ESPN Skateboarding

Jen O'Brien's been skateboarding longer than you. She was the first girl to skate at the X Games, the first to win Transworld's best female vert skater award and the first action sports athlete to grace the cover of High Times. Four-wheeling accomplishments aside, Jen's adorably elfin and unassuming, a long-time activist for women's skateboarding and Mother Earth, an entrepreneur, a kick ass mom, Bob Burnquist's better half and one very together mademoiselle. But don't take my word for it.

Bob On Jen ...

Jen On Roots ... High school was so cliquey and fake—it drove me crazy. I grew up in DeLand, Florida, where my dad broke horses and my mom was a nurse's assistant. DeLand was lame, so I used to hitchhike to the beach and go to my friend Uncle Tim's house. I was into punk rock and skateboarding, and as soon as I was old enough to get out of DeLand, I did. I moved to Daytona, got my first job at the skatepark there and met skater friends who rocked Black Flag and Bad Brains. I was right at home. It was super cheap to live there back then. I had an apartment by the ocean that was $315 a month, split three ways. That was the early nineties when all the parks were closing, so everyone would come through to skate.

In '94, I moved to California with Jodi McDonald. We knew there was a lot going on out there, and we had couches to crash on from meeting people who came through Florida. I still go back to visit my mom. We have a place in Ormond-By-The-Sea with a pontoon boat.

On Shredding the Gnar ... I've been skating 17 years. When I started, there wasn't a lot going on for women, and my first am contests were against boys. Now, anywhere I go—any pool or park—there are always at least a few girls there. It's inspiring to see all the young girls, like Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins and Apryl Woodcock, coming up and having so much talent.

Cara Beth and I always talked about how we wanted to grow women's skateboarding, and in '97, our friend Patty Segovia put on the All Girl Skate Jam, the first girl's contest probably since the '70s. 40 or 50 girls showed up, and after that, it couldn't be ignored. Slam City Jam added girls in '99, and it turned out to be one of the biggest contests of the year.

At the 2001 X Games, I skated doubles with Bob. Bob's partner, Lincoln Ueda, hurt himself, so Bob asked me to skate. Some of the guys weren't allowed to bring partners who they skated with all year because everybody had to qualify, but Bob talked to ESPN and they were kind of into it. Some skaters caught wind of it the day of the contest and started throwing a fit. We were just trying to get girl's skateboarding in the door, so I felt that they were being kind of selfish. It was fine, though. We skated anyway, it just didn't count.

Forever United, Never Divided ... I started talking to (X Games General Manager) Chris Stiepock and (X Games Creator) Ron Semiao about getting girls involved, and the following year, they had us do a demo. A year later, I won the first silver medal. By the third year, with mediocre prize money and no TV coverage, we felt that we still weren't being recognized as a competition. We formed The Alliance to communicate as a singular voice. We got meetings going, and last year we got the prize money up from $2,500 to $15,000 for first place. Now we're discussing TV coverage. People are so afraid of ratings, but every guy has a sister, mom or somebody who would be stoked to see the women of X, and that's how our sport grows.

On Bob ... Bob's real. It's nice to have someone you relate to on so many levels. We met through skateboarding, first in '95 when he won Slam, and then again snowboarding in Tahoe. I was up there for a year, and he was there with Julian Stranger and John Cardiel. I knew those guys and they introduced us. We didn't really hit it off until the MTV Sports and Music Festival in '97, though.

On Parenthood ... I had Lotus in '99 at the house with no drugs and a midwife—just pure power straight from God. It was an amazing experience that made me strong enough to be a mom.

When I got pregnant, everything changed. I had to see the bigger picture. I had more to think about than just myself. I needed to look into vaccines and a lot of different things, and at that point, I got hungry—I couldn't read enough books on alternative medicine and GMO's.

A lotus is the symbol for enlightenment. I tell her everything—what she's having and why, what she's not having and why. I want her to think about things, know how things are and not be naïve. I'm really honest with her and she gets it. I want her to grow up and have a good life with opportunities to do whatever she wants. Seeing how much your kid loves you is amazing.

On Omnivores ... As an athlete, you have to take care of yourself. The reality of eating processed food all the time is that eventually you'll be vitamin deficient. When I was living with CB in Encinitas, she was into eating healthy, using natural medicine and not having chemicals in cleaning products. Her influence wore off on me.

We just started eating organic chicken once or twice a week at home. As veggies, we weren't getting enough protein—especially Lotus. Bob and I had an organic garden going for a while. It's scaled down now, but at one point, we were farming two acres of all kinds of stuff.

On Skactivism ... Me, Bob and Damon Way are co-founders of the Action Sports Environmental Coalition. As skateboarders, we travel the world and see the effects of global warming and pollution first-hand, and we're working to get action sports companies to be more environmentally aware. ASEC donates FSC skateparks (non-old-growth wood) to inner city kids through Wood for The Hood, and they're also responsible for greening the X Games.

On the future ... I set my focus on going forward, not looking back, and feeling that everything will be just fine. In 10 years, I'll probably still be skating, surfing, traveling—all the stuff I'm doing now, but hopefully with more money. Read the Alchemist and learn your personal legend. If you feel it and you know it, go forward and it will work.