San Diego, CA
Patti McGee, pioneering pro skateboarder with a San Diego youth, dies at 79
Stand at the top of the Loring Street hill in Pacific Beach — one of the steepest in San Diego — and let yourself be transported back to the early 1960s, when children and teenagers flew down the precipitous grade on makeshift skateboards, the ocean sprawled in the distance ahead.
These were some of skateboarding’s first takers, the kids who helped pave the way for future generations of a sport that for decades was widely seen as a societal menace and a fringe subculture.
Among these skaters was Patti McGee. For the Point Loma teen, skateboarding down Loring Street was just another way to kill time when the surf blew out in the afternoon and she wasn’t ready to go home to do homework.
Loring Street “was a challenge. That was like surfing a big wave, if you could make it,” McGee told the skateboarding magazine Juice in 2017.
Seeking a challenge and staying active were part of what drew her to skateboarding. But McGee — who died Oct. 16 at her home in Brea at 79 following a recent stroke — was also a natural.
Considered the world’s first professional female skateboarder, McGee carved a name for herself in the sport when it was even more dominated by men than it is today.
Her career kicked off in 1964 when she took first place at the inaugural national skateboarding championships in Santa Monica, clinching the win with her signature trick, a handstand on the skateboard.
That move was later cemented into the culture’s history when she graced the cover of LIFE magazine in May 1965, feet high in the air, board rolling beneath her.
After the win in Santa Monica, McGee received a brand deal with skateboard manufacturer Hobie and traveled the country promoting its boards.
She was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame in 2010. That year, San Diego’s then-Councilmember Kevin Faulconer gave her a special commendation honoring her achievements.
But becoming a trailblazer for women in skateboarding wasn’t exactly the goal for McGee; the San Diego Evening Tribune reported in 1965 that she wanted to pursue acting or be a “movie stunt girl.”
“She was a sweet angel, but she was also a wild woman,” her daughter Hailey Villa, 46, told the Union-Tribune last week. McGee is also survived by her son, Forest Villa, 45, as well as two grandchildren and her brother, Jack.
“She did a lot of different things in her life,” Villa said, pointing to her mother’s time working in turquoise mining and leather goods and even at a casino. “Skateboarding was just kind of a little blip.”
McGee was born on August 23, 1945, at Fort Lewis in Washington state, and her family moved to San Diego when she was about 5 years old. Her parents split when she was young, and she was mostly raised by her mother, who worked at Montgomery Junior High School.
McGee’s youth was in many ways a quintessential San Diego one.
Like many skaters of the 1960s, she had begun as a surfer — first surfing in 1958 and hitting spots such as Newport Street, North Beach and Ocean Beach and in La Jolla, at the shores and Windansea.
When she was 16, she ventured up the coast for more — to Tamarack, Oceanside, Doheny and County Line, she told Skateboarder magazine in 1965, when she was on its cover.
The president of an all-girls surf team in 1963, McGee described herself as a “rowdy surfer” — unafraid to be aggressive as one of the few girls in the water, when “guys would just push you out of the way or kick out into your ankles, like, ‘My wave,’” she told Juice.
McGee first found her way to a skateboard in 1962 through a DIY project: Her brother, Jack, stole the wheels off her roller skates and attached them to a wooden board he’d made in shop class.
Later, she rode a Bun Buster, equipped with those same wheels from her roller skates.
She and her friends cruised the streets of San Diego, even the parking garage of downtown San Diego’s Concourse — their Mount Everest, as she described it.
They were unruly, and they always got in trouble.
“Thank you for helping to pave the way for all of us when skateboarding was simply considered a ‘menace’ in the 1960’s,” Tony Hawk wrote in a recent Instagram post in her memory.
McGee was also a member of the Pump House Gang, a group of teen surfers who gathered around a sewage pump house at Windansea Beach in the 1960s. The writer Tom Wolfe later wrote an essay about the group and named his 1968 collection of essays after it.
But her 1964 championship win in Santa Monica inexorably changed her life.
