MIKE MALDONADO: I'd rode so many of these boards, I
couldn't even tell you.
I had the perfect tail and nose on it.
And I'd saved it.
And I was like, I'm always going to have this board.
So when I actually don't have a board to ride, or I got to
sit there and pick out 10 boards that I can't ride, that
got steep tails and shit, I'm going to have this one.
I just like to hang out with Elissa the most, probably,
because we just like to do the same stuff.
We like most of the same music.
At that time, we were just smoking bud, and just
drinking, and just skating.
So it was just somebody I'd kick it with on the normal.
But everybody on the team was still cool.
We even kicked it with everybody.
Muska was running the show pretty much at that time.
He was the hot dude.
Jamie was the vet.
And it was just like the vet, the owner pretty much
everybody on that team had [INAUDIBLE]
Ed Templeton board.
And then Jamie, nobody was going as hard as he was with
everything.
With Donny being the new pro, me, Elissa, and Anderson, it
was just the young bucks, just the rookies.
BRIAN ANDERSON: There was a routine.
We would sit on Jamie's back porch.
And we would all get stoned every morning.
I'd wake up to Chad and Elissa out on the
back doing bong rips.
And then somebody would maybe try and go surfing.
Then we'd go find grip tape and just do regular, everyday
skate stuff when you're trying to film a part.
When we had the old [INAUDIBLE]
blue van mid, late '90s in San Diego, it was a good time.
-You think that was hard for her, to get into a van and go
on a tour with a bunch of skaters?
ED TEMPLETON: I think it was hard mostly for other people.
Because that's a question she's always had to answer all
the time, even back then.
That was the question everyone would come to her with.
Like, oh is it crazy, hanging out of these guys?
What's up with that?
We'd have porn mags in the car and taping up
stretched out snatches.
She would just laugh.
She didn't care about that stuff.
BRIAN ANDERSON: She said that in the
interview about myself--
and I love the quote.
She said it was like a switching from one pack of
wolves to another pack of wolves.
And she nailed it, because she grew up skating with all dudes
behind the supermarket or at some crusty launch ramp, and
splitting two liters of coke and sharing cigarettes, and
just a total guys world.
JAMIE THOMAS: She made everyone feel so comfortable
that no one guarded their words or felt like they were
in mixed company.
She was basically one of the homies.
She just happened to have boobs.
CHAD MUSKA: Initially, I looked at her like, oh she's a
girl skater.
That's really rad.
But then eventually, she was just a skater, but
then she is a girl.
I tried to hook up with Elissa a bunch of times.
She used to punch me and kick me and stuff.
This is when I was super faded.
She's a girl and there's a van full of skaters.
At some point, people are going to be
like, what's up girl?
You know what I mean?
ED TEMPLETON: I would adopt this employer stance.
Like, are we sexually harassing you right now?
You could sue us for this.
But all in jest.
As an employee of Toy Machine, you're getting fully sexually
fucked with right now in the workplace.
And we would just all laugh about that stuff.
JAMIE THOMAS: I thought her part was
amazing and it was perfect.
And she really wanted to use The Sundays, which you know,
obviously, was a girly sounding band.
And I was supportive.
And I just wanted her to have the part she wanted to have.
And I wanted her to just psyched.
-So you picked the song?
ELISSA STEAMER: Yeah.
But I was coming out of this weird--
I don't want to say hippie, but I was young and weird.
And I listened to The Sundays.
That's kind of emotional, huh?
-I thought it was perfect.
ELISSA STEAMER: Really?
I look back at it now and I'm like, I wish it
was Slayer or something.
JAMIE THOMAS: That's what made "Welcome to Hell" what it was,
was that it was this super eclectic group of people all
put together.
ED TEMPLETON: Even if Chad and I had tension, it was still a
special time where we were all doing it for the first time.
And it felt really good.
And we all knew it.
We all knew every night when we got back, we knew we were
working on something special.
CHAD MUSKA: I guess it wasn't really that long, in general.
But looking back, it seems like it was an eternity.
Like I said, it was a change for all of us.
All of us taking that leap of faith coming to California,
everybody leaving everything to try to come and make it.
And nothing was for certain back then.
We were just doing it and skateboarding and doing what
we loved to do.
And a cool group of people came together.
-So how did things change for you once that part came out?
ELISSA STEAMER: Oh, it was like, now I was a
skateboarder.
My whole world changed.
I knew what the blueprint was to do.
You know what I mean?
I wanted to be a pro skater.
But it was easier back then, because I was under Jamie's
wing, kind of.
JAMIE THOMAS: We would always try and find cool looking
stuff that wasn't as gnarly, because she was
sensitive as well.
She wasn't always just like, take me to gnarly stuff.
She was like, I can't do that.
Come on guys, I can't do that.
And so we were always trying to find stuff that looked cool
for her, that maybe was original, or that
she could shine on.
Just basically, this is her ability and let's try and find
things that line up with her ability.
-When did you turn pro?
ELISSA STEAMER: '98.
-Was that before "Jump Off a Building"?
ELISSA STEAMER: Yeah, it was right before it.
ED TEMPLETON: I never saw so much negativity.
The philosophy of a lot of kids in the world at that
point was this--
I'm better than Elissa, so I should be on Toy Machine.
That's the gist of the letters.
We got not just one, but multiple letters from
different people with that same kind of line of thinking.
And I was blown away with this.
I was like, what?
How do you kids not understand what's happening here?
She's hands down, at this point in time, the best girl
skater period, the best style ever of a girl skater.
That's why she's on it.
She's epic at what she does.
JAMIE THOMAS: It's challenging marketing a girl to guys.
Normally why you buy someone's crap is because you want to be
like the person, or you look up to them, or you want to
skate like them.
And most teenage boys don't probably want to skate like a
girl, even though she's badass and she's
the best girl skater.
ED TEMPLETON: I don't think her board
was ever a best seller.
And I would try even harder to make cooler graphics in a way.
I wanted to make sure this board is kick ass.
But it's easy for them to say, I want to be like Koston.
I wish I was Koston.
It's harder for them to think, I wish I was Elissa.
-Didn't "Big Brother" want you to skate
in a dress or something?
ELISSA STEAMER: Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, they wanted me to shoot the cover in a dress.
And they offered me $1,000 too.
And now thinking back on it, it wasn't such a big deal.
But I was like, I'm not compromising my integrity.
SHANE HEYL: And she's like, nah, you're not getting me to
play this, I'm a girl skateboarder.
Check me out ollying some gap.
And I think Clyde Singleton ended up doing it, got dressed
up and took the photo ollying some whatever gap.
ED TEMPLETON: She'd come to me with these questions like,
what do I do?
And I'd be like, fuck that shit.
Don't do it.
If they're not going to give you a cover for being a good
skater, then fuck it.
You don't want to kook it out.
She did have an interview where she put make up on all
crazy in "Big Brother." But I thought that photo was kind of
cool, because it sort of subverted the idea.
We never did one thing female.
It wasn't, oh here's our girl pro with a pink ad
and shit like that.
She was treated exactly like everyone else.
The ads were the same ads that we do for everybody.
The boards were the same graphics.
Everything was basically equal treatment.
I look back on that with some sort of happiness, because I
feel like that help set whatever tone there was.
Because at the same time, there was a bunch of people
who wanted that stuff to happen.
That's an Elissa ad.
A little drawing I did of her.
-I asked Muska, we were talking about if guys ever got
drunk and tried to hit on you on tour.
ELISSA STEAMER: Uh huh.
-And I was like, did guys ever do that?
And he was like, uh me.
ELISSA STEAMER: Well, I think he was kind
of fond of me, probably.