Oldest competitive female skateboarder defies gravity and expectations to break record

With her knees bent, and strands of silver hair tucked under her helmet, Judi Oyama (USA) stood atop the sharply titled ramp, and wheeled her skateboard back-and-forth beneath her feet. 

Before her was a sloping course dotted with orange cones, and surrounding her were some of the best skateboarders in the world – it was the 2024 World Skate Games in Chieti, Italy, and over 100 countries had sent delegates to the competition. Many of them were a quarter of her age. 

When the buzzer beeped, Judi launched herself down the ramp, picking up speeds of roughly 30 - 40 mph (48 - 64 kph) before wriggling her body and her board through at least 100 m (328 ft) of closely packed orange cones. As always, the fastest skater would take the prize for the slalom events, and it was not uncommon to see even the best professionals trip up from the pressure or the foreign terrain. 

For many 64-year-olds, this would be a terrifying task – but for Judi, skateboarding was nearly as familiar to her as walking. 

The fearless skater first got on the board over 50 years ago, when she was 14 years old, and her brother Cary brought home a handmade skateboard from school shop class. It was 1973, and representation for female skateboarders was lacking – and even more so for Asian-American women. But Judi quickly fell in love with the sport, and soon she started shredding in skateparks, parking lots, and drained pools.

Nearly half a decade after she was first introduced to the sport, Judi still participates in competitions like the World Skate Games – even placing amongst the top in the world in the slalom and overall events. 

So in honour of her impressive legacy as one of the pioneering women in professional skateboarding, Judi was awarded with a Guinness World Records title on 12 September last year at the World Skate Games, for being the oldest competitive skateboarder (female) at the age of 64 years and 326 days. 

“I don’t feel that old, until I look in the mirror and see the wrinkles. But I feel like I’m stronger than I've ever been,” Judi said in an interview to CBS Mornings.

“When I go to the airport, or I get rides, I have skateboards, and they go ‘oh, where’s your grandkids? Or your kids?’ and I go: ‘Uh, no. These are mine!’”

Back in the 1970s, even in her hometown of Santa Cruz, California, USA – where skateboarding was a popular activity for all the beach kids looking to ‘sidewalk surf’ – Judi had to deal with  institutionalized stigma, as skateboarding competitions were usually catered to young male skaters. 

“When they first did some of the X-games events… the women’s first prize was $2,500. But they were giving men $2,500 to show up and skate,” she said. “They didn’t even have to place.”

Still, that didn’t stop the determined athlete, who was supported by her strong family. Her brother had gifted her that first handmade board, while her parents – who both lived through the forced migration of Japanese people to American internment camps during World War II – always encouraged their daughter’s love for athletics, despite the physical risk. Her father, a talented photographer, even captured her love of the sport on film.

“And even my mom, when I would tell her, ‘Mom, I’m going to go skateboarding…’” said Judi, “She'd start laughing like, 'well, be careful!'”

By 1975, Judi was a talented skater, who was competing professionally in mens-only events, as female categories were yet to be established. During the 1977 Capitola Classic, she was the only female competitor – yet she still placed eighth, and the next year she was invited to become a member of the Santa Cruz Skate team, upon which she started to receive some of the first sponsorships for women in the sport. 

Before long, she wasn’t just keeping up with the boys – she was beating them.

Judi skated street and vert, but one of her favourite events was always slalom racing, which she described to Guinness World Records as: “racing in between cones down a hill.” 

“What defines a good skater is [being] consistent, running the cones clean, and [being] competitive with other racers,” she said.

And despite her age, Judi believes that her experience has helped her become a stronger competitor.

In 2003, she won the Slalom World Championships at age 43, and 10 years later she was ranked second in the US and first in the masters division overall.

“[Now] I’m much more careful, I'm not so into racing the big, giant slalom, fast hills. I’m more careful, but I think staying fit has helped me because I’ve taken some good falls and been able to recover,” she said.

In 2015, Judi became the first woman to win the N-Men Icon Award, given to Northern California skaters who have made an impact on the sport. Three years later, she was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame for her role in pioneering women’s professional skating, and her racing helmet from the 1970s and 1980s was also admitted to the Smithsonian.

But even though she’s now won accolades for her legacy, Judi still hasn’t stopped competing – in 2023, she qualified for the USA National Slalom Team, which competed in Rome the following year. 

And she has always encouraged people to try skating, regardless of age or gender: “I would tell them that as long as they’re physically able, that there’s no reason not to be skating,” she said.

Judi mentors other young women in the sport, and serves as the the Vice President of Board Rescue – which provides skateboards and safety equipment to organizations that help underprivileged and/or at-risk kids.

Meanwhile, she’s in a unique position for an athlete – being able to watch the sport grow around her, as she competes against girls and women who may have looked up to her when she was young.

 “I think [representation for female skaters] is headed in a really good space,” she told CBS. “I think that it’ll just be natural and normal for a young girl to say ‘I wanna skateboard’ and ‘I want to compete.’”

And for as long as she is able, Judi will keep skateboarding with them.

“I think I take every day as a gift – to keep skateboarding as some fun thing that not everyone gets to do. Like, I got to go travel and skateboard,” she said. 

“And I just feel like I wanted to get the most out of it. But I never thought I would STILL be getting the most out of it!”