Stella Aiha
I tear up every time I watch Paddington 2 (yes, every time — it’s a banger), so I don’t know if this is much to go off, but I’ve not been this moved by the whole process of interviewing someone in a very long time. As you’ll soon see, there’s some pretty deep, personal stuff shared in the second half of the piece, the type of shit you’d basically have to have a heart of cold marble to be insensitive to, but even beyond that, just discovering the role her close friends and family played in shaping her into the brave, beautiful person she is today, deeply passionate, hyper-aware, with a unique talent for seeking and reading spots, and the power to turn piles of rubble into unforgettable sessions for the people she shares them with… Yeah, it got me good. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed diving into Stella’s universe, emotional lightweight or not.
Interview by Arthur Derrien
I heard you just started getting Harbody boards, and that they’re taking you on a trip to Miami! How did that come about?
Stella Aiha: Yeah, so my twin Filip and I were getting Hockey boards for a bit…
Oh yeah, one of your friends mentioned actually.
Yeah. It was through Kevin [Rodrigues]. We would make these little Instagram videos, like just skating the local park, and Kevin screen-recorded some of them to make us a sort of sponsor-me tape that he sent to Benny [Magliano] or someone…
No way, that’s amazing.
But I guess I’m a bit far away and they don’t really know me personally, so recently I was not really getting enough boards and would end up having to go to the shop to buy some…
So how did Hardbody come into the picture?
Uh, it was my idea, haha. Hjalte [Halberg] follows me on Instagram, and we chat now and then on there, and around the end of the summer, I kind of just asked him.
Haha, sick that you just went for it.
Yeah… And I usually ask James [Cruickshank] from Converse for advice on this stuff, and he’d sort of said, “Wait for your new part to drop and see if anything happens after that.”, but I kind of went behind his back and asked anyway, haha. Hjalte was like I can’t promise you anything, but I can get you boards! But then Emilio [Cuilan], who runs Hardbody, started emailing me…
And then before you know it, you’re getting asked to fly to America to skate with Antonio Durao! How are you feeling about it?
Haha yeah… I’m a little bit anxious, but I feel like I can picture what kind of people they are, and my brother Paul knows Hjalte, so I’ve got a good feeling about it. But it’s still going across the ocean to meet new people, and I’m there for the whole 10 days. I can’t just… But once I get there, I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Boardslide, Helsinki. Ph. Justus Hirvi
Definitely. I’m sure you’re going to have a great time.
You just mentioned your brother, Paul, and how your twin Filip also used to get Hockey boards with you, and I know one of your older brothers is “Tito”, who has had loads of incredible parts in the SLP videos we’ve posted on the site over the years, and then you also have another brother who skated… What was it like growing up in a family with four siblings who skated?
Well, firstly, we all got into it around the same time because of Tito, who was a bit older and had discovered it before us…
Okay… And just to get the full picture here, you didn’t grow up in Helsinki, but in a small town in the countryside called Fiskars, correct?
Yeah, but my parents used to live in Helsinki, so my twin and I were born there, and Tito grew up there, before we moved to Fiskars.
Ah, well, it makes even more sense that you’d get sparked on skating in the way you did then. Like you’ve grown up with the spot scarcity of living in the countryside, but with an older brother who kills it and has you dreaming of skating in the big city… It’s like the ideal conditions to light a fire under you.
Yeah, haha, exactly.
And so was Tito putting you on to the older videos he was already watching?
Yeah, because he was the one who was showing us everything, like even music. I had an iPod, and I would just download what he was listening to onto it. So yeah, the first skate videos I saw were from before my time. The main one I remember was Hot Chocolate, which we watched again and again. We also had The DC video, but Hot Chocolate was definitely the biggest one for me. That and Strange World, which I remember watching a lot a few years later.
Ollie to frontside wallride, Helsinki. Ph. Justis Hirvi
All of your friends were saying that your knowledge of skateboarding and videos runs deep, and hearing that you had an older brother putting you onto classics that had been released in physical form, whilst you yourself essentially being of the YouTube generation, since you’re 25… Again, that fully makes sense! Of course, you’re going to grow up to be a skate nerd! Like you were introduced to skate videos the old school way, whilst having the possibility to look up anything you wanted, past and present. Is that kind of how it went down?
Yeah that’s how it went down, but then I would also add that once we started watching more of the phone/YouTube videos that felt a bit more “us”, my brother Max, the middle one, who is like a year and a half older than me and is a painter now/doesn’t skate so much anymore, he would always know what was cool way before we would and put us onto stuff. Like showing us the Johnny Wilson or Alltimers videos quite early on…
So you were just getting hit from every angle with skate culture, basically.
Yeah, I suppose.
Your friend Kusti [Kauppinen] was telling me that you are exceptionally good at making your own fun, no matter what’s in front of you, like that the two of you will sometimes just go out and spend hours skating essentially nothing in a parking lot, but have the best time. Do you think that could be in part linked to growing up where you did?
I think so… I’ve just always felt that that’s the most fun. Skateparks can be really fun too, but I find I get bored quicker. The town that we’re from is basically one asphalt road that goes through the whole town, and then the rest is just dirt roads. For a long time, all we had was a loading dock and this little wheelchair ramp/three-stair that was made out of wood that would go drrrrrrr when you skated it. But when I was 13 or something, my mum actually started pushing to get a real concrete skatepark in our little town. She wasn’t alone, obviously, and I don’t remember exactly how they managed it, but I do remember going around to some of the shops asking them to sponsor the project and stuff.
Ollie, Los Angeles. Ph. Anthony Acosta
That sounds adorable. Love the image of a mini-you and your brothers going around knocking on doors to get a skatepark. Was your dad also supportive of your skating? Someone was telling me he was a very successful sculptor [Editor’s note: Martti Aiha, look him up!].
Yeah, his official title was “sculptor”, but he made all kinds of art.
Okay. So is it safe to assume that the artistic pursuit known as skateboarding was nurtured on his side, too, then?
Kind of, haha, but he actually wasn’t always the biggest fan. I think he thought it was a bit dangerous, like sometimes he’d be like, “Why don’t you just draw?” haha, but then other times he’d see something and say, “Okay, yeah, it is cool…” But yeah, I would say he was generally supportive.
Okay, and coming back to what we were talking about just before, in terms of trying to make the most out of very little spot-wise when you were growing up. Do you think that’s influenced the way you go about filming and putting together parts, too?
Yeah, because for me it almost always starts with the spot. It’s rare that I have a certain trick I really want to film, but am looking for the right spot for it. In fact, I often even try to forget what “kind” of skating I’m good at and just think of what trick would fit a certain fun or visually pleasing spot. And I shock myself now and then with funnier tricks, even though they often don’t work out. And just looking for spots is so fun… I’m not sure how to explain it, but I always want to at least try to skate anything I find.
Eetu [Lilja] was telling me that when he first started filming you for that Shoutout Filos part, you took him to some spots where deep down he felt a bit like, “I’ll get the camera out, but I don’t really think this spot is going to work…” and then you’d somehow do it against all odds. So after that, he started just showing you pretty much anything he’d find, no matter how busted or weird it looked.
It’s because I really enjoy it when something feels scary and not possible at first, and then after trying it 10 times, you start to figure it out, and then, before you know it, it’s not that bad… I love that feeling. I also just think it’s cool in parts to not skate too much of the same kind of stuff. Although I’m a bit bipolar when it comes to that, because I also sometimes think it’s really cool when skaters go back to one-up the last thing they did somewhere. It leaves you thinking: okay, this is their spot. That’s always really nice.
You mentioned Kevin Rodrigues earlier… Can you tell me a little bit about the year you spent in Paris?
I spent a year in Paris with my twin as a part of a high school exchange program, and we became friends with Marius [Chanut], Auguste [Bouznad], Val [Ferreira] and that whole friendship group, and then went back every summer for a bunch of summers in a row… That year was really big for me. Not just for skating, but for everything that going to live somewhere else teaches you… You need that sometimes to realise that although a place is home, and it’s nice, it’s not the centre of the world. Plus, I’ve always really wanted to skate as a job, like everyone, I guess. That year made me realise that for that to happen, you kind of need to go elsewhere. Of course, there are exceptions, and for someone like Eetu [Toropainen] or something, it doesn’t matter where he is; the fact that he was going to be a professional skateboarder was always going to be a no-brainer… But I just think there’s a lot of really, really talented skaters in Helsinki that people don’t know about, and it’s just normal… But if they really took a chance on themselves and travelled, it would be different. What I’m trying to say is that sure, I’m good at skating, but there are definitely others over here who are at least as good.
Like how I just happened to meet James Cruickshank from going to Paris, for example… You know what I mean?
Yeah, I do… But also you say “happened to”, and I don’t know… You’re also clearly very driven: you were super proactive when we contacted you about this interview, you chose to go to Paris, you chose to speak to Hjalte… The amount of skateboarders I’ve heard whine about how they are better than this or that person who has a shoe deal or whatever, but then at the same time are “too cool” to actually try and make their dreams come true… Part of it is making your own opportunities. Like you probably learnt so much from being around those people in Paris at that age.
Yeah, it was eye-opening. And Val was probably the first person we filmed with, and I just remember it being so fun, and those first clips we got felt so rewarding. And that first little video he made, just seeing that people liked it, I don’t know, after that…
No-comply, Helsinki. Ph. Justus Hirvi
After that, you got the bug and before you knew it, “Uh oh, I think stacking controls my life now…”
Haha, that’s exactly how it felt.
How was it coming back home after that trip? I feel like both scenes operate quite differently.
Yeah… One thing I always thought was weird was how in Paris, there are a lot of people who work in the industry, and things are based there, but I feel like they maybe don’t know quite as much about skating. Or at least at one point, it felt like they were all only watching certain types of skating or videos… It could also just be that my friends in Helsinki are big skate rats. Also, if I’m not wrong, my friends from Paris got into skating a little later… Plus, anyone is free to watch whatever they want anyway; that goes without saying. But yeah, in Helsinki, there’s no real industry, but for some reason, everyone really knows their skate history.
In Paris, it also feels like there are all these little clicks that feel quite separate from each other… Obviously, I’m just going off my experience from spending a lot of time there between the ages of 17 and 23, so it might not be like that so much these days. But in Helsinki, there are also clicks of people that go out and film together, but it all feels like we’re all in it together a bit more; it feels smaller. I don’t know, maybe it’s because every winter we all skate the indoor skateparks all together, so we all know each other.
Yeah, and you guys always go to each other’s premieres in the winter…
Definitely. And also, I think since some of the industry is actually there in Paris, people seem so much hungrier for getting sponsored and doing it as a job thing… Here, people haven’t forgotten the “hobby” aspect of it, even the ones that are really hungry. Everyone just wants to do it because they really like making videos with their friends.
Frontside boardslide pop-out, Helsinki. Ph. Justus Hirvi
I mean, I can fully see that.
It’s true that in cities like London or Paris, because some kids have their sights on being sponsored so early, they end up being in a hurry to “make it” and forget to enjoy the process. They just want everything straight away, and if it doesn’t happen, they lose interest. Helsinki always has several generations of crews simultaneously filming banging videos in their spare time. All of whom pay attention to ABDs, and what the other crews are doing, all of them kind of competing with each other but also supporting each other… That’s what keeps a scene healthy. From the videos we get sent, you can tell that’s not really a thing in the same way for younger generations in Paris or London.
Yeah. Like in Helsinki, even if it’s people say I don’t necessarily hang out with so much, if I’m going to their premiere, it’s not just to try to get a free beer. I’m genuinely interested in what they’ve filmed and what they’ve done.
When we first started discussing this piece a little while back, I remember you saying that, despite being a
bit hesitant about it, you did want to talk about transitioning in the interview. Mainly, because of the possibility that it could help someone reading it… You also made it clear that you didn’t want it to be the main focus of the article. Can you give a little bit of context as to why you wanted to make sure we were on the same page?
Firstly, I just want to say that this is my take on it. If there are people out there in a similar situation to me reading this, this is not me saying they need to deal with this in the same way as I am… It’s just that I don’t want me being trans to necessarily define me here. I want people to like me as a skater. Especially since right now it feels like, as my transitioning is going further, my skateboarding seems to be going further too, like they’re hand in hand…
And there are lots of people doing things that are really good for minorities in skating, it’s just that for me… Like I’ve had people from There Skateboards ask me if I could ride for them, and I love what they do and their graphics (and the fact they use real artists for them…), and I think what they do is really important for trans people in skating, but for me personally, it would just feel too obvious. And I really don’t mean this in a mean way, and I completely understand why the people that skate for There would want to share that space with those people, but for me… I kind of want to skate for a brand because it’s like, “Okay, she has good clips!”
Heelflip, Paris. Ph. James Griffiths
I understand…
And I may not like to speak on it that much, but I feel like I do show it… And if there is a message or whatever that I’d want to give, then it would be that you don’t have to hide the actual transitioning phase – that it’s okay to show it. Of course, you don’t have to show it if you don’t want to, but it’s really common for people to go into hiding and then come back… And that’s stuff that I still struggle with myself, like, am I putting myself out there too much or something? But you’re allowed to do other stuff and show it while you’re transitioning.
Was it a slow, gradual decision for you to decide to show the process or more like a fuck it, I’m just going to do it like this?
Kind of a fuck it moment. Or more like me reaching a limit, I guess. Like it would feel worse to not show it than to show it.
And as far as you dreaming of being a professional skater, like you said before, were you initially worried that transitioning and showing that process might affect that somehow?
Yeah. And it still goes through my mind, but it’s not the same anymore. I used to feel like it would have to be one or the other. Because since… Actually, for basically my whole life, I’ve been like, I want to do this. Even, when I was really, really small, and I didn’t really understand what being trans was, I could feel it, that something was not okay in a sense, or not “not okay”, but that that there was something, and then kind of discovering it and realising okay, this is me as a human, I had to do something… Because that also was… It was such a long time of just thinking, maybe it’s a phase, maybe it’ll pass or something, and then you realise that it’s not something you can just ignore… It’s who I am; I need to go through with it. That’s when I started to think, okay, my dreams with skating might not come true, but I need to go through with it anyway. I don’t remember what the original question was, but…
No, no, you answered it. I was essentially asking if you ever worried that transitioning might not be compatible with your ambitions in skating.
Oh yeah. Then yes, 100%.
And was there anything or anyone in particular that helped you see things differently in that respect?
Yeah, I would say the biggest thing for me was definitely Arin [Lester]. She was not the first trans person I saw in skating, but it felt like she was the person who was most accepted in skating at that time. It gave me hope and made me think, “Hey, there are people that take us in…”
Frontside 50-50, Helsinki. Ph. Justus Hirvi
I bet she’s going to be really touched by that when she reads this.
I feel like skateboarding can catch you off guard sometimes, in the sense that it always feels like you have lots of friends all over the world, because you’re constantly surrounded by people high-fiving you and trying to have a good time, but when it comes to sharing heavier life stuff, it can be tricky. Did this play into all this at all?
Yeah. I definitely, definitely, feel the same way. And it was hard in Helsinki, even though I feel like Helsinki is quite an accepting place where people are open-minded… But it was still really hard. The biggest thing for me was having people like Kusti (who you mentioned earlier) around me, who I met through skating, but is more than just a skate friend. I was lucky to have a couple of really supportive close friends like that, and then my twin, who was probably the most supportive out of everyone. So comparatively, I probably had it relatively easy because, thanks to them, I had people who would speak up for me. But then of course there have been instances with other skaters that I know from other clicks who would have a harder time understanding, and I’d get into conversations I really don’t want to have at events when everyone is drinking and stuff… And it’s a bit like, “I only came here to try to have a good time with my friends, this is not the time…”
Ah shit, that sucks.
It’s funny how the general message of skateboarding always seems to be that we are all so accepting and that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you are from, you’re always welcome, but it’s generally the same people giving these video interviews. People who maybe aren’t really in the best position to say that because they don’t experience the same stuff as, say, women skaters do, for example…
Yeah, it’s silly to feed these weird blanket statements to people. It’s not helpful.
And I’m not saying that lots of people in skating aren’t accepting, just that it’s not some fantasy world. It’s far from perfect.
Of course, there’s just no way skateboarding would somehow be fully immune from all the shit that affects the rest of the world.
Someone mentioned that you were studying pedagogy for a bit, but that you took a break from it to focus on skating more. Does that mean you’re at a very different place with all this than when you started transitioning?
Yeah, I am! But that’s not exactly why I stopped studying pedagogy.
Oh, how come you stopped then? Were you not as interested in it as you thought you’d be?
No, I was really interested in it. I worked at a kindergarten for maybe half a year, and I really enjoyed the studies. It was the timing of the studies; I just couldn’t get them done at that time in my life, basically. I know I still want to study at one point, I’m just not sure what and where.
And in Finland, university studies are basically free, so I do feel like I should. If you can get a degree for free, why would you not? But it also means you can do them at any time…
Yeah, and I mean, if so much good skateboarding comes from Nordic countries, I think it’s in part thanks to the systems they have in place, with safety nets that give people space to dream and try out maybe less traditional careers, just by making it easy for them to study or train/re-train at any point in their lives.
Yeah, and I realise that skateboarding is a very physical job, that I won’t be able to do it my whole life, but I’m able to do it now, and it kind of feels like I might have a chance with it… So I’m going to take it.
Ph. Michael Nicholas
