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Born on July 31, 1975 in Fort Meyers, Florida, Elissa Steamer was the first pro female street skater and the first woman in the sport to have a starring role in a major video. Beyond the benchmarks, Elissa was really the first girl since the explosion of street skating to be accepted into the boys club as an equal–helping break down gender barriers and inspiring fellow women worldwide to hit the streets. First attracted to skateboarding via a stint as a BMXer in the ’80s, Elissa landed on Toy Machine in ’96 and began to clock footage immediately for their upcoming video. Her subsequent groundbreaking part in Welcome to Hell was the first footage she ever appeared in, and Jamie Thomas captured it all in a week while staying at her house in Fort Meyers!
An overnight superstar upon the video’s release, Elissa went on to film her second part in Jump Off a Building in ’98, turning pro in April of that year. By ’99, she had appeared as a character in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game, before dropping yet another part in Baker 2G in 2000, and Bootleg in ’03. From ’04 to ’08, she won a record four back-to -back X Games gold medals in women’s street, and by ’09, she released a shared part with Jamie Thomas in Zero’s Strange World video. Following her accolade-studded career, Elissa currently resides in San Francisco, where she continues to skate, surf and develop her project, Gnar Hunters.
