Tia Pitman

Photography by Matt Fookes

I am sure you have seen Tia Pitman throwing down in the streets of Italy and Switzerland recently. Or perhaps you caught wind of her gnarly handrail clips on Instagram that seemed to emerge out of the blue. I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting this sweet gal in Australia while I was on my Brunny Hardcore Rockodyle tour. Today, I sat down with her to chat about her sudden change from transition to street skating as she waited at the doctor’s office with her dog, Leo, to get an ankle sprain checked out.

I was just going to ask you how your ankle is, but I’m sure you don’t know yet?
No. It seems like it’s all right. It’s still a little bit swollen and sore, but I don’t think it’s broken or anything, so I just got to give it some more time.

I feel like you would’ve known if it was broken.
Yeah, for sure. It looks pretty much the same as my other ankle.

So, what happened?
I was hitting a down rail, and then my wheel flew off before I jumped. So when I landed on the rail, my foot kind of slipped out, and I slid down the rail on my butt, and landed on my foot. My foot was underneath me. I didn’t know my wheel fell off until I looked back at the video. I was like, Oh, I just slid onto the fucking ground.

That’s so scary.
I know. It definitely made me think I should check my hardware and my gear before each go.

But yeah, I don’t think anyone ever is like, “Let me just make sure my wheels are on there tight.”
It’s validating because I felt like, oh, should I have checked all my shit? But things happen like that. I think I’d fallen a few times and maybe grinded the axle and the nut unscrewed a bit from a few falls.

That was like a month ago, right? So, you haven’t skated since then?
No. I think I just want to make sure it’s healed properly so that I’m not feeling pain for a long time. I want it to be good and strong, and I’m going away to this theater show. It goes for four weeks, three weeks of training and then a week of performing. I did it last year, and the repetition is a lot. We do eight hours a day, five days a week, and that’s coming up. 

You’re skating in it?
Yeah, it is exciting. The theater show is showcasing street culture sports as a form of art. So there’s six performers: a roller skater, BMX rider, skateboarder, a break-dancer, parkour guy, and a contemporary dancer. And the theater has a spine ramp, so it’s pretty cool. I like it a lot.

That’s a super-sick idea. They asked you to do it last year?
Yeah. The show goes for an hour. There’s no full video of the show, so maybe they would get a video of it this year. We get a five-minute solo of doing our hardest tricks, but the rest of the show is a bit weird and wacky. We’re using obstacles like planks of wood and tires. There are these sensors on the ramps that trigger sound, so when the dancers have their solo, they’re jumping on the ramps, triggering sound. It’s hard for me to describe because so much is going on, and I’m just kind of focused on my little roller skating part, but it’s been really cool.

Is it choreographed a little bit besides everyone’s solo parts?
Yeah, we would film heaps of stuff. Just speaking on how we did it last time, our manager would go, “I don’t know, give us a little topic. Use this equipment and then showcase how to melt or something.” Melting was this whole thing where you fall into the ground. I guess as he is giving us a category to do this little thing, he films it. Then, we’ll go, “Oh, this part looks really cool. We’ll put that in the show.” But a lot of our day was he would give us little categories or topics, and we would use the equipment and create material. 

That’s so cool that that’s even a thing. What is it called?
Our show is called Air Time, but the company’s called Branch Nebula. It was put into my reality four weeks before I went to the show last year, and someone was like, “Do you want to do this? I think you’d be a really good fit.” It was another roller skater that heard about the position. So, I’ve just learned about this whole theater world. The two people who run Branch Nebula had been doing it for 20 years, and they had their own show, which was so freaking cool to watch some parts of what they would do. It’s similar, weird and wacky. It’s pretty cool to be involved.

That’s an honor if they only ask one roller skater to do it. That’s just a cool concept to have one person from different types of street culture.
Yeah, it’s exactly that. It opened my mind a lot to what street culture is and using what’s around the street to create art. In that world, it’s like the mob on the street defines what’s good. There’s no judge or coach or a company. When I think of gymnastics, it’s not like that. Parkour is the street version of gymnastics in a way because you’re just using obstacles on the street and then the mob that you’re with to find what’s cool. So, I like that, and I got to understand that a bit deeper in this.