Her one-year, $250-a-month brand deal with skateboard maker Hobie took her around the country, where she demonstrated skateboarding in department stores and shopping malls, largely for audiences of children.
Landing the cover of LIFE propelled McGee to yet another level of recognition. Soon after the iconic shoot, she booked appearances on the game show “What’s My Line?” and the “Mike Douglas Show” and taught Johnny Carson to skate on “The Tonight Show.”
At the time, mainstream culture was still deciding how it felt about skateboarding. Initially seen as a fun new fad for kids and often dubbed “sidewalk surfing,” by the late 1960s and 70s it was more widely considered a nuisance, something for kids up to no good.
McGee and her generation saw that shift firsthand and are part of the reason that skateboarding became closely associated with punk, said Haley Watson, a filmmaker who was working on a documentary about McGee before she passed away.
“There’s no way that skateboarding as we know it would take the shape that it has without Patti,” Watson said.
McGee returned to San Diego after her national tour in the mid-’60s, but she didn’t stay long.
She soon moved to Lake Tahoe with her first husband, Glen Villa, where they mined turquoise and made leather goods. Later she moved to Cave Creek, Ariz., where she raised two children, gave tours to tourists panning for gold. There, she met her second husband, William Chace, who died in 2015.
But there was little concrete in their rural town, and few places to skate, Villa remembers — her mom would take her and her brother to a nearby elementary school to skateboard.
And when she was in third grade, her mother brought a skateboard team to her school to give a demonstration. Among its members was Tony Hawk.
“I think that was the day I understood my mom was more special in the skateboarding realm,” Villa recalls.
Villa became a skater herself, and she and McGee founded the Original Betty Skateboard Company, which spawned its own all-girls skate team, sponsoring young skaters, some of whom went on to compete in the Olympics.
The family bond was clear to Watson.
“It was very evident to me that she really loved her family and that she had a very special connection with her daughter,” the filmmaker said. “They had so much of their own language.”
McGee’s story was brought to a younger, wider audience in 2021, when Orange County author and school librarian Tootie Nienow published the children’s book “There Goes Patti McGee! The Story of the First Women’s National Skateboard Champion,” illustrated by Erika Medina.
Nienow became close with McGee as she wrote the book.
McGee could make a person feel like they were the only one in the room, Nienow said — a sentiment echoed by McGee’s friend and skatemate Di Dootson Rose, who was also inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame earlier this year.
She was “magnetic,” Rose said, recalling how McGee would connect with people, sometimes placing her hands on their faces and really looking them in the eyes. “People would let her in.”
The skateboarder’s charm and talent captivated her friends and family — and the world.
Rose points to McGee’s LIFE cover in 1965 — a far cry, she said, from some of the magazine’s more serious covers of that time.
“Then one day they come out with this sky blue cover of a blonde, upside down (doing a) handstand — white capris and a red sweater,” Rose said. “If that isn’t a breath of fresh air, then I don’t know what is.”
The nonprofit Exposure Skate will hold a ceremony for McGee at its annual skate event for women and nonbinary skaters in Encinitas this Saturday at 5 p.m.
San Diego, CA
Navy Fires Commander of San Diego Information Warfare School
The Navy has relieved the commanding officer of a San Diego-based school for its information warfare sailors, a statement announced Thursday.
Cmdr. Cayanne McFarlane was relieved as commander of Naval Information Warfare Training Group San Diego by Capt. Meredith Schley, the commodore of the Naval Information Warfare Training Group.
According to its website, the schoolhouse’s mission “is to train, support and deploy naval forces to execute the Information Warfare (IW) mission in support of naval operations.”
Read Next: Trump Impeachment Whistleblower Vindman Wins House Seat in Veteran vs. Veteran Race
McFarlane’s relief, which was officially over a “loss of confidence in her ability to command,” marks at least the 12th firing of a commanding officer this year for the Navy.
Loss of confidence is a boilerplate reason provided by the Navy, and other military services, that can encompass anything from consistent poor performance by a command on key evaluations to personal actions like drunken driving.
A military official told Military.com that McFarlane was relieved over a matter of personal conduct that did not involve allegations that would have affected another sailor.
