Transcripts

While doing our transcripts we did a mistake by timecoding them on a regular video player instead of Premiere, which made it a bit more difficult to edit. In the end we went back to the interviews and put the correct timecodes on the paper transcripts.

KAYLEIGH HURST TRANSCRIPT MEDIUM SHOT

00:09

I’m Kayleigh, I’m 21, and this is Dartford skatepark.

00:18

I suppose when I first got into skateboarding, my uncle got a skateboard out of the loft that was a lot older than I am, and it was-- it was in pieces, but it sort of went from one thing to another, got a new board and then started here.

00:35

I wouldn’t say skate boarding’s like a hobby I’d say it’s more of a lifestyle. It just takes over your life. You end up seeing skate parks and skate spots everywhere you go. It just runs your life.

00:51

I do, I do like to travel and hit as many parks as possible. I went to Barcelona, recently, and I’m off to Athens in a couple of weeks time, so I am starting to go further afield now, but I’ll always come back to Dartford cause it’s your home town, it’s where you love the best.

01:11

Yeah, I’m actually a dustbin woman. So, I’m fighting the stereotypes in all aspects of life, but I love it. And again I get to see every skate spot possible when you’re running after a dustcart all day.

01:29

Yeah, I mean it’s—it’s always gonna be there because we are a different build, we are a different shape and size, but (sighs) they need to be changed purely because you can’t look at it in a negative way. Stereotypes shouldn’t be looked at in that kinda way, it should be a—a different kind, it should be a good thing. Stereotypes—it’s good to be different.

02:17

It’s—it’s good to be different and stereotypes, you’re always gonna have them, and we’re all a different build, but stereotypes… it’s a good thing.

02:38

There’s always obstacles in life, but skateboarding has more specific obstacles. Literally, everywhere you go you’ve got obstacles, but it shouldn’t—it shouldn’t be the park obstacles that are never a problem, it’s more the people and the way you get treated when you walk into a park. I mean, it’s changed a lot since I first started, but it’s still there, and it’s still—it’s still gotta be—it’s still gotta be better.

03:12

Well, Dartford—Dartford I’ve always been the only girl, I mean the first time I met another female skater was actually here in this park, and it was, actually I think—I think actually I might… probably be able to say it, it’s Wings. And she’s an amazing skater and she actually skates for Happy Cult, like I do as well. So, when I first saw her I was blown away, I thought I was the only female in the world, you know, I didn’t even realise it was—it was a thing. But, it was amazing, it just felt so good, and it wasn’t—it wasn’t like it felt like a competition, it felt like more than that, it just felt like my world has just opened up.

04:27

Yeah, I mean, when I first come to the skatepark it was—it was only me, and I was skating with the boys. Don’t get me wrong, I do—I do love to skate with the guys, but the first time I saw… I saw, actually, funnily enough I first met Wings and she actually skates for Happy Cult with me, and it was amazing, it was like the world opened up to me, just having that other female there, I just thought… wow, it’s—it’s bigger than I thought it was. 

04:53

Happy Cult’s a brand actually, that my… a very good friend of mine is actually made up. She’s actually teaching out in Vietnam at the moment. So it’s an absolutely stunning place for her, and she’s tryna build a company, from the other side of the world, but she’s doing an amazing job and it’s only gonna get better from here.

05:29

You’re always on the outside, I mean, especially as a skateboarder, male or female, you’re on the outside because you’re a skateboarder, and it’s always been frowned upon by, you know, everybody else in the world. But, yeah, females you do, you get looked at as if you’re some sort of alien from outer space. It shouldn’t be like that.

05:55

(laughs) You know what? I probably actually spend more time here than I do at my own home. I just, I mean, even—even when I was younger, first starting out skating, you find that you don’t only skate here, you practically live here. (laughs) Even if I’m not skating I find myself right here.

06:12

A lot, a lot of dedication.

06:20

That—that was the most random thing I think that could possibly happen, cause as soon as I met females, and I found out that (phone dings) there was actually (laughs) …. So, when I met Nefarious it was—it was—it was the strangest thing cause I actually went to, er, a competition, and I—I accidentally signed up for the… I thought I was just signing a bit of paper to say, you know, I’m—I’m one of the girls here, and I found myself in a competition, which was…ever so strange, and, I had some of the girls come up to me and say, oh like, you know, we’re part of this team, like, if you wanna ever come and skate in London you should come with us, and I met up with them for a couple of times and it just went from there. And it’s much bigger now, much, much bigger.

