Getting Nowhere Faster, 2004: Lyn‑Z Adams Hawkins' slice, long before the Mega Ramp—what was she already doing?

October 16, 2004, Vancouver. In the Emily Carr Institute’s studio, the crew Villa Villa Cola drops Getting Nowhere Faster, a video made from A to Z by female skaters. Amid the street girls, a 14‑year‑old with a turquoise helmet throws down vert like it’s normal. Her name is Lyn‑Z Adams Hawkins.

Three years later, she takes gold at the X Games. Then comes the DC Mega Ramp and the first female 540 McTwist. Everyone knows that run‑through.

What we see less is the minute and a half before. We’ve replayed her sequence frame by frame: the spots, the track, the camera, the gear. And the question: what was she already doing at 14?

Getting Nowhere Faster, 2004: a 411VM bonus turned into a full‑length vid

Villa Villa Cola is a San Diego collective founded in the late ’90s by twin sisters Tiffany and Nicole Morgan. Zines, homemade vids, tours. The goal: show the girls who skate, since the mags weren’t doing it.

The project was meant to stay small. According to Womxn Skateboard History, the footage was supposed to end up as a bonus on a 411 Video Magazine issue. But Johnny Schillereff, the boss at Element, was in the room when Lisa Whitaker brought in the rushes. He watched, and he offered more than a bonus: help them make a real vid. Element funds, 411VM produces and distributes.

Lyn‑Z, meanwhile, is just out of childhood. Born September 21, 1989, in San Diego, she grew up in Cardiff‑by‑the‑Sea and started skating at 6, with a YMCA of Encinitas card gifted by her brother Tyler. By late September 2004, three weeks before the premiere, she’s hired for the Vans Triple Crown in Huntington Beach. She’s 14.

To set the scene for the girls’ level back then, remember that Elissa Steamer was still the only girl on Welcome to Hell eight years earlier. In 2004, the Villa Villa Cola video lined up thirteen skaters in one go, plus a handful of cameos.

Lyn‑Z Adams Hawkins’ line‑up, frame by frame

First off, a detail that matters. Lyn‑Z doesn’t have a solo spot in the traditional sense. She carries the second green cut of the video. The clip uploaded by The Side Project, Lisa Whitaker’s site, isolates her run: 95 seconds. At that length, some tricks aren’t named with certainty. Here’s what we see, in order.

1. The deck full of boys

   Opening on a Woodward ramp, banners everywhere. A row of boys sitting on the deck, feet hanging off the lip. She passes, they scream and raise their arms. Then the “Lyn‑Z Adams Hawkins” board. In eighteen seconds, the set is up.

2. Sunset, fisheye lens

   Around the twentieth second, pink sky, camera glued to the coping. Air that shoots high above the ramp, board solid underfoot.

3. The wooden vert in the warehouse

   An indoor vert under a frame, with a foam pit right next to it. Airs, runs on the coping, chained lines without putting a foot down. That’s where the ease shows: she doesn’t chase the ramp, she knows it.

4. Concrete bowl, then YMCA ramp

   Two shots in a bowl, then a sunny green vert at YMCA. She learned at the YMCA in Encinitas, probably that one. Airs under a cloudless sky.

5. The extended ramp, in front of the crowd

   The longest run, about twenty seconds. A gray vert with an extension, crowd on the flat and photographers with light boxes. She climbs the extension, chains the airs, and a shot from the deck keeps her right up against the lens.

6. The final on the Woodward vert

   A few off‑vert shots in a park, then back to a Woodward ramp with PlayStation 2 colors, late‑day light. Final trick: she goes head‑first over the coping and drops back into the ramp. End of the run.

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Spots: Woodward, the YMCA, and what they've become

Almost no street in this sequence. The spots are ramps: the Woodward camps, the YMCA, an indoor vert, a vert with an extension for a demo. That's the vert turf in 2004. You don’t skate a vert that size unless they open the door for you.

The Woodward West camp in California eventually hosted a DC Mega Ramp. It's the module invented by Danny Way, the one we hear about in the story of the DC Mega Ramp. The 2004 girl’s set stayed in place, just way bigger.

The vert montage track: a question mark

The soundtrack for Getting Nowhere Faster turns its back on the rap and punk of the era’s dude vids. There’s Stereo Total, Anna Oxygen, Deerhoof, The Prids. Indie and DIY electro, super Olympia, super Portland.

And Lyn‑Z’s sequence? On SkateVideoSite, the database that lists skate soundtracks, every track is identified. Except one. Line “vert montage #2”: the artist is listed as “Lyn‑Z Adams Hawkins”, the title “?”. A data entry error or an untitled track, no source settles it. Twenty‑two years later, the music for her sequence still has no name.

The cut‑away starts with “Contact” by The Prids, followed by “Last Ninja II” by Robotnicka. His stays open.

Lisa Whitaker behind the lens, Lori Damiano on the edit

In a girls’ video, the question always comes up: who’s filming? Here the answer is clear. According to Lori Damiano, credited as director, the skate footage is shot “almost exclusively” by Lisa Whitaker. The boss of Meow Skateboards, and probably the person who’s filmed the most female skaters in the world.

You can see it in the sequence. Fisheye from the deck for the low‑coping runs. Long shot from the flat for the airs, full body in frame. Classic green‑screen grammar, no effects.

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Lyn-Z’s gear in 2004: turquoise helmet and pads

What you see in every shot: a turquoise helmet, knee pads, elbow pads. The green uniform, no debate. Pink tee on the green Woodward, dark top on the extension ramp. The board graphics aren’t readable at this resolution. No reliable source says what brand she was riding at the time.

Five years later, it’s readable. In this 2009 photo, the nose bears the Birdhouse name and a Volcom sticker. Two names that show up on her sponsor list.

What Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins was already doing in 2004

Let’s get back to the question. At 14, she was already doing three things that her career would only amplify.

One: she was flying high. Across five different ramps, her airs clearly cleared the coping. Not the little demo hops. Two: she was already doing head‑first landings. The last trick in the run was a backflip over the ramp. Five years later, on November 21, 2009 in Paris, she became the first woman to land a 540 McTwist. The 2004 move was the draft. Three: she was shredding vert in a street video. Solo or almost solo on her line, she carried a full montage.

The rest unfolds in the accolades. Broken arm in 2005, ACL tear in 2006, then gold on vert at the X Games 2007 and 2009, the DC Mega Ramp, and a spot in Tony Hawk’s Project 8: the second playable female skater after Elissa Steamer. The loop closes with the 2004 cameo skater.

What remains of the 2004 sequence? A simple idea. A 14‑year‑old girl on a competition vert, no explanation needed. When Sky Brown climbs an Olympic podium at 13, nobody asks the question. In 2004, boys on the deck were still shouting in surprise.

The vert cut from Lyn‑Z’s montage in Getting Nowhere Faster, you spot it? No one’s pinned it down yet. Drop it in the comments ↓

Sources

• Wikipedia (en) — Getting Nowhere Faster
• Wikipedia (en) — Lyn‑Z Adams Hawkins