Jayme Erickson and her sister Jordyn from Mankato, Minnesota were competitive street skateboarders in the early 2000s. Jayme was sponsored by Hurley, Real skateboards, and Ipath footwear and Jordyn rode for Roxy. The skateboarding sisters were regulars at the 3rd Lair Skate Park – an indoor set-up that opened in 1997 and is still operating today!
Photos: Jayme at Tampa Am with friends, including Jon Cardiel taken by Nate Sherwood
Jordyn gave a history of skateparks in their hometown during her time as the YMCA Chesley Skate Park Coordinator. She wrote that, in 1996, “the City of Mankato opened their first skate park called Wood Works. In 1998, the Mankato Family YMCA partnered with Wood Works to run the Skate Park. Shortly after, Betty and George Chesley made their first financial contribution to the Skate Park, changing the name to The YMCA Chesley Roller Sport Park.” Apparently, the Chesley’s had witnessed all the resources available to kids in California during a vacation, and thought they should step up and help the kids in their community, too. While a fire in 2014 destroyed the park, the community rallied and re-opened the indoor not long after.
For a few years Jayme sought out new opportunities by moving to California with her friend, skateboarder Stefanie Thomas of Satellite Beach, Florida, and entering contests. At the All Girl Skate Jam 2000 in San Diego, Jayme took 3rd in amateur mini-ramp, and for women’s street at Vancouver’s Slam City Jam contest, she placed 11th in 2002 and 10th in 2003. The following year, in 2004, both Jayme and Jordyn competed in the Damn Am Minneapolis Street qualifiers with Jayme placing 85th out of 100, and gave the Tampa Am 2004 qualifiers an attempt, placing 92nd out of 106. The Tampa Am has never provided a separate division for female skaters since it began in 2001.
Photo: left to right is Patiane Freitas, Luciana Toledo of Check it Out magazine, Alex White, Jayme Erickson and Alison Matasi by Lisa Whitaker.
Jayme shared with Lisa Whitaker that, “I like going to contests, it’s fun. I don’t really like skating in them, I get scared… but I like Slam City, and Damn Am.”
Alex White would eventually interview Jayme for her documentary, Can You Kickflip? (2012), where Jayme explained that she started out as a snowboarder but opted to take up skateboarding in the “off season.” Jayme expressed an awareness that for some girls, walking into a kind of man’s world of skateboarding was intimidating but that skateboarding has “taken me places that I normally wouldn’t have gone… it’s changed who I am for sure.”
On May 11, 2004, Jayme was featured in a spotlight by Lisa Whitaker for the Girls Skate Network website. She was residing in Fullerton, CA at the time and had been skating for four and a half years, starting out on a Zoo York skateboard. Jayme gave a shout out to Kris Markovich, whose ramp she enjoyed skating and for being able to stay at his house, expressed gratitude to the guys at Deluxe, and noted “The Ditch” in San Diego as being her new favorite spot.
The Erickson’s also had video parts in the game-changing Villa Villa Cola video Getting Nowhere Faster (2004) by Lisa Whitaker, produced by 411VM and Element skateboards.
A fun fact about Jayme is that she was the stunt double for actress Lindsay Lohan in the role of “Maggie Peyton” in the film Herbie Fully Loaded (2005). Jayme recalled how “We’d stand there next to each other wearing the same clothes… It definitely made you feel famous” (Page).
Here’s the clip of Jayme / Lindsay landing a kickflip:
Having access to an indoor park growing up had a real impact on Jayme, who ended up moving to Montana and running the indoor skatepark, Fiftytwo in Missoula along with Dylan Tucker, whom she married.
Here’s some footage of her skating the park, posted December 2009:
The skate park was described in the Independent Record newspaper (Nov. 17, 2008) as having “a 2,000-square-foot bowl with a 5-foot deep section and a 9-foot-deep section. Its 6,000-square-foot street course includes a quarter-pipe ramp, a vert ramp, loading docks, a pier 7, an A-frame, a wally-box, euro and a few rails” (Page). It was also advertised as having a skate shop, parents’ lounge, observation deck, Wifi, sound system, and open 52 weeks a year. Jayme was quoted as saying, “This town is very progressive and you have a great outdoor park… but kids need something to do in the winter.”
The following year, there was an announcement in the Missoulian (Jan 29, 2009) that Jayme and pro vert skater Kim Petersen were hosting “girls’ nights” at Fiftytwo every Thursday. Jayme was also a new mom at the time with her first child, Aydan, followed by Harper.
In the fall of 2024, Familia Skate shop in Minnesota recognized Jayme and Jordyn and their hometown of Mankato (in the photo on the left) in volume seven of their “True Heads” board series with signature boards. The series celebrates the contributions of skaters to Twin Cities skateboarding.
Jayme is still skating strong, as seen in a recent batch of photos from Go Skate Day 2025 on Instagram!
Photo: Mankato was taken by Robert Norland
References:
- Page, Mark. “New skatepark opens in Missoula,” Independent Record – Missoulian (November 17, 2008): 2C.
- Whitaker, Lisa. “Spotlight: Jayme Erickson,” The Side Project (May 11, 2004).
Womxn Skateboard History 