I really hope they record it so I can watch it. How long were you in gymnastics?
I did gymnastics from seven to 13 or 14, and then I coached for three years as well, and I got qualifications in coaching. When I quit, I’ve always had the ability of strength in me. Compared to other gymnasts that I trained with, I’ve been one of the ones to keep the ability. I can still flip and do heaps of what I was always able to do when I was young. But in the reality of it, I stopped gymnastics over 10 years ago. I just have that genetic trait that’s kept this flexibility and strengths running so deeply in me. Maybe it’s my focus, too. It brings me joy moving my body and feeling strong. I’m always trying to follow what makes me happy.

So then did you start skating during COVID, too?
Yeah, COVID was when I started, end of 2020.

Then I am sure it took over like it did for me. Something new that I could be obsessive over. Utilizing your gymnastics background.
One hundred per cent. When I was younger, I was obsessed with gymnastics and it’s totally the same with roller skating now. It’s cool to have that foundation of gymnastics because I’m coaching myself. No one’s telling me, “You can’t do that, you have to learn this first.” I can and will do whatever I fucking want. I remember being a bit younger, and I taught myself how to back flip at home because my coach said I wasn’t at that level to be flipping yet. I was in level two where you start to learn to back walkover. But I was like, no, I watch all these gnarly gymnasts that are in the higher levels doing these flips, so I went home and taught myself. But in roller skating, you can just teach yourself whatever you want, whenever you want, but at your own risk. I think from the foundations in gymnastics, I’ve got a bit of understanding of aerial awareness.

I definitely don’t have that. I did sports when I was younger, but I can barely do a handstand on flat ground. 
I think maybe what comes to me too is focusing on my strengths, like what comes easy. When I first started skating, I couldn’t grind. I didn’t have blocks or trucks, but I could handstand and cartwheel, and I could carve out of the bowl. So, once I finally got the trucks, it brought me joy to try stuff I wasn’t really good at. I stopped focusing so much on handstands and cartwheels. Occasionally, I chuck an aerial because it is hard, so I haven’t quite figured out the aerial. But focusing on what comes easy to me, that’s my style.

Just pushing yourself.
Yeah. The death drop is my iconic trick because maybe it seems hard, but to me it feels so easy, and it’s a crowd pleaser. It’s like, I know that looks cool, but it doesn’t feel difficult for me, and I’m just good at it.

Yeah, you’re so comfortable on handstands. Have you timed yourself on how long you could hold a handstand?
No, not recently, but when I was in gymnastics, my record was two minutes. But I feel like I could probably beat that.

You definitely could. Are you kidding?
Yeah, my shoulders have always been quite strong. So playing on that strength too, the handstand, the death drop. I just love to chuck it very often.

Watching you skate that bowl where I met you, at Alex Skate Park in Australia, you seem so comfortable in there and it’s very graceful and eye-pleasing to watch.
I’m definitely completely fixated on the bowl. Maybe I could even call it a negative addiction or obsession when I really only skate that bowl. But if I want to have a good session, I’m just going to go straight to that bowl, and I’m going to do the same line over and over. It feels so fucking good. It’s hard to get out of this pattern, but also if that is what I want to do, I’m going to do it. Then, when I want to skate another park, I don’t see it as a negative thing that I’ve skated the same bowl the last few months. The bowl I skate is big, so if I go somewhere else, I can surely pull some sick stuff out at another park. 

I don’t think it’s a negative addiction. I do the same thing. When I want to skate, all my friends joke and say, “Oh, are we going to go to Meg’s Park?” I pretty much skate the same park called Slocum in Colorado because I love the big A-frame rail there. It feels so good to skate. It’s still big, so new tricks are a bit scary to attempt, but I know they are still achievable. 
Oh, that’s perfect. It’s very validating. I completely understand. I’m so comfortable in that bowl specifically. I can create and develop some new stuff that I probably wouldn’t do at a park that I’m not super comfortable with, and then I can take what I learned elsewhere.