07:10

Definitely. I—Without Nefarious I dunno where I’d be. I mean, my skating was only ever stuck to sort of Dartford and local, and they’ve just brought my out of my shell. And—and, Rachel especially, she’s just changed my world, I mean, I would have never gone to Barcelona, I wouldn’t be going to Athens, I wouldn’t have been able to travel, and meet the people, and do the things that I’m doing now.

07:40

For me, I mean after I accidentally entered the first one, I think I’ve done one other since then, but for me, my style of skating is—it’s—it’s not about competitions and parks and brands, it’s grabbing my board and meeting up with the guys or the girls and just being myself, and just—and just doing what I do best, and that’s skate.

08:06

Yeah, I mean, I can’t remember a day when I wasn’t skating now. Like, if you know me then you know I’ve got my board so it’s—it’s—it’s a strange feeling, like if I wasn’t to have my skateboard, if I have to go out, even going to work without my skateboard, I just feel like there’s something missing. There is something not right about what I’m doing.

08:36

The hardest—the hardest thing is when you first start because you don’t wanna fall over in front of people, like, you’re just so scared of making a fool of yourself, and I can promise you now, I fall over-- I spend more time on the floor at a skatepark than I actually spend on my board, so it’s not a problem. If you ever feel like that, just get hold of Nefarious girls, the Happy Cult, give us a message and I’ll meet up, and skate. See me on the floor a lot (laughs).

After we stopped rolling Kayleigh started talking about Vans and we decided to get that as well.

TRANSCRIPT KAYLEIGH HURST MEDIUM (CONT.)

02:05

So, Vans is a company, I think they definitely need to be mentioned, because they are so supportive, and like—and like House of Vans at the park up in Waterloo, they support so many skate shops, and they and… and it’s free to go as well, so the girls that are, that need a dry place to skate, which is often in this country, we’ve always got our House of Vans.

02:39

So, Vans has their own skate team as well, and they’re just going up and up in the world, and it’s so nice to actually see big companies like Vans to start taking on women and showing that, you know, women are kicking arse.

03:00

I dunno. I mean, I’ve never really thought about doing skateboarding as a profession because it’s a lifestyle. It wouldn’t—it wouldn’t be—I mean, I wouldn’t call it my profession, because that’s just-- it’s what I do. It’s my lifestyle, so—but I love—I love to work in somewhere else other than skateboarding, just because it just—it just takes over your life. So, I think I would—everywhere I go, what job I do, skateboarding will be a part of it. I find myself on a dustcart with my skateboard at lunch, skating on my lunchbreak, so it’ll follow me everywhere, whether it’s my profession or anything it’ll always follow me round.

03:42

You always get injuries, but lucky enough for me I bounce back really quick. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever injured myself to the point where I won’t skate, I mean I’ve broken my wrist at House of Vans, funnily enough, but I carried on skating the same day, without I—I didn’t even go to the hospital I ended up skating the rest of the day and then I got home, I was like, okay I should probably get that checked, casted up, back out skating the next day.

TRANSCRIPT KAYLEIGH HURST MEDIUM 30 DEGREES

00:09

My name’s Kayleigh Hurst, I’m 21 years old, and I’m a skater from Dartford.

00:24

I think I first got into skateboarding when my uncle actually got a skateboard-- his old skateboard, older than I am skateboard, out of the loft, and I just put one foot on it, and never looked back. Got—got on my first board, good old Argos skateboard or something similar to, and just went from there.

00:48

I don’t—I wouldn’t class myself as a—as a hobby skateboarder, I’m more of a—a lifestyle. It just takes over your life, and… I dunno, it just takes over your life (laughs).

01:13

Yeah, Dartford being my home town, I just—you just can’t help yourself, you have to skate your home town, and I do think this is one of the best parks I’ve ever been to, but I’m gonna be biased because I’m from Dartford (laughs).

01:28

I’m actually a bin woman, fighting stereotypes every day of my life.

01:38

Yeah, stereotypes are something that we challenge with every single day, and women fight it every single day, in fact, even men fight the stereotype of just being a man every single day, and that needs to be changed, because stereotypes shouldn’t be played as something’s that’s bad, it—it needs to be changed for the better.

