Heralding from Cornwall, England, Izzy Henshall has been quietly making a name for herself in recent times.
If all the surfing world is a stage, then Izzy Henshall is an underground folk band playing to the drum of her own beat with a cult following behind her every song.
Heralding from Cornwall, England, Izzy Henshall has been quietly making a name for herself in recent times. A former British and Junior champion, Izzy recently moved out to Noosa, Australia last year. Yet despite residing on the opposite side of the globe, Izzy is still quintessentially British. Polite, humble, dare we say a little bashful. Izzy has long been the unsung hero of the Vans Duct Tape events, letting her skilled longboarding, and quiet creative brilliance do the talking, from Rio to Cape Town. With her upcoming new film Tea Breaks and Tiger Tales on the premiere circuit before it’s internet debut, we decided to give our favourite Cornishwoman a call to check in.
So for those of us that don't know you - introduce yourself!
I’m Izzy Henshall, a 20 year old surfer and photographer from Cornwall in the UK. I'm currently in Noosa, Australia where I’ve been living the past year or so - working, studying and surfing as much as possible. Been enjoying life out here and avoiding the cold!
How does Cornwall compare to Noosa?
There's actually a lot of similarities - a similar community, but just on a slightly bigger scale in Australia. The surf is a touch better as well... I really like how Australians and the English have a similar sense