Yes, of course. Obviously watching you skate bowls is mesmerizing, but I was so stoked when you started posting handrails when you went to Milano Fest. When I saw them on Instagram, my first thought was, No, Tia, you should be filming this on a camera! Don’t post on Instagram, film a part instead! It was surprising to see but fucking sick. What sparked you to go do that?
I think, when I look back, I feel the same way. What the fuck was I doing? Maybe, at that moment, I can see now since I showed up so late to Italy. I wasn’t prepared for the comp and I felt like I could have done more. When we had a meet up to skate the next day, I felt I could put some extra energy into it. I’d seen this rail, and I was with a couple of skaters. We were all joking. That big massive white one, it was my first handrail I ever did. I’ve never done a straight handrail before. We all wanted to go check it out. Then, I was like, “Oh, I could probably do it,” and I jumped on the rail with my shoes on, and I got onto it. And I think the mob encouraged me and made me feel like I could. I don’t know fucking why I did it, but when I did do it, it set a standard that I can do any rail. Any street rail, I have the ability to do after I’ve done one that big. But I don’t think at the moment I was taking in all these factors of how massive it was. I didn’t have my helmet or my knee pads on me. I only had my roller skates, and I had to borrow knee pads.

You don’t like skating without your gear, right?
I have my helmet with me in my skate bag, so it’s just an instinct for me to always put my helmet on. I think it becomes a bit confusing when it’s a decision I have to make. If it’s like sometimes I wear it, sometimes I don’t. But if I didn’t have it, it’s not going to stop me from doing what I want to do. So in the moment, I knew I was going to be okay. But if my helmet was here, I would totally love to wear it. I wanted to do the rail, so I did it.

Totally, it should be a choice with whatever you are comfortable with because you are the one skating at your own risk. You didn’t want to film it at all? You just wanted to post it on Instagram?
I think, yeah, that wasn’t something that came into my head at all. I was going through some things when I was in Milan, and probably a bit manic. I was just like, “I’m going to do this rail and post it,” not even thinking that I should video it with a proper camera. I’ve only got a week in Milan doing some crazy shit. I think my life’s a little bit chaotic, so just an example of that chaos.

Well, I can relate to the feeling of after skating a handrail, you feel like, “I can do any fucking rail!” I always feel the same way after the land and want to go to more. 
Oh man, that one where I kept landing with my legs between the rail and falling in the pile of leaves. I didn’t skate after that for four or five weeks. I bruised my inner leg. Then, I’d rip my hand open. I was like, I don’t fucking want to skate a rail ever again, that fucking sucked so much. But once I healed, I was like, I can still do anything.

After I skated a kink rail, I thought I broke my tailbone before landing it. I got up and said to everyone I was with, “I’m fucking doing this today! I’m not coming back here!” I think I was in shock, so the pain didn’t kick in yet. Afterwards, I couldn’t walk or sit down properly for a week because it hurt so bad. I’m sure it’s just in you now, that high from landing a rail. 
Yeah, exactly. I really get that. Like your story, you would’ve been in pain anyway for weeks, so you may as well have gotten it and feel satisfied with all of that work. So that can be a factor of the drive. I had that drive when I was hitting that down rail over the stairs. I was in so much pain, but it felt like I had to do it. I can’t walk away from this without feeling satisfied. I dragged my foot on the land, and so it’s not even really a count. I obviously landed it, but I wasn’t super satisfied with it. However, I was at the point where I couldn’t skate anymore, so I took it.

Sometimes your body is like, “Nope, we’re done.”
I was in another country as well. I don’t have too much experience traveling and health things and hospitals. I was just like, it’s probably good to take that as a win.

So, now do you want to film a part and focus on street?
There is definitely a part of me that I spot street rails around my local town so often now, and whereas before, it’s not really something that I was looking for.

Now they’re going to be everywhere you look.
Yeah, possibilities are very open now, and there’s a joy that I have developed. I can feel this fun creativity brewing in the streets. I’m sure you get it. I’m so grateful for that moment in Milan because without having that manic moment, I wouldn’t have opened the door for all this joy to flutter in.

Hell yeah. You just got back from filming in the U.S. too. Was that your first time?
I went there two years ago with Wildbones. I was supposed to go to RollerCon, but I didn’t make it, so I just went for a week in Colorado Springs. This time I was in Long Beach. America’s so similar to Australia in some ways, but then in a lot of ways so different. It’s such a cool experience.

