‘I tell them to be good for a skateboarder. Don’t be good for a girl.’
Cara-Beth Burnside
November 2024
You were the first female on the cover of a skate mag (Thrasher, 1989) and having the first signature shoe (Vans). Have you ever had a pro board?
No. I never did but I always wanted one. That was my biggest goal in skating. It was always so hard because girls don’t skate. We support girls and give you boards. It did not matter how good a skated or how well I have done in contests because “girls don’t skate, and we do not have a reason to pay you or give you a board”. I don’t remember who it was but at one point some Team Manager told me “No girl will ever have a pro model in skateboarding”.
There was a minute when I have done my own company which I called ‘CB Skateboard’ and made my own models there, but it was not the same. I was just trying to start my own little company, but it was also the time when I started to break into snowboarding. I saw that a lot more women were doing it like travel and make money and that is what I wanted to do in skateboarding, but it was never going to happen. Fast forward to this time Tony Magnuson from H Street wanted to give me my own pro model and that would be my first real board I would say. Definitely stoked to have my own board but it is not the same when I was younger.
You rode for H Street late 80ies and appeared in Hokus Pokus. You had to wait 25 years to get your own board.
That’s true. It is just different now, but it is just good to have a board out there and skate my own board. I have graphics that I really like that resemble me as a character. The first board is woman with a sword on a white horse. I have a white horse and I am a bit of a cowgirl. We are also working on a second model which is something different. In all of my boards there is the KMA flag which stands for ‘Kiss My Arse’. I came up with it when I boycotted the Xmas as they would only pay $1,500 the winner of the girl’s division. I just wanted to say that Tony Mag really supported me. He wanted to get a bunch of photos from me and he saw how much stuff I have that he and other people did not even know. All the stuff that I have done snowboarding, skating and in other sports and he was like “you have to do a book”. Tony would not be that kind of guy that would not mean it. He is straight up. I got the first part of the book started. The concept. Lotus Burnquist, Bob Burnquist’s daughter, wrote the text. She is an upcoming entrepreneur doing a lot of cool projects. Then I sent it to Tony Hawk, and he really like it and the idea I was trying to accomplish. Now I am trying to get to the next level with it and see where it goes. I want to do a book and really be out there. I just don’t want to do a book just of doing a book. Maby, this will help me doing other things I would like to do like a documentary. I just need the right help and direction to make it good. I want to call out people that kept me going and focus on the positive. I had people that wanted to do a documentary on me looking at the negative. However, I do not want to complain about things. This is not what I am looking for.
“No girl will ever have a pro model in skateboarding”
In your interview with Vice in 2018, you said that ‘girls need to see more girls skating because it makes a difference’. Now six years later, are there now enough female skateboards to inspire others?
Definitely. There are so many good girls out there, California and around the world. They are ripping good doing legit, gnarly stuff. Have you seen any contests online?
I just saw a clip of Rayssa Leal from Brazil. She is incredible.
She is crazy.
Some of the women skate as good as the guys.
They could. I have not been around the past few years to say who is doing really well right now. I have seen videos, but they are different to actual contests. By saying that social media helped so much as you do not have to wait for a magazine to come out. You can be a girl and find so much stuff online and finding support and people to put your stuff up.
On a similar note, would be different if you had the opportunities the female skaters have today compared to when you started in the 80ies?
First of all, there are girls contests and girls’ division. They are people that film you and you can get sponsors that pay your travel. There are opportunities to get paid and get a pro model.
When I was growing up it was like “girls should be wearing dresses to school Ms Burnside and play football”. People were saying weird stuff to me all the time, but I just liked skateboarding. Am I supposed to be a guy? There were not any cool clothes for girls to wear back then so I would wear boy’s jeans. I would be stoked if I had the same choices as the girls today. You can be a cute girl not wearing a dress. That was very confusing to me. So, when people mentioned that I could be a boy instead that would go into my head, you know. I was 12 and my parents put me in a private school where I had some good teachers. My PE teacher specifically told me that I am really good at sports like his wife and so you can be still a young lady being good at it. It really helped me feeling good about me being a girl.
You boycotted the X-Games because the girls were not getting paid? I heard it on Tony’s podcast a couple of weeks ago.
That’s another reason why I want to do a book because there are so many things’ people don’t even know.
However, I am not the only one. There are other girls doing stuff. Lisa Whittaker does a lot of videoing with the girls and gets it out there on her website. She has been documenting the girls for years. Lisa has done a lot, but she is not getting paid for any of that. She just loves skating and help girls to get to that level.
What was your reaction like when you were told you will be inducted to the Skateboarding Hall of Fame in 2015? Were you ‘what took you so long’ or more like ‘I do not deserve this’?
I did not think either one. I just thought that is cool. Definitely awesome to get recognized. Would even be better to get an award and a car or something. It is nice however to put on the resume.
What are you working on besides the book?
I still pursue to be on the Vans Legend team. I got fired from VANS because the CEO did not like me.
Last question. If you could interview one person, who would it be and why? What would you ask?
That is a tough question. I guess it will be a woman that has done stuff that really inspired me to do different things. Maybe Jane Goodall. She is a primatologist and anthropologist. She studied the social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees. She has done these studies way back in the 60ies when women were not doing these things.
‘Would even be better to get an award and a car or something.’
