Alethea Mountford - Skateboarder & GSNE Founder
Alethea Mountford
@kittenbutz
Alethea has been a friend for a good few years now. She is a true inspiration, a good friend and I loved every minute of reading her insights in this interview. I’ve been following her journey as a Skateboarder and watching her build a community of other women who skateboard in the North East.
Half of me wishes the journey Alethea took was in surfing instead of skateboarding because she is fearless and I would love to be on the journey with her. Alas, I am scared of concrete; Alethea is not. We convene in the sea and slide sideways together a few times a year and I definitely see her skateboarding having a big positive impact on her surfing. The photos for this interview were taken at North Shields skatepark when our son Billy was sharing lines on his BMX with Alethea and James on their skateboards.
Hope you enjoy the interview as much as we did!
How long have you been skateboarding?
I properly committed myself to learning to skateboard a couple of years ago, when I was about 25 years old. I dipped in and out of learning for a couple of years before that, but because I was skating so infrequently I never really made much progress and had to start back almost at square one every time. I try to make the effort to skate at least every week, but of course it’s all weather dependent, especially at the moment. I’m sure a lot of people will understand the feeling of restlessness and inexplicable bad moods when they haven’t been on their skate or surfboard for a little bit too long.
Alethea wears our Psychedelic Seaweed - Organic Long Sleeved Tee
Was it easy to make the decision to start skating/What barriers did you face in starting?
I was really into the whole skate/surf scene as a kid but, being from the countryside in the middle of nowhere, I had given up on ever learning how to skate or surf. When I moved to Newcastle for university, I met my partner James, who has skated for over 15 years. He bought me my first skateboard and has been helping me learn ever since. The biggest barriers I faced starting out were my own embarrassment and pride – learning to skate as a 20-something year old woman felt inherently embarrassing, and not being immediately “good” or seeing progress was frustrating to me and part of the reason why it took so long for me to start taking skating seriously.
What was going through your head the first time you went to a skatepark and skated in public?
I don’t really remember the first time I went to a skatepark, but I’ve never really lost the internal monologue and the emotional response that I first had, especially whenever I go to an unfamiliar skatepark. Standing around, feeling overwhelmed, feeling like a poser because you’re not skating, feeling like you’ve got to shred to prove that you’re not a poser, finally getting up the courage to get on your board, then instantly feeling you’re getting in the way and you’re not good enough to take up space. It’s getting easier to fight through those feelings the more confident I get on my board and the more I realise that the skateboarding community as a whole is incredibly supportive and encouraging to beginners.
Up early before the scooters arrive to be able to skate all the lines in the park.
Who have been your support network to bounce off?
James has been my biggest supporter since day one, through all the falls, tears and celebrations. We’ve reached the point where we can go skating together and I don’t feel like he has to look after me, and I think we’re both enjoying skating together so much more because we can just have fun. All of my friends have been super supportive and encouraging, and I’ve also met so many great new people through skateboarding. Holly and Hilda, two of the first girls I met through skateboarding in the northeast, have become two of my closest friends and been with me through the thick and thin of learning to skate – always there to push and hype each other up, and to offer words of support when we’re going through the inevitable dark patches.
What prompted you to start the GSNE IG?
I had been frustrated at the lack of a female skate scene in the northeast for a while, so when I travelled down to Leeds for one of the Rolling with the Girls’ nights (a Leeds-based female skate crew), and had such a positive experience, I wanted to create the same sort of atmosphere up here. Not long after, RWTG did a Q&A on their IG story for girls to message in to try to find other girls to skate with in their area, and a few lasses nearby got in touch with them. I set up GSNE that day in December 2018, hoping to meet a few women around me who were into skating. The purpose of GSNE has never been to create an exclusionary environment, but to give girls and women of any skill level the confidence to take up space in a skatepark and to provide a support network that will always be there for them to fall back on. One of the great things about the skateboarding community as a whole is that it is, for the most part, incredibly inclusive and welcoming, but entering a typically male-dominated environment can be very intimidating for many women (myself included).
Photo - Blind Johnny
How has that scene grown and what does that mean to you?
