Author: Natalie Porter

  • Cyndy Pendergast

    Cyndy Pendergast

    Cyndy Pendergast was a confident skater in the Mid-West in the 1970s and 1980s and is listed as a “notable member” of the Turf skateboard park on a Wikipedia page. Her name is included along with a host of male skaters, and the legendary Pattie Hoffman. The Turf, (aka “Surfin’ Turf”) was in Greenfield, Wisconsin…

  • Suzette Owens

    Suzette Owens

    Suzette Owens was a competitive freestyle skateboarder out of Long Beach, California in the late 1970s. I was reminded of Suzette during a recent interview with Kim Adrian, as they were good friends at the time being slightly older. While the two preferred skating different terrain, they had the common bond of knowing how to…

  • Marilyn Latta

    Marilyn Latta

    Marilyn Latta (not to be confused with Michelle Matta) was featured in a two-page interview in June 1978 for the Wild World of Skateboarding magazine. Marilyn was age 16 at the time and from Malibu, CA, dreaming of following the professional path like her heroes Ellen Berryman and Terry Brown. Richard Taylor wrote, “Marilyn has…

  • One Year Anniversary

    One Year Anniversary

    One year ago I launched the skate history archive and Instagram account. Thanks to everyone who has supported the project, shown me kindness, taken time to follow, read posts, celebrate, and shared their stories! With every post I feel a bit lighter and more connected. I’m still hoping to skate with a rad crew of…

  • Karen Trimble

    Karen Trimble

    Karen Trimble of San Marcos, CA was a competitive freestyle skateboarder in the mid-1980s along with her brothers John and Terry. She was mentioned in passing within Terry’s Freestyle zine called GTurn and he published a photo of her practising kickflips in the November 1987 issue (Vol. 1 No. 2). She was featured in a…

  • Sussi Berglund

    Sussi Berglund

    Sussi Berglund (Mabbe) of Stockholm, Sweden was skateboarding in her teens and even appeared in a local newspaper performing a handstand in 1978 at age 16, evidently having a great time along with friend Henrik. Based on her Facebook profile, she enjoyed both freestyle and mini-ramp, along with friend Agneta Grapne. With consistent practise, the…

  • Leigh Parkin

    Leigh Parkin

    Leigh Parkin (Blake) was a Del Mar Skate Ranch local who began skateboarding in the 1970s and competed strongly in the early 1980s. In an email, Leigh shared that, “I was first introduced to skateboarding from an older brother, we would skate at the middle school and the curbs by our house, I was probably…

  • Beth Fishman

    Beth Fishman

    Beth Fishman appeared in a four-page spread within the April 1978 issue of Wild World of Skateboarding after winning the SKAbo ESA Eastern Skateboard Championships held over three days in October 1977 at The Asbury Park Casino Arena in New Jersey. Her win was against all boys since there were no other girls competing beside…

  • Stephanie Person

    Stephanie Person

    Stephanie Person is the first Black female professional skateboarder and her contributions throughout the 1980s are legendary. Skateboarding has always appealed to youth regardless of race or gender (see: Cheryl Thornton) but the barriers facing women & non-binary skaters of color to embrace sport and subculture are incomparable (see: Ramdasha Bikceem). Photo: Stepanie’s board says…

  • Vicky Voughn

    Vicky Voughn

    Vicky Voughn is currently a mystery, possibly spelled “Vicki.” All I know is that she appeared in April 1989 to compete in the mini-ramp contest in Tempe, Arizona and was included in Lynn Kramer’s zine Equal Time (Vol. 1, No 3). Lynn reported that, “Vicky showed up in yet another uncommon place, using the whole…