Category: Profile

  • 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…

  • Caia Koopman

    Caia Koopman

    Caia Koopman, who is a renowned artist living in San Diego, was born and raised in California and was skating during the late 1980s and early 1990s. A photo of Caia skateboarding Derby Park appeared in the zine Equal Time (Vol 1. No. 3) in 1989, created by Lynn Kramer. Caia also designed the cover…

  • MaryAnne Uyemura

    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…

  • France 1960s

    France 1960s

    Skateboarding in the 1960s is primarily associated with the scene in California, as surfers found a new outlet for fun when the surf was flat and the activity took off with children dismantling their roller-skates and securing them to boards. Over in France, within surfing communities on the Atlantic coast like Biarritz and Hossegor, “sidewalk…

  • Maria Elaigne Ferreira

    Maria Elaigne Ferreira

    Maria Elaigne Carmen Rita Rodrigues Ferreira was born in 1960 and is among the earliest female skateboarders in Brazil – a country with a rich history of amazing skateboarders! Thanks to Skate Mania Brasil, it was shared that Maria grew up in Curitiba, Paraná, where she started skateboarding around 1972 at the age of 12.…

  • Jeannie Narducci

    Jeannie Narducci

    Jeannie Narducci (Figurski) was inducted into the Florida Skateboard Hall of Fame in 2003. She was an active skateboarder in the 1970s, along with her brother Dave. Jeannie appeared in the East Coast magazine called Skate Rider within issue No 3 (Winter/Spring 1978) ripping up a plywood ramp, with the photo taken by Mike Green.…

  • Laurie McDonald

    Laurie McDonald

    Laurie McDonald was a sponsored skateboarder in the 1970s, riding for team Powerflex. Although photographs, let alone an interview was elusive, she appeared in the freestyle results of a Hallowe’en contest on October 30th 1977 at the El Cajon skate which she won, ahead of Tina Guasti and Leilani Kiyabu. Laurie and Sylvia Scott were…