Meet Shanae ‘Sheezy’ Collins, Straya’s Skateboarding Heroine in the X Games Qualifier

Shanae ‘Sheezy’ Collins skates aggressive and fast, yet paradoxically, seems to make it all look comfortable. Without getting too carried away, I’d say she’s my favourite Australian female skateboarder to watch, partly because I enjoy fast frontside grinds (who doesn’t?) and partly because you can tell she’s having fun with it.

After killing it at a bunch of Aussie skate competitions this year, Sheezy scored an exclusive invite to Boise, Idaho for the X Games qualifier. In light of this accolade, we decided to track her down for a chat about how she managed to scrape the funds together to get there, the challenges for women who skate and her goal of getting to the Olympics in 2020. So say g’day to Sheezy, the heroine of Australian skateboarding.

VICE Sports: So how did you get invited to the X Games qualifier?

Shanae Collins: I’m not actually 100% sure how it’s decided but I know the invitation comes from your competition placings throughout the year. I did super well in all the bowl riding contests in Australia and I’ve previously competed in international competitions so I guess I was on the radar of the people who were sussing out the invitations. The [X games] people basically said that they’d been watching my progression for the past year and that I deserved the opportunity, which was pretty sick.

There’s still very little money in female skateboarding, does that make it hard to travel to the US to compete?

Yeah, well, as you’re probably aware, there’s pretty much no money put towards any female skateboarding events in Australia. We don’t win any money at the contests so basically, I work full time, 40 hours a week as a barista at McDonalds to pay my way. That’s how I’m able to travel and compete and go filming and that’s one of the hardest parts of it.

So yeah, this year I [travelled] to Sydney and did Bondi Bowl-A-Rama and Newcastle ABC and the Vans Park Series in Manly and when I got home from that I had basically no money left. I’d had to pay for all my flights and my accommodation and my rent while I was gone and all my food and stuff. I came back and started saving again and then I got the X Games invite and I was like, Shit, how the fuck am I going to be able to afford to fly to America within a month? I didn’t have any money to my name so I was saving super hard and kind of stressing out.

So that’s when you decided to throw the fundraiser at Northcote skatepark?

Yeah, so then Shoota [Steve Kelly] called me and was like, “What’s the deal with the X Games?” and I kind of lost it on the phone to him. I was like, I’m really stressing, I don’t have that much money and I might have to get a loan. So he had the idea to do a fundraiser at Northcote and pretty much took care of everything, which was pretty incredible. It was the sickest day and we took away like $2500 from it and then on top of that I put up a GoFundMe which raised like $1700 as well.

And here you are in Boise, Idaho. When are you competing?

We compete on June 9, which is like a pre-qualifier to the qualifier. They’ll cut 20 skateboarders down to 12, then on Saturday they cut 12 down to 6. They’re big cuts and everyone here skates amazing. The finals are on 13 July in Minneapolis, so if I make it I’ll stay over here until then, if not I’ll head back to Melbourne.

Good luck. Are there also cultural factors that make it hard to be a female skateboarder?

I guess it’s at a point where females who skate are being sexualised, like you see the ads with someone like Leticia Bufoni [who’s posing naked] and it’s awesome, like she’s beautiful and it’s good exposure for us in skateboarding. But I feel like females aren’t acknowledged for their skill. It’s more like, “Hey, you’re a really pretty girl who can skate pretty good so we’re going to blow that up.”

For me it’s been hard to figure out where I come into that. I’ve got all these friends who compete professionally and have blown up on the internet. I know that they’re just good people but I guess it’s about how to make it in skateboarding as a professional without buying into that sexual image.

Have any of your sponsors ever hit you up to do a sexual ad?

Nah, dude. I believe in having a pretty tight relationship with the sponsors that you skate for. Theeve is the only company that’s ever done and ad for me and the way they did it was like, “Hey here’s our female skateboarders and they actually rip.” So they didn’t need to try to take our clothes off or shoot a photo of us carrying a skateboard while walking down a beach or something like that [laughs].

But I’m only just—from the last year living in Melbourne—starting to work all that stuff out. I’m trying to figure out how to get in magazines, who to talk to and how to get sponsors who’ll put ads out for me. I’ve only started learning about that stuff recently. There’s not like a class that you can go to and learn how skateboarding works.

Yeah, speaking of all that, I saw that you recently went to a development camp for the Olympics. Are you going to try to represent team ‘Straya in Tokyo in 2020?

I mean, fuck yeah dude, why wouldn’t you if you had the opportunity? I’m so keen to do that, I think it would be such a crazy experience to represent our country for skateboarding. I know a lot of people against it and, to be fair, a lot of people are for it but it’s pretty incredible to be recognised at that level.

So what’s the process from here for you to get to the Olympics?

So it’s actually really gnarly. The ASF (Australian Skateboarding Federation) have developed this rating system for comps. Basically it goes from one star competitions, which would be like something at your local skatepark, to six star competitions which would be something like X Games. So I have to compete in all these crazy events like X Games and Vans Park Series and your results boost your Boardr ranking. When they’re selecting who’s going into the Olympics they’ll pick the highest ranked people.

How many skaters get to go?

There will be 30 park skaters and 30 street skaters in both the men’s and women’s. So if you’re in the top 30 at the time, then you’ll get to compete in it.

What would you say to the people who are hating on the Olympics?

Stop being jealous [laughs]. Nah, I guess I’d ask why would you be bummed at the natural progression of the sport? I understand that skateboarding didn’t start out as a sport, it was a way to express yourself and a creative outlet but that doesn’t have to change for [those people]. It can still be what it was, but it’s about whether you’re not able to make money as a skateboarder or whether you’re able to represent your country and be awesome.

Yeah, I guess the Olympics represents a potential career that doesn’t exist yet for someone like you?

Yeah, I mean would you be able to tell me how to go pro if I wanted to right now? No one really seems to know how to take a female pro, especially not within Australia.

Shit, let’s end things on a positive note, tell me about the Thrusher crew.

They’re basically just a skate crew that’s open to anyone who wants to skate with them who is maybe a bit intimidated to hang out at a skatepark by themselves. It’s cool because if someone’s having fun, that’s where I want to be. I don’t want to skate with people who are really good if they’re being dicks about it. I’d rather skate with people who are learning with a smile on their face. Skating with those dudes is sick because every time I go to a skate session, everyone’s just stoked to hang out and skate.