Feathers and Fur: The Peach Interview
how tf does a feather flip work, anyway?
Because of the nature of this very silly thing that we love terribly, it takes a certain something to be so outside the box that you cut right through the already very creative and seeking and squad-building world we’ve made from blood and plies. So when someone slices through all that — mohawk moving like a Scandinavian shark — it is, by definition, special.
So, just how does she make something like a kickflip iconic?
Do it just about blind, right?, just about blind because beneath that lilac eye shadow is not where you’re seeing from, do it a bit bowed with your well-honed and sharp-as-an-axe sense of balance and center of gravity being off — just flip it and pray! Do it with the long-lingering sun heating fur the color of a princess’ kart — go ahead and take skating in a different direction, and touch some folks who just may need to feel it. (Careful though, or you’ll get concussed on a caveman off the hood of an Audi.)
How’s that for standing out?
Or, you know, throw a feather flip down a four block, the kind of the-fuck-was-that?? trick that requires a rewatch. It’s up, it’s touched, it’s back; it’s odd and arresting and the kind of thing usually done on nice flat ground, not down – or into – a set. Just go ahead and Salabanzi it too, for good measure.
Peach Sørensen knows what skating is truly about. And all those tired clichés about self-expression, being yourself, building others up — they just ring differently when they’re made real in a full fursona. A chronic health condition has been limiting Peach’s time on the board, but that hasn’t stopped her from making a pair of appearances in some big name montages, including a dream spot in Zero’s newest love letter to all of us out here. More skating is to come, but in the meantime we talked about feather flips, fursuits, and Norway’s fucking mystery slippery ground — all edited a bit for length and clarity, of course.
To quote a royal decree: let’s go!
the almighty feather flip // egylon behind the lens
4ts: Okay. Alright. To me there was definitely only one place to start and it has to be the feather flips. What the fuck is that thing? How does it work? It's awesome. But I'm like, I've never seen that trick before. What's the deal with those?
Peach: Well, it's my favorite trick, so yeah, I think they're pretty cool. Technically it's like a half impossible late anti-casper flip I guess?
Yeah, it's like a weird cancel flip impossible or something. I don't know.
You can also think of it as a pressure flip instead of an impossible. That might make more sense in how you perform it, sort of. I think I saw it first on YouTube back in the YouTube days. I remember this French skater by the name of Aymeric Nocus, I looked up to him back in the day when I started skating. I looked at YouTube skaters and he was doing that a lot and his friends and I think that's where I saw it first … but I guess technically the inventor of the trick is Yoshi Obayashi, so the correct name historically is the Yoshi flip? So I've been told at least. But ever since YouTube was around, it's just been feather flip. I'm not sure who coined it.
Is it a tough trick to do? It just seems very unnatural compared to what you're used to for a lot of flip tricks.
Well for me, I guess it's sort of become a kickflip equivalent because it's easier for me to do than kickflips! But I have a really weird stance on it because I spread my legs really wide so there's a lot of pressure in the board.
I was going to say, like a no comply sort of?
Exactly. It's basically a no comply where your feet don't touch the ground. So my feet are super wide apart and then I just sort of shoot out my front, just pop straight up and then I just kick it back and that's pretty much all there is to it I guess.
That's wild. Do you find it … is it easier or harder when you take it down things and stuff? I feel like having that little bit of time, it's probably scarier, but the extra time going down might make it a little easier to get it back around?
It feels like it's always sort attached in a way sort of like an ollie.
Interesting. You're never risking getting primos or that sort of thing?
It feels like sort of a safe trick to me at least.
It looks dangerous as hell the way it flips like crazy like that, so it's funny you say that.
I tried to do it down like this two block with a small half step at the bottom and then land cross-foot, and it was really hard to sort of force. I had to really force the cross-footed landing because my body just wouldn't commit, but that took ... I think I counted them and it took 217 attempts until I finally got it. But during those attempts I landed probably 40 feather flips to regular.
That was the next thing I wanted to talk to you about, was getting into the cross-foot landings.
That one really looked so fucking sketchy and I would love to get a cleaner one and down a slightly bigger stair or something.
I imagine that's got to be … a feather flipped cross foot landing has probably never been done before, don’t you think? I've never seen it.
I've never seen it either, so maybe, which is pretty cool.
How did you get into doing the cross-foot landings? I always think of Salabanzi and Sorry, right? That's the first time I'd ever seen it. How did you get into that idea? I love just making stuff different.
I'm not sure, I can't really remember, but I think the first time I tried kickflips to cross-foot it wasn't that long after I learned kickflips. My buddy in junior high named Jon Hunskaar, he used to do them a lot.
