‘You get to design your own way of skateboarding and figure out which way you want to do it.’
BRYCE WETTSTEIN
August 2024
Can you tell me something about Encinitas the no one knows?
Encinitas is one of the most beautiful places you will ever be because it changes daily. It is either very beautiful with the trains going by and the downtown and the soon is purely synced with your mood and you are surfing. Or it is raining, no sun, not a lot of people and you find time to reflect. So, it is always changing. The small town becomes a big town easily.
I understand both your parents skated in the 80ies and your dad got you into riding bowls. Did he ever try to make a career out of it?
He did not. He was a fitness model, and he is an airline pilot now. He would always think about holistic health ideals. He would always skate where he was going, and he always wanted to be a coach. He has so much intellect which I think is beautiful. This whole journey. Oh my god. It is funny you cannot imagine your life without skateboarding. There is so much more in it. My dad and my mum have been around me for so long, helping me. I don’t think we know what to do being apart from each other sometimes which is amazing. My dad always wants to teach me about something, still.
Let’s pick up on your dad’s teaching. In almost every interview you reference the Bones Brigade. They happened well before you were even born. Is this also something that was passed on to you by your parents?
We lived in Encinitas and at the time I rode for Mike McGill, and Tony Hawk was and is still my neighbor. We got to skate alongside all of them preparing for the Vans Combi Classic and they would all randomly show up at our local YMCA Skatepark, which was a hot spot at the time, around 2009 for me. Also, my father would play ‘The Search for Animal Chin’ DVD all the time, and then when I was 8 years old, ‘Bones Brigade: An Autobiography’ by Stacy Peralta came out and it debuted at our local La Paloma theatre here in Encinitas, and the entire Bones Brigade showed up, and Mike McGill had given our entire family tickets to come watch and ask questions. This was 2012.
Your initial dream was to be a pro surfer and then it switched to pro skater. What was the tipping point?
Surfing is something you do truly fully in the present moment because you are reacting to ever-changing waves produced my mother nature. No two waves are ever the same. You are riding energy. It’s a different head-space. It’s almost impossible to over think surfing, except from priority tactics, etc. Surfing is by definition flow-state.
Skateboarding in bowl and park format, involved much more planned choreography, from lines to trick selection, almost like a dance, so you had plenty of time to over-think things, not always in a positive manner. That added to contest stress.
Also, while I was competing in surfing and skateboarding simultaneously year-round, surfing was always clearly the amateur leagues. Surfing was very clear about pro vs am divisions. By the time I was 12, in skateboarding I would already be competing in some contests that were Pro-Am/Open – not even any age groups. Surfing had age groups. Skateboarding you might draw a heat with a top 10 pro skater in the world at age 12. Now even 13-year-olds have made it into the first Olympics. So that added another layer of stress for a contest result. Skating, I started earning ‘Pro prize purse’ money by the time I was 13 even though I was clearly not turned pro. Surfing was getting expensive. Surfing seemed like a dreamy beach culture and became an outlet for me and also was very healing for my body – no slamming. Eventually the better contest results I was getting in skating the more expectation stress that produced for all of us to keep improving. There was less pressure since surfing was still amateur.
But something just clicked in, and I felt at home with skateboarding and fell truly in love around age 15. Of course, by then Skateboarding was announced as an Olympic sport and this enabled me to finally earn money through skating and not just spend money on travel and accommodations, because I was able to get sponsored! Surfing traditionally has always had a more set and mature path to joining the WSL, I think the youngest girl to ever make the WSL was 17. Skateboarding seems to progress much younger. Because I think with surfing it also takes years of ocean study and knowledge, not just how you surf.
‘This is more than a motion. It is emotion.’
I read your Juice Magazine interview from 2016. You were 11 years old but the things you said around gender, media, brands and the Olympics felt like coming from an adult. Where does this maturity come from?