02:04

Yeah, when I first started, in fact, for the first few years, I didn’t even know that females existed on a skateboard, I didn’t think that was a thing, and then I met Wings for the first time, that skates for Happy Cult with me, and… it just went from there.

02:23

I found Nefarious, I actually went to my first ever competition, and I met some of the girls there, and they were just amazing, they supported me through everything, and they just showed me the real world of skateboarding, women, and it was amazing.

02:54

Grab a skateboard. Grab a skateboard, hit me up on Instagram or, anything really, Facebook, and let me know, and I’ll come skate.

TRANSCRIPT KAYLEIGH HURST CLOSE-UP

00:16

Skateboarding, it can’t ever be a hobby I don’t think. I think it turns into a lifestyle, and you have to spend every living moment thinking about skateboarding.

00:34

Yeah, we fight stereotypes every day. Men and women, we fight stereotypes every day, but we definitely as women, we are doing it best, we are—we are kicking the stereotypes right in the butt.

00:51

It’s so important, cause the more people you know, and, especially with women cause you find it easier when you’re in a—when you’re in a pack (laughs). The more women you got with you, you feel more confident and you can just be yourself.

01:07

Jump into it. It’s hard to start off with, but…find-- find another girl close to you, or even get hold of me, Instagram, whatever, and let me know, and we’ll grab a board and we’ll go out and skate.

01:45

And the girl’s skate nights are the best things to do, I mean you’ve got, like three a month I think now, and they’re just all over the place, and if-- if you go, it’s just all women. You don’t have to worry about guys, you don’t have to worry about no nothing. There’s just women there, and there’s—even some of them have teaching classes, you can borrow a board and it’s a great place to be.

(Talks to us also about archive picture which we can use of first picture of her skateboarding, remember to find this!)

RACHAEL SHERLOCK TRANSCRIPT (MEDIUM AND 30 DEGREES MEDIUM)

MEDIUM

00:50

My name is Rachel Sherlock and I’m actually 27 years old and I’m part of Nefarious Girls skate group.

01:04

The Nefarious skate crew are kind of like a group of girls that came together, god, probably about two years maybe even verging on three years ago now. Umm I met them when I literally just got back to skateboarding. Umm I used to skate when I was little and then I kind of moved to London I didn’t really had any friends so I thought maybe I’ll start skating again and found out about girls night so I went there.  Umm and a couple of the girls umm Celine, Ray, Vivi kind of all just started their own little group and they kind of invited me in and I remember we had a really good skate at basically six and then we went to the pub afterwards and got really drunk and it kind of just went from there then.

01:52

The crew has definitely helped me in terms of I was very self-conscious about my image so I’d say that I really enjoyed skating when I was kind of in my teenage years, but all the guys I skated with kind of grew up and went away and I went to university and it was kind of like something that I felt... I kind of felt embarrassed if I’m honest. So I like even felt like my parents were embarrassed. The older I got and I’d come home and then get my board and go to the skate park, I kind of felt like, you know, our town was really small and it was quite judgemental, especially being a girl I was the only one there. And then as I got older I was kind of like the only girl and one of the oldest people there. Umm and what Nefarious helped especially when I came to London, I found a group of women that just didn’t care. And especially like I admire the most and became really good friends with one of the older girls called Ray. And what was nice was like I’d go skating with her and she’d be older than me and then the youngest girl Lola would be like maybe 14 -15 at the time, so we had an age gap between like 14 and like maybe Ray in her like thirties, so umm it made me realise that age was just the number, it doesn’t matter. And like if I went to work I wasn’t ashamed to like bring my board to work and have people like ‘Oh, did you ride that to work?’ or something like that and you you know, you just shrug it off and be like ‘yeah’ you know, whatever. I skate it makes me happy.

03:32

I think with Nefarious now like we’ve all umm grown up, it’s been ongoing. We got to a point where like umm the group was so big and not everybody umm stuck at skateboarding, so there’s been a few of us that are quite religious at skating still and then a few that just kind of join us for an odd event. And I think that’s really nice because obviously we are, the majority of us are older women, we have full time jobs, and it is really hard to kind of… Like skateboarding is a thing on the side and I think when people see maybe like our Instagram they kind of assume that we don’t a day jobs and that we’re out skateboarding every day. But the reality now is that we’re a bit older and umm it’s a really kind of nice and unique event once every now and then when we do meet up.

