You’ve decided to stay on in Brighton now that you’ve graduated. How come you stayed in Brighton, what are you doing for work and are you planning to use your degree to start a career based job?

After living in Brighton for three years I’ve made a life for myself and I’m not ready to say goodbye to that just yet. Brighton is an amazing city and I’ve sort of fallen in love with it to be honest. The Level is amazing not just for the park itself but the people and the vibe down there. There’s always something going on, honestly there’s not another skate park like it.

At the moment I work at a Tesco Express, the only job I’ve ever had (six years strong). I definitely don’t want to work there forever but it’s an easy way to pay the bills. I really should start thinking about careers and all that grown up stuff but at the moment I like working part time so I can fit skateboarding events around work.

What are the best and worst things about living in Brighton? 

Brighton has such an awesome community and it’s probably one of the only places in the UK that has such a strong vote towards the Green Party and Labour, which goes to say something about the people that live here – the majority of people, young or old, are quite like-minded. The city itself is beautiful with its Balamory houses and the long stretch of beach. It’s definitely called ‘Little London’ for a reason; there is always something going on and something to get involved in. The worst thing about Brighton is how expensive it is to live here, rent is becoming crazy.

How come you ended up being involved with Callun and the Get Lesta videos and how has it been filming for the new Get Lesta video as opposed to Get 420 last year?

I met Callun for the first time at the Girl Skate UK birthday jam at Broom Skate Park in Leicester. A few other events have been held up there too and the after parties are always insane. Callun’s been insanely supportive of the UK female skate scene and managed to meet up with a lot of us girls for Get 420. I only met up with him for one day to film for the last video so didn’t really get much, whereas this time we’ve met up three times and managed to get some more tricks filmed.

Are you happy with what you’ve filmed? Any bad slams?

I’m pretty happy with what I’ve filmed, there’s a few tricks in there that I’ve learnt since the last video and I’ve tried to push myself a little more. Although there’s nothing I particularly planned ahead of time, it’s all tricks that just happened to work on the day. No bad slams thankfully, although I’m sure Cal’s a bit disappointed as he loves a good slam.

You’ve been hooked up with Polar and Lakai this year, how did those come about? Who else do you ride for at the moment?

I’m unbelievably thankful to both companies, without their support I would struggle to fund my own decks and shoes as previously I was wearing a pair of shoes for about a year at a time, basically until they fell off my feet.

I wore a lot of Polar gear before the hook up; they’ve been my favourite company for boards and clothes for quite a few years. Pontus messaged me on Instagram asking if I got my Polar gear through a distributor but at the time I wasn’t; the majority of it was birthday and Christmas presents from my boyfriend, Josh Manderson. When he found out I wasn’t riding for a board company either he suggested the hook up, which I’m obviously insanely stoked about.

Another shoe company contacted me but their communication was quite bad, so I asked for some advice from my mate Stevie Thompson who then contacted Matt Anderson at Lakai and I guess sort of bigged me up to them ha ha. I’m really stoked on Lakai as a brand; they’re not as commercialised as some other big shoe companies and are therefore more raw skateboarding. Tom ‘Smithy’ Smith has been an absolute legend since being hooked up and I can’t wait for a UK team meet up.

Does being sponsored by such credible companies change the way you approach skateboarding and has it added any pressure at all?

I don’t feel particularly pressured but I do want to try my best to give back to these companies in the little ways, like meeting up with Cal the extra few times for the video. I’ve often got bummed about my own skating, constantly thinking I’m shit and I guess having other companies supporting me has given me a bit more confidence in my own abilities and has allowed me to start trying new tricks more often than I used to.

It seems like women are finally getting more recognition in skateboarding. What do you think the reasons for that are? 

Female skateboarders have never had much recognition in the skate media, however with Social Media becoming such a big thing in the skate industry it has given us girls a platform to represent ourselves. I think people are just more aware of the amount of girls and the level they’re at since things like www.girlskateuk.com have come about.

What do you think is the best way to give women a bigger platform in skateboarding? Do you think it’s to create female focused companies or is it better to integrate women into existing brands? 

I personally think it’s better to integrate female and male skateboarding, I don’t really see the need for the divide just due to gender. However, there is an obvious divide between skill level between pro men and pro women so until the gap closes (which I’m sure it will, give it ten years’ time), separation of men and women in competitions like Street League and X Games is needed. Regarding brands however, not many ‘female only’ brands exist at the moment so it’s difficult to judge. I feel they could do really well though.

What do you watch to get you hyped for a skate? Who are your favourite skaters?

I don’t usually watch any skating before I go skate, I’m in too much of a rush to get out of work and to the skatepark to even bother. I sometimes end up watching Thrasher and Sidewalk clips in the evening before bed but my favourite thing to watch has to be the Epicly Later’d series. To be honest I’m more inspired by the people skating around me than any of the pros. I find what they’re doing mind blowing, don’t get me wrong but it’s almost incomprehensible to me. It’s not often that I’ll watch a clip and be inspired to try something because it’s so out of my league. My favourite skateboarder has to be Nora Vasconcellos though; she’s an amazing skateboarder with a sick style and personality to match.

What do you do when you’re not skating?

That’s actually quite a difficult one, I think most of my life revolves around skating. I work quite a bit at the moment and before that I was busy doing Uni work a lot of the time, so I don’t get that many days off and when I do I obviously spend them skating. The Level has got such a good scene that even when I go out in the evening now it seems to be straight from the skatepark, so you end up with the inevitable drunken skate. I don’t know, at the moment it seems like I can’t get away from it or I don’t want to.

What are your plans for next year, do you have any trips in the pipeline?

Well at the moment me and Josh are trying to save up some money to be able to move out to Barcelona. I want to get a job out there and stay for six months to a year just to get an idea of what it’s like to live and work abroad. I don’t want to be working everyday out there and not getting a chance to actually enjoy the city, so we’re trying to get as much money together before we go.

Finally, give a shout out here to anyone you want:

My boyfriend Josh Manderson for pushing me to try new tricks, Mumsy (of course), Callun Loomes for always supporting the girls, Bummer and Geordie for believing in me from the first time I dropped in, Girl Skate UK, Pontus and everyone at Polar, Matt Anderson, Tom ‘Smithy’ Smith and everyone over at Lakai UK, Wes from Rock Solid Dist, Mike at Keen, CJ for taking these banging photos, all the homies from Kings Park and the entire Level Army.