Kerry Cooper (Germain) was a Nineteen Seventies skater who is generally below the radar, however her identify sometimes appeared in contest outcomes, beginning again in 1976. On the Ventura 2nd Annual Skateboard Championships, Kerry positioned 2nd in freestyle behind Laura Thornhill for Ladies 11-14, forward of Tracy Alaway, Bonnie Kaplan, and Gloria Blanchard. Contests had been nonetheless of their infancy, and this video provides a way of the enjoyable and chaos:
Kerry adopted up a couple of months later with a win on the Thousand Oaks Contest, sponsored by the Aquanetics Surf Store, forward of Becky Martinez, Kym Milburn, and Lynnette Fraas. The October 1976 challenge of Nationwide Skateboard Evaluation famous that there have been over 100 entries, as Erbes Highway was a protracted, remoted stretch and centrally positioned, interesting to skaters from northern and southern California.
Whereas representing the Malibu Crew, Kerry positioned 3rd on the California State Championships in Freestyle, October 1977 at Carson Runway skatepark, behind Julie Cheng and Tara Kaylor. Jim Goodrich took a improbable photograph of Kerry, most certainly at this occasion (The Runway) of her holding a stable hand-stand, which was revealed within the April 1978 challenge of Skateboarder.
In an August 1978 article about Wendy Gooding, who was a skater and secretary on the Reseda Skatercross park, it’s talked about that Kerry and Cindy Hernandez had been a part of the scene, and had been presumably coached by Gooding who exceled in pool and was professional for Sims. Glen E. Friedman documented Kerry’s progress whereas skating Reseda, and the picture was included in a e-book (misspelling her identify as ‘Cary’).
From there, Kerry turned a part of the 1978 SkateboardMania present, which was a touring spectacle involving costumes, particular results, and skateboarding!
There’s a photograph by Jeff Ruiz from the December 1978 challenge of Skateboarder with Leilani Kiyabu, Vicki Vickers, Kerry, and Laurie McDonald, all SkateboardMania performers taking a break from their practise. Kerry made mates with Judi Oyama on the time, who was additionally on the six-week tour. In a weblog entry, Judi shared that the present was one million greenback manufacturing, and the skaters lived in a Vacation Inn off the Hollywood Boulevard, so they might practise within the Lengthy Seaside Area.
Sadly, on account of some behind-the-scenes drama involving the pinnacle director, the SkateboardMania present was cancelled. Judi took off for “Hawaii for five weeks and bumped into Kerry who was hanging out together with her sister on the Northshore. Dano [Devine] an expert surf/skate photographer from Santa Cruz was primarily based on the Northshore for the winter surf needed to do a photograph shoot with us. We poached Rory Russell’s ramp at Pipeline after which did some random hill runs with Dano sitting on the hood of the previous rusted out automobile.”
Images: Dan Devine with Kerry on Rory Russell’s ramp and locking in a hang-ten.
The 1979 Judi / Kerry journey in Hawaii seemed like a blast, and it’s so fantastic that Dan Devine captured such memorable moments. Judi famous that there have been many proficient skaters, like Kerry Cooper who by no means made it persistently into the magazines, however they nonetheless ripped!
Kerry will need to have loved the vibe in Hawaii, as a result of she ended up publishing a collection of youngsters’s image books within the early 2000s about browsing and a toddler’s life in Hawaii, with two of the titles successful awards from the Hawaii Ebook Publishers Affiliation. She lives on the North Shore of O‘ahu.
Images: Jim Goodrich, Glen E. Friedman, Jeff Ruiz, Dan Devine