SkateboardingSince its inception in the 1940s, skateboarding has largely been a male-dominated sport. However, starting in the 1960s, women began pioneering a path for future female skaters, demonstrating to younger women the empowerment a skateboard can offer. By the 1990s, female skateboarders were thriving and gaining recognition worldwide.
Women continue to overcome obstacles even today! Among the top female skateboarders are those who have transformed the culture and history of the sport, contributing to an industry that now includes anyone passionate about skateboarding.
Patti McGee
Patti McGee holds the title of the first professional female skateboarder. She was part of the initial skateboarding wave from 1959 to 1965. Raised in Southern California, McGee would skateboard when the ocean was calm during her final year of high school. In 1964, she won a national competition in Santa Monica, California, and turned professional in 1965 at the age of 19. That year, she graced the covers of LIFE magazine and The Quarterly Skateboarder, proving in a male-centric sport that there was ample room for women.
During the 1970s, McGee shifted her focus to family life but later returned to the skateboarding scene. She and her daughter Hailey Villa founded The Original Betty Skateboard Company to support the next generation of female skaters.
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Peggy Oki
Peggy Oki was a member of the Z-boys in the 1970s. Born in Los Angeles, she received her first skateboard at the age of 10 from her father. She began skating around Dogtown, a neighborhood known as the birthplace of America's skateboarding culture. Similar to Patti McGee, Oki's skating style was influenced by her passion for surfing, mirroring the smooth and powerful motions of a surfer riding a wave.
In 1975, she entered her first competition at the Del Mar Nationals, where she immediately caught the industry's attention by securing first place in women's freestyle. Peggy Oki was a trailblazer on a team already revolutionizing the sport. At the Vans Black Rainbows exhibition in LA, she told POPSUGAR, "I was doing something I really loved. I didn’t focus on being the only girl on the team or the absence of girlfriends. I was just doing what I enjoyed."
Now 66, Oki is a dedicated environmental activist, committed to protecting orcas, dolphins, and other whales. She even delivered an insightful TED talk on commercial whaling in 2016.
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Elissa Steamer
Elissa Steamer, now 46, was born in Florida, USA, and began skateboarding in 1989. Growing up in a small town made acquiring a skateboard or skate magazine challenging, let alone gaining recognition in the skate scene, often requiring trips over a bridge to the neighboring town.
She appeared in videos as early as 1996 and was the first woman to feature in a Tony Hawk video game. After turning professional following her win at Slam City Jam in 1998, she gained international fame. In 2003, Steamer was named "Female Skater of the Year" by Check it Out Girls magazine. Besides continuing her professional skateboarding career, she also runs her own skate and surf brand, "Gnarhunters."
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Sky Brown
Sky Brown began both skateboarding and surfing at three years old. Her preschool featured a skatepark, and her father constructed a backyard mini ramp where he skated daily.
Brown first gained online fame at four years old when Stu shared a video of her on Facebook. She spent hours watching and mimicking YouTube videos. Sky Brown is Britain's youngest Olympic medalist, having earned this title at 13. In May 2020, while training, she fell from a ramp, fracturing her skull, breaking her left arm and wrist, and suffering heart and lung lacerations. Despite the severity, she remained optimistic, eager to return to skateboarding. Sky expressed, "The message is that you can fall but also rise again. Bad things can happen, but good things often follow. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
Brown has secured several sponsorships and was signed by Nike after turning professional in 2018.
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Lizzie Armanto
Lizzie Armanto began skateboarding at 14 after her brother expressed interest, leading their mother to enroll them in after-school sessions at the local skatepark.
Lizzie Armanto has claimed over 30 skateboarding awards. In 2013, she won gold at the inaugural Women's Skateboard Park event at X Games in Barcelona, Spain. In 2016, Armanto made history by being the first woman on the cover of Transworld Skateboarding in its thirty-year history. In 2018, she became the first female skater to complete the "Loop," a 360-degree vertical ramp maneuver. In January 2019, Armanto announced her membership in the Finnish skateboarding national team, intending to represent the country at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Six months before the Olympics, Lizzie Armanto experienced her most severe fall, one of the worst in skateboarding history, while on a mega ramp. She joined Tony Hawk and Jason Ellis on their Hawk vs. Wolf podcast to discuss the incident, the thoughts she had during the fall, undergoing surgery amid the pandemic, relearning to walk, and returning to skateboarding.
