Bristol Girl SKATE
BETWEEN LINES
002:
ELIANA WOOSNAM
Eliana, 21, from Bath, opens up about her journey into skateboarding, from early days at Vicky Park to filming street clips and coaching with Mighty Girls. She reflects on the evolution of the girl skate scene, the importance of inclusive spaces, and the skaters who inspired her along the way. Now living in London, Eliana shares what keeps her pushing and how the skate community continues to shape her path.
Photograph by James
Hi Ells! Thanks so much for catching up with us. Please can you tell me a bit about yourself
to start with, how old are you, where are you based and how you began getting into skating?
Hi! My name is Eliana Woosnam, I am 21 years old and have been skating for about 4 years
now. I grew up mostly in Bath and got into skating the winter after lockdown when my
parents bought be a skateboard for my birthday. Yay.
Which park did you skate to start with and how did you find it starting out and getting to know
the skate community there?
I was super lucky to live not too far from Vicki (Victoria) park in Bath so I kind of always
skated there. I used to go practically every day, both after school and on the weekends. I
was a bit obsessed. The community at Vicki has always been super tight knit, which was a
tad intimidating at first but once I got to know people, I realised that everyone was super
welcoming. We also had a great girl group post lockdown which was sick! It’s a shame to
see there’s not as many local girls into skating nowadays.
What would you say to someone who’s nervous about starting out?
That it’s the best and the longer you do it the more fun it gets. When I started out, I remember being intimidated because I hated the idea of falling in front of people, but falling is sometimes fun. Trying and failing just makes the land even more satisfying. If you’re not falling, you’re not trying, so don’t feel scared to mess up. Trust the process for real!!!!!!
Did you have any role models or inspirations when you started?
Oh yes lol I was a big-time fangirl. I’m pretty sure I had posters on my wall of Helena Long, Rianne Evans and Alice Smith skating at some point. In the least creepy way possible I swear haha. I also distinctly remember Poppy (Volks) coming to Vicki one weekend and doing Backside Flip on the hip. I had never seen another girl do flip tricks like that at that point. I think it became my mission to learn BS flips after that. Poppy defo inspired me for
sure, big love!
Photograph by Ginge
We noticed you've taken part in some teaching-related activities. Could you tell us more about your involvement?
Yeah, when I moved to London for Uni one of my friends messaged me to say his boss was looking for female skaters to become instructors. It was lowkey the best student job ever. I did that for a while and then last summer a local charity called Mighty Girls reached out to me and asked me to coach some monthly sessions down at Bradford on Avon. All the girls are honestly so sweet, it makes me so happy seeing how much they’ve progressed in between each session. Hopefully we’ll run some more sessions this summer. Go follow for more info!
Im sure you have really helped and been an inspiration to lots of beginners who have seen
you skate or been coached by you - Have you had any moments where another skater really
made a difference for you?
So many skaters have helped me or given me tips over the years. I think Whitlock and
Tristan (Buckland) from Bath helping me find a spot and get a clip for SULIS made a
massive differnce to my skating. They basically introduced me to the idea of street skating.
Plus, the whole process was so fun that I was like ‘wow this is all I wanna do from now on’.
In your view, what are some effective ways to continue developing inclusive environments?
I think skateboarding as a whole is becoming ever more inclusive, but I think the key things I
can probably think of are, inclusive events, spaces, and representation. As skateboarding
media has started to cover a wider variety of skating and skateboarders, I think many people
feel there is much better representation in the industry which is great. It’s also cool to see so
many events and jams catered specifically to marginalised skateboarders. The future is
looking bright for sure.
Moving to London from Bath must have been a really fun change, but I imagine it can be
daunting in a new city! How have you found the skate community in London and what role
does community play in your progression as a skater?