The first time I met up with someone from the GSNE IG to skate, it was just me and Holly on a cold, damp day in Newcastle. We talked more about our experiences as women trying to learn to skate than actually skating. A few months down the line, I met a few more of the GSNE girls at the skate nights in Gateshead and Darlington, but there still weren’t that many of us, and it was still rare for me to see another female skater when I went to a skatepark outside of girls only nights. Now, especially with lockdown, I see girls and women with skateboards everywhere, which is so exciting to see, and I feel like it’s rare for me not to see another female skater when I’m out. The girls only nights at skateparks get fully booked in the space of a day, there are so many new people tagging GSNE and sending me videos, it just brings me so much joy. GSNE has allowed like-minded girls and women to meet, skate together, form friendships and support systems. An integral part of skate culture is just standing around and talking during a session, in between tricks and when you need a breather. Now, conversations aren’t just focused on skating, but people feel able to open up about mental health struggles, life crises and problems they’ve faced being out in the world as a female (as well as a skater). I get called “skate mum” quite a lot by the GSNE crew – I do feel like GSNE is my child sometimes, and I’m truly proud of how she’s grown up.
Front rock on the whippy little quarter. This is a really stylish and technical trick.
Tell us a bit about the female role in the skateboarding landscape. Does it feel positive? Is it growing? Do you feel represented by the industry?
The female skate scene, especially in the UK, seems to have exploded recently, with girl skate crews popping up all over the country. Within the industry as a whole, there seem to more female skaters going pro and being featured on IG and in video sections. There have been loads of full female skate sections as well, which is crazy and gets me so hyped to skate. Women are finally being more represented in the industry, and in a way that finally doesn’t feel tokenistic; they’re being included for the right reasons. Despite all this positivity, you can’t help but feel disheartened whenever you look at the comments section of an IG post or a YouTube video. I don’t know when people are going to realise that saying, “she’s pretty good for a girl” or “even I couldn’t do that!” isn’t a compliment, and at what point women skating are going to stop being sexualised or objectified.
You've surfed with Yonder a few times now and you have the potential to rip - I can see how much your skating has improved your confidence in the water. Tell us a little about your relationship with surfing.
As with skating, I’d resigned myself to never learning to surf because I felt like I was too old and too embarrassed to be a learner. There’s something so supportive and inspiring about learning in an all-female environment, it feels like there’s less internal pressure to hide your weaknesses and struggles, less fear about messing up and not being perfect. Sally is always there to share in the stoke about catching a wave or to give you a little piece of advice or make an observation that can help you to improve. Despite all the similarities and differences between skating and surfing, the one thing that really binds them together for me is the rush you get whether you’re dropping into a concrete ramp or a wave, learning a new trick or riding a wave just that little bit longer than you did the last time. I really love being in the water and there’s definitely something special about the North Sea.
Skateboarding originated from surfers who took up ‘sidewalk surfing’ on flat days.
What is your outsider opinion on the role of females in the surf industry as a whole?
It seems like women in the surf industry have similar struggles to in the skate industry, but with the added struggle of spending a lot of time in swimwear and all the undue attention that can bring. The representation and visibility of females in the surf industry seems (to me) to be improving, I’m seeing woman ripping on IG now, and not just the ones that are in bikinis. That’s absolutely not to say the two are mutually exclusive, and that women shouldn’t be able to wear whatever they want regardless of what they’re doing, but it feels as though the clips I’m seeing now are less tailored to the male gaze and more focused on the shredding itself. One of the videos that we watched on the first surf camp I went on with Yonder was all about highlighting the fact that women surfing isn’t quite the glamorous, hair flipping, tanning activity of your dreams – there’s snot everywhere, not being bothered to shave, freezing your tits off, pants blowing off into the distance when you’re changing. Yes, it is possible to look beautiful and elegant all the time (and some people do), but it’s totally fine and normal to talk about the messy side of things.
Who are your heroes or heroines?
I’ve got a list of skate idols longer than my arm and could talk about people who inspire me forever. Leo Baker and Josie Millard are my original skate heroes and will always hold a place in my heart, Nora Vasconcellos inspires me to up my transition skating, Helena Long is an absolute icon in the UK skate scene (and she’s just gone pro, yeeeww!), and I look to Una Farrar for street and flatground hype.
Skateboard culture has influenced so much of our lives with music, artwork and style here at Yonder.