Push: Eliana Woosnam

Photography and Interview by Joseph ‘Ginge’ Piggott

Right, let’s have a go of this! Starting off easy, what’s your name, how old are you, and where are you from?

My name’s Eliana Woosnam, I am 21 years old, and I’m from the Bath-Bristol area.

The Bath-Bristol area? Shall we say Bath, or is there a specific area code?

(Laughing) Yeah, Bath.

How was it growing up in Bath?

It was great; I loved it. I actually grew up on the Isle of Wight as well for a bit, but mostly in Bath.

Damn, I didn’t know that.

I lived there on-and-off for two or three years, not that long. But growing up in Bath was great, it was super chill. Obviously, it’s so nice in summer as well, it can be a little bit grey in the winter, but in the summer it’s just the most beautiful place in the world. I love it.

How’s the nightlife in Bath?

(Laughing) Not so great. You’ve got The Bell, though. The Bell is the best pub ever, and they do live music on a Wednesday, I have so many funny memories from Bell Wednesdays. We’ve always gone there.

And how did you get into skating, growing up in Bath?

My friend Daisy (Baker), actually. Daisy used to skate with TJ and Tom (Rosedale), and I remember one day, it was around lockdown sort of time, I saw her at the skatepark, and she was like, “hey, come in, give it a go”. I messed around on her board for a bit and loved it. After that my parents got me my own board for my birthday. We spent the whole winter of 2020 skating in car parks, learning how to ollie and all of that kind of thing.

If you've seen Petite, you'll know that Eliana is partial to a spot of precarious wall navigation. Here she turns her attention to a suitable arced find in Clifton, Bristol.

Did you go down to Victoria Park quite a lot?

We used to be too scared to go to the skatepark, so we’d just skate on a road nearby, or we’d skate at the old multi-storey car park a lot because it was dry, it was really wet that winter. I don’t think I went to the skatepark until about three or four months into skating (laughs).

That’s pretty valid! You moved to London last year for uni; what’s that all about?

So, I do Security and Crime Science at UCL, which is basically cyber security kind of vibe, but it’s really a mash up of maths, criminology and computer science; it’s great fun. It sounds a lot more technical than it actually is, but I do love the coding and maths elements of it, so yeah… Women in STEM! (Laughs).

Women in STEM! That’s banging. So who do you skate with, now you’re in London?

A couple of friends from Bath… A mix of people, really. I have some good girl friends who skate here as well; Remy (Silvester), she’s from Ireland originally and she’s super lovely. To be honest, whoever is out on the day. Also, people come up and visit London a lot, which is nice.

Was it pretty easy to fit into the scene here then?

I think London gets a bad rep. Obviously there are a lot of people. I’ve heard it criticised for being unfriendly, but actually, I feel like as long if you’re willing to have a conversation with someone, there’s always people to meet, and people are really nice in general.

That’s always lovely to hear. So you do snowboarding as well; how long have you been doing that for?

Not that long, actually. About two years now. I took it up when I worked in Alpe d’Huez for about three months before I went to university. It’s amazing! Anything that you’ve ever wanted to do on a skateboard, you’re suddenly able to do it. You can go so much faster, so much higher… Everything is just ten times bigger and better (laughs). It’s nice to have something to look forward to in the winter. I think sometimes with skating in the winter, it can be a little bit depressing when it’s wet and dark, so having snowboarding is great. It’s something else to enjoy, and be passionate about.

Pedestrian dodging fakie 5050 halfcab out in Westminster, whilst Storm Darragh tries to blow Eliana off course.

You were in Scotland recently; what were you doing up there?

So we did BUDS, which is a weekend where we all go up to Edinburgh, and we compete at a dry slope. It’s the craziest setup as well; it’s this massive dry slope but it honestly feels like you’re in a mini ski resort, because it has a chair lift and everything. It’s so crazy. We do a bunch of uni competitions, but this one in particular has a great freestyle setup, so we did all of that last weekend.

Did it go well?

It did go well! I got a couple of medals (laughs).

What colour medals did you get?

All of the colours (laughs).

No podium left for anyone else! So what’s up with Cole Palmer?

Oh yeah, we were talking about this earlier; I can’t believe that you don’t know who Cole Palmer is. He’s a football player for Chelsea I’m pretty sure, but I just feel like I understand the man. He doesn’t seem to know what’s going on a lot of the time, and I think we all feel a little bit like that sometimes. We would get on, I think. If I ever met him, I think we’d be friends (laughs).