I think the only major downside to London is that it can be somewhat difficult to organically bump into someone multiple times because there’s so many people and so many parks. But I found it means people put will put in extra effort to stay in contact. I’ve been super lucky to meet some lovely people and talented skaters. Community definitely plays a role in progression. I specifically choose to skate the parks which I feel have a great community, so not Southbank. Joking. Watching other skaters, particularly female skaters progress just gives me so much stoke.
What systemic or cultural changes do you think are necessary to make skateboarding more
inclusive and welcoming to women and gender-diverse people?
Like I said I think skateboarding is become much more inclusive on the whole. Seeing more
magazines cover female and gender-diverse skaters is super cool and important. Obviously,
the more representation out there, the better. For a long time, it was kind of rare to see girls
in skate mags, I’m stoked to see that things are changing. Plus, nowadays there’s a more
diverse array of skateboarders being sponsored by the big brands and being showcased in
the team videos which is exciting to see.
Can you see any links between your studies and the way you approach skating or express your creativity?
So, I study Security and Crime Science BSc at UCL in London. It’s a unique degree that
covers a really broad range of topics. Literally everything from Counter Terrorism to Crime
mapping and statistics. One of my favourite things I learnt about is called CPTED or Crime
Prevention Through Environmental Design. CPTED basically involves manipulating the built
environment to reduce or prevent crime.
For my dissertation I’ve decided to look at using CPTED to make UK skateparks safer. Its honestly crazy to me just how much money is being allocated to building new skateparks without any academic research on what can make a skatepark attract crime and how we can build features that prevent it. The project was ultimately inspired by something I saw on Radio 2 suggesting that Women might be put off learning to skate if their local skateparks are seen as unsafe. Yeah, I literally cannot wait to get started. I’m hoping that maybe the research will spark a conversation on how we build skateparks and potentially even have some kind of practical implications further down the line.
Photograph by Ginge
We loved your recent Push interview—it was amazing! How has it felt to have your skating reaching a wider audience and gaining more recognition?
Yes, I was so stoked on that. It was super fun working with Ginge on the photos and interview. He was super understanding the whole time even when I was struggling with a bit of a mental block. Despite shooting in the dead of winter and being rained off constantly I definitely had fun, hopefully he did as well haha. I wanted to do the best I could in spite of the weather and juggling uni deadlines. My main worry was whether people would see it and be like “how did this make it in”. I hear people say all the time “the 13-year-old boy at my local could do that” etc so it’s a little intimidating when you feel like you don’t deserve something but still want to do your best. I think every skater feels like that sometimes.
How do you think the rise of social media and platforms like Instagram or TikTok have
affected female representation in skateboarding? Has it helped break down barriers or created new challenges?
Honestly, I’m all for it, I think for the most part its brilliant. Particularly in lockdown, social media offered a simple way of seeing people like yourself skateboard. I know so many girls, me included, who met other girl skaters through Tik Tok around lockdown time. Also just seeing other girls like me skateboard was super motivating especially when I first started.
Back then fewer girls were making it into big videos and magazines, so it was great because in a lot of cases girls were like ‘if you’re not going to give me the platform to share my skating, I’ll do it myself’.
What message or advice do you want to share with young girls who are interested in skating
but feel intimidated by the male-dominated environment?
It may be intimidating at first but nowadays there are so many girls who skate as well! If
you’re able to use social media to reach out to other girl skaters, the likelihood is they will be
super excited to skate with you! For the most part, skateboarding is a universal language so
at the skatepark everyone is the same regardless of gender, sexual orientation or ethnicity.
We’re all the same really.
Finally do you have any shout outs or new parts that you could recommend people to
watch?
Ooo yes of course! I really liked Lilli Werner’s “Lilli” part and Cata Diaz’s “Cachai” part. They
both killed it. Oh yeah and if you haven’t already, watch the Petticoat video “Petite”. I think
it’s great, but I might be a little biased ahahah. Shout out to Alexis (Lewis) and everything
she’s doing to get the girls in the streets.
Thanks so much for taking the time to sit with us Eliana, we love how much you’re killing it!
Thanks Alex big love <333