Have you always taken this different or unique approach to skating, doing stuff that people aren't generally out there doing?
Yeah, I guess so. I used to skate a lot of freestyle, in the beginning at least.
I always found really tech freestyle stuff interesting to watch. Old Rodney Mullen videos and YouTube skaters … all these super technical flip tricks in the early nineties and I thought that was really cool. So yeah, I guess that has always been a very clear influence for my technical flip tricks and stuff, although I don't really do a lot of flip tricks at all these days. But I'm still finding my way around it to do a creative way of looking at stuff. A unique way of looking at tricks has always piqued my interest.
I'm curious, do you think having some of that grounding in the freestyle has made a difference too with board comfort or just being used to watching it flip around under your feet? It seems like it would be a great way to get used to that, right? The manipulation.
I haven't really thought about it before, but I guess I did a lot of freestyle flip tricks and stuff.
One thing that's cool about freestyle — and that maybe you can sort of see in your skating now — is you sort of use every part of the board but kind of in a different way, like using the trucks as a thing to stand on as opposed to a thing to grind on. I feel like it opens a lot of different doors in your head maybe if you look at that stuff.
Yeah, definitely. It makes for some more opportunities.
I wanted to go back to the cross-foot thing really fast, because if someone's out there and they're like, that's pretty cool, I'm going to try that, do you have any tips or advice, like think of it this way or try it with this trick first or something?
It goes a little bit back to the main piece of advice in skateboarding: bend your knees with the weight forward. I cannot stress enough how important that is, and also especially with cross-foot landings, weight forward is everything.
You also of course have to shift your weight or shift your feet, so weight forward will mean having your weight on your right foot if you're regular or left foot if you're goofy, which is opposite [of usual].
Did you start 'em with just like hippie jump into cross-foot, or is it easier if the board flips? I feel like an ollie would probably be harder than a pop shuv or something, right? I don't know; I've never done one [laughs].
Pop shuvs are a lot harder to land cross-foot than kickflips! Because with kickflips you always have the board straight, but just a slight rotation [shove-it style] when you're landing in cross-foot is so much more difficult.
That makes sense. You want it to be under you.
Yeah, and you kind of have to have to land exactly straight.
But speaking of hippy jumps to cross-foot, I actually filmed one this past summer. I hadn't been skating much these past few years, but this summer I had pretty good period with my health, so I was attending this skate camp as an instructor helping them out. There was this railing into a bank and I tried to sort of hippy jump the railing and land past the bank. I got that after a few tries and then I decided to try it [cross-footed]. I actually got that; I was super sketchy, but I got it. I haven't posted it anywhere yet, but that exists, that footage.
feather flip cross-foot firecracker — nbd? // thewolfpilot and spriggy working angles
The other one I loved, I'd never seen it before, was the cross-foot firecracker, which just made no fucking sense to me. I don't know how ... did you just sort of hold on for dear life on the way down, basically?
You just have to find stairs with small steps so you can run out. I'd been looking specifically for spots with small enough steps to be able to do those, and I found two so far that are perfect: one six stair, one eight stair. And the eight stair got torn down a couple of weeks after I landed.
Well at least you got it!
Very thankful I got that one. That's probably one of the coolest tricks I've ever done in my opinion.
Yeah, it's pretty awesome. I feel like Ragdoll would've been proud of the cross foot. I
[The hippy jump to cross-foot, which I got to see on their phone screen via my laptop screen, kinda surreal] reminds me of something that you would see in Streets on Fire or like a 1988 skate video. The outfit probably helps with that idea too, but it's almost like an old school kind of idea with a new sort of weird twist on it.
I like that. That's a big compliment, so thank you.
People are all about the hippie jumps lately, which is cool. I've been seeing those GX guys do the switch ones like switch hippie jump and then they'll switch bomb a hill in San Francisco and I'm like, that's insane to me.
Yeah, super wild. But I like that it's such a basic, simple trick that's also really unique and weird looking at the same time.
And the slam factor is high. Hippie jumps, firecrackers, I feel like those are sort of all in tricks, right? You're either going for 'em or you're not going for 'em. You can't halfway a firecracker or a hippie jump, you just got to do it.
Depends how long the stairs!
peach is at 42:02; tank’s in there too!
Yeah, you can run 'em out I guess, that's true [laughs]. I wanted to ask you about the Blockhead Buddy's trick. First of all, what the fuck was that ground? What is that? That blue purple-ish stuff? I have no clue what that, I don't think we even have that in America. I've never seen that before.
We have it all over Norway actually. You can often find it at these activity parks or playgrounds. They usually have this sort of ground, it's some kind of plastic tiles I guess, and it's just super smooth to skate on and slides super well.
