The not-so-normal life of Bay Area skateboarding prodigy Minna Stess

“She has that traditional skateboard type,” mentioned Alex White, one of many first feminine skilled skate boarders, who has identified Stess since she was 8. “Her aesthetic and magnificence interprets irrespective of her outcomes. It helps that she’s actually good, however a method or one other, Minna goes to be the poster lady for the subsequent decade.”

In little greater than a yr, Stess went from the youngest feminine skater ever to win a USA Skateboarding championship, to a reserve on the primary Olympic workforce, to a world championship medalist, putting third final month in Rio de Janeiro behind the skaters who claimed gold and bronze in Tokyo, the place it made its Video games debut.

“I don’t know what I’d be doing if I wasn’t skating,” mentioned Stess, who’s ranked sixteenth on this planet and can look to defend her nationwide title subsequent month in Vista. “My life would in all probability be so boring.”

At residence in her household’s kitchen this summer season, indicators of her extraordinary life had been as small as framed paintings and as huge because the skatepark that her dad and mom constructed within the yard.

On the highest shelf sits a black-and-white picture of a pizza field taken by legendary skateboarding photographer Bryce Kanights, from a 2015 artwork gallery known as Metropolis Boys: The Beginning of Road Skating in San Francisco. On the desk lay a number of Thrasher magazines; most of them characteristic her.

She shrugs it off.

“It’s regular,” she mentioned. “I simply do my factor.”

Stess realized easy methods to skate when she was 2, however she doesn’t do not forget that. She additionally doesn’t bear in mind the primary time she landed most of her tips. It’s simply one thing her mind is aware of easy methods to do. She has her sights set on the 2024 Olympics in Paris, however to her, she is simply dwelling her life the way in which she needs.

Stess is 4 years youthful than gold medalist Sakura Yosozumi, however two years older than Kokona Hiraki and Sky Brown, who took silver and bronze.

“There’s all the time going to be somebody youthful than you developing,” she mentioned. “If I do one thing because the youngest, that’s cool, however I’m not aiming for that.”

Stess had been making ready to journey to Peru and China for Olympic qualifiers in 2020 when the IOC postponed the Video games for one yr throughout the pandemic.

She finally watched them from residence, on name however conscious it probably wasn’t her second but.

“I wish to attempt manner tougher,” she mentioned. “Seeing how shut I used to be was fairly cool.”

Left: Minna opens a thank-you card from a 3rd grader on the Spring Hill College in Petaluma. Proper: Minna’s skateboard. Minna has been skating since she was 2. Photographs by Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle
Center picture: Minna opens a thank-you card from a 3rd grader on the Spring Hill College in Petaluma. Above: Minna’s skateboard. Minna has been skating since she was 2. Photographs by Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

White believes Olympic success is inevitable for Stess. She in contrast her to Brown, who was Nice Britain’s youngest ever medal winner, on the age of 13 years and 28 days.

Worldwide competitors has solely gotten higher because the sport debuted on the Video games, which is able to make it more durable for Stess — or anybody — to medal.

Each different week, Stess and her mother, Moniz, drive 10 hours to coach in Vista with Jessika Alexander of USA Skateboarding. When at residence in Petaluma, she flies round her yard skatepark, which her dad and mom in-built 2012 after digging up their backyard and pouring concrete.

“Individuals thought I used to be both good or loopy,” mentioned her father, Andrew, stressing they received a “actually whole lot” on the supplies. “I feel it was a mixture of each.”

Stess enrolls unbiased research college, taking lessons when she’s residence and receiving assignments to show in after her varied travels. A typical week for her seems to be like schoolwork, observe and scheduling the place she goes subsequent.

Like Stess, her dad and mom wrestle to think about some other life. Neither skated; they had been musicians, a ardour they imagined they could move all the way down to their children.

The closest Minna has gotten to that’s listening to music whereas skating.

“I like actually dangerous music typically,” she mentioned. “I don’t like saying my style as a result of it’s so random. I like (skating to) dangerous rap typically, it makes me really feel like an asshole after which I’ve these lands, it’s simply humorous.”

With their children interested in skating — Minna was impressed by her older brother, Finnley, to take it up — Moniz and Andrew leaned in. They grew to become a robust a part of the native skating neighborhood and hosted the primary ever Skate Like A Woman Bay Space occasion in Santa Rosa.

No one anticipated the obsession Minna would develop, although, or particularly the success. In 2013, when she was 8, she grew to become the primary lady to win the California Novice Skateboard League collection in its 30-plus-year historical past.

When her dad and mom signed Minna up for competitions whereas she was a baby, they didn’t have Olympic aspirations. They simply appreciated seeing her completely happy.

“She appears to be having a whole lot of enjoyable,” Moniz mentioned. “There’s laborious work there, however there’s enjoyable and laborious work on the identical time.”

Left: Minna enjoys time along with her grandmother, Ina, on the household residence in Petaluma. Proper: Minna relaxes along with her household’s collie, Esther. Photographs by Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle
Prime: Minna enjoys time along with her grandmother, Ina, on the household residence in Petaluma. Above: Minna relaxes along with her household’s collie, Esther. Photographs by Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

Stess hadn’t thought of her personal company as a skateboarder till a damaged elbow pressured her away from the game in 2018. For thus lengthy, it was simply one thing she did. The eight months she spent recovering from three surgical procedures — “they couldn’t maintain the screw in… my arm is simply too skinny, it was like, protruding” — bolstered her perception in how a lot she beloved life on her board.

