Did you grow up in Manchester?

“Well, I grew up in Czech Republic and I think when I was 21 I moved to England. No big deal. [laughs]”

How many times do you skate a week?

“Okay. Well, since my baby was born I just skate occasionally, but I used to skate quite a lot with the girls, I would say pretty much every day.”

So how long we’ve been skating for?

‘Erm, I think it’s gonna be four years. Yeah, I think it should be four years now.’

Have you seen any changes in recent years regarding female skateboarders?

‘Well definitely in Manchester. When I started skating, it was just maybe like a handful of girls skating and in the past two years it’s gone to hundreds, which is pretty rad. I don’t know if you’ve met Connie?’ 

Yes I spoke with her for the first volume of Woman Up..

“She’s like, for me a big inspiration. She’s got a lot of girls into skating.”

Have you found it hard to balance skating and motherhood?

“I’m just really concerned about me getting hurt, I guess I’ve never felt such a big fear in my life in terms of the baby you know what I mean? I mean being afraid of so much now.  I was just so free and now I’m just always worried about stuff. It’s weird, it’s 24/7.” [laughs] 

Yeah you would though, being a mother and suddenly having a whole new responsibility as well as yourself..

“Well, I’m not going to make my son skate, but I really hope he will choose to skate, so then we can do it as a family, but we’ve got skateboards everywhere, like all around the house. We have skating videos on all the time as well so I think he might get into it.”

Do you feel like motherhood has changed your skateboarding style? Do you take less risks, are you more careful?

“Yeah, I’m definitely a safer skater, well for now anyway [laughs]. I had to have surgery, a C section, so it’s still a bit fresh, but I do feel like I’ve healed now. It’s been like three months now so sometimes it gets a bit painful so I’m more careful.”

Was your life revolved around skating before becoming a mum?

“Yeah, quite a bit, actually. I felt like I didn’t want to do anything else, I even found a job where I could finish in the daytime so then I could just go skating afterwards all night.”

Did taking time off skating to have your child affect your ability and skill level?

“Oh yeah definitely I think so. I think that I just have to proper commit to it you know what I mean, I can still do some tricks like when I started skating for the first time, but I can feel the difference. I think maybe a lot of it is in your head as well, with skateboarding you just need to go man. You’re more capable than you think you are.”

Did you ever skate whilst you were pregnant?

“Yes, I got so much hate from people!”

[Laughs] Really! Why did you get hate?

“Yeah but I mean, I get it. I had a big bump as well”

But it’s your body..

“Yeah I know exactly! People would be telling me off all the time and it was mainly men as well.”

They have no right, of all people to be telling you what to do..

“I know right. It got to the point, I think I was about six months pregnant, I slammed pretty hard. And then after I was thinking like that’s it, so then occasionally I’d be holding someone else’s hand to skate because I guess I just really wanted to have it all, I wanted to skate and be safe for the baby. I skated quite a lot the first three months. We were travelling in the first trimester, so I was skating on the trip constantly.”

Were you flying a lot?

“Yeah, just like I normally would. Honestly, I was doing so many things and then reading about it - whether you should do it or not. I was like jumping off cliffs into the water, which were pretty high, skating loads.”

It’s better to just live how you want to though, everyone knows their limitations..

“Oh yeah, I mean, I always did. I would post on Instagram and people would be telling me ‘You shouldn’t be doing that, you are pregnant, you can harm your baby!’ But I just lived how I wanted to, pretty much until the end! I was also working like 2 weeks before the birth as well [laughs] - I just couldn’t stay home, I would have gone crazy!”

What advice would you give to other parents when it comes to skating and balancing the both of them?

“Just do it. Don’t be scared. I feel like when it comes to the whole motherhood thing and being pregnant, people think that it’s some kind of disease and you shouldn’t be doing things you normally do and you should be more careful and just sit at home. But no, women should just do what they did before. Once the baby’s born as well, live your normal life, because of course it is about the baby, but you need to have a life and make sure you’re happy as well. It’s just so easy to forget about yourself sometimes when you have a kid.”

Yeah I can imagine, my mum’s told me all about that [laughs]..

“Yeah! In the first few weeks I was constantly hungry, but I just kept forgetting about it and I love food. I eat quite a lot and when he was born I didn’t eat at all, really because there was just this baby that we needed to be with at all times. But it got to the point when I was like okay, I need to do the normal things I love and just try and live normally. Not just be a mum, as I want to be me as well. I realise now I’m not just a mum, I am me, and I am who I was before my kid.”