Samantha Bruce Interview
September 19, 2008 @ 1:03 PM - Features: Sports
Sam Bruce, 20, is one of the UK’s top skater girls. We chat about her trajectory to success, from hanging out in car parks causing trouble to getting sponsored and blitzing the skate contest scene.
Age: 20
From: London, UK
How did you get into skating?
I first properly got in to skating when I moved homes. I didn’t do much besides hang out in car parks and cause trouble, then one day I spotted a skate park round the corner from my house and there was a skate comp happening there. I sat about and watched it from start to finish. It was amazing! It really inspired me. So the next day at school told my best friend and she got me a £20 skateboard from Argos for Christmas. Custom built with plastic wheels and abec ‘Germany’ bearings! Then I just rode it up and down the streets before taking it to the skate park to drop in, then it just progressed and took off from there.
When did you decide to commit yourself to the skating full time?
I got sponsored by Gallaz shoes a year into skating but at that time I wasn’t really sure what sponsorship was all about. So I just skated around and did my own thing. Then Vans offered to sponsor me and the following year they asked me to be on the official team.
So I suppose about three years in it all got a bit official. But now I’ve started travelling off to other countries to go skate and enter comps, and six years in, it’s amazing! I went away to my first European comp earlier this year and there have been a lot more female comps cropping up in the UK in 2008. I’ve got my eyes set on more international comps next year.
I haven’t as yet decided to commit myself to becoming a full-time skater as I have other commitments such as paying the tax man! Skating doesn’t really pay the bills and I wouldn’t say I take it seriously, but I always have fun when I go out for a push. The only serious side about being sponsored is making sure you get media coverage and making sure you promote the brands that look after you, meaning wearing their shirts and shoes and stuff. I just fit it in around my social and work life really but it’s always a lot of fun, especially when travelling is involved!
Did you find it pretty hard to break into a male-dominated sport?
It’s had its ups and downs. I’ve always been a bit of a tomboy and so have always got on better with males than females, so the socializing and meeting new people side of it was fine. The older skaters were really welcoming and when I first started skating they were really supportive of me and helped me to learn a lot of stuff. Whereas the younger kids who were my age were fun to skate with, but at the same time were a bit two-faced about me being a skater too. I got quite a lot of stick for coming first at my local skatepark competition in the early years of skating and the boys put it down to me being a girl and couldn’t accept that I had simply worked hard and progressed. They were just being competitive boys about the whole ordeal! I must admit that there were some rough patches along the way with some of the kids I skated with giving me a tough time - I just put it down to envy and jealousy and got on with it.
Do you consider yourself to be an adrenaline junkie?
At times I do. I find myself loving it when I’ve just landed a sketchy trick or had a near death experience and making it out in one piece. That just gives you such a buzz! It’s just the fear of hurting myself which has stopped me from turning in to a junkie, which I suppose in its own way is a good thing, Otherwise I’d be wheeling myself about in a wheelchair rather than a skateboard.
But I am very laid back. In fact a little too laid back. As much as I love skating, It still scares the hell out of me! Skating too fast, skating big ramps and all the things that I thought I would have grown out of by now are still pretty intimidating. It does feel amazing when you land a gnarly trick or if you’ve just cheated death though. On those occasions I just want to do it all again! It sends a buzz through my body!
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