Video credit: Wesley Banford @wesleybanford
Isabella Sofia “Izzie” Panasci is a 23-year-old artist and skater based in San Francisco. Despite starting her skate career in 2018, Izzie manages to blend elegance and aggression into her skate style that makes it entirely her own. She’s a tough skater and goes hard at everything she does. She attended Chapman University majoring in Computer Science and eventually switched to Fine Arts. We talked to Izzie via zoom (of course) and it’s obvious how stoked on life she is, that same attitude shines through in her skate style.
How long have you been skating?
I think I started in 2018, but I learned to surf when I was pretty young. I wanted to learn to skate to school, but it kind of turned into this whole thing from there.
What’s your favorite skate trick?
It’s definitely a shuv-it. I do shuv-its on literally everything. I like doing them on transition and off of objects. It's one trick I’m never scared to try. I broke my wrist when I was trying to learn it, and I didn’t know I broke it for like two weeks after. I guess I have really high pain tolerance! But, I think it made me love doing shuv-its more.
What’s the hardest trick you’ve learned that you’re most proud of?
Hardest for me or for most people?
I would say for me, it’s getting a clean axle stall. It’s when you stand on the coping and rest for a minute… [before you start skating again] I couldn't do that trick for years! For some reason it was putting that weight into my toes...I was slashing and doing all this stuff but I couldn’t handle it and it really scared me.
I was at a park one day and something came over me, I was like ‘I have to learn this, this is bullshit. I have been skating for two years, what is my problem? This is a basic trick!’
So I (finally)learned it!
Who’s your favorite skater?
Ah! Umm that is hard to say… I love Alexis Sablone, if you know who that is. She is so f---ing sick, but I don’t skate anything like her. She is more of a street skater, and it's just insane every trick she does has so much pop. I watched her compete at the Berrics, and she was subbing in for someone who was injured.
Who’s your favorite artist?
Shoot!
This is so hard… Martin Puryear or Lee Bontecou.
Who’s your biggest supporter with your skating?
One of my friends, Hans. He is a little bit older than me and another artist, and he has always just been super hyped on my skating. He always believed I would take it further. When we skate together, he always comes up with something for me to try and I’ll just do it because I know he believes in me. For me, that’s a big part of skating, having faith.
What’s your favorite deck and/or skateboard you have?
I have actually been buying the same deck for like three boards in a row. Mainly from Lotties skate shop and Frog skateboards.
My favorite board is an 8.5. I’ve had it for a long time now, and I love having a bigger board. Something about it is soooo sexy! It has the perfect nose. I love noseslide tricks. I like having a massive nose on my board.
What’s your biggest dream?
My dream would be to skate and surf as part of my life just periodically, and probably skate until my bones are just like done... And being able to support myself with my art.
I really like collaborations with other people, and DIY culture. If I could survive off of my art in some sort of DIY setting where I am making, [you know, not mass producing] but making one thing or a couple different things, and having a lot of interactions with a lot of different people, that would be ideal.
I’d like to stay involved in the communities that I’m already interested in and not become like a normy! I just want to keep trying stuff I’m not dead set on one thing. I like being a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to art.
Maybe my other dream is to never stop learning.
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