Last year, Monster Energy took us to Helride in Helsinki for their Monster Super Tour! We couldn’t be more thrilled to catch up with Lizzie Armanto for an interview. It was one of my favorite days of the whole trip: we got to share such an insightful conversation and afterwards had a skate at Suvilahti DIY with her and other gnarly skateboarders. I didn’t just learn from Lizzie’s words, I also learned from her attitude, which was always poised and graceful.

I love meeting people in foreign countries, having interesting conversations and coming back to my life with new insights and lessons - and that’s definitely something I got from this trip. During our conversation, I felt compelled to find out Lizzie’s views about traveling, skating and the things we get to experience on the way. So come along and join us…

Interview by Letícia Nogueira

Photos by Raisa Abal, James Griffiths & Felix Adler

 

Hey Lizzie! How's the Monster Super Tour treating you? What was the most memorable spot of the trip so far? 

It’s been great. In Cape Town, we went to this park which used to be an old olympic pool that was shut down. They started building from the olympic pool into this crazy brand new skatepark that’s awesome. It’s so cool because it’s a really gnarly, big pool and then a perfect skatepark. That was really cool and it was… just beautiful. You could see the Table Mountain, the iconic mountain in Cape Town. And at the skatepark, it’s such a good feeling. It’s also cool because it’s special that they have a really good park in that town. I feel like the city itself is lucky to have a DIY that’s that good and special. It’s taken care of and the skate scene there is tight.

What’s it like to be on tour with your friends?

I feel really lucky that I get to travel the world with my friends. Those are experiences that I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life. Even though I’ve been traveling with my skateboard for over ten years, it’s special to see, for example, someone like Mami… she’s also been traveling for 5 or 6 years or so, she just turned 21 and I met her in 2016. But I’ve seen her do all these things for the first time and seeing her excitement makes me feel inspired. She’s such a light. She brings her own energy and changes the session. She’s the sweetest person, she rips and goes for things where I’m like, wow I wouldn’t think to do that. But she doesn’t give a fuck.

Maybe that’s what we should all aim to be: sweet destroyers?

I think everyone has their own cap and I really love seeing someone express themselves and be themselves to the fullest. I feel like I see that in Mami. It’s also really cool to skate with Fabi. When I went to Cape Town, that was the first trip I ever did with her and she’s so sick. I love her skating, but getting to meet her, hang out with her and see who she is as a person was the cherry on top. I respect her so much for her skating, which is obviously incredible, but when you’re a good person on top of that… it’s refreshing. There’s times where we see the underbelly of skateboarding and we’re like, damn it, this sucks. Certain things are not as progressive. As skateboarders we like to think that we’re all so unique and cool but then there’s other parts of it where it’s like, there’s a skateboarding outfit that people wear and there’s certain things that are trendy in skateboarding and there’s a certain way we say it’s cool to skate. But then that’s also very anti-creativity. We say things like, this is cool and this is lame. I think it’s good to have an opinion but we also have to be open to changes. I think it’s important to be open. I feel like, now that I’m seeing the next generation coming up, it’s cool to see the way skateboarding is going.

“The value of the experiences that you get out of [skateboarding] is so much more than money.”

Fs Tailslide - Pic by Raisa Abal

"People need to be open and step outside their comfort zone, even if it means that they're probably not going to like it."

What’s a lesson you take from your travels?

What I love about traveling is seeing how other people live. It makes me question: how do I want to live? I don’t think enough people ask themselves that. Whether you grew up in a small place or in Los Angeles, you think certain things are normal, but you go somewhere else and it’s the opposite. I think more people need to be open and step outside their comfort zone, even if it means that they’re probably not going to like it. But I always think: I’m gonna do it because I’m in the place to do it and then I’ll probably think differently about it. Traveling definitely opens your mind and you meet all different kinds of people.

What’s it like to be in Finland now, as a person with Finnish nationality as well as American — do you notice cultural differences or similarities?

Now that I’m older and get to visit Finland as an adult and see its culture, I think it’s really cool. Growing up in North America, I always felt different about things. Like, I’m an introvert. And there were things that I thought were weird growing up, but now I come to find out that… Like, Finnish people are very quiet and they’re also very passionate and if you talk to them about something that they’re into, they really open up. I can relate to that a lot, because in America, even though it’s a melting pot of different cultures from everywhere, there’s still a popular way of doing things.

What are your tips on remaining sharp and energetic when traveling and skating?

I think, like everything in life, there’s seasons. And I feel like sometimes you need to do different stuff. A lot of it is being around people that get you hyped and be influenced by that. And then the other part of it is taking care of yourself. If you feel good and you’re around good energy, you’ll be excited. Also, staying curious. When you’re traveling, it’s such an honour and such a cool thing to do, but it’s also really hard and there’s definitely times where if you don’t get rest, it’s rough and it kinda sucks. But try to appreciate it and not to take it for granted. Sometimes if you zoom out of the uncomfortable situation you may feel at the moment, there’s so many cool things going on. So just try to be conscious and grateful for the things that happen. When bad things happen, know that it’s a lesson and not a waste of time. Try to find what you can learn from that situation.

In your travels as in life. That’s definitely been my mood here in Helsinki, even with the rain and all, I’m just stoked to be here.

It also just makes today more special. Like the sun is out and it’s so nice. And it’s cool to see everyone together. There’s some people I’m really excited to say hi to that I haven’t yet. And I hope I get to skate Suvilahti DIY, despite the rain.

 Fs Invert - Pic by James Griffiths

 

“When bad things happen, know that it’s a lesson and not a waste of time.”

Fuck yeah, I wanna see you skate Suvilahti DIY. It’s so sick. And it’s so cool we get to hang out and skate together.

I think it’s really cool that you guys are doing this mag because there needs to be more representation of women in skateboarding and that’s what you guys are doing. Growing up I feel like I didn’t see that. I was very disconnected. Even though I was maybe in a place where I was around people, but… growing up I didn’t relate to print, ads, or most things going on in skating and so now I think it’s important that you guys are doing this and that there’s more of it in the world. Skateboarding is awesome and I think at first when some people see skating for the first time, they’re like, I think that’s cool and I wanna do that but I don’t feel like I’m the person to be a pro skateboarder. But there’s so many other cool things in skateboarding that you can do to contribute and spend time on that are worth it. And I think a lot of times, young people will get shut down when they say they wanna follow this thing that maybe doesn't have a huge revenue source, but the value of the experiences that you get out of it is so much more than money.

Mami Tezuka - Fs Slash - Pic by Raisa Abal

I totally feel that. I wanted to be a writer since I was a little kid, but I was told it wasn’t worth pursuing. The same goes for Raisa as a photographer. Now we’re following our passion and, on top of that, there’s space for it in the skateboarding world. 

Everyone has the vision, but there not being other examples of people doing it, or even if there is examples, people will be like: oh it’s too hard. It doesn’t exist or it’s too hard. Like, look at who’s doing this. But you also have to believe in yourself. It’s really helpful when the people close to you support you but that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes you just have to make it happen for yourself.

This interview and a bunch of other articles, included in Dolores Magazine #9.