04:25I think it’s definitely important for gender stereotypes to be broken. I think there’s a part of me that felt like I had to dress like a girl, act like a girl and just grow up, which is a big reason why er I left skateboarding for such a long period of my life and came back to it. And then I realised that now like I’ve got a wardrobe full of dresses and heels and all this other stuff but I mainly wear jeans and a and a T-shirt because I mainly go skateboarding so.  Umm and I think gender stereotypes… Yeah I don’t think they’re good. I don’t think they’re good for anyone, especially young girls, I think they have to realise that they can be what they want and if that’s er, turning up to a skate park and skating in a tutu, because I know one girl in particular who does that and I think that’s rad, but if it’s turning up to a skate park wearing boys clothes and they’re all baggy then, you know, whatever makes you comfortable.

05:29

I think there’s a real importance to women doing any sporting activity. I think I was researching once into studies of the age when girls drop out of sports, I think it is kind of in secondary school. After that participations in sports kind of fizzles- fizzles out. And I think that women who do lead an active life style uhh, are kind of much more happier in their lives or… I don’t know what I’m trying to say here.

06:16

What advice I would give to people who are afraid? Depends whether they’re afraid to do a particular trick or whether they’re just afraid to join in, like I think some of the coolest things is like me and my girlfriend were skating down the street the other day and on the other side of the road was a younger girl going down on a cruiser, we were kind of like  ‘Yeaaah girl power! Like, keep going!”. And I think sometimes when I skate by kids that aren’t nesc… like, don’t have a skateboard, and sometimes you can tell that they kind of looking , maybe they’re interested, so I think like, the more girls out there skating, and especially with social media now, like if I had social media when I was younger, I would have seen that I wasn’t alone, there was a bunch of cool girls doing what they’re doing, I would have known about events, meetups, things like that.  And I probably wouldn’t have stopped and I probably would’ve made the most out of my time being younger, so I think for younger kids now, like they can use social media, they can see that there’s a community there and they might be, you know, they should never be afraid to get involved. Like, there’s girls nights, umm there’s everything basically available to them.

07:45

I think with skateboarding, skateboarding is currently a male dominated sport and I know with other sports like womens snowboarding and even things like tennis I think, the pay, the gender pay gap for competitions and things is really big. I’d say with tennis the womens standard obviously is kind of more up there with the men. Obviously because of the way our bodies are, we’re never gonna be equal in terms of physical, kind of how you can perform. Umm, but for skateboarding now that more women are getting involved umm the level of women skateboarding is going up. Umm and I think that’s only going to keep going up the more women that get involved in sports. Because sometimes for me personally I have to see it to believe it so I never thought girls could tray flip or do things like this, and now I can see girls doing and now I can believe it’s possible for maybe myself to do it

30 DEGREES MEDIUM

00:10

I’m Rachel Sherlock, umm I’m 27 years old, surprisingly, I know, and I’m part of Nefarious girl skate team. 

00:36

Nefarious girl skate crew is a crew that started almost 3 years ago. And it was basically a bunch of girls that were starting to skate, I met them at girls night.

02:43

Nefarious girl skate crew are basically a bunch of girls that found, like, we found each other 2-3 years ago. Umm it was kind of really essential to me at the time, because I just got back into skateboarding and I was a bit shy. And a lot of them had just started skateboarding so it was good that we found each other so that we could motivate each other and get drunk. And skate.

03:17

The crew definitely helped me to get back into skateboarding in a sense that I was kind of… especially in the age I got back into skateboarding, I was kind of in my mid-twenties, so I was like a bit embarrassed and I was embarrassed to kind of take my skateboard to work, but as soon as I found those girls and a few of them were older than me and they just really didn’t care, you know, it was all about like do whatever that makes you happy, like life is too short to worry  about what other people may or may not think of you. So, I think that really helped me umm because I’ve had a lot of joy skateboarding over these past years. If I didn’t get back into skateboarding I wouldn’t’ve found a charity called Skate Pal, wouldn’t have gone out to Palestine, I wouldn’t have gone on Rubicon Skate Camp, I wouldn’t have basically met a bunch of cool girls like Kayleigh and we’ve been to Barcelona, we’ve been to Corbie on a all-night session like in a skate park so you know, we had some really like mental times and none of these kind of memories would have happened if I hadn’t met the girls and got back into skateboarding.

