Why freestyle?
I freestyle because it’s super fun, challenging—it’s so much harder than it looks—and convenient. You can do it pretty much anywhere you live and travel, since a small area of flatground is all you need!
What’s the zaniest bit of flatground that you’ve freestyled on?
Zany? Hmm nothing comes to mind. We typically look for decent flatground.
Although when we skate in NYC, we often end up with baseballs flying past our heads, or little kids creepily staring at us through fences or trying to run off with our skateboards.
You’re currently living in America at the moment. What’s it like being able to access a bigger freestyle scene?
There are more freestyle skaters in the US than in Australia, for sure, but they’re still relatively small in number and spread out over many states and a large area. For the most part, meeting freestylers here is the same as back home—rare. If you do want to skate with others and be part of an in-real-life community, you have to make the effort to attend meet-ups. Sometimes that may mean travelling large distances.
What is different is access to freestyle-specific decks, wheels, etc. I can’t just walk into a skate store and buy freestyle gear, but I can order anything I want online and it’s not going to cost a small fortune and take months to arrive. There’s so much choice and availability.
There are also a bunch of freestyle competitions around the country now—I’m not planning on competing anytime soon (if ever!) but they are fun to attend.
Any highlights you’d like to share from the freestyle competitions you’ve attended in person?
We were in the Pacific Northwest around the time of the World Round-Up last year, so [we] were able to attend the finals after some of our other travel plans fell through. I’m so glad we did! It was the first time Ben and I had been around other freestylers (up to that point, we’d only ever skated flatland with each other), so we saw this whole community that existed outside of our bubble.
Ah Ben, your partner. What is it like being a freestyle crew of at least two?
It’s the best! Apart from Ben being my favourite person to skate with, it’s also convenient that we never have to coordinate schedules and meeting spots with each other. He’s the most reliable skate buddy I could ever have.
Ben has 35+ years of skating under his belt, so all his experience has really helped me too. I have learnt a lot from him. Plus it’s nice having someone to occasionally spot me or hold my hand when I’m trying something new and scary!
Is there a particular trick that he is assisting you with and how is it progressing?
Yes—I’ve been learning toeside rail flips and rollos, and do need a hand from Ben sometimes when I build my confidence to commit. I have just started trying caspers and truck stands too, and Ben’s advice about foot and body positioning has been really helpful in progressing those to the point where I can actually see myself being able to do them one day. They once felt impossible.
You’ve been battling injuries of late. Can you tell us about them and how they’ve affected your skating?
I wouldn’t say I’ve been battling injuries—I just have the occasional niggle, ache or pain that didn’t come about through skateboarding, but force me to take a day or two off or shorten my sessions. Nothing too bad, although I did crunch my ankle landing a rollo a few days ago so I’ll be taking a break from those until my ankle feels normal again.
My frozen shoulder is not one-hundred-percent recovered, but the pain from that stopped over a year ago so it hasn’t affected my skating in ages. I actually stopped freestyling for the 4-5 months during the worst of it as I was too scared to fall off and be in agony. I thought transition skating was the safer option back then and stuck to that instead, which seems really weird in retrospect.
Alright, the one thing I am dying to ask you about is, why are female freestyle skateboarders so hard to find? What are your thoughts on this?
They’re hard to find because they barely exist. Ninety percent of the time I’m at the skatepark I’m the only woman and it’s the same at the freestyle meet-ups I’ve been to so far.
But I guess you’re wondering about my take on why skateboarding (and by extension, freestyle skateboarding) is so male-dominated?
Yup. Like how do we make skateboarding (freestyle skateboarding) more accessible to females/non-binary folk?
Freestyle is actually pretty good for a woman, compared to street or park skating, as the culture is less aggressive and there’s no gatekeeping that I’ve experienced so far. I always leave a freestyle session feeling uplifted, but I can’t always say the same for my experiences in non-freestyle settings.
I once was subjected to a rant by a skate-shop owner here in NYC—while I was buying my very first set of trucks and wheels—that women should stay out of skateboarding and leave it to their men (meaning boyfriends/husbands etc.) For sure, less men like this in the skating community would make it more welcoming for women! I spend my money elsewhere now.
So, what you’re saying to all the minority skaters is ‘Give freestyle a go…it’s a more supportive space’?
It’s a WAY more supportive space!
Connect: Tanya Jenko is an Adelaidian currently living in New York City. She and Ben sometimes skate with other freestylers at the NYC meet-ups.