Category: Profile
-
Leslie Jo Ritzma
Leslie Jo Ritzma from Redondo Beach, California started skateboarding in 1964 at age 7. “I made my own skateboard in 2nd grade from some roller skates and ended up breaking my arm… Roller skate wheels nailed onto a 2 by 4.” The injury didn’t deter her, and in 1977 at age 20, Leslie Jo decided…
-
Ramdasha Bikceem
In 1990, when Ramdasha Bikceem (they/them) from Basking Ridge, New Jersey was 15 years old they started an all-girl skater gang and band, both called Gunk. Ramdasha taught themself to play guitar without formal training, and the band’s early shows were held in the basement of a friend’s parent’s place. The following year Ramdasha launched…
-
Deanna Calkins
In 2020, Deanna Calkins was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame and her bio provides a thorough history of her impact. What is also worth noting is how Deanna advocated for amateur women skateboarders and was part of the massively popular Wednesday “Girls Night” events in the late 1970s at Runway skatepark in Carson,…
-
Suzie Rowland
Suzanne Rowland-Levin was originally a surfer who pursued skateboarding in the early 1960s along with her friends. This time-period was considered the First Wave of skateboarding primarily based around the Palisades, CA. Several teams were forming and gaining sponsorship who didn’t seem particularly interested in recruiting girls, but that was not a deterrent. In 1963,…
-
Cindy Berryman
Cindy Berryman will be the first to tell you that the real skateboarder of her family was little sister Ellen Berryman, seven years younger. And yet, Cindy played a crucial part in promoting and advocating for women in skateboarding in the 1970s and deserves recognition. In Ellen’s story for the book, Lives on Board (2009,…
-
Ianire Elorriaga
Ianire Elorriaga is from the town of Bakio and is the first female skateboarder from the Basque country to gain international attention for her impressive selection of tricks, contest results as six-time European Champion, and for going pro. Photo: Roxy ad featuring Ianire in the March 2003 issue of Beach Brother magazine in France. Ianire…
-
Wendy Zaks (Rector)
Wendy Zaks appears skateboarding in the bottom right corner of an ad within Thrasher March 1989 and Transworld June 1989 as a member of the Powell Peralta Factory Team, just a few years after the legendary all-female ad that stated “Some Girls Play with Dolls. Real Women Skate” with Anita Tessensohn and Leaf Treinen, although…
-
Kim Kinsley
Kim Kinsley was a Blue Sky Skatepark Team member out of Albuquerque, New Mexico and appears briefly in the January 1978 issue of the National Skateboard Review, practising her freestyle moves with a smile. She had also been part of a group photo for her team in the September 1977 issue, in a feature article…
-
Judi Oyama
Judi Oyama’s history as both a pioneer for women skateboarders in the 1970s and for her current accomplishments in her sixties, as she continues to compete in slalom and downhill to this day, demands respect! You can listen to her story here on YouTube, launched on International Women’s Day 2023 for Santa Cruz: It all…
-
Gigi Gits
Gigi Gits was a punk skateboarder in the 1980s from Richmond, Virginia who made her way to Atlanta, Georgia. In Bonnie Blouin’s game-changing article for Thrasher in April 1986 called “Sugar and Spice..?” she writes, “I’m supposed to be writing an article about girl skaters. Only problem is, in 3 years I’ve only met three……
Womxn Skateboard History 