That's so funny.
Yeah, it's super fun and I didn't use any wax or anything for that.
It's so wild. What is it normally used for when not skating? Do you know what the purpose of having it in those spots is?
I have no idea. It's slippery though.
It seems sort of counterintuitive, at least for soccer or something where you're running around if it's slightly cold outside or a bit wet in the air or something. And do you have snow in Norway? Does that ever happen up there? [laughs]
Yeah, definitely. It's a little bit snow outside right now. It's usually snow from early December until sometime in March, at least where I live. I live an hour south of Oslo, in Sandefjord, so pretty far south.
I always thought it'd be a good place to get some snowskating in. It seems like mostly in Montréal for now, but I'm sure the cats in Scandinavia are going to be getting on that soon.
Yeah, true. I don't think I've ever tried snowskating actually.
Oh, you'll like it, get at it and then nothing stops you!
Speaking of your home country, who is your favorite Norwegian skater? Mine is Kevin Bækkel, he's such a fucking beast.
Favorite Norwegian skater? Hmm, that's tough. Bækkel is gnarly as fuck obviously; Deedz, Hermann Stene, and Tonje Pedersen all came out of my neighbor city at the same time I grew up skating, really put this area on the skate map and did a lot for the community here, so that's pretty cool — there's definitely some local pride in that. And while I don't really know the former two, I did end up skating on the same team as Tonje, B:Aurora, and she's a really dope person to hang out and skate with too. She's also been quite the pioneer for the girls around here, which I think is really cool, so she's definitely one of my favorites.
And it's probably biased to only favor my friends, but I also gotta say Olli Fevang, who is one of my best buds. We grew up skating together, and he was at one point — in my honest objective opinion [editor’s note: and jonny giger’s] — the best or most technical skater in the world on flat ground, and we did skate a lot of flat out in the street in our neighborhoods. Plus advanced and technical flip tricks always appealed to me even though you rarely see me do many flips nowadays anymore, so he's definitely influenced me more than any other Norwegian skater.
How did the Blockhead collaboration happen? Had they just seen your stuff online or how did that come together?
I saw a video from the Dern Brothers with the water gap in California. I remember [Laban Pheidias, pro and filmmaker] being in it and I remember them talking to him about the gap. I just remember the trick was not your typical trick, but I can't remember exactly what it was. [editor’s note: it was a Sal flip; he also kickflipped it first try]
I saw that video and then I realized Laban had an Instagram, so I started following him and I think he was already following me actually. Then some time after that, while I was at the family cabin with my brother and cousin with basically no internet I saw he had sent me a text on Instagram just asking me if I want to send a few [clips] for their upcoming video, which was super, super cool. I was really stoked about that to say the least.
Some of those other names in that section are big time dudes. So was it cool to see you mixed in there with these people?
Definitely, definitely. It was a bit of a dream come true, of course, and I’m feeling very thankful that I got the opportunity to contribute to that because like I mentioned, I hadn't been skating much for the past few years at all. And that was right around the time when I caught a little break so it lined up.
Lucky that I was able to do a couple of tricks at all that I was fairly stoked on.
1:42, bb
You were just in Zero’s Nobody vol 1 also. How’d that happen?
Yes! I was honestly so stoked on that! They were doing this thing on Instagram where people could submit clips to be featured in a fan montage on their YouTube, so I just sent a DM and included a video link with like 12~13 of my best tricks in my opinion, said I could also send some more recent and unseen footage if they'd prefer, but that I didn't feel like it was good enough; they liked the message and I just waited patiently.
I had a hope but hadn't quite dared to believe it. Zero has always been my favorite skate team/company, always loved their cryptic graphics and punk aesthetics. I would always buy Zero decks in my youth, I've been collecting rare Zero decks that I still have hanging on my wall, and I grew up admiring their videos. I know I could never be featured in a Zero video normally, because Zero has always represented like pure, gnarly skating to me, putting your life on the line pretty much, which I find exciting and fascinating, and look up to, but it's not quite me obviously. So I really feel like I got to realize an impossible dream, and especially as I've been struggling with my chronic illness these past few years.
It's just a couple tricks in a montage, but for me personally, definitely one of the coolest things I've achieved through all my years of skating, possibly the coolest after receiving my own signature deck and touring with my team. Oh, and as a sidenote, one of the two tricks that were featured was actually on a Zero Blood Skull deck, and that was the Feather Flip down the 4 block that I consider to be the greatest trick I ever did, so it kinda went full circle, felt like the stars aligned for one rare moment.
