Jaime Reyes is a skateboarding pioneer whose well-documented career contains many firsts. The first woman of color on the cover of Thrasher, the first woman to ride for Real skateboarders, first to hold so much switch game, able to effortlessly barge handrails and nollie tre’s—basically anything she could imagine. Let us not forget her best-selling pro model shoe and position on Rookie representing New York’s finest. Listing her accomplishments and history breaking barriers is an exercise in skate nerddom which I not only enjoy but pass down to my students. During discussions with visiting industry leaders, my students advocated for more significant support of women in skateboarding while specifically citing Jaime Reyes’s historical contributions to the game. An icon in the skateboarding masses’ minds and forever in the hearts of several generations of University of Southern California students, I present my most recent conversation with the legendary Jaime Reyes…
Interview by Neftalie Williams
Photos by Shawn Owens
Published in November 2020
How are you keeping your mental health now? This year has been crazy.
I’ve been skating at home, thank god I have a mini ramp and a flat ground area where I can have a little flat bar, a little box and a small quarter pipe. Also I just set up my darts board so I’ve been playing darts too, that’s how I’ve been doing it.
Nice. Where are you living at right now?
I’m living at Virginia, about an hour from Richmond. I live in the ‘burbs’, I went from a city girl to a burb.
How is that feeling?
I do miss the city a lot, I was going to the city often but because of the pandemic I haven’t really left the state or… my area.
The lockdown is a real thing, and everybody’s gotta stay home right now.
Yeah if everyone would please do their part. That’s what needs to be done and this thing will be gone… well not completely gone but at least more manageable or we can go back to hugging. Also, I almost died from pneumonia twice so I have a compromised immune system. Y’all gotta wear a mask for me!
So now that we know what’s been making you feel good—
For my mental health, I also watch a lot of skateboards videos too, on YouTube. Whatever’s out that day, to go on Thrasher or whatever, the YouTube channel… I just watch all skateboarding shit. So that’s how I’ve been passing the time and trying to keep my head straight.
Previously you told me “when the Olympics goes on I want to be a female skate coach, I want to be in the mix”. As we’ve gotten closer to it how are your feelings on that now? Are you still thinking about it? And also, what are your feelings on seeing so many talented young women of color skating now?
Yes I still want to be a “Skoach” – Skate coach, but I think Mimi Knoop might have that job so I’ve been pitching her—she needs an assistant skoach, and that would be me (laughing). As for the people of colour, Women’s skateboarding and POC, just skateboarding and POC in general, has blown up and this is what I love about skateboarding. It’s always been that way for me. We never excluded anybody, we didn’t care if you’re purple, yellow, etc. You skate? I skate? Cool! However these days, the last 4 years things have changed a lot in the US and you see more racists and biased people in public which is really sad. I’ve seen some people’s true colors and I think, Holy shit this is how they really feel?
Yeah. Hearing it come from people who we never thought would never spout that kind of negativity. It’s unsettling! And the truth is, skateboarding has been good to us, but there’s a bunch of young people online who really pushing older, racist views.
Yeah, our world right now is a complicated place.
But back to your point there have been so many new skaters of color which has been so amazing to see.
Like I said, skateboarders are like United Colors of Benetton, we have every nationality. But I’ve been saying that for years because you have every nationality, every race, straight, bi, trans, you got everything and that’s why I think skateboarding is not just big for POC, it’s for everyone and that’s what I love about it.
Yes and I think we’re in a time now where people are finding their voice, and finding skateboarding. I think everyone, trans people, lesbians, gays, just more people with different identities are finding something that they like about skateboarding, so that’s been good.
That’s what I appreciate about skateboarding.
In my opinion skating-wise you were always ahead of the curve, I literally still show your clips to my wife. What does it feel like watching the new skating crews and progressions? Do you feel embedded within the new generation and roll deeply with all of them, or do you feel like this is a new era?
I feel both, skateboarding has come such a long way—people are jumping off fucking buildings now! (laughing). The biggest stairs set was maybe 10 stairs back in my day but now people are kickflipping off buildings, jumping down 30 stair rails, so yeah it’s come a long way. So in that way, I’d say I’m the elder on that stuff. Do I want to do that now? Hell no! However, I do feel like I’m still part of this generation’s skateboarding, I still got some tricks.
