Cindy Whitehead wasn’t feeling so well over the weekend, so she cancelled a trip to San Diego and wasn’t sure she would follow through with plans to skateboard on the 405 Freeway while it was shut down for widening. But the lifelong Hermosa Beach resident and former professional skateboarder woke up at 5:30 a.m. Sunday and felt well enough to head out.
Whithead and her husband, photographer Ian Logan, ended up finding a stretch of empty road near the Getty Center without construction crews or police.
“I don’t even remember dropping the board down,” Whitehead said. “I remember thinking to move into the middle lane because it was probably smoother. I was out there for like two minutes, but it felt like five seconds.”
While it lasted, Logan snapped photos. And although police warned that they would arrest anyone trespassing on the 405 during the Carmageddon II shutdown, Whitehead and Logan escaped unnoticed— and with an iconic image as a keepsake.
After returning home Sunday morning, Whitehead said she posted the photo on Facebook and then laid down and took a rest because she still wasn’t feeling a hundred percent.
Asked to reflect on her adventure, Whitehead on Tuesday said, “It was like surfing when you’re the only one out there and you catch the perfect wave.”
