Category: BIPOC
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Cheryl Thornton
Cheryl Thornton, age 12 from Fort Worth, Texas was competing against the boys at a skateboard contest in May 1977 and came 2nd in Freestyle! The photo was taken by Rodger Mallison showcasing Cheryl holding onto a laid-back handstand, which she received a trophy for. Photos of her competitors Michael Clay (14) and Jerome Willet…
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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). Back in the day,…
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MaryAnne Uyemura
MaryAnne Aquino Torres Uyemura was the first female member on the Pepsi Skateboard team in the Philippines from the ages of nine to eleven in the years 1978-1980. She was living in Manila and instantly fell in love with skateboarding. MaryAnne wrote, “I have an older brother who borrowed a skateboard, and he showed me…
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Life
Life is precious and skateboarders are beautiful. There is so much heartbreak and anger right now in light of the violence and brutality that took Tyre Nichols away from his family and friends. Not sure how to process anything. I glimpsed the footage and it is beyond sickening. And while reviewing the RIP section of…
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Karen Schirm
Karen Schirm of Bremen, Germany was a street skater in the early 2000s and needs acknowledgment as one of the few female skaters-of-colour at that time, especially in Europe. While there was only one interview I could find of her by Chrissie Stegt, she briefly mentioned that if offered a free trip anywhere in the…
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Anita Tessensohn
You’ve most likely seen the iconic Powell Peralta ad featuring Anita Tessensohn and Leaf Trienen which declared that “Some Girls Play With Dolls. Real Women Skate.” The ad came out in the December 1987 issue of Thrasher and February 1988 issue of Transworld Magazine and were promptly cut-out and pasted to the walls of isolated…
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Alison Lee
Alison Lee was a skateboarder based out of San Jose in the mid-1990s, who was included in the two-page article called “Damsels” in the June 1996 issue of Thrasher (along with Cindy Gorset and Jamie Reyes). In a short interview, Alison mentions that she is 15 years-old and had been skateboarding for a year. She…
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Sunshine Lee
In the late 1970s Sunshine Lee was an up-and-coming skateboarder in southern California sponsored by Vans but her full story has yet to be discovered. In his memoir, Authentic: a memoir by the founder of Vans Paul Van Doren explained how “Each Vans store manager was encouraged to choose seven or eight skateboarders and supply…
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Yuki Kuwabara
Yuki Kuwabara was a skateboarder at Wild Wheels skateboard park in Covina, California in the late 1970s. She was featured in an article called “Surfers with wheels: skateboard parks banking on safety to keep their customers rolling in” by Mike Ward. The article was published by the Los Angeles Times in the October 9, 1977…
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Minh Duc Tran
In the very first issue of Skateboard! (Britain’s first skateboard magazine), which came out in August 1977, there’s a photo and short blurb on a skater named Minh Duc Tran in the “Who’s Hot” section. The feature shared that Minh was 17, had been skating less than a year and was from the Kensington neighbourhood…
Womxn Skateboard History 