WE SKATE TOO: Nat Schwartz
“Your vibes attract your tribe.” This is a mantra Nat Schwartz repeatedly states throughout our FaceTime call—not only for Schwartz’s reasoning to live fully, but rather for her success in the world of skate. Schwartz is a twenty-year-old skateboarder from Van Nuys, California who encompasses the natural state of being in the flow while allowing her instincts to come alive. Whether that be landing a backside-180 off a monstrous storefront sign, or spending hours on Google Maps to find the most abnormal spots in town to shred, it’s all intuitive for Schwartz.
Schwartz’s voyage into skateboarding was an unusual one. She learned the fundamentals of skateboarding at fifteen as a way to cope with mental health and now has over five years of consistency under her belt. It’s allowed Schwartz to mold her own way of skateboarding completely. From acquiring monthly decks from skate brands such as Fucking Awesome and 917 to owning a unique style, it’s opened doors she never thought could appear in her realm. While struggling with depression during her teenage years, skateboarding sufficed as the one outlet that brought comfort during a time that appeared dim. Presently, skateboarding is a tool for maintaining Schwartz’s flourishing spirit.
Schwartz serves as the second addition for We Skate Too: A Series on Non-Traditional Skaters, allowing us to dive deep into her world of self-discovery. An extensive and alluring journey from how a two-year-old deck that fell in her lap, forever changed her course, better or for worse. Schwartz opened up about her hardships and how they led to her passion for skate. From being the only girl at her local skatepark, to her rise to shreddin’ fame, she’s persevered through it all.
How did this journey of skateboarding begin for you?
I’ve always kind of been into skating. I have an older brother, and he's three years older than me and he started skating when he was younger. Honestly, everything my brother did, I wanted to do when I was little. Whether it was sports or anything else. He would always have friends over skating and I would just pick up a board and just try to ride around. I never remember it being hard, but I do remember it being difficult to actually skate. I didn’t truly get into skating until my freshman year of high school. I had started in a new high school and it was called Champs, which is like for performing arts. Everyone there was just starting and trying to figure out what they wanted to pursue as a career or hobby-wise. I had met this girl who was also in one of my classes who skates and is known for skating at the local park called Pedlow Skatepark. I remember becoming friends with her and I slowly started skating again, so I would just go to Pedlow.
But it took me a while to be accepted in skateboarding, it was shitty for girls to go to the skate park a couple of years ago. It was not accepted at all. I remember just going and constantly being bullied or laughed at which was really hard to overcome. But honestly, the best thing that I could have ever done was stick to it. I'm just shocked at how far I've come with this hobby because I thought this was just going to be a temporary happiness, it ended up saving my life. I was going through a lot of depression, rehab, and mental health issues and skating was the only thing that was actually there for me. Everyone has their own coping strategies whether that’s drawing, singing, or whatever it is. For me, skating is just literally a way to take all your anger out. Let your emotions out but in a creative way.
With skating being your source for coping, what made you stick with it through all the uncomfortable moments?
Support systems are everything. You can go to the skate park by yourself and have a good time, it just depends on the people that you're surrounding yourself with. I love the people that I started skating with so much because they're the reason why I was so comfortable, even though I was so uncomfortable. I had such good friends that were great at skating at the time but were still really patient with me. I think it's really important to have supportive friends that want to watch and help you grow through it all.
I would say fifteen was when I started my journey and ever since then I had not stopped, and I didn't want to. I’m not sure if it was the environment, but it gives you such a strong feeling of independence. I can’t put it into words exactly. It's like you're breaking boundaries and that's what's happening now, girls are breaking boundaries within skateboarding. I like that I started when it was so controversial. It makes me feel powerful.
So when you first started skating, was it mainly girls you were riding with?
When I first started skating, it was only with that one girl I met at school. So it was only us two and all boys, so I was always with the guys. But even in the beginning, it was still really random to see a girl at the skate park. People would stare and go “what is this girl going to do?” it wasn't a trend yet to see women, let’s say that. Girls have been coming around more often which has been amazing to see.
Being surrounded by just the men in the beginning, do you think that pushed you to go even harder?