Navy officials have previously said the sea service relieved 15 commanding officers in 2023. There are currently around 1,600 commanding officers in the active-duty Navy across all communities.
According to her Navy biography, McFarlane is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy who was commissioned as a cryptologic warfare officer in 2006.
Records provided by the Navy to Military.com show that she earned both Surface Warfare Officer and Information Dominance Warfare Officer certifications.
She began her career at the Navy Information Operations Command in Texas in 2006 before serving aboard the destroyer USS Farragut as the ship’s information warfare officer and electronic warfare officer.
She eventually moved to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, where she worked in the Joint Information Operations Center and later as an aide-de-camp to the deputy commander.
McFarlane assumed command of the San Diego schoolhouse in April 2023.
Her decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, two awards of the Meritorious Service Medal, a Joint Service Commendation Medal, and two awards of the Joint Service Achievement Medal, among other service and unit awards, records show.
According to the Navy’s statement, McFarlane has been temporarily reassigned to Naval Information Forces, while Cmdr. Dominic DiMaggio, the executive officer of the Fleet Weather Center in San Diego, has been temporarily assigned as the school’s commanding officer until a permanent replacement is designated.
Commander of Navy Leadership and Ethics Center Fired over Personal Conduct
Story Continues
San Diego, CA
Car sales in San Diego sputtering this year
New car sales in San Diego — as well as California — are stuck in neutral this year, as high sticker prices and burdensome financing costs keep a sizable number of potential customers away.
Registrations in the state for new vehicles through the first nine months of 2024 were down 1.7% compared to the first three quarters of last year, according to data from the California New Car Dealers Association, while national sales figures were up 2.7%.
San Diego County figures were slightly better than statewide numbers, but only slightly — down 0.7% through the first three quarters.
“Looking at our economist’s analysis of a market, it feels like we’ve reached a new sales plateau,” said Brian Maas, president of the car dealers association.
According to Edmunds.com, the average price of a new vehicle in the U.S. as of September climbed to $47,431 and the average price of an all-electric vehicle came to $59,723. Even used cars are not very cheap, with the Edmunds average coming to $27,422.
“You literally cannot buy any vehicle today for the same price that you bought it five or six years ago,” said Ivan Drury, senior manager of auto insights at Edmunds. “And financing is a huge problem now.”
While the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates in September as inflation has cooled, Edmunds data show that as of last month, the average interest rate to finance a new car in the U.S. came to 7.3% and the average monthly payment was $742.
“It’s like consumers are getting hit left and right,” Drury said. According to Edmunds’ analysis, in the third quarter of this year, the average vehicle in the U.S. is on the lot 57 days before it gets purchased, compared to 37 days during the same time last year.
The California New Car Dealers Association anticipates the number of registrations in 2024 will come to about 1.75 million, which is slightly lower than the 1.77 million recorded last year. That’s a far cry from state sales figures that hovered around 2 million registrations per year prior to the pandemic.
The industry hopes that pent-up demand will eventually entice consumers back into a buying mode, especially if interest rates continue to decline.
The third quarter numbers reflected mixed messages for California’s hoped-for transition from gasoline-powered cars and trucks to electric vehicles.
On the positive side, all-electric battery and plug-in hybrid vehicles combined to make up 25.6 percent of the market in new vehicle sales and leases through the first nine months of this year — by far the highest numbers for any state.
But the rate of adoption of battery-electric vehicles, or EVs, has increased just seven-tenths of a percentage point through the third quarter of this year compared to 2023 and the market share of plug-in hybrids was flat — 3.4 percent in 2023 and 3.4 percent through Q3.
Four years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order mandating the elimination of sales of all new gasoline-powered passenger vehicles in California by 2035. And in fewer than two years, the first of a series of state-imposed targets will start rolling out.
Under standards passed by the Air Resources Board, at least 35 percent of model year 2026 passenger cars and trucks sold in the state must be electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The numbers ramp up each year, going to 68% in 2030 and 100% by 2035.
