, and being in physical pain, can sabotage the process at times. But her attitude is positive, and she told me, “Don’t ever stop learning – there’s always room for improvement and learning. You’ve got to keep striving for something.”
It’s so impressive to hear these words from Jessica, especially after learning about her ordeal with epilepsy, enduring multiple seizures, which she shares in detail within the “Talkin Schmit” podcast. She also got pumped on an all-female crew called the “Santa Cruz Lady Lurkers,” who embraced Jessica and posted some awesome footage of her on their Facebook page circa 2015. That same year, Jessica went on a roadtrip for LowCardMag around Montana and got some footage, followed by roadtrips with the Lady Lurkers to Oregon in 2016.
Photo: Jessica in pink with the Santa Cruz Lady Lurkers after winning “best trick” at the Santa Cruz Boardroom contest in June 2019.
Jessica is also stoked on the progress of female skaters today like Rayssa Leal, Chloe Covell, and “all the Japanese girls killing it… They make me so happy because I knew we could do this. I knew we were always better than dudes.” We both agreed that it really wasn’t until 2015 or so that the industry at-large started valuing young female skaters as respected members of a team. “I hope things are getting better because we’ve got some young people that need proper guidance. They’re Olympic athletes now and they need to be fucking cherished.” Hell yes!!
Clip from 2018 “Tired and Destroyed” by Tired Skateboards in Thrasher.
Now in her forties, Jessica has had to advocate for her health within the medical industry but has found a positive outlet through her passion for cooking healthy food, even offering video demos! And hopefully, more filmers and photographers will keep pulling together buried footage of Jessica to showcase her ability as one ripping skateboarder and help fill this void in women’s skateboarding history.
Heads up to everyone reading… there’s a skater from Santa Barbara named Terry Roland (friend of Cara-beth Burnside) who would take photos of Jessica skating as a kid (if you have a connection, please reach out!), and there’s a “sponsor me” VHS tape featuring a very young Jessica for Osiris out there, and someone must know where it is, so share the love!
References:
- Krause, Jessica. Instagram post, December 25, 2023.
- Krause, Jessice. Personal interview, February 1, 2024.
- Schmit. “Talkin’ Schmit Episode 8: Jessica Krause.” Talkin’ Schmit. February 19, 2019.
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