You got to hang with a bunch of the girls out there. Taylor Stack flew in for that too. I skate with her a lot in Colorado.
Yeah, I loved it. I was only there for a short trip, and I was going through some emotions of like, “Oh, this is a big deal for me, they’re flying me out.” But I’m like, “How do I prepare for this?” I’m listening to self-help books on Audible and writing, and I’m trying to gain control of myself for this moment. Maybe I was a bit timid.

It didn’t seem like you were timid. You got good clips there!
Well, maybe my skating wasn’t. Everyone asked me where I wanted to go, and I didn’t know any street spots. On the first day I just did every rail that they took me to, and then I was so tired. I did three big rails on the first day of skating.

The kink rail in San Pedro is sick.
Yeah, I ate a bit of shit. We were there for an hour, and I kept falling. I would get up and say, “The next one, I got it.” I just had this smile on my face and this big spirit of, “I can land it.” But no matter what happened, I would fall, and I just kept saying, “I can do it. I can land it.” I think I landed a total of three times, but the first two, I dragged my foot. I was like, I’m not dealing with the same emotion as that same clip where I’m falling in the leaves where I wanted to make that trick.

You wanted to land it, right?
Yeah, I wanted to get it right. So I dragged my feet two times, and then I was like, “No, this is so fucking annoying.” But I ended up pulling it off and it was very satisfying.

I was texting Taylor that day since she knew I went out to get clips in Denver. She asked me if I landed this kink rail that I went to and I said I did. Then she was like, “So did Tia!” It was pretty crazy, we were aligned from afar. I wish I was skating with you guys though.
Holy shit, dude. I’m sure that we were somehow connected. That is so cool because I don’t have that much experience on big rails. So to look back at these massive rails that I’ve done recently, it really feels like there’s some other higher being that’s guiding me. Just pulling up to these rails, and that day I got three in one day, I just can’t fathom how the fuck I manage it. Full belief that I have the ability to, but I feel like there’s some other guidance.

I’m sure there is. I feel like now I’m very selective on rails I want to skate and days I want to do them. If I’m having an off day, it’s best to not mentally go through the battle. I have to wake up feeling like, “Today’s the fucking day,” inside me. Of course, if you are on a skate trip it’s different since you have limited time. But for the most part, I have the spirit you were talking about since it can be very mental for me.
I completely understand, and maybe it’s like I don’t have enough experience to understand that in myself yet. It was the third day of skating in Long Beach when I hurt my ankle, and I probably shouldn’t have skated that day. I was really sore, pretty fatigued. I didn’t warm anything up. I should have been like, “No, this isn’t the day to be skating.”  

It’s hard sometimes because I always want to be down to skate. I used to push for getting a clip every day on trips, not listening to my body. I really respected and learned from Barbie on trips since she would sometimes not even skate at all on certain days. Now I’ve learned how beneficial it can be. 
Isn’t it rad to hear that?

Totally. I learned the hard way when I skated a big rail on the first day of a trip. I was too sore to skate for days. On the last day, we went to a rail just for me. I knew deep down it was an off day, but wanted to prove to myself and everyone I could do it. I ended up having a meltdown when I could have landed it another day when I was rested up. Now, I’m way more aware of that.
Yeah, it takes experience too to feel your body wanting to go through certain things so you can understand it in more of a deeper way. It takes me doing something stupid and then integrating it into a deep part of my mind to be like, “Now I understand.” I had to go through that to realize.

Exactly. Skating has life lessons all the time. I would imagine you still are really into learning about shells and coral you find from the ocean?
Yes, it’s never-ending. I feel like I can learn forever. I am all self-taught in a way. I am sure there’s marine biology or something where you would learn about all these species and what they do to the ecosystem. But I’m out there in the ocean looking at them, watching them like, “What do you do?” Then researching what I can at home. So I feel like the way that I’m doing it is going to be an infinite journey of learning, which is exciting.

The more you know is better in any case. I’m sure you’re finding shells now where you know exactly what they are. I love the videos you send me explaining each shell. It’s so cute.
Oh, yeah, there’s some that are quite rare. I go all the time, so I’ll see the same shells, but some of them you don’t see as often. It brings me so much joy to find a shell that’s uncommon. It’s like I go here all the time and I’ve never seen a shell like this. I love that we all have our own different things that we’re fucking obsessed with, makes our little mind tick.