The thing is even if you didn’t have some tricks, you’re such a mentor and vital to our history because you’ve been through so much. Do you feel like you’ve been having an opportunity to mentor, or would you like more opportunities?
I wanna be a part of everything in a good way, and just bring positive things into skateboarding… I just want to do good. That’s all I care about, people being happy, no fighting. Everybody just needs to take a chill pill and get over their negative views and get the fuck along. That’s kind of a big deal to do swallowing our pride and just to attempt to get along but nobody wants to talk about it.
I agree. In the last four years it’s been really harsh. There’s been negativity and people have been really free to run wild with whatever negative thoughts they had, rather than saying “You know what, I should try to stay positive”, [with my intentions].
Yeah I’m trying to think the best of everybody but sometimes you see things and feel like, “Damn, dude did they really just say that?”
Yeah, and we’re still trying to stay positive, it’s been a trying year in so many ways. During the BLM protests, did you see them on TV or were there any near you?
I’d see them on TV and I lived not too far from Richmond, Virginia and the monument things were pretty gnarly. It was some of the craziest shit I’ve ever seen and a couple of people I knew got arrested for basically, protesting and doing nothing. They even put a friend in jail for a couple weeks and he still had to go to court! He worked in construction and everyone who works in that field has a pocket knife, a razor blade, etc. for work, but they said that that was a weapon! Living in NY, any blade that’s smaller than 2inches is not a weapon so you can carry that knife, I don’t know what the laws are here but I thought that was a bogus arrest.
Was that a person of color who got arrested?
Actually no, he was white.
Oh ok so he was out protesting and backing us, POC up?
Yes, backing us up and he wasn’t throwing shit around, he was just there when the monument went down. He was about to leave, and they scooped his ass up!
Wow, I forgot you were in Richmond, a key place because that’s where the monuments were going down. Did you see any of the monuments come down or being pulled down by people in person?
I’ve seen the videos of it but I wasn’t there. There’s one monument that you can kind of skate now, Caleb McNeely had a trick on this monument, was pretty rad.
You mentioned earlier that in skating we’ve found reasons together. Drawing from our previous interviews, I always go back to the history in NY with RB [Umali]and being out with [Giovanni] Reda, and they were two people you drew inspiration from. For those that don’t know about your experience growing up, I wanted to discuss the crew you used to roll out with. It was a multiracial, multicultural crew, right?
Hell yeah! We had RB the Filipino dude, Spencer Fujimoto, the Japanese dude, we had Giovanni Reda the Italian, Peter Bici I think he’s Albanian, Jamal Williams – African American, we had every race, the people I skated with in NY, in general, were different race and gendered backgrounds [particularly with founders of the first female led skate company Rookie Jung Kwan, Elska Sandor and Catherine Lyons and the legendary riders Lauren Mollica and Jessie van Rockout]. Even when I grew up in Hawaii skateboarding, Portuguese skaters, Chinese, Filipino, every race around.
So, you always knew skateboarding as a place to bring people together. It’s amazing that you had it in Hawaii, and then you had it in NY. When I was doing one of the interviews, Seu Trinh, mentioned that he felt there was something special about cities– you get to talk a little bit more about your identity or feel your identity more. Conversely when you’re on tour in some places you might be looked at as the random Black person or the random Asian dude…
I was the random brown girl (laughing)!
So, you have felt that before?
Yes, I was the random Brown girl, like “Oh does she really skate? What is she?!” People never figured out what nationality or ethnicity I am, and I don’t need to explain it, I am mixed!
Can you tell me where and when you noticed that feeling of marginalization, and “Yo, I’m the Brown girl on tour”?
(laughing) I want to say more suburban areas, more [US] mid-west. That’s where I felt like, Holy shit I’m different. That’s the only time I felt different, and I don’t ever feel different. I always try to put myself in the best crew to skate with and surround myself with good people, but when you’re on tour you just don’t know where you’re gonna be. Sadly, that’s kind of the only places, really suburban areas or like the mid-west places where I felt really awkward. In contrast in Japan, they didn’t even care about what I looked like. There it felt like, “Oh a skateboarder! Yeah!”
I interviewed Sal Barbier and he said the same thing, and Seu did too, that people there are like “Yo you’re a skateboarder! Cool!”
