Category: 1980s
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Sue Hazel
Sue Hazel is the UK equivalent to Cara-beth Burnside considering her long-standing skateboarding career from 1977 to the present and her role in supporting the progression of female skaters in Britain. While brief interviews of Sue appeared in UK magazines Sk8Action and Skateboard! during the 1980s, a more thorough interview was conducted in 2010 by…
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Michelle Sanderson
Michelle Sanderson (Hart) from West Covina, California was a competitive freestyle skater in the early 1980s who persevered during an era when skateboarding had dramatically declined in popularity compared to the 1970s but slowly returned to full force. Photo: a still of Michelle skating in the film Future Primitive (1985) Michelle competed in the California…
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Nathalie Richter
Nathalie Richter from Bonn was Germany’s amateur female skateboarding champion in the late 1980s, and thanks to the ‘zine Equal Time, edited by Lynn Kramer, her story isn’t lost! Nathalie began skateboarding in February 1986 and three years later, at age 19 she was riding for Vans, G&S, Venture, Speed Wheels, and Rector. Nathalie’s feature…
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Lynn Kramer
Lynn Kramer has currently won the World Slalom Champion title seventeen* times, received the first-ever women’s pro slalom board through Sk8Kings back in 2007, and continues her relentless dominance in that field with a solid list of sponsors. Her skateboarding story was launched in the 1980s, and the role she played taking on the Women’s…
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Sophie Bourgeois
In the late 1970s and 1980s, one of the top female skateboarders from Canada was Sophie Bourgeois from Drummondville, Quebec but you would hardly know it due to the limited acknowledgement, if any in Canadian skateboard magazines or history books. Like Pam Judge, Canada’s first female National Champion, Sophie would go on to be sponsored by…
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Babs Fahrney
Babs Fahrney is from San Jose, California and lives in Santa Cruz. She was a skater in the 1980s and was included in Bonnie Blouin’s classic Thrasher article, “Sugar and Spice..?” on the female skate scene in the April 1986 issue along with the likes of Michelle Sanderson, April Hoffman, Stephanie Person, and KZ Zapata.…
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Lauri Kuulei Wong
Ladies Skateworld was a ‘zine that launched on April 15, 1986 highlighting the scene at Del Mar Skate Ranch, and was possibly the first skateboarding ‘zine written by and for female skaters. The DIY publication was signed by an elusive skater named “Lauri” or simply “L.K.W.” Some clues to her identity included reference to Hawaiian…
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Lora Lyons (Medlock)
Lora Lyons (Medlock) was from Edinburgh, Pennsylvania and began skateboarding after she graduated high school in the late 1970s when her boyfriend (later husband) “bought a crappy plastic board and told me to come over after work. So the first time I got on a board I was wearing a skirt and pantyhose, no shoes!…
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Mystery skaters – Skateboarding prohibited
It’s June 25, 2022 and I’m not sure what to say to radiate strength and hope for women in the U.S. after recent decisions at the Supreme Court, and to women around the world whose lives are dictated by the ignorant and the heartless except find strength in community – you’re not alone and this…
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Renata Škrabalová
Renata Škrabalová is the original female skateboarder from the Czech Republic. Renata started skateboarding in 1984, competing in slalom until 1989 when she started her family, and then returned to the scene in 2009 with renewed energy. Her story was highlighted in the book, Prkýnka na maso jsme uřízli [We Cut the Chopping Boards] (2013) by…
Womxn Skateboard History 