A lot of it is like the perspective I want to see. I want to follow through with those feelings. Especially now the most important thing you can to is to be true to yourself in that moment. I think sometimes it goes away for a second how to be true to yourself and that’s almost most inspiring is when you get lost in that second even if you know how you’re feeling and that is so beautiful. Being on top of your feelings is the best thing. Another thing is that at young age I was always taught and to persevere, to be really strong. My dad was really good at that. Sometimes this is really difficult to be strong all the time. I think as I get older, and I have learnt that the weakest moments are your strongest moments. Even now I feel super emotional, and people would say that is a weakness. It is all about taping into this emotion and setting it free which is the strongest thing. Some of the interviews I have done were like writing a song to set free those emotions.
In that interview you talked about how pros would turn into AM-girls, compete, and take their price money. Now there is this discussion around trans-gender which most of the girl skaters have an open mind to it. Do you think those are symptoms of a sport that reached mainstream?
In that Juice magazine article, that was mostly my dad concerned about pros competing against am girls randomly. I was just skating against myself always. Now I truly skate my best when I am having fun. Skating is unique like that: You can be skating and winning money in ‘Pro/Open’ contests, but this does not make you a pro. You have to be turned Pro by your board sponsor when they deem you worthy! I do not question this. My dad was confused for a while there on pro vs Am in skating, because its not like any other conventional sport. My father always had my best interest in mind. Dads sometimes have to be the bad-guy behind the scenes so their daughter can always keep shining publicly. Women’s skateboarding has seemed to place inclusion of all humanity above any potential fairness-conflict. Everyone is still navigating this in their own path. This is a complex issue. My dad feels a certain way. I tend to go with kindness always.
Your first board sponsor was Silly Girl Skateboards. How difficult was it to leave them for Stereo after all these years?
I just realised that everything I love in life start with the letter ‘s’. I am going to put that in my side project. What the heck. I just realised that. Surfing, skating, Silly Girls Skateboarding, Sound…
‘I have learnt that the weakest moments are your strongest moments.’
Song-writing.
Song-writing. Silly Girls leaving them for Stereo, they kind a fell off the face of everything. I think it was more like a childhood thing. We kinda found each other, and I think in life sometimes those core memories that you have in everything, you did not chose those because you were younger. But you are so happy that they work out that way. So many times we think you always have to make your own choices and you should be allowed that freedom but sometimes it is that cap-off freedom where you do not have freedom but that makes the biggest difference in your life. When I was picking Stereo, Chris Pastras just sent me an email ‘would you maybe want to represent us?’. My parents were freaking out because they knew who Jason Lee was.
Of course, who doesn’t?
I didn’t. I was about 15 or 16 when that happened. In my head I’m just trying to find out what does this mean? How do I want to do this? I have to say yes so I can find out. Me and my dad. We are closer than a lot of parents would be. He has a heart like no one has ever seen. It’s gonna make me cry because I think a lot of times your parents put in so much dedication in everything to the point where you kind of feel like you are the same person as your parents. He didn’t live through me, but he lived so close to me that he felt he was going through it with me. Sometimes it wasn’t the best thing ever to be honest again my God gosh you know maybe I need a little bit more just. We are too connected. Anyway, I am going way off script. I cannot even remember what the script was.
How it felt to leave Silly Skateboards for Stereo?
To be clear – I did not leave Silly Girl for Stereo at all. Silly Girl Skateboards headed by my dear life-long friend Matt Gaudio, basically slowly ‘sun-setted’. Matt did so much for me I could cry. He devoted his whole life and every resource he had to Silly Girl and at one point he was sponsoring/flowing about 20 of us girls if not more. Honestly, I do not how did looking back. A lot the industry said Silly Girl “was no legit”. I did not even know what things like that meant when I was so young. But we were very unique and close and our own culture and trend-setters way outside the box. I miss those days. Matt attended my turning pro party for Stereo too. I will always be part Silly Girl. I think at some point Matt had nothing left to give. And he deserves the life he has now.
