Last year, Baker surprised everyone by announcing Elissa Steamer as its newest pro. Steamer’s history with Andrew Reynolds dates back to the early aughts Warner Ave days, making her a perfect fit for his brand. But she had dropped off the radar after seemingly retiring to pursue surfing in 2011. Nobody saw the comeback coming. In a new interview with Solo, Steamer breaks down how she reentered the world of professional skateboarding. The journey included rekindling her relationship with Nike SB, and a stint on flow from FA before getting a call from Reynolds.

In October 2017, I went skating with Frank [Gerwer]. I had a really good time skating, which I haven’t had in a long time back then. I skated three days in a row and realized that I was getting more and more comfortable on my board. The previous six years to that, I had skated, like, once a month, once every two months. Then I started skating a lot again and I was hanging with Chico [Brenes], and he was putting clips of me on Instagram. People were hitting me up and I fell in love with skateboarding again. I was like, “Damn, I’m gonna get my job back.” I was talking to Kaspar [van Lierop] and signed a Nike deal, and I was hitting up Van Engelen, who was flowing me FA and Hockey boards. And one day, completely out of the blue, Andrew [Reynolds] hit me up and was like, “Do you have any board sponsors?” I told him that Van Engelen is sending me boards and he said, “I’m gonna put you on Baker and give you a board.”

Now back in business, Steamer says she has her eyes set on a part in Baker 4.

Actually, I got a couple projects going on, but the main one is the Baker video. But I haven’t gotten a clip in, like, weeks and it’s kinda depressing.

Head over to the Solo site to read the entire piece.

Image Via Ed Templeton