In one American State it was me, Lauren Mollica, Chat Bartie, Matt Mumford, Chad Fernandez, and Jaya Bonderov, and we were just skating around having a good time… on our last night there we went to a bar and it was seriously a ‘frat boy’ party. One of the dudes tried to kick it to Lauren and she wasn’t feeling it, and I wasn’t feeling it either, so I said something and then our boys saw that something’s going on… next thing you know, it’s big bar fight. I took my shoe off, threw it at the dude who was talking shit to me, and it was like I was in a fucking Superbowl game—the perfect spiral. The shoe hit this guy in the head and then we just continued fighting and the cops ended up coming through. Surprisingly they let the skateboarders go and arrested the frat boys. So it worked out in our favor!
Damn… that never happens.
The dude called her a lesbian, just because she didn’t want to kick it with him! And that was like 20 years ago! So after this fight, we went back to the hotel, flew to LA the next day with bumps and bruises and never talked about it again. (laughing)
Well it’s beautiful that you had backup from the crew. I also understand what you are saying, that guy was so bold to say “Oh you’re not talking to me so you must not like dudes”. No, actually you’re just a dick, and even if it was the case, that wouldn’t have been his business, anyway. So, moving back to representations, are you seeing more outlets for skaters of color, skaters from different genders, identities and backgrounds? Is that something you’ve been excited to see?
I’ve been completely excited to see all this stuff happening! The whole skateboarding community is coming to get together to have things like this for everybody… like Unity skateboards, There skateboards, Glue skateboards, FroSkate, there’s so many I can’t name everybody! My apologies. Skate Like A Girl has been doing it for 10 years now, SkatePal, Skateism, so many!!
Yes, there has been progress for sure. Thanks to that change I’ve been able to focus on race in this issue. Thinking through the BLM movement and the uprisings, were you thinking we were going through a moment of change? How were you feeling when it sort of erupted?
I felt that this uprising and response should have been done a long time ago to be honest. But I’m glad it’s happening and people are finally recognizing like “Oh shit.. there are problems and there’s so much unfair shit happening.” It’s been going on for years and years! I was watching that movie, Hidden Figures, with the 3 African American ladies who were working at NASA and they were working in the fucking basement because they were Black, even though they were smarter than the white dudes! They finally got the recognition, but they shouldn’t have been put in that situation in the first place.
Yes, and it’s everywhere, it’s in race, it’s in gender… and particularly it’s worse when all these factors are combined. Did you feel a sense of solidarity in the BLM protests and uprisings?
Oh for damn sure! Do you remember in CNN, watching in London, there was a white dude at a protest going on and this African American gentleman scooped the white dude up who was getting beat up and carried him? I think his name was Patrick Hutchinson, he could have just left that dude getting his ass kicked by all these protesters but homeboy protesting Black Lives Matter and still saved this dude. And I was like Oh my God this is such a beautiful thing! and I started crying.
That’s the thing, we’re still making progress towards caring for each other. White people are in the streets defending Black people and POC, too. I talked to my mom when I was really stressed about everything and she gave me her insight, ”Just know that there has never been this many white people protesting in solidarity with us ever. I have seen the 60’s and this has never happened. Sometimes it’s tough and a real hurt has to happen before change comes, but this change is coming, they can’t stop it.”
I definitely feel like there’s gonna be change. I feel like it’s now or never!
Definitely. And I’ve seen it in organizations that I’m working with right now too [The Tony Hawk Foundation/ The Skatepark Project, Skateistan, College Skateboarding Educational Foundation (CSEF)]. It seems people are more open to listening. Have you noticed that too?
Yes, I have, more people are actually listening—more than they used to. There are some other people whose views are never going to change which is really sad, but they’re just going to be miserable for the rest of their lives, that’s on them.
That’s something I think is interesting in skateboarding—you can mess up on your own and people might try to tell you. Βut if you’re going down a bad, negative or racist path, you have the option of listening or not, because it’s your life. Skaters will let you do you –but they will also roll right past you. You will learn when you are alone. Also, beyond BLM with the pandemic happening we’re getting to see the have and have nots. We are viewing the real cracks in the fabric of the social contract which we already knew about. We see how it’s affected people differently, those with a nanny, or money for enough computers for all their kids or separate rooms to do things and learn. Υou might survive this, but if you aren’t living with means it has been a lot worse for those families.
