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Contests are nothing new to Judy. She ran her first downhill race at Capitola in the 1970s at age 15.
Since then, she has been part of the local skate scene.
One of her first jobs was packing and shipping skateboard parts for the Santa Cruz skateboard company NHS (NHS Skate Direct) and installing ball bearings in the wheels.
“I silkscreened skateboards for them,” Oyama says. “I learned how to do it there.”
A job at a skateboard company in Santa Cruz launched her career in graphic design. She began airbrushing surfboards and creating shop window displays owned by the NHS.
For about 20 years, there weren’t many slalom skateboard races, but Oyama continued to skateboard for fun and to get around town.
When a friend called her in 2001 to let her know that official racing was restarting, she jumped at the chance to race again. At the time, she had her hands full with her two young children, but that didn’t slow her down. Her children came to her races.
“They were wearing diapers,” Oyama recalls. “When I started racing again in my early 40s, I was still breastfeeding.”
When she returned to the game, she started winning and never stopped. In 2018 she was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame.
On the world stage and in museums
When the NHS Skate Museum opened in a large warehouse in Santa Cruz, Oyama helped curate it. During her museum tour, she pointed out the glass exhibits.
“Inside this case is my original Santa Cruz skateboard team bag,” she says.
The museum is filled with photos and videos of old competitions, colorful skateboards, and vintage skate art.
First on display was one of Judy’s earliest skateboards, an original Santa Cruz brand board. It’s made of bright red fiberglass, has red wheels, and has “Santa Cruz Skateboard” printed in yellow block letters on the bottom.
One of Oyama’s early skating helmets is in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution.
“When my work is displayed in a museum, I know I’m old,” she says.
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