Team rider Sydney Pizza may have the best name on the entire Zap Skimboards team but she’s much more than that. With tons of skill and plenty of style to back it up, you can usually find her out at the beach but what else makes her tick? We sat down with her for a quick word as the 2023 season starts to kick off. Check it out below and make sure to drop her a follow at @skimsyd to keep up with her! (above photo: @adamkingphoto)
Zap: Sydney, what’s been going on? What do you have planned for the 2023 season?
Sydney: Hi! I'm great honestly. Life is going super well right now! I'm about a month out from finishing my junior year at the University of Delaware, and then from there I will be running skim camps at Alley Oop with Jason Wilson (aka J-dub) as well as competing on both the SkimUSA and UST tours.
Zap: It looks like you just got back from a trip. Where’d you go?
Sydney: I went down to Melaque, in Jalisco Mexico for my spring break, and I already want to go back! The waves there are just so fun.
Zap: If you’re not out skimming, what can you be found doing?
Sydney: If I'm not out skimming you can either find me traveling somewhere (typically a beach to skim) or somewhere in Dewey teaching skim camp or giving a private lesson at Alley Oop Skim Camp! And on the rare occasion I'm not on the beach, I'm usually with friends having a good time eating some good food!
Zap: With a last name like Pizza, you’ve got to have some awesome nicknames. Can you tell us a few?
Sydney: *laughs* Yeah, I do! Most of my close friends call me Syd, but some other ones are Skimsyd, Pizza (shocker, I know), Little Pizza, or Pepperoni if they want a good laugh!
Zap: What’s your go-to setup these days? Why?
Sydney: Right now it’s the 51" Cazador with a little tail taper. My first slides on the new sled were actually in Mexico on a frontside sider which was unreal! I chose the Cazador because I wanted a board that was fairly similar in principle to the Fuse-X (pintail, fast and snappy turns, thinner, pointed nose, etc.), but had a little bit more umph to it. The Cazador is exactly that! It is what I need to take my skimming to the next level. It's fast, fun, thin, and has a lot of buoyancy which is nice for those outside sets and super steezy for a nice Dewey line to floater!
Zap: What was your best moment from 2022 and what are you most looking forward to this season?
Sydney: I had a lot of really special moments in 2022, but I would have to say my best moment was probably when I went pro! Not just that exact moment but that whole process, and lead up to it! I had just come off of a pretty gnarly ACL and MCL injury and had been talking to Jason about next steps and we came to the consensus of me going pro, funny enough the same way that he did. Super under the radar and my first pro contest was to be the 2022 OBX Skim Jam! It was perfect, honestly being surrounded and supported by the whole skim fam was the greatest feeling ever! For this season I am most looking forward to finally being at the level where I can give the other pro women a good run for their money! It's gonna be another year for the books for sure!
Zap: Who are some of the people in the skim world that you look up to?
Sydney: Some of the people in the skim world that I look up to are Jason, and Gerardo Valencia. They have both been such major influences in both my skim career and personal life; relationships that I am and will be forever grateful for! Both of them have taught me so much about skimming and the values to have as both a professional and at one time an amateur athlete. Any possible situation that I could be in or will be in, they have already experienced so they know exactly what to say. Anything that I do is because that is how they taught me to do it!
Zap: Thanks for the quick chat, Syd! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Sydney: Of course! I want to say thank you to you guys for always supporting me and be sure to go to Alleyoopskim.com for all your skim camp and lesson needs!
1 comment
Sick!