PATRICK O'DELL: What neighborhood
are we in right now?
ELISSA STEAMER: They call this the Sunshine Belt, Sutro
Heights, or Richmond, I guess.
PATRICK O'DELL: San Francisco?
ELISSA STEAMER: I mean, technically, yeah.
Like I said, me and all of my friends that I was skating
with, like the Baker people, like Eric and Andrew and
stuff, everybody went their separate ways.
And then I didn't have any reason to stay in LA.
I remember I rode down a hill one day, and I was like, OK,
I'll move up here.
Hi, welcome back.
PATRICK O'DELL: What's up?
Welcome back to "Epicly Later'd." This episode is
about Elissa Steamer.
And I'm really excited because we've never had a girl pro
skater as the subject of the show.
And I'm doing this episode not really because she's a girl.
But that's a big, interesting part of her story.
When she came out it was unusual to see a girl skating.
Where now, I think, in part because of her influence, if
you go down to a skate park, there's going to be lots of
girls skating.
And I think she was one of those people to really break
down that door.
"Welcome to Hell," that was the first I had ever heard of
her and then "Jump Off a Building." She's had a really
long career of really awesome skating.
Well, this is the Elissa Steamer episode.
I hope you enjoy it.
ELISSA STEAMER: You like that one?
Florida.
PATRICK O'DELL: Is that your pro model truck?
ELISSA STEAMER: No, I had one, though.
And it was my name in Slayer font.
So sick.
PATRICK O'DELL: Well, let me go back to the beginning.
So where are you from?
ELISSA STEAMER: Fort Myers, Florida.
PATRICK O'DELL: How did you get into skating?
ELISSA STEAMER: I liked all things different.
Saw somebody doing it.
It was the '80s.
And skating was big, right?
Schmit Stick ATV.
My dad was stoked on it.
He'd buy me a skateboard for my birthday in July.
And then he'd buy me a skateboard for Christmas.
I'd have a board that last like six months at first.
PATRICK O'DELL: Were there any girl skaters that you liked?
ELISSA STEAMER: There were no girl skaters.
There was that one Powell segment with Lori Rigsby and a
girl with striped pants on.
They were not as good as Ray Barbee.
PATRICK O'DELL: You mostly just
looked at guy pro skaters?
ELISSA STEAMER: Well, that's all there was, right?
There was no she-boarders.
And there was no girl who skated in my town.
There was a girl skated in Brandon, or
Bradenton, or something.
But she sucked.
It was boring skating with her.
She couldn't push down the street.
We had a skate park in town.
And so all I would do is skate in the skate park.
And me and Milligan would take the Greyhound to Tampa.
And then we would just stay in Tampa for weeks at a time.
The skate park at Tampa was the hot spot.
I remember we used to want to skate so bad.
But we'd be like, oh, we can't go to the park until 5:00
because nobody's there until 5:00.
There was a firm demo.
I think it was firm and girl and chocolate.
When I called Lance Mountain.
And I was so nervous, oh my god.
I called and I was like, hey, this is Elissa, the girl
skating in Tampa, or something like that.
And then he sent me two boards a month.
The Real team came through.
And I skated with them.
And I had a Menace board the whole time.
That's what I rode, Menace boards.
PATRICK O'DELL: So did you try to get on Menace?
ELISSA STEAMER: No, because they never came through.
But if they did, I would have tried for sure.
And then Toy Machine came through.
That was the summer they all gave me the stuff.
JAMIE THOMAS: And it would been the end of '95 probably.
And Muska came around to us and was just like, yo, this
chick, Elissa Steamer, you got to check her out.
She rips.
She's got be on Toy Machine.
CHAD MUSKA: And I saw her kick flip
the pyramid, or something.
And instantly I was just like, who is this chick?
She's so amazing, so dope.
And I was instantly like, let's hook her up.
Let's hook her up.
Let's look her up.
ELISSA STEAMER: I think it was Paul Zitzer who was like,
you've got to ride for Toy Machine.
The Muska wants you on Toy Machine.
And I was like, I don't even know who--
I thought he was Jamie Thomas' buddy.
And I don't know if it's because I didn't read that
magazine that month or whatever.
But when I met him, he wasn't the Muska.
He was becoming the Muska.
I don't know, I guess.
I don't know.
I mean, I'm sure he's always been the Muska.
