Elissa Steamer

Personal information

Born

July 31, 1975 (age 41)
Ft. Myers, Florida, U.S.

Height

5 ft 4 in (1.63 m)

Weight

121 lb (55 kg)

Sport

Country

United States

Sport

Skateboarding

Medal record

Summer X Games
Representing United States
	2004 Los Angeles	Street
	2005 Los Angeles	Street
	2006 Los Angeles	Street
	2008 Los Angeles	Street
	2007 Los Angeles	Street
	2009 Los Angeles	Street

Elissa Steamer (born July 31, 1975) is an American professional skateboarder who is acknowledged as the first woman to have attained professional status in the history of skateboarding.

Steamer was born in Ft. Myers, Florida, United States (US), and began skateboarding in 1989. Steamer frequented a small city owned skate park on Grand Avenue.

Although she received a concurrent offer from Real Skateboards to ride the company's decks, Steamer first began receiving skateboard decks from Lance Mountain in 1995, who was running a company named "The Firm" at the time.

Steamer's first official skateboard deck sponsor was Toy Machine, founded and owned by professional skateboarder, Ed Templeton. Professional skateboarder, Chad Muska, then a leading member of the Toy Machine team, facilitated Steamer's sponsorship; at the time of Steamer's acceptance, Toy Machine consisted of Templeton, Muska, Mike Maldonado, Jamie Thomas, and Brian Anderson.

Steamer subsequently filmed for her Welcome to Hell video part, a 1996 project primarily driven by Thomas, who temporarily resided with Steamer in Fort Myers to undertake the camera work for Steamer's section in the video. Steamer remained with the company following Thomas and Muska's departure and contributed a video part for Toy Machine's next film project, Jump Off A Building.

Following the departure of numerous co-riders from Toy Machine, Steamer informed Templeton by telephone that she was also leaving and joined the Bootleg brand which was founded as a sub-division of the Baker skateboard company. Bootleg was distributed by the NHS, Inc. company (Independent, Creature, Santa Cruz) and Steamer's involvement was a progression of her personal connection to skateboarders such as Andrew Reynolds and Erik Ellington. Bootleg was founded by Jay Strickland, who also cofounded the Baker brand with Reynolds, and was a short-lived, month-long venture that ended following a video release, Bootleg 3000.

Prior to Bootleg 3000, Steamer's video parts were included in the Baker Bootleg and 2G videos. Steamer stated in 2014 that her highest paycheck from skateboard deck royalties was received during her time with Bootleg.

Steamer was provided with a three-month paycheck following the demise of Bootleg in 2004, and Frank Gerwer, a professional skateboarder who lived with Steamer, attempted to negotiate a sponsorship deal with the Anti-Hero brand that he also rode for, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Thomas, who had by this time founded his own skateboard company, Zero, asked Steamer to ride for the brand, and she joined the Zero team in June 2006.

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