8 Best Female Skateboarders In The World
Last Updated on July 8, 2024 by BoardsRiding
Throughout its existence, the skateboarding culture has been predominately dominated by men. However, since the 1960s, women have been breaking ground for future generations of female skateboarders by demonstrating to their younger contemporaries the confidence that can be gained from riding a board.
Women who have revolutionized the culture and history of skating are among the best female skateboarders of all time. Skateboarding went from being a male-dominated industry to one representative of everybody and everyone passionate about the sport when these women got involved. Many modern female skateboarders owe their success to the groundbreaking work of innovators like Patti McGee and Peggy Oki in the ’60s and ’70s.
Please continue reading to learn more about the women who have inspired millions of followers all around the world in the industry of skateboarding and how they have garnered international fame. You can also check out this best skateboard for girls.
Women and Skateboarding
Women comprise the population segment that is expanding quickly within the skateboarding community. And there is no better moment than the present, as skateboarding is about to debut as an Olympic sport shortly.
It’s not like women haven’t been riding surfboards in the streets for a long time; Patti McGee was the first woman to compete professionally on a skateboard in 1964. McGee won the first-ever Female National Skateboard Championship and set a new world record for being the girl who can skateboard the quickest, clocking it at 47 miles per hour.
Peggy Oki won the Women’s Freestyle Competition, and not long after that, she became the only female member of the Z-Boys, which consisted of 10 male members at the time.
In the same year, Laura Thornhill made history by being the first female skater to have a trademark model board of her own. Therefore, it should be no surprise that women have been an essential component of the skateboarding culture since it first emerged.
But until relatively recently, women did not have a permanent stake in the industry in the same way men have, and they certainly did not achieve the status that their male counterparts have achieved since the sport’s inception in the late 1940s or early 1950s.
This was the case until more recent times. It would take time before women could discover possibilities to participate in sponsorships and shoe agreements. It would also take some time before women could receive equal pay.
This would not occur until the middle of the 1990s with pioneers such as Elissa Steamer, known as the “godmother of street skating,” and Cara-Beth Burnside, the first woman to have her skate shoe behind her name. Elissa Steamer was the first official female professional skater.
In the history of professional skateboarding, Cara-Beth Burnside was the first woman to have her skate shoe associated with her name. In certain studies carried out over the same decade, the demographic characteristics reflect a lack of diversity. For example, one study’s results showed that most of its participants were male (90%), whereas only 10% of the available spots were reserved for women.
Skateboarding has certainly progressed since its early days. From a misunderstood counterculture to an internationally recognized female skateboarders olympics Sport, it has made it through quite a few waves in popularity while fighting against negative perceptions and misconceptions. It is merely a pastime where young people gather to play loud music and shout profanity. Currently, it is an Olympic Sport.
Skateboarding, at its heart, displays a welcoming and accepting culture of people of all ages, genders, sexual orientations, and cultural backgrounds. It is where you will discover rigorous discipline in your training, encouragement, support from your contemporaries, and an appreciation for your artistic abilities of one.
And because of this, skateboarding has developed into what it is today. It is a sport for those on the margins of society and everyone who harbors aspirations of tearing down walls, transcending limitations, and shattering preconceptions imposed by society.
That is exactly what female skateboarders have been doing for the past few decades, and our age has the good fortune of witnessing some of the very best of all time in action.
8 best female skateboarding.
Skateboarding wouldn’t be what it is today if it weren’t for a few of the pioneering women who skateboarded because they fell in love with the sport, regardless of whether they achieved fame. They have caused a stir in every aspect of society, reaching goals that most people can only fantasize about.
One person may see a wall that stands in the way of her achieving her objectives and taking advantage of chances, while another may find a method to climb over the wall and ride the wave that follows. These women have succeeded in accomplishing their goals.
1: Patti McGee
Skateboarding pioneer and one of the first women to make a name for herself, Patti McGee was featured on the cover of the May 1965 issue of Life magazine. Life Magazine’s May 1965 issue prominently featured Patti McGee on its cover. A few weeks later, at the tender age of 19, McGee was the first and only female subject of an issue of Skateboarder.
The famous color image depicts McGee executing a handstand on her skateboard. More recently, McGee became the first woman inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame when she was awarded this prestigious accolade and become the best female skateboarders.
She skated and did tricks like 360s as a “demo girl” for Hobie Skateboards, and her career is still cited as an inspiration to today’s female skateboarders. She was the first female skateboarder to lead the way for other female skateboarders, many of whom would later look up to her for her power, tenacity, and endurance.