You know what I mean?
Dude rules.
JAMIE THOMAS: It was Muska just whiling out.
And he was just so pumped and hyped on stuff.
And he got super hyped on Brian Anderson and
put him on in a day.
And then put Elissa Steamer in a day, too, at Tampa park.
It was awesome.
And at the time, I think she was getting
flowed from the firm.
And I don't know how it came about.
But I think she smoked weed at the time.
And Muska smoked weed.
And they were broing down.
And next thing we knew, she was on Toy Machine.
ELISSA STEAMER: Hello, my name is Elissa Steamer.
I'm from Fort Myers, Florida.
I ride for Toy Machine.
And they were like, we don't have a flow team.
You're on the team if you want to ride for us.
And I was like, oh, yeah, OK.
That sounds good.
I don't know.
I didn't know how things worked.
And I was scared to call somebody and tell them, hey,
I'm going to ride these boards instead.
So I didn't do it.
And then I had a Toy Machine shirt the
next time I saw Mickey.
And he was like, what the fuck?
I mean, he was cool about it.
And it was so funny, Mark Waters, the
first box, sent me--
remember they had "Girls Kick Ass." I called Chad or Jamie
or someone and I was like, dude, what
kind of box is this?
ED TEMPLETON: It's kind of funny, because I grew up here.
And some of the original girl skaters I happened to be
around when I was a young kid skating, too.
There was this girl, Anita.
And she was sponsored by SMA Rocco Division
in the early days.
So in California, it was a little more normal.
But I think in the rest of the country overall, it wasn't
that normal at that time.
So I loved it.
I loved the idea of having Elissa.
MIKE MALDONADO: Right before she had, I guess, flew out
when we were going to start filming for the "Welcome to
Hell," Jamie told had told me, he's like, I think we're going
to put this girl on, Elissa Steamer.
You've probably seen her in Tampa and stuff.
I was like, yeah, that's a bad bitch right there.
She got the ill style, man.
He's like, yeah.
We might as well have the best well-rounded team if we're
going to have the best handrail skaters and dudes
that jump gaps and crazy shit.
Why not have the best girl skater?
I was like, definitely, that's what's up.
JAMIE THOMAS: I made plans to come back three months later,
or two months later--
I forget how long it was--
and film with her.
And that's when I basically stayed at
her house for a week.
And we filmed all of "Welcome to Hell" pretty much.
ELISSA STEAMER: I didn't even know how to skate.
I swear, I did not know how to kick flip down three stairs.
All we skated was ledges and flat ground.
Jamie got me to do it--
not got me to do it.
He encouraged me to do it.
I had no idea what I was capable of.
I didn't know I could ollie that far.
I didn't know anything.
There was no drill sergeant type of the thing that you
hear about him.
He was the coolest dude ever.
He came and stayed with me and my mom.
It was awesome.
We got along great.
And he'd be like, you should try this.
And I'd be like, I don't know if I can do that.
And he'd be like, I bet you can.
And I'd try it.
And I would do it.
JAMIE THOMAS: I just filmed her going to the
park with her dogs.
And that was the intro.
And it was cool to see her in her space.
And I didn't really skate.
I just filmed her.
And I was just a filmer.
So it was like I wasn't there to skate.
I was just there to support and help her
film a video part.
And we got a lot of stuff done.
I think we probably got a minute of footage that trip,
or a minute and a half.
And it was probably half her part her in "Welcome to Hell."
And it was tight.
ELISSA STEAMER: Jamie stayed with me for a week.
And then I came to California for a
week before the deadline.
And I remember hearing the buzz around town that there
was a girl on Toy Machine when I got to Pacific beach.
BRIAN ANDERSON: Jamie didn't tell me, hey, there's also
going to be this girl there.
It was real vague, because there weren't cell phones.
I got an airline ticket in the mail probably.
And I just showed up.
So that's the first time I met her with Jamie
in the Honda Passport.
And they wanted of us to film for "Welcome to Hell." So we
lived there and went out skating every day.
JAMIE THOMAS: She had a East Coast style, too, for a girl.
And it was sick.
I mean, everybody knew that she was different than every
other girl that there ever was.
And it was obvious.
ELISSA STEAMER: Milligan, I grew up with, and Rob, too.
And Tons is young.
But he's a Floridian.