What kind of response do you tend to get when you post some of these tricks like those clips, especially on Instagram? Do you get a lot of hate from folks still? Is it a lot of positivity? Is it a mixture of both? I'm curious about that.
If I get any hate, it's rarely for the tricks I think — and if it is for the tricks, then I think it's really for something else perhaps.
Yeah, I suspect the same.
They're sort of just making the trick an excuse to shit on me or something. But yeah, it varies.
This summer I was out skating again a little, so I was hoping to gather some clips. And while I was saving up clips, I thought I'd post some of my favorites older clips, so I just went through a bunch of reposts. So I did that and posted a bunch of tricks and some of them went super viral and got a couple of million views.
Then you get a lot of haters, or I did anyway, for various reasons I guess. So yeah, that was pretty crazy. But there's plenty of each, I guess there's plenty of people who are stoked on it and who dig the style or the tricks or who I am or whatever, and there's plenty of people who are the opposite, who hate everything about me or my skating or whatever, and I guess that is the vocal minority. The latter.
Yeah, they're much louder. Even if they're not the majority, they tend to be louder, right?
Yeah, either works for me, I guess. Both are good for traffic.
No such thing as bad publicity.
Yeah, exactly. I feel like even the shitty comments for whatever reason just helps my reach go further and helps me get my point and my message across more easily. I mean, it's still a shame that it's such a huge problem in general. It sucks that people have to endure it, but if we can deal with it and unless it's affecting your daily life, then it's sort of beneficial in way too, I guess.
It might put you in front of someone who's going to get something good out of it, right? If it goes big time viral, then some kid who's like, fuck yeah, that's what I want to see, they'll have a better chance of seeing it maybe.
Yeah, exactly. The more shitheads you reach, the more cool people you reach as well.
I don't want to stay on this stuff too long, but do you think it's made a difference to see some of these companies coming out? There just seems the most obvious one to me because they're like, fuck you we're a gay skate company, you know what I mean? And they're out here with Antihero. Do you think that that's made sort of a difference, is it important to see more types of people out here?
Absolutely. I guess representation is always [important], foremost perhaps for the people who sort of feel like they can relate to it and feel inspired by it, but yeah, also perhaps in normalizing it in some way. I think at least with There, as you mentioned, I think There is a very good example ... getting a bit more of a pass as a company with how much they've actually achieved.
Also with having a few skaters on their team that were considered really super fucking tough and gnarly.
Big Nakie [Chandler Burton], for example.
Oh yeah, one of my favorites!
Ok, let’s get back to the skating aspect. Obviously one of the other things that sort of caught my attention was with the full fursuit regalia and pulling off a trick. Can you see and feel the board when you do that, or are you just flipping and praying basically?
Basically flipping and praying. I mean, the board feel is one thing. There are like indoor foot paws. They're usually squishy and chunky. If you skate with those, then you can't feel like anything at all. It's like skating in, you're skating a cloud or something. Or you're standing in the woods in those sinking areas.
Oh yeah, yeah. Like the springy moss kind of stuff.
Exactly. Yeah. But outdoor foot paws, you can feel the board a little at least, so you can actually pop and sort of flip and pray. And you can sort of manipulate your muscle memory, I guess, to make it flip.
But the vision is a much bigger problem because you can't see anything! Like instead of watching down like this, you have to watch down like that, and then your balance is completely thrown off. You can't keep your head down here during the trick, so you'll just have to look at it, flip it, and just pray to land.
flip it and pray // egylon
It'd be kind of spooky too, to be like, well, I might eat shit. I guess we'll find out once I do it.
Did you see the video where I smacked my head?
Oh yeah, I think so. I've seen most of 'em. I would be too scared to try something in that, I can tell you that much.
I was trying to jump down the hood of my car, do a caveman over my friend and I had to bend down like this [to see out of the head], and so I guess I thought my weight was a lot more forward than it really was, so I committed like a hundred percent, but by that time I was already lying backwards in the air sort of. Slammed my head into the ground.
Did the head help cushion you at all, or did it still whack you pretty good?
I think it probably prevented any bleeding. You can actually hear the thud if you listen closely, but it was like an instant headache that lasted for a few hours. Thankfully that was it, I was okay the next day. I got sort of dizzy a couple times, but I think that had more to do with me just having pushed myself for a long time that day.
And they're probably really hot too, right? I know mascot suits normally get steamy in there, so yeah, that wouldn't help you either.
It's pretty warm.
What's the Nintendo connection? Did Peach from Mario inspire your name? Just a big fan?