Recently, she collaborated with Vans to create a skate shoe, The Lizzie, designed specifically for girls who skate, featuring a high-top design, a slimmer sole, and a lower footbed to better fit female feet.
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Rayssa Leal
Rayssa Leal, aged 14, from Brazil, received her first skateboard at six and began riding around her home. Her father's friends were skateboarders, so she joined them for street skating sessions.
Rayssa Leal first gained widespread attention at seven when a video of her skating in a tutu while performing daring jumps on her skateboard went viral. She was affectionately dubbed "A Fadinha do Skate," meaning "The Little Fairy of Skateboarding."
Leal participated in the 2019 Street League Skateboarding Championship in London, finishing third. In July 2019, she claimed first place at the Street League Skateboarding Championship in Los Angeles. That same year, she finished fourth in her first X Games appearance and won a silver medal in women's street at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
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Sakura Yosozumi
Sakura Yosozumi began skateboarding in 2013, inspired by her older brother. Starting in September 2017, she trained for five hours on weekdays after school.
Yosozumi competed in the women's park event at X Games Minneapolis 2018, finishing second in qualifiers and earning a bronze medal in the final. She represented Japan at the 2018 Asian Games. At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Yosozumi participated in the inaugural Olympic women's park skateboarding event, where she won the gold medal.
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Nora Vasconcellas
Nora Vasconcellas received her first skateboard as a Christmas gift at the age of 5, spending her days skating in the family barn and at the local skate park with friends. In June 2012, she left her job to pursue skateboarding in California. Within five years, Vasconcellas became a professional team rider for Welcome Skateboards. She worked there for four years, learning the intricacies of running a skateboard company, until June 2016. Shortly after turning pro for Welcome Skateboards, Vasconcellas became the first woman on the Adidas pro team.
In December 2017, acclaimed filmmaker Giovanni Reda, in partnership withAdidas, released the short film Nora, a lighthearted documentary that highlights Vasconcellos’ skateboarding journey. "I think what Nora is achieving as a role model for women," states Reda. "I hope my daughter looks up to her as someone who has persevered and doesn't allow obstacles to hinder her goals. And Nora achieves this by simply being herself, which many people don't always do. She serves as a role model for young girls, showing that women can succeed in a male-dominated world."
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Leticia Bufoni
Leticia Bufoni started skating at 9 with all the boys in her neighborhood; she was the only girl in the group, and her father disapproved, breaking her board to prevent her from skating. Eventually, he changed his mind, allowing her to pursue her passion, and her grandmother gave her a board at age 11.
Bufoni was ranked as the #1 women's street skateboarder by the World Cup of Skateboarding for four consecutive years from 2010 to 2013 and was featured in The Guinness Book of World Records for the "Most Wins Of The World Cup of Skateboarding." In 2013, she was nominated for an ESPY Award for Best Female Action Sports Athlete. She also became the first female skater to sign with Nike SB in 2015. By 2015, Leticia Bufoni had already become a globally renowned skateboarder, earning a place in the "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5" video game. In 2018, Forbes recognized Bufoni as one of The Most Powerful Women In International Sports for 2018, and she was included in Sports Pro Media's list of The World's Most Marketable Athletes for 2018.
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Cher Strauberry
Cher Strauberry first encounteredskateboardingwhen she was 7, she used to skate outdoors at a funeral home. "Skateboarding literally became my everything," she says. "I honestly don't remember doing anything else between the ages of seven and 14. I was doing board slides on caskets in the back parking lot of the funeral home." Her parents allowed her to leave school and concentrate on skateboarding. Then, at age 12, Strauberry won first place overall in the California Amateur Skateboard League. But tragedy struck when she broke her ankle just before the end of the season. She broke her ankle two more times that year, and doctors advised her to stop skating.
January 1st, 2017 marked the formation of Unity, a queer skateboarding collective. Unity represented a movement for LGBTQ skateboarders worldwide. Unity organized numerous Queer Skate Days at a DIY park in Oakland. On March 5th, 2018, Strauberry announced her transition on her Instagram profile. She found it challenging to be a trans woman skateboarder due to the offense taken by many skaters. Strauberry just wants to be recognized as a skater girl, not a "trans skater girl." She is paving the way for the queer/trans community and has become an internet sensation with coverage by Thrasher, Vice, and The New York Times. She recently filmed a skateboarding segment for Oakland punk band SWMRS' video "Trashbag Baby" and released the first-ever trans skateboarding part with Peach Sørensen titled "Strauberry Peach."
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