“I began considering, what else would I be doing?” she mentioned. “I used to be like, I have to have skating.”

Her arm is totally healed, she shared whereas confidently stretching it out, however she described a lingering concern that may include studying new tips.

“I nonetheless have bother getting myself to go for issues, however then I bear in mind, what’s the worst that’s going to occur?” she mentioned. “It was a fluke. It’s not going to be that dangerous.”

A yr after the harm, Stess made her X Video games debut when she was 13and completed in eighth in ladies’s park. On the 2021 U.S. ladies’s park ultimate, Stess carried out a kickflip on an almost vertical wall, basically skating on it as if it had been a flat floor. The run vaulted her into first place.

When Stess began successful occasions across the time she was 8, the women aggressive circuit was in its infancy, however she was beating the boys, too, often as the one one representing her gender.

“However I wasn’t freaked out by that,” she mentioned. “It was regular.”

Extra ladies are skating than ever earlier than, although participation numbers at youth ranges are little-tracked. Solely seven years in the past did Nike SB signal its first feminine professional skater, Brazil’s Leticia Bufoni. The next yr, Adidas signed Nora Vasconcellos to its skateboarding workforce.

Stess has an abundance of sponsors: Santa Cruz Skateboards, Impartial Vehicles, Vans, Mob, Bronson, 187 Killer Pads, Bones Wheels, Woman Is Not a 4 Letter Phrase, Merge4, XSET and HyperX.

To essentially
go professional, although, means to have your personal board, she mentioned.

“That’s a giant aim,” Stess mentioned. “I need that in some unspecified time in the future in my life. There isn’t a particular yr or how previous I’m, I simply need an organization to say, ‘Oh, we wish to flip you professional.’ There are extra professional guys than ladies proper now, however there’s much more than there was once.”

White, who in 2004 appeared within the groundbreaking all-female skateboard video “Getting Nowhere Sooner” and is now model supervisor for Santa Cruz-based Krux Vehicles, believes the attraction to Stess as skateboarding’s subsequent star comes from her authenticity.

“The following technology isn’t essentially simply ladies,” White mentioned. “It’s about individuals who current exterior of the gender binary too, and males and non-binary skaters, too, considering skaters are rad. Minna has her personal classic T-shirts and peculiar beanies, she is a San Francisco child and doing her personal factor. She’s not a advertising and marketing instrument.”

Stess has over 21,000 followers on Instagram and greater than 60,000 on TikTok, the place her profile image is her smiling with a goat. She has 807 followers on Twitter.

“Individuals my age don’t use Twitter,” she claims.

Even with a rising social following and dozens of worldwide occasions, she doesn’t perceive why individuals “act like she is a celeb.” More often than not, she doesn’t consider her in-sport fame. Different occasions, she’ll come throughout a TikTok fancam of herself.

“That was a bizarre one,” she mentioned. “It’s so odd to me. I wasn’t planning on being a public determine. It’s bizarre to me individuals have a look at me like that.”

Left: Minna takes a break whereas working towards tips at her yard skatepark. Proper: “I don’t know what I’d be doing if I wasn’t skating,” Minna says. “My life would in all probability be so boring.” Photographs by Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle
Center: Minna takes a break whereas working towards tips at her yard skatepark. Above: “I don’t know what I’d be doing if I wasn’t skating,” Minna says. “My life would in all probability be so boring.” Photographs by Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

She’s been awe-struck assembly different skaters — particularly professional ladies, whom she hopes to emulate — and celebrities.

“I met Man Fieri,” she mentioned with amusing. “At Sonoma Raceway, I went there and met the coach of the 49ers, too, however I don’t observe soccer. However Man Fieri was there and that was cool.”

Stess tries to compensate for TV reveals or films whereas flying all over the world, however currently, has been making an attempt to make use of that as relaxation time — “often I’m so, so drained” — throughout her strenuous schedule.

“I’m watching ‘New Woman’ proper now,” she mentioned, after pausing to think about her non-skating actions. “I haven’t completed it as a result of there are a whole lot of episodes and I wanted a break — there’s like, six seasons of that.”

Stess isn’t but fascinated by faculty or what comes subsequent after her Olympic coaching. She cites some ladies she is aware of who’ve gotten skateboarding scholarships; Amar Hadid was one in all two skaters to earn one in Sydney, Australia.

Generally youthful skaters or followers will ask to take an image along with her. She will get excited when speaking about having an affect, particularly in her personal neighborhood in Petaluma, the place ladies skateboarding has develop into extra well-liked.

At one level, she donated skating garments she had out grown, and later noticed native ladies carrying that actual gear.

“I suppose I can sort of put myself of their footwear,” she mentioned. “It’s nonetheless actually bizarre to me.”

Since her first X Video games, Stess feels a stronger sense of belonging. She’s not the latest, or the youngest, or any novelty in any respect; she’s only a skater.

That’s all she’s ever making an attempt to be.

“It’s simply sort of regular.”

Marisa Ingemi is a San Francisco Chronicle employees author. E mail: marisa.ingemi@sfchronicle.com