The All Girl Skate Jam-Middletown, RI -May 9th, 1999

Cara-Beth Burnside and Elissa Steamer were both crowed three time champions as the 1999 All Girl Skate Jam. This year’s event was held at Skater Island in Middle Town
Rhode Island, an extensive indoor park with a street course, vert ramp and multi-sized mini ramp on May 9th. All three were used for the day’s festivities, as a competition was held in each.

    The day started out in the mini ramp, an event which almost all girls there participated in. The contest was run in a jam format, heats of four or more girls having 15-20 minute jam sessions in which they could do whatever they wanted to impress the judges. True standouts on the ramp were Elissa Steamer, who’s backside airs to disaster were unrivaled in technical difficulty by anyone else, and Cara-Beth Burnside’s long consistent runs including lip tricks and airs. These two ended up with the top spots, Cara-Beth first and Elissa second.

    Then the focus shifted over to the street course. There were so many pro girls in this discipline that there had to be two separate heats. In the first heat the real standout was a 12 year old named Alexis... Even in practice it was very clear that this girl would be one to watch, and her runs were definitely of the sponsorship offers she received after the competition. She landed every trick she attempted, including kickflips on the roll-in, boardslides on the handrail and 50-50’s on the planter. In the next heat, Elissa Steamer was the obvious standout. She was landing a few of her tricks, but it wasn’t until the jam session was almost over that she landed her kickflip over the channel and really got rolling. She then rode away from a huge kickflip over the pyramid and pretty much secured her victory. She was definitely the crowd favorite, and apparently the judges too, as she came in first for the thrid year in a row. Alexis finished up in second, with Heidi Fitzgerald in third and Jessie Van... in fourth.

    Now it was time for the big show, the vert. All the names in female skateboarding were there. Competition was fierce, airs over the channel was favored, and the judges spent 20 minutes arguing over who should win. Everyone’s runs got better as the 30 minute jam went on, and the beat of Metallica in the background almost added to the excitement. In the end, there was a few ties. Fourth place tied between Wendy... and Heidi Fitzgerald, Heidi, who practically killed herself trying to roll-in from the deck. Third place was Candy Kramer, and second was another tie between Jodi Macdonald and Jen O’Brien. Both girls skated consistently with good airs and lip tricks, Jen’s frontside airs over the channel were some of the most heavily photographed of the day. In first place, no surprise was Cara-Beth Burnside. This pretty much makes her the undisputed best female vert skater in the world.