Mary Mills is a role model and as punk rock a they come.

If you’re lucky, you’ve stumbled upon the badass photo of Mary Mills skateboarding circa 1983 or 1984 (pictured) -an iconic photo from the 80’s showing a hip African American woman doing a power slide on her skateboard. This woman is a role model and as punk rock a they come. She is always going against the grain and doing her own thing. Textured Waves (a women of color surf community) caught up with Mary as she was taking down her skate ramp of eight years and got to chat with her a bit about hair, skating, and surfing.

"I started skating as a kid, but I had to hide it. My parents wouldn't let me and all I wanted to do was skate. I would just read skateboard  and surf magazines all the time." - Mary Mills

‍

"I wanted to surf since I was a kid... I used to watch Wide World of Sports on TV. I saw surfing on there and I thought, 'I want to do that.' But there were a few things holding me back. Number one , I couldn't swim. Number two , I had straightened hair. And number, three I was a black kid. So I was like, 'Well, I'll never do that.' Surfing never left me, although I think I was either 38 or 39 when I finally started. It was three months after I had my son, and he's 17 now. I'm 56 and fabulous by the way!"

Continue reading the full interview with Mary Mills at the post: The post Do You Know Mary Mills? Well you should on TexturedWaves.

I can't fit those little white girl suits off the rack. (Laughs) In fact, most white women can't wear them either. I don’t think the suits you find in shops use actual grown women as fit models. Those suits often don't take into account the various curves women have. I wear Reunion wetsuits and the guy who makes them is here in Orange County, but he's from Japan. So I tell him what I want and he goes to Japan, and brings back a bunch of wetsuits. - Mary Wells

‍