You don’t need to hide in a multi-storey car park, you’re allowed to be in the skatepark just as much as anyone else!

You used to write a dream diary, correct? How long was that going on for?

Honestly, on-and-off for about three years. Basically, when I was younger, I wanted to learn how to lucid dream so I could fly in my dreams and stuff, and I read somewhere on the internet that the first step is keeping a dream diary. I used to write down my dreams for a bit (laughs), but they ended up sounding a bit bizarre, so I gave that up.

So that was step one. Did you make it to step two at all?

No, I’m still working on the whole lucid dreaming thing. We’ll get there eventually.

You also spent some time in France; tell us about that.

So before I went to the mountains, I worked in a skate shop in Marseille for three months, called Bud Skateshop. It was truly the best experience. I actually couldn’t speak French when I went out there, so I was kind of in at the deep end, plus I’d never lived away from home before. Luckily, I met the most amazing people, everyone was so welcoming and so kind, and I have so many friends out there now that I love and still talk to. It was an amazing experience.

Is there anyone from the Marseille scene you want to shout out?

Big up Luzzie (Lurol)! She’s a female skate photographer living out in Marseille. She’s super talented; I made friends with her and she introduced me to loads of different people out in Marseille. Everyone in Marseille has the best attitude. It’s a kind of lawless place, anything goes. The people there are used to putting up with so much stuff on the daily, that they’re all just the chillest, nicest people ever. Super lovely.

And you teach skate lessons as well?

I do… Or I did (laughs). Sadly, I’m too busy with uni now. I know skate lessons is a somewhat controversial topic still in skating, but I really enjoyed it, particularly teaching the girls in Bath and Bradford on Avon. I ended up working with this local charity called Mighty Girls to run free coaching sessions over summer. Seeing how much confidence everyone gained as they progressed was super special. I wanted them to know that they’re allowed to take up space. You don’t need to hide in a multi-storey car park, you’re allowed to be in the skatepark just as much as anyone else!

You’re really big into learning about the history of female skateboarding. Are there any parts you’ve seen that you feel people should know about?

The Villa Villa Cola video Getting Nowhere Faster (2004), that’s such a good video, with a bunch of the Element girls. It follows a bunch of these girls, including Amy Caron and Vanessa Torres, on a road trip down to this competition they were all entering, they skate a bunch of street spots along the way. Me and Mae (Bicheno) always talk about this, but I feel like a lot of people don’t realise that there have been women in skateboarding for a long, long time now, and they’ve always shredded, you just need to find those videos, because a lot of the time they weren’t given the same time of day, or the chance to show just how sick they are.

Keeping the 'Skate the Strand' mindset alive with a drop in to 5050 where the temporary WC2 playground once stood.

Are there any skaters in the Bath-Bristol area you think are up-and-coming that people should keep an eye out for?

All of the girls in Bristol are absolutely killing it. You saw the Petticoat video (Petite), it was such good fun. Big ups to Alexis (Lewis) for actually getting us all together, because without her giving us all an excuse to get in the streets, we just wouldn’t have, I don’t think. Amelia (McCabe), she’s shredding at the moment, she has the craziest noseslides. Jules (Tridini) from Brighton, she’s been shredding as well. I met her quite recently at the London premiere of the Petticoat video. Honestly, so many of the girls are doing great stuff.

When was the first premiere of Petite, at Strange Brew?

The first one was in June. There were three in total, and I went to two out of the three.

Fake fan.

(Laughing) I know. Honestly, the best thing was just meeting everyone. Obviously, people would turn up who were interested in what we were doing, so I met lots of cool people and made so many friends.

Are you currently filming with anyone in London?

Erm… I’m trying to (laughs). Honestly, the weather has been so bad recently, and it’s been super cold. Excuses, excuses I know (laughs). I met this guy Daniel (Jones) recently, who’s filming a video which is coming out very soon. I don’t know too much about the video aside from its filmed in London and there’s some great skaters in it (laughs), but I’m going filming with him soon. Joe Poulter as well, in Bristol. He’s got a video in the works. I can’t wait. I hear people have landed some pretty crazy stuff for that. I’m excited to see it for sure.

Any words of inspiration for the skaters out there?

Always have fun (laughs). Keep having fun, and if it’s not fun anymore… Hey, don’t do it (laughs).

Follow Eliana - @elianawoosnam