It's kind of a cute story — when I bought my first proper fursuit, which would also become my "fursona" at the time, I had to find a name for it, so my ex suggested that, since it had partly peach colored fur, and since I always play as Peach in any Mario games, I name it Peach! I thought it was perfect, so I went with it, and then when I was gonna change my name some time later as I wanted a more feminine name in real life too, I just took my fursona's name, and all my furry friends were already using it anyway. In other words, my dog fursuit is the OG Peach. As a sidenote, yes, I'm generally a big fan of Princess Peach too, always been a huge Nintendo nerd in general really.
The Peach Mohawk board, where do those come from? Are you pro for someone?
It feels a bit undeserving to call it pro, so I call it pseudo-pro, I don't wanna take myself too seriously anyway. But technically, yes, and then again, I've worked hard in my own ways, plus I want to stay true to my own message that I'm trying to communicate, that it isn't always about being the best or biggest. There are many aspects to skating, and if I can get there, anyone can.
I turned pro for a Norwegian brand, B:Aurora, which is a company whose mission is to support the girls and women of skateboarding around here, so I feel very humbled and privileged as a trans woman to have been taken in by them, as it's really not a given, let alone to even be accepted or respected. But I've received so much love, and got to have the coolest, most welcoming teammates and team manager ever, so I already feel eternally grateful for that.
Regarding the pro deck, my team manager, Kristina Westad, briefly mentioned it during the tour we went on in 2020, after a long day of skating and filming in Kristiansand with the Norwegian Street Champion at the time, Fredrik Tangerud, and some locals. In the car on the way back Kristina said ‘we gotta get you a pro board,’ and I was like ‘hell yeah, that'd be insane,’ but like I said, this was after a long day of skating and fun, and we'd both had some drinks too, so I didn't take it too seriously. Then a few months later she called me up while I was at the skate park with a buddy of mine and said it was happening, asking me if I wanted to be involved in the artistic process myself, to which I said yes. I came to a friend of mine on Instagram, Skater Dave, with this idea of Princess Peach with a mohawk, skating in high heels that I though would look iconic and sort of capture some of my essence, and he was super stoked on it, provided me with a sketch the very next day, and I think the whole artwork was done in just a couple days! I couldn't have been happier with it, but I remember thinking at one point, I think already when Kristina called me to reveal the news, that ‘I hope I get to skate it before my health turns to complete shit.’
Sadly, I didn't [laughs] because this was right at the start of my chronic illness journey, during fall of 2021, and I wouldn't get to skate it until the summer of 2023, but I at least got to skate it in the end during a slightly better period, and thankfully that wasn't even the end — hopefully there's still lots of skating left, even though I'm not quite there these days. I guess you could also see it as me being lucky to achieve it right before my health started declining, and I of course have Kristina to thank for it, so again I have to express my gratitude towards her. She's given me the opportunity to live out my skate dreams to the fullest.
I'm curious if you've got some skaters that you've been super into that you would encourage people to go check out? And any shout outs and thank yous?
Hmm. There are so many I would like to mention, and I feel like if I mention some, there's always some more that I should mention too. But for starters, I'm a huge fan of Hue/HiChew (@hieucow)! She has impeccable yet unique style, the greatest attitude on and off the board, just being herself and making super fun content, and I aspire to be like her. Another couple of skaters whom I look up to, although small in size, are Autumn Bailey (@autumnskating) and Emma Sue Cloudt (@emmasueskates), but they both have a true skater heart, or perhaps that of a lion. Autumn is just a fearless shredder, and Emma Sue just keeps sending it full speed day after day after day. I always say that persistence is key, and they're both the very manifestation or personification of that, plus they have some serious talent in co-ordinating outfits that I'm way jealous of!
Personally I've had enough with my health lately, but as a 32-year-old someone who wants to get back on board and will probably have to re-learn a lot of tricks if I do, I've really been inspired by Kaz and Britt's (@2girlssk8) journey lately, and also that of Dr. Indigo Willing (@goodwillinghunting) through several years now. Indigo has also been one of my dearest online friends through all this, and not only inspired me through her skating and all that she's doing for the community, but motivated me with all that she's done for me, always checking in on me, always rooting for me.
So as far as thank yous go, I think I gotta start with thanking her. I also wanna thank my long distance girlfriend, Alessia, who's really helped me a lot the past couple years — during my illness really been there for me, even if not physically. We both have our issues with health that we struggle with, so things are a bit on hold relation-wise at the moment, but she means a lot to me either way. So does my family, mom and dad who's always there for me, my friends who I'd say are actually quite good at checking in on me, so I'm very thankful for that.
I'd shout them out, but there's too many I wanna include, so I hope they feel included in general, and I hope I show enough love and appreciation for them irl.