Hell yea, it pushed me a lot. I never wanted to be treated as a girl. If anything, I just wanted to be treated as one of the boys. Only because they don’t cherry coat anything or sprinkle anything on top for you, it’s just honest.
There’s now a good group of girl skaters that go to Pedlow Skatepark that feel comfortable going, which is amazing. It makes me almost want to cry because I remember basically being the only girl at Pedlow and how uncomfortable I felt. Now I just see all the girls and they're all happy to be there.
Watching your skate clips, I couldn’t help but notice how flowy and effortless you move. How did you build your style?
Honestly, it took me some time. I feel like with anyone who boards, it takes a while to get comfortable. My arms were always in weird positions but honestly, after like a few years of just cruising around you start to design your own way of landing things or the way you want to push. People started to notice it more recently, my left arm goes out a bit which is called a “princess hand” and I guess that's my style. It’s funny because people do weird things with the way that they land or start things. It takes a while for you to get comfortable, but as soon as you do, that's when you start to set your own style a bit.
There are certain videos on your Instagram where you’re landing some solid transitions and getting tons of views. Some of the spots you hit are just so unique, how’d you find them?
It’s crazy but I’ll literally stare at something and then my mind will just start processing things, it just goes from one idea to the next. If the first idea doesn't sound good to go then I’ll move to the next one. But literally, I'll just stare at a spot and I'll start thinking about things that will come to my head like, “oh, imagine this, let’s try this?” It all goes into getting more comfortable on your board. But literally, that's what happens. I just started to feel comfortable on my board so I wanted to try new things.
Also, my account started gaining more followers only recently on Instagram. I only had about 5,000 followers three months ago. I swear to God, people started following me like crazy and it was thanks to one girl in particular, her name is Arin. She recently got famous on Instagram, she's a transgender skater. She's amazing, she blew up in a matter of one day. Arin started following me and re-posted one of my videos and I swear ever since then, it just got crazy. It was really funny because I was just messing around with one trick and ended up doing it. And then it just blew up because people were like, “what was that?” I got a lot of negative comments on it, but honestly, it was just really fun.
I know just recently you started receiving boards personally from Fucking Awesome. Which is incredible by the way. How did that relationship start?
So I just started receiving FA boards, god bless them. But before FA, this other company had reached out called 917. There were a couple of people on 917 who switched from there to the FA team who were also following me on Instagram. This one kid that used to be on 917 but then switched to FA had hit me up and was like, “Hey, I switched to FA from 917 and you would do way better on FA. I showed you to our team manager and they're down to send you some boards” which was crazy. So the team manager started sending me boards, and it just went from there.
Did you have any female mentors in terms of skateboarding while growing up?
Yes, Leo Baker is number one in my book, jesus christ. Best queer skater. They molded how non-traditional skaters were perceived back in the day. Same thing with Elissa Steamer who was the first female pro skater for Baker. The ones I really look up to and inspire me the most are the ones that started back in the 90s and 80s when it was really weird to see them out skating, that pushes me. Watching their old footage inspires the shit out of me, I just love watching the old skate parts of these non-traditional skaters that were legends back in the day. You know, they skated as hard as they could and didn't think that they would even get recognized for it, and that's super sick. That's how it needs to be still. Skatings only supposed to be for fun and I think we forget that sometimes.
There’s been a rise in the number of collectives now forming to bring together female and queer skaters which is amazing to see.
I love the idea of it. I see a lot of collectives forming now to get girl skaters from other countries to join in and to be comfortable with skating. If you think about it, we're really lucky over here. We’re able to just go outside and do things. But in certain countries like India, women are not allowed to skate. So now they’re creating new projects and charities to get girls in India to skateboard. It makes people more comfortable with the fact that girls are skating now and It makes girls more confident to just do it. It's like a sense of comfortability, I would love to set one up sometime in the future.
Any advice you would like to give to fellow female and queer skaters who might want to start getting into boarding themselves?
Your vibes attract your tribe is my main thing, just be yourself at all times. Because if you're not gonna be yourself, you're gonna surround yourself with unsupportive people. If you're acting yourself at all times, then you'll attract the perfect support system. Don't lower yourself for anyone, you're badass, and you can do this shit.