Today, Patti is still as influential as she has ever been, and she continues, in conjunction with her daughter, to make outfits for women who love skating as much as she has. We owe a compliment to her for opening the first door, and we hope that her daughter will continue the tradition.
2: Peggy Oki
Another best female skateboarder’s name that needs further investigation is Peggy Oki. Keep in mind that Oki was the first female skater to join the Z-boys and that she did so despite receiving backlash for “skating like a guy.” She joined forces with a group that was predominately comprised of guys. She skated better, which, from her point of view and the point of view of many others, was a significant accomplishment at the time.
Black female skateboarders, Oki just like McGee, started as a surfer but eventually became more interested in a different type of board. At age ten, her father bought her very first skateboard, which came with Fred Flintstone rock wheels as a nod to her favorite cartoon character. Her style was considered “raw” and “gritty” when she first joined the Zephyr (Z-boys) Competition Team, which is where she learned to skate.
She may not have been a part of the skateboarding scene for as long as some others, but she has become a pioneer of a different kind in her own right. She has become an advocate and campaigner for causes that bring attention to the influence that humans consistently make on the planet’s environment.
She is the creator of two programs, the first of which is called the Origami Whales Project, and the second is called the Whales and Dolphins Ambassador Program. Both assists educate younger generations on how critical it is to build a sustainable future for all of the people who live on this planet.
3: Cara-Beth Burnside
Cara-Beth Burnside arrived on the scene a little later, specifically in 1989. Burnside flaunted her power and physique on the cover of Thrasher magazine, where she was shown dominating a vertical ramp while sporting a pink ponytail and wearing the color pink. She began her career as a professional snowboarder to supplement her income so that she could continue her professional skateboarding career.
She was a professional skateboarder as well. Over the course of her career, she has won over 16 different competition titles, including gold medals for the first-ever United States Olympic snowboarding team in 1998 and medals for the SKB Vert in the X-games from 2003 to 2010. Burnside, in large part, was responsible for convincing the X-Games to hold a women’s event.
For the first time in 2003, women were given equal billing to men in an X-Games skateboarding sport with the debut of the Women’s Vert Event. Burnside has asserted that young women must observe other women engaging in activities, regardless of the nature of the “thing” being observed.
Her belief that she could do what other women were doing on skateboards was reaffirmed when she saw other ladies doing the same thing. That was all it took for her to become a pioneer in the sport and a role model for generations of young girls and boys who would emulate her—and her shoes, as she was the first woman to have a signature skate shoe.
In addition, she was the pioneer of having a skate shoe brand named after her. Finally, Burnside has added yet another title to her growing collection by being recognized as one of the “sexiest vegetarians” in the world, a fact that we would be negligent not to mention. She is truly one of the best female skateboarders.
4: Elissa Streamer
If you’ve ever sat down to play a video game, you already know that picking out your character is one of the most enjoyable parts of the experience. Imagine for a moment that you had only one female option and that Elissa Streamer was the only one available to you.
Although there were certainly a few extremely influential women in skateboarding before Streamer’s arrival on the scene in the early 1990s, she is generally regarded as the first woman in the sport to make a career for herself out of her passion for the sport. The Streamer is credited as the first to make a career for herself out of her passion.
She does not harbor any regrets. If you ask her whether she believes she would have progressed further if she had been a guy, you’ll probably hear a resounding “no” response. She fought for equal money even in her first appearance in Toy Machine’s iconic “Welcome to Hell” video when she started in her profession.
She negotiated and established a reputation for herself in the process. Streamer went on to win four gold medals in the Women’s Street competition at the X-Games. In the end, she formed a partnership with the Bootleg brand, a section of the Baker Skateboard company, and remained there until she joined Jamie Thomas, the founder of Zero, in 2004.
Right now, you can find her working on her brand of skateboarding clothes and accessories called “Gnarhunters.” Streamer’s aim to avoid being renowned for performing acts that would be judged “quite decent for a girl” rather than preferring a reaction that took no note of gender at all sets her apart from other performers and is one of the things that makes her so impressive.
Even at this late stage in her life, her primary interest is to become the best female skateboarders, which, in contrast to many other sports, encourages greater gender equality and less gender segregation. She would prefer that skating reflect a more holistic vision rather than having “female” skateboarding or separate platforms for different genders.
5: Leticia Bufoni
Bufoni was born in Brazil and started skating when she was nine years old. Her grandmother bought her first skateboard for her. Even though Bufoni’s father opposed the concept of his daughter skating with many male skaters, Bufoni was adamant about continuing the sport. Her father eventually agreed to accompany her to her first competition.