04:28

Meeting other female skateboarders definitely inspired me. Ugh, because I hadn’t... I come from a small town in Somerset, I hadn’t really heard of any other girl skateboarders and so when I came to London, and found that there’s a whole scene and a community of girls umm that I could hang out with and we could go to girls nights and all these different events and kind of start our own events as well. Then this kind of given me kind of a direction in life so you know, I love my job and I love working but at the same it’s good to have something going on outside of your life.

05:17

There’s definitely stereotypes involved in sport. Umm I think skateboarding is a very male dominated sport and unfortunately like a lot of other sports the competition and pay gap for competitions is quite big. The men seem to have all these heats where they compete and then they take the best, whereas the women seem at the moment to be just a select few that always get to do the same competition even though x-games and street league and is only recently that we’ve seen umm girls from maybe outside of America to have an opportunity to come and compete umm because the level of women skateboarding is getting higher and higher and higher so I think the more girls that get involved that level is just gonna keep up going up.

06:16

 The advice I’d give to other girls and I’d say that especially women, because with my age was such a big factor into getting back to skateboarding and something I almost didn’t do because I thought I was too old. And now I’m thinking, like, Oh my god, if in my early twenties, which was when I really had a problem with it, if I only known it was ok, and even ok to start something new. Umm then because I say like I always wanted to play drums and I’m thinking if I was 20 I started, now I’m 27, I’d have 7 years of playing drums under my belt. So it’s never too old to like get into anything, so especially if you’re an older woman, like, come to a girls night, it’s not about turning pro at this stage, it’s about kind of like getting active, releasing good endorphins by doing sport and finding a community of people that you can kind of hang out with and socialise with as well as just like skate

TRANSCRIPT RACHAEL SHERLOCK CLOSE-UP

00:16

Nefarious skate crew has helped me because I was kind of so embarrassed and shy to get back into skateboarding, especially at an older age, and I think because there was older women there, um, that just didn’t-- literally didn’t care, you know, it made them happy, and that was all that mattered, that inspired me to just shut out what people were thinking, um, and especially, I remember when I got back into skateboarding I broke my wrist, like after three months, and I think if it wasn’t for the girls there I would have instantly stopped, because I would have had my parents being like, you’ve got a job you can’t, you know, be sick. I would have had my job, obviously being like, do you think, you know, do you think you should be skateboarding still kind of thing, and I know they’re not allowed to say that, but there were people at work that made those kind of comments, and I think I would have really taken them to heart if, um—like someone once even said, like oh, don’t you think you should stop like, that silly skateboarding, and it’s a bit like, until you skate, or maybe, like, anything could be your passion, mountain biking, skiing, you know, you—you don’t know how that makes you feel, so without it, I’d probably like lose my marbles, it’s helped me through, like, some really tough times.

01:29

Yeah, I think there’s a lot of gender stereotypes, err, in sport, and I think it’s really important that they’re broken, and I think the more women that get involved in skateboarding, and especially the level of the young girls now, like, they are, um, performing, competing, and doing tricks that girls have never done before, um, so I think that’s absolutely amazing that—that the more girls that skate, I think the level will continue to rise.

02:02

I think it’s really important for women to be able to perform these sports. I think there’s been a lot of talk, err, with skateboarding regarding the girl’s nights, and whether girl’s nights are fair, and I think currently you have to look at every other night as being man’s night, and if one night a week for just a couple of hours in the evening allows a bunch of girls to come to the skatepark and skate around, where they don’t feel like they’re being watched at, and they don’t feel like they’re being pressured, um, by men, then we should allow girl’s night to happen, and then, you know, what we find with girl’s nights now is the girls gain confidence in the skatepark, and then they’ll go to a skate night that’s not a girl’s night, and they’ll skate with the boys, but until, you know, women feel comfortable, um, because they are the minority basically at the moment, then I think it’s important that we can break these barriers, and by holding girl’s nights I think that really helps.

03:06

I think, um, a lot of people might be afraid of, you know, getting involved in skateboarding, but I think the good thing is with social media that there’s Instagram, there’s Facebook pages, a lot of things that weren’t available when I was younger, so I think there’s a lot more inspiration out there hopefully that will motivate girls to get involved.