Stereo came right at the right time, organically: My dad and I were ordering blank decks from Mexico through Clutch Distribution and making our own graphics with stencils and spray paint and paint pens, once Silly Girl faded out. That was actually fun. I had and agent, but we were in no rush and knew we would know when the right board co came along. I had a crush on Powell Peralta for a while there and that was a thing for a bit. Also, Polar. But I was still in public high school and missing all their invites to come skate with PP at spots. No van rides, in school instead.
We had known and worked with Chris Pastras for many years as he was always on deck or commentating at the Vans Park Series and Dew Tour contests. He was so kind and easy to talk to. Of course, we also know about Jason Lee, but mostly from his days with buddy Pastras hosting skate shows on Fuel TV.
Chris Pastras finally reached out, and he was casual and relaxed about that I felt no pressure at all. He just sent me some boards initially. He had me covered even when the pandemic hit shortly thereafter. He has always asked for things so calmly with almost no expectation. or pressure. Silly Girl was more of a classic 80s skate team vibe, just like Bones Brigade in a way. And Chris of course with Stereo had 30 years of establishment in the skate industry so we knew Stereo had weathered a lot storms and fads. He even turned me Pro after the Olympics. That said a lot. There’s a funny story about my surprise pro party, when everybody was at my house hiding, and then I walked into the wrong doorway behind them all!
‘Dads sometimes have to be the bad-guy behind the scenes so their daughter can always keep shining publicly’
You are a surfer, skateboarder, volleyball player, skim boarder, poet, writer, artist, singer-songwriter, designer, style master and Olympian. Is there anything you cannot do?
A lot of things. Probably cleaning my room. When I am cleaning, I really have to be in a good place. I must have the most tyring day so I can actually not think while I’m cleaning which helps. Sometimes I just trip and fall like when I am walking upstairs. Sometimes I cannot do any of the things I am good at. I am just not there. It is the down time and off moments where you actually come alive. Can I surf, can I skate right now? What happened? Are you going home or are you keep going with it until something feels different? Usually, I am just keep going with it because it is an interesting feeling. Sometimes it lasts a second to break the ice.
Do you like comeback stories?
Do you like being in the valley and climbing back up the mountain?
Yes. There is a part of me. I like that downtime where you are falling where it feels it is impossible to get up on the mountain because you are looking at it too closely. You know you are going to get there because you cannot go any other way. I am not going to stop. I must get there.
If I was a judge at the Tokyo Olympics, I would have given you gold. Do you know why?
No.
Because it was obvious you had the most fun with all the singing and playing the ukulele. Such a great ambassador for skateboarding. Is this something you do consciously to manage your nerves and excitement?
There is this moment where I know that the things, I love I am not just going to set them aside because it is the wrong time to do it. If you really love something, it is always the right time for it. At the Olympics, we all sang ‘country roads’ with Lizzie, Poppy, Sky and Ryan and it was Poppy’s idea. Poppy’s ideas are the best. She is like the director where she always has those perfect, magic ideas she throws out there and I catch them. The best part of Olympics was the introduction. We had no idea what to do. We all agreed to go out and wave. This is our moment (laughing).
Last question. If you could interview any person in the world, who would it be and why?
Oh my gosh. There are so many names coming to my mind, and I keep pushing them aside. I first thought of my mum than Taylor Swift. I thought of George Washington. I gotta say Rodney but at same time Tommy Guerrero. Maybe Tonia the ice skater because a lot of people only knew her from the movie. Gabby Douglas, the gymnast. I would ask her if she feels like an artist. Last one, my ballet teacher. Her name is Gina, and she is from Korea. Ok, last person now. Stephanie Gilmore, she is a world tour surfer.
Thanks, Bryce.
Last thing I want to say about us skateboarding is finding the ending note sometimes is hard because that is the part that you remember most.
‘It was the first time anyone ever asked me to be on their team’