At 14, Bufoni took part in her first X Games competition. Five years later, she had amassed an impressive collection of gold medals. In addition, she achieved the record for the most victories in the World Cup of Skateboarding, which is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Although Bufoni may have been the only girl in her neighborhood who skated when she was younger, by 2017, she had already established herself as a professional skateboarder and was sponsored by Plan B Skateboards as best female skateboarders. She has already achieved several “firsts,” such as being the first woman to appear on the cover of The Skateboard Mag and the first woman to be signed to the Nike SB squad.
She has even appeared in her reality television show in Brazil. The tournaments that Bufoni has participated in have taken him all over the world, from Long Beach, California, to Shanghai, China, and he has placed highly in almost all of them.
One of the most influential athletes in the world, Bufoni counts among her finest accomplishments the opportunity to break Elissa Steamer’s record for the most gold wins in the Women’s SKB Street competition. Bufoni has won a total of seven gold medals in the tournament.
These are only a few noteworthy accomplishments that have been accomplished, and there will undoubtedly be more to come. She is a living example of the importance of persevering in pursuing one’s goals despite challenges in one’s path.
6: Alexis Sablone
Alexis Sablone, the skater with the most years of experience on the first United States Olympic Skateboarding squad, is as furious on the board as she is driven. She has a master’s degree in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is also an artist, producing images and board graphics for WKND Skateboards.
Sablone, who is now 33 years old and competed for the first time when she was only 12, quickly rose to the ranks of the top female skaters. She finished in second place in her very first X Games competition, winning three gold medals, another silver medal, and two bronze medals in subsequent competitions.
During her career, she has witnessed the evolution of skateboarding, and her love of skating, as well as the nostalgia it evokes in her, has allowed her to bring together her creativity and unyielding devotion. She recently presented a skateable sculpture in Sweden that she calls “Lady in the Square,” and she plans to design other sculptures both in Florida and Sweden.
She is one of the best female skateboarders alive. Sablone formally joined the WKND skateboard squad in 2017, and she has made it her mission to demonstrate that skateboarding is open to anybody and everyone who has an interest in the sport. Skating is a form of self-expression that may take many different shapes and forms, and Sablone exemplifies this diversity by being able to do it.
7: Aori Nishimura
Aori Nishimura is one of the most outstanding professional skaters in Japan. She broke into the scene when she was concluding her elementary school career at seven and has been one of Japan’s best female skateboarders ever since.
She will make history as the first Japanese athlete to win gold at the X Games, as she is the current Japanese Skateboarding Championship champion. Her most recent accomplishments include winning two gold medals at the 2019 X Games and a bronze medal in the World Skateboarding Championship held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She is only 18 years old.
Nishimura, like many others, has endured injuries that could have dissuaded her from pursuing a career in skateboarding. Still, she has steadfastly refused to do so, even though she was forced to undergo ongoing rehabilitation for a knee injury for six months in 2017.
She returned to competition in less than a year. Because of her consistent high-level performance, Aori has become synonymous with women’s street skating in Japan. It is well known that she is a “gold medal threat,” and it is highly recommended that you keep a close eye on her.
8 Lizzie Armanto
In 2018, Lizzie Armanto was the first female skater to complete the 360 loops that Tony Hawk had created. She is not having any trouble establishing a reputation for herself in the industry, and she is very clear on the strategy she intends to use to achieve so. She is a professional skater who Vans sponsors.
She has already won over 30 trophies, including becoming the first person to win gold in the X Games Women’s Park Competition in 2013. Armanto also made history as the first female skateboarder to be on the cover of Transworld Skateboarding. She was the first in 20 years to grace the cover of Thrasher magazine shortly after Tony Hawk’s Birdhouse was set to release her pro model deck.
Both of these accomplishments came shortly before Tony Hawk’s Birdhouse was scheduled to release Armanto’s deck. Armanto, who grew up in California, started skating as a child. Her mother is likely responsible for her interest in skateboarding because she took her and her brother to the neighborhood skate park after school when they were younger so they would have something to do for a few hours.
Armanto thought that the neighborhood skate park was far superior to spending her time at the local library, and she has not slowed down in pursuing her professional goals since then. She maintains herself as best female skateboarders in the world.
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Conclusion: Best female skateboarders
Women are making waves in the male-dominated sport of skateboarding. They have always been there, but now they are revolutionizing the industry, creating possibilities for younger generations and those yet to see that skating is for everyone, regardless of who they are or where they come from. Skating requires a tremendous amount of imagination and a strong level of determination, and the names on this list of best female skateboarders, along with numerous others, illustrate that with every competition they enter.
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