Yeah and let me tell you, a lot of the school systems weren’t set up to do virtual learning. Friends of mine who have kids told me, “Oh my god the internet just went down” and how often it is happening at schools just because everybody is using the school’s network.
Yes, it’s crazy and a new world with the pandemic happening. Also with so many kids being forced to be in the house from a skateboarding standpoint I’ve seen more kids have the opportunity to skate and get into individual activities. It’s been a push for skateboarding where I’m at.
Oh yeah for sure. Thank God skateboard is in my life, because if I didn’t have skateboarding in my life right now, I probably would have gone nuts. I could be a lazy sack of shit but I don’t want that (laughing).
No, neither of us need that (laughing). We know what inactivity looks like in our lives. There’s a skateshop here in the Netherlands called Revert95, and when the pandemic hit, Jeroen who runs it thought he would mainly close the shop down and just work on paperwork. Ηe mostly shut down but people kept coming to the store. He told me, “We’re actually selling more skateboards”. Here in the Netherlands people weren’t allowed to be involved in team sports, so everyone went out and bought skateboards for their kids. It was the only activity they could do!
I heard that same situation, that skateboarding sales have gone through the roof.
Yeah, here they couldn’t do any other activities, so they had to do something. There were no completes, all trucks were sold out, can you imagine?
Yeah one of the skateboard shops down here asked me if I had any wheels (laughing)! Because they were sold out of everything!
Going back to our focus of race and how it operates fluidly in different circumstances, you touched on the differences between US locations and in touring other countries. Were there any other spots where you felt racial differences too?
Maybe Ireland, it was a little weird for me but I guess they never saw another Brown skateboarder girl before (laughing).
For us, as people of color in those circumstances, I don’t think people realize how you have to operate. You have to gauge, is it safe here? Are people looking at me just because they have never seen another person with dark skin before? Maybe they aren’t judging me and they’re just giving me a look. You have to make the call.
Well, in some places I felt like they had never really experienced a girl that skateboards or a girl that’s brown and skateboards. And in other places I felt like I was super uncomfortable and had to go back to the hotel.
Can you think of anywhere, or any incident where you thought “No, this is not for me, I need to leave”?
In one American State there were 4 Black dudes, me a Brown girl, one Japanese dude, and a white dude and everyone was looking at us weird when we were checking in at the hotel. Then we went out to dinner, 8-10 of us and everyone at the restaurant was just staring at us. We just knew we gotta get out of here.
Yeah, that’s tough.
Now, I just want all of us to do well, and have this change. I want equality for everybody, and I said this before but I’m an equal opportunity hoe (laughing).
Are you living with anyone now if we are going to talk about love lives? Is that ok to talk about?
Yeah, I don’t mind it in my interviews. I’ve been living with my wifey for 11 years now! I don’t know if the pandemic has anything to do with it, but I think our relationship is a lot better now, than ever. We got to spend more time together I guess, we were always home together so I think it made us stronger. There were a lot of break ups and then people getting really solid.
I agree, we went ahead and got married during the pandemic (laughing). If you make it through this you are set. In skateboarding who is supporting you right now?
I wanna thank Jim Thiebaud for keeping me rolling with them Real boards and Spitfire wheels! I always wanna thank Mark Oblow because he’s family no matter what, Scuba Steve at Nike for hooking me up and keeping my kicks fresh, and Swiss Bearings for keeping me rolling for 20 something years now.
Last, about the election, I know we all feel better now that Biden has won but also let’s talk about Kamala Harris, the first female vice president. Did you have any feelings seeing her as the first woman of color in that position?
I told you, change, it’s happening! Also I don’t know if you saw my story on Instagram yesterday, first US female football player to play in a Power Five, Sarah Fuller. Everything’s about to be equal, I’m just saying!
Yes, and that’s what we need and what our kids need to see.
Yeah, you can do whatever you want, it doesn’t matter what gender or whatever, you can do it. And like I said, the first female to play in Big five College football? She made history yesterday.
That’s really amazing.
We doin’ shit! We’ve always been doing shit, only now it’s being recognized.
That’s the perfect quote to end this right now, “We doin’ shit!”
And everyone needs to do their part and wash their fucking hands and wear a mask! Please, and then we can go back to hugging, high fiving, I miss all those things!
IG: @_jaime_reyes
Shop our 6th issue, an educational issue about race HERE.