“As the mandates kick in, are there going to be enough customers to support the requirements that the mandate requires?” Maas said. “Sales continue to go up, but they’re not going up by leaps and bounds.”
Under definitions set by state policymakers, battery-electric, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles qualify toward meeting California’s zero-emission target.
Hybrid vehicles that do not have plug-ins have been posting robust sales figures — not only in the Golden State but across the country — but they do not count under the state’s mandate because they use gasoline.
The third-quarter numbers showed the top-selling car across the state is still the all-electric Tesla Model Y. It racked up more than twice the number of registrations than California’s No. 2-selling car, the Toyota RAV4. The Tesla Model 3 finished sixth.
But statewide registrations for all Tesla models are down 12.6% compared to last year.
Analysts have offered a number of possible reasons why — including the potential sales effect of Tesla founder Elon Musk weighing in political issues after buying X (formerly Twitter) and actively campaigning for Donald Trump for president.
But Drury thinks a primary reason is simply because the number of EVs available is expanding, as other carmakers roll out their own models.
“There’s more competition,” he said. “The Model Y is kind of like the default purchase versus the Model 3 when you’re looking at the Tesla lineup, so it’s kind of a cannibalization of sales there.”
Behind the Model Y and Model 3, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 was No. 3 among top-selling zero-emissions vehicles in California through the third quarter with 11,711 registrations. The Ford Mustang Mach-E finished fourth, with 8,013.
Top-selling models in California
(for 2024, through September)
- Tesla Model Y 105,693
- Toyota RAV4 49,810
- Honda Civic 40,741
- Toyota Camry 40,025
- Honda CR-V 37,759
- Tesla Model 3 37,219
- Toyota Corolla 29,341
- Chevy Silverado 28,029
- Ford F-Series 26,753
- Honda Accord 25,240
Sources: California New Car Dealers Association and Experian Automotive
San Diego, CA
Aztecs rally late, beat UC San Diego in season opener
By Mark Zeigler
San Diego State unveiled a Sweet 16 banner Wednesday night at Viejas Arena against a school playing its first game as a full-fledged Division I member.
The Aztecs have some work to do to hang another one.
A year after trailing by 14 inside seven minutes to go and winning on a put-back at the buzzer, SDSU tempted fate and offered UC San Diego an $80,000 payday to play at Viejas Arena. And nearly got burned.
The Tritons led again with seven minutes to go, although this time by only five points, and the Aztecs needed another furious rally after a disjointed opening 33 minutes to win 63-58 before a soldout (and nervous) crowd in Viejas Arena.
“Scheduling is always hard,” coach Brian Dutcher said. “You always think, well, we’re not going to do this again. Then the dates line up, and it’s a good game for both teams, and you do it. They’ve given us great games the last two years. They’ve had a chance to win both, and we found a way to make enough timely plays to get victories.”
Said Tritons guard Tyler McGhie, who had 21 points: “We worked all summer and all fall for this. I think we can compete with anyone. At the end of the day, they put their shorts on just like we do.”
It was the season opener for both teams and preserved several prodigious SDSU streaks: 39 straight wins against the current membership of the Big West, 18 straight in openers against unranked opposition, 15 straight in home openers and 15-0 all-time against the Tritons.
But make no mistake: It was a grind.
The Aztecs managed just 24 points in the first half, flummoxed by a Tritons’ matchup zone. They didn’t dominate the offensive boards like you’d expect against a team that played no one taller than 6-foot-8. They stepped out of bounds with the ball (twice). Coach Brian Dutcher was forced to abandon plans to play two bigs and went with four guards down the stretch.
It took a 12-0 run late to energize the increasingly anxious faithful in Viejas.
“We see it as a league game, honestly,” redshirt sophomore Miles Byrd said. “We came in today and on the whiteboard in the locker room it says, ‘Winning is hard.’ We know that. I was on the bench. I saw the energy UCSD brought last year in their arena. You know they were going to come into this game confident. We prepped hard. We respected them.”
Making his first career start, the 6-7 Byrd had a monster night of stat stuffing: 20 points, eight rebounds, three assists, five steals, four blocks. According to SDSU media relations, that’s only the second time over the last 10 seasons that a Div. I player has had at least 20 points, eight rebounds, five steals and four blocks in a game.
Florida Atlantic transfer Nick Boyd had four turnovers running the point but made the play of the game at the other end, drawing a charge on UCSD’s Chris Howell with 49.9 seconds left in a four-point game.
It capped a dominating defensive stand. UCSD led 50-45, then missed seven of its next nine shots with four turnovers. McGhie was 5 of 5 in the second half … but didn’t score (or take a shot) over the final 9:59.
“It was tough,” McGhie said. “I don’t know, I was trying to get open. … They were throwing different guys on me, so I got worn down a little bit.”
“The momentum in the second half, I feel like it came from our defense,” said Jared Coleman-Jones, SDSU’s lone big on the floor over the closing minutes. “We had to really turn up our defensive intensity. We just had to change the way we played.”
Boyd and BJ Davis each had 11 points, and Coleman-Jones added nine points and nine rebounds as the Aztecs hit the same scoring total as last year against the Tritons.
The Tritons shot 32.8 percent, and that was after being 50 percent overall and 6 of 9 behind the arc in the second half. That tells you how much they struggled in the first half, when they had six shots blocked and shot 18.2 percent.
Even so, they trailed only 24-22 because the Aztecs couldn’t put the ball in the basket, either. A 21-10 lead became a 22-21 deficit with turnovers on their next three possessions, followed by four straight misses, followed by another turnover.
With nine minutes left, the Tritons’ lead was six.
“Well, I liked that a lot better than being down the 14 points with (seven) minutes to go like we were last year,” Dutcher said. “We didn’t have to come from so far behind. It’s a young team, maybe not age-wise but playing together.”
The scariest part: Their next four Div. I games are against No. 6 Gonzaga, which just beat No. 8 Baylor by 38; No. 15 Creighton, which scored 99 in its opener Wednesday; Oregon, which received votes in the Associated Press preseason poll; and another power conference school in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas.
“With what’s around the corner, we wanted to desperately win this game,” Dutcher said. “We’re grateful to get a win. You know what’s ahead.”
Notable
Next up: Div. III Occidental at home on Nov. 12. The game, like Wednesday night’s, will be aired on YurView (Channel 4 on Cox and Spectrum) as well as streamed on the Mountain West Network … Freshman Thokbor Majak did not suit up, a strong indication that he’ll redshirt this season. “I don’t have a problem with it,” he said recently. … The officiating crew: Michael Irving, Randy Richardson and Tommy Nunez.
Aniwanina Tait-Jones, the Big West newcomer of the year last season, finished with 13 points before fouling out. Howell, a Torrey Pines High alum and Saint Mary’s transfer, had nine points in his UCSD debut … Redshirt freshman Magoon Gwath had three early blocks but left in the second half with leg cramps and didn’t return. He finished with one point and one rebound in 23 minutes … The SDSU lineup down the stretch: Boyd, Byrd, Davis, Wayne McKinney and Coleman-Jones. The rotation went 10 deep, although Brown transfer Kimo Ferrari got only two minutes.
Originally Published:
-
Business6 days ago
Carol Lombardini, studio negotiator during Hollywood strikes, to step down
-
Health1 week ago
Just Walking Can Help You Lose Weight: Try These Simple Fat-Burning Tips!
-
Business6 days ago
Hall of Fame won't get Freddie Freeman's grand slam ball, but Dodgers donate World Series memorabilia
-
Culture5 days ago
Yankees’ Gerrit Cole opts out of contract, per source: How New York could prevent him from testing free agency
-
Culture3 days ago
Try This Quiz on Books That Were Made Into Great Space Movies
-
Business1 week ago
Apple is trying to sell loyal iPhone users on AI tools. Here's what Apple Intelligence can do
-
Technology6 days ago
An Okta login bug bypassed checking passwords on some long usernames
-
Politics1 week ago
Trump pledges 'America's new golden age' as he rallies in PA's post-industrial third-largest city