Thrasher Magazine

Oh, you live under a rock? So you don't know about Hayley Wilson's meteoric rise over the last few years? Let's catch you up. In the time since Gizmo, she's made heavy impressions at live events like the Showdown and the Belco weekend, not to mention the Olympics. On top of that, she also spent a year steadily stacking for Nike's newest release which resulted in her getting top honors with a powerful last part. That's almost everything you need to know. The rest is covered below as she chats up her SB teammate Sarah Meurle about the worst day filming, getting starstruck in front of Guy, Ri Ri love and the life-changing magic of shaving her head. As seen in the July '23 mag. Read this then leave your rock house to go skate.


Hayley handles curtain-closing duties with a fast-paced full part you gotta see

What’s for breakfast?
I’m about to get a bagel. It’s kind of been a routine. We all do it. We’ve done it for the last four days, just bagels every day.

The American dream. You’ve been going back and forth from Melbourne to LA a couple of times now. How would you say LA is different from Melbourne—and the contrast of coming from that little town that you’re from, what’s it called again?
Oh, Mansfield! Yeah, coming from Mansfield and then living in Melbourne for the last six years and then the last year traveling more to LA, I guess the contrast would have to be that there’s more opportunities out here in LA than in Melbourne. If it were the same opportunities in Melbourne I would love to be able to spend a bit more time at home, but honestly, even if there were more opportunities I’d still come out here ’cause of the weather. It’s just so good in spring and summer. Summer gets a little hot, but I guess it’s the same in Melbourne. You get used to it. I think being in LA means having more opportunity and more time to film. You can skate every day, which is like a blessing and a curse at the same time ’cause you skate every day and then you get super tired really quickly.

Yeah, it’s pretty much never ending. But tell me more about Mansfield. It’s a ski-resort place, right?
Yeah, it’s at the bottom of a mountain—it’s 45 minutes from this mountain called Mt. Buller. Even in winter it doesn’t get that much snow, but you can still ski and snowboard. I did snowboarding for like eight years, but it’s not like in Europe where there’s always tons of snow. It’s not the same as what you’d think.

Brazilian blowout—Ryobi style. That’s what friends are for, don’t you reckon?

That’s a lot, eight years. So you must’ve been snowboarding since you were tiny.
Yeah, I snowboarded from when I was eight ’til I was 16, every year, and I did school up on the mountain so I would snowboard in the mornings and then do school in the afternoon.

Nice! Like a snowboard school?
Yeah, then I moved to Melbourne. I moved there permanently when I was 16, but when I was 15 I was already there nine months out of the year.

You did that so you could skate more, right?
Yeah, but snowboarding really helps for skating. It’s just so expensive.

I know! I wish I could do it more often. So you moved to Melbourne with your brother when you were 16, right?
My brother was already living in Melbourne, but I moved in with him. He was studying at university so I barely saw him. I was not living on my own, but I pretty much had the responsibility of doing everything on my own.

Kicky front nose 180, Hayley makes her mark on an LA hotspot

Growing up fast!
Exactly.

Since we filmed for Gizmo way back in 2019 a lot has happened. It’s also a bit of a different crew and we’re filming with Ant. How has your experience been with that? What are the differences?
Yeah, I think the difference between Gizmo and now is that I was very contest based back then, so filming wasn’t my main priority. I wasn’t putting as much work into it then as I have been this time around. This past year I’ve worked really hard to get this part going and get as much footage as I can, and kind of make it so it’s the tricks that I wanna do and my style has come out a lot more than it did back in Gizmo. I guess I was 16-17 back then and now I’m 21, so it’s like a massive difference of style and power. My skating back then ’til now has definitely improved a lot, which is cool to see.

Yeah, definitely. I’ve seen it all change. It’s been a pleasure to follow you.
Thanks, Sarah.

You’re welcome! It must be nice also, since you and Ant have become such great friends and grown this strong friendship, it must feel pretty different to film with him.
Yeah, when I’m in LA we hang out every day, so we go filming during the day and then we hang out. Whereas when you film with another filmer you kind of schedule in when you wanna go out and what spots you wanna skate, which is kind of nice, too. When I’m in Melbourne I try to go out as much as I can, but when I want a specific trick I’ll go and schedule in a time, but when I’m in LA with Ant we kind of just naturally go out to all these different spots.

Textbook NBS on the hottest of days outside of Melbourne

What was it like having the whole crew come out to Australia?
That definitely was one of my favorite trips to ever go down, probably my favorite trip ever. To have the whole team come out was really special, ‘cause usually I’m the one who has to travel. And it was really good. It was sick to show everyone where I have been skating and what I do out here, and everyone gets to skate the spots, which was super cool. We go so much footage—I’m so hyped on that trip and everyone!

Definitely one of the most fun trips ever. So good.
Super productive; everyone was killing it; everyone was getting clips.

Yeah, it’s pretty special to have the whole crew where you are from. I felt that, too, when everyone came to Malmö.
Super crazy, super weird but so good.

It’s a written fact that Guy Mariano was your favorite skater growing up. Is he still your favorite, or who’s your favorite right now?
Yeah, I feel like Guy Mariano will probably always be my favorite skater. I’m super influenced by what he does. The way he skates is really cool and his Pretty Sweet part is one of my favorite parts to this day. I guess it kind of always changes depending on what you’re looking for and what tricks you’re looking for. That kind of changes who my favorite skater is, but I feel like Guy will always be my favorite. I met him for the first time last year and it was super weird. I guess meeting your favorite skater or meeting your favorite anything is kind of crazy, but he’s one of the nicest people so it was sick to see.

Nice. What did you say?
I don’t even think I said anything, I was too nervous!

Good thing the skating speaks for itself, Guy would appreciate it

Not even a hi?
I probably wasn’t that awkward!

You’ve just been on a short trip to Atlanta. How was that experience?
What a freaking wild ride that was!

What happened?
We went to a warm-up spot to get everybody’s legs goin’, ’cause half of us came from overseas so we had jet lag and jet legs. And then the first spot we actually went to, Agata dropped in and fell really funny on her knee—like heavy on her knee and it popped in and out and it looked really painful! So we drove her to the hospital. The vibe kind of felt weird after that, because seeing someone injured, it’s really sad. You never want your teammates to have to go through that. So we dropped her off at the hospital and then we all went skating for a few hours. We got kicked out of every single spot we went to in the city, so we decided to go further out of Atlanta. And then Elissa wanted to try this spot 20 minutes further out, and Ant was filming fisheye. It was kind of a rough spot. There was a crack at the bottom that was kind of like a hole.

Just a bit of a crack.
Just a little crack, yeah, pretty much a hole at the bottom and Ant really thought about where it was. But there was one try where he must have subconsciously thought he cleared it but he went down, hit the crack and protected his camera in his arms and then took a shoulder to the ground and snapped his collarbone in half, pretty much. I didn’t actually see it, but I heard it and it was the most horrific sound I’ve ever heard. It’s crazy. I thought it was the camera breaking. I was so bummed for him. Then I looked up and he was like, Fuck, I broke my collarbone. I was like, No way! There’s no way this day is happening. So we get him in the car and drive him to the same hospital Agata is at. So that’s two people at the hospital. We were running around trying to get medication for everyone. After that the vibes were really, really a bit gloomy, I would say. The next day Ant couldn’t get any flights home ’cause obviously he needed space and there were no business-class seats available. And Elissa was leaving so I said, I think I’m gonna bail, too. Ant needs help getting home and I feel a bit weird also. So I just bailed to LA and spent a couple of days with Nicole and Buffy.


Blindside kickflip to fakie from one tectonic plate to the next! (Australia hasn’t always been an island, you know)

Good choice. So I’ve asked you this question before, but since it’s such a life-changing experience and pretty big deal in your life, can you tell me the story about shaving your head? What made you cut your hair off, and didn’t you end up giving it to a fundraiser as well?
Yeah, to begin with I was scrolling through Instagram and I came across someone that had shaved their head recently. I was like, Oh my God, fuck, I really wanna do that! And once I get something in my head I can’t get it out. I either have to do it or I have to suppress it so much, I just have to fully, fully forget about it. This is the one thing I couldn’t forget about, so I messaged my mum and dad, “I think I wanna shave my hair off,” and they were like, That’s a pretty big decision, maybe wait a couple of weeks and just sit on it. So I said I’d wait a couple of weeks. I decided to book an appointment two weeks after, then a week went by and I’m like, Nah, I need to do it right now. So I went into the place and I just said, “Could you cut it off now?” So they did, and as soon as I did it I kind of regretted it ’cause I’d never seen myself with no hair and I was like, Oh my God, I’ve made the biggest mistake! I can’t undo this so I’m gonna have to live with it. But then once I dyed it blonde, since that was familiar to me, that’s when I felt that I really liked it and ever since then it’s been such a massive part of who I am and my style—just feeling more comfortable in my body. But back to the fundraiser—before I’d shaved it I had decided that I wanted to donate it to a charity, so I found the charity that I thought fit the best, called Hair with Heart. I think I raised like $1,500 or $2,000, which was really good.

You put the hair in a bag and post it?
Yeah, you put it in a baggy! It was really quite strange, but as long as it’s for a good cause that’s all that matters.

Great work! You know earlier today, I found out that there is actually an Australian country singer called Hayley Wilson. Did you know that? Is it you?!
Really? My God, no, but I’m so glad I know that now.

You should look her up; listen to her!
Why have I never known this?

What would you say are your main musical influences, like your top-three favorite artists?
My top one would have to be Rihanna; Ri Ri is for sure. I would take a bullet for Ri Ri, to be honest. She has my whole heart. My second favorite would have to be Dua Lipa. Honestly, I don’t even need a third one. My cup’s full with those guys.

Ri Ri would agree that these two can stand under each other’s umbrellas. Burnside, Portland

Those were my guesses! I also wanted to ask a last question: what’s something people might not know about you?
I always get stuck on these questions. I got one! I can light a lighter with my toes.

That’s impressive. How did you find out about this?
I was hangin’ out with my friend Sheezy, my girlfriend Alex and my friend Maddie. We were just sitting around in a park playing this game Finska, and Maddie was like, “One of my friends has this party trick where they can light a lighter with their toes.” I said, “Oh my God, that’s kind of crazy,’’ so then I started trying it to see and then I ended up doing it. It’s not that impressive, ‘cause then everyone ended up doing it, but it was kind of funny ‘cause it was pitch black, in a park, just us lighting a lighter with our toes. Kind of weird but fun. That’s how we found out and now I can do it.

That’s great! Humans creating fire together never gets old!
I was creating fire, right then and there!

With your toes! Is there anyone you’d like to thank? A couple of shout outs?
Big shout out to my family, my partner Alex, Sarah and Ant. He’s definitely one I wanna shout out. He’s put a lot of time and effort into everything, this whole project filming last year. Just friends and family at this point. And Sheezy! Don’t forget about Shanae.

Hayley, big boardslide on the bikini rail in Sydney. Props on the new part, we know you did Sheezy proud