Joanna Field

Joanna Field is from Pacific Palisades and was a skateboarder who worked at Marina Del Rey skatepark back in the late 1970s.

Photo: James Takakura

Joanna was good friends with all the regulars, including Christian Hosoi, Jay Adams, among others. She even used her creative talent to hand-draw a fun Christmas card (left) for the locals at MDR, which was appreciated and reciprocated.

Fellow skater, Denise Danielson recalled skating and competing with Joanna, recognizing that she was someone pushing the boundaries for girls riding pools and bowls at that time.

There’s even footage by Dennis Ogden of the Marina Del Rey skatepark dogbowl contest, and while Joanna’s name is included in the acknowledgments, I can’t find her part amongst all the guys.

A selection of Joanna’s contest results:

2^nd place in amateur women at the Van’s Pro-Am contest, December 1979 behind Gale Springer and ahead of Kim Freeman at Marina Del Rey. Her overall results in the Vans/Offshore series was 4^th place, acknowledged in the May 1980 issue of Skateboarder.
1^st place at ASPO #5, Escondido skatepark on March 1, 1980 for pool in the Girls Open shared in the June 1980 issue of Skateboarder.
5th place at the 1st Gold Cup event in June 1980 at Oasis in San Diego, behind big names like Pattie Hoffman, Cara-beth Burnside, Leigh Parkin, and Cindy Whitehead.
In the newsprint Skat’n News, Joanna was often in the mix against Cara-beth Burnside, Lisa Forman, Shirley McClelland, and Sue Smith. Her official standings in the 1980 Gold Cup was 3^rd for Amateur women behind Burnside and Smith.
In April 1981, at the Variflex Pro/Am, Joanna was up against a mix of pros and amateurs and place fourth behind Pattie Hoffman, Burnside, Denise Danielson, followed by Leigh Parkin.

[Joanna on left]

Joanna and Gale Springer were especially close competitors and would keep in touch over the years. They would even maintain their skateboarding skills together decades later, as noted in the Facebook group, “Skateboard Moms & Sisters of Shred.” In 2015, they rallied as skater moms in their 50s motivated by each other! Springer and Field would hit up their local Santa Clarita skatepark and attend the Mighty Mama Skate-O-Rama (MMSOR) fundraising events, organized by Barb Odanaka.

Joanna now lives in Santa Monica, but appears to have fond memories of her skateboarding years and all the people she met.