Girls Night Out
TWINSKATE JAM
BIG HOUSE
DISTRIBUTION
NATIONAL CITY, CALIFORNIA
Story by Michael Burnett
Elissa Steamer turned the
phrase, "You skate like a
girl" into a compliment.
Crooked grind.
A mandatory scene in any good women-in-prison movie is when the camera pans across the line-up of ladies that occupy the Big House.
T
HE YEAR WAS 1987, and Lori
Rigsby exploded onto the skate
scene with handplants below the
coping in Powell-Peralta's
famous Animal Chin video.
Although she was by no means the
first, soon after, women of every
shape and description came skating
out of the woodwork and into the pub-
lic eye. Anita Tessinsohn was seen
kickflipping to curb, Rodney's lady
Sophie worked the flat in stunning out-
fits, Diane Desiderio delighted thou-
sands with her music-synced freestyle
routines at Sea World, and Cara-Beth
Burnside launched a Miller-flipping
comeback in pink jog bra-clad glory.
The '90s brought another wave of girl
skaters including Saecha Clark (the first girl
to slide a handrail), Jodi McDonald, and Jen
O'Brien. More recently, Jamie Reyes and
Elissa Steamer have kept up the tradition
with a modernish, technical twist.
Fueling this latest resurgence (perhaps fol-
lowing the example of the snowboard indus-
try) are tons of companies ready to throw
some money around in the girls-only arena.
Magazines for girls? Skate companies? Skate
shoes? Special bearings just for women?
Their own contest? Why the hell not?
The flyer for the Vans All Girl Skate
Jam provided all the information, but was
still kind of confusing. What the hell trick
is that? Is that a fastplant to fakie? The
organizers didn't use a photo of a bail (a
tell-tale sign that a company has a very
loose grasp on the intricacies of skating),
they used an illustration of one.
Vans
ALL GIRL CRATE JAM
BENEFIT FOR BAINAL
BROUGHT TO YOU
SUNDAY
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