TINA TREFETHEN
18” X 24”, mixed media on Bristol paper, 2022
(chalk pastel, thread, blue print on canvas, and acrylic paint on bristol paper)
Tina is a Signal Hill downhill skateboarding legend and a champion hang-glider. Tina was 21 years old in 1978 when she crashed into a pole coming down the hill at approximately 58 miles an hour. The major accident landed her in the hospital after breaking her wrists and several ribs, and she had to have a lung removed. Barley survived the crash going 58mph into a pole near the finish line her injuries were life-changing.
‘Watching the series of events unfold on the big screen was “very emotional,” she said in a phone interview. “It was pretty hard for me to watch some of that,” said Trefethen, who said she stays busy today fabricating and engineering ultra-light airplanes and racecars. “It’s very amazing I’m alive! I appreciate every day! I wonder, ‘What if that never would have happened to me?'”’ -excerpt from the February 1, 2013 issue of the Signal Tribune
Tina was inducted into the Skateboard Hall Of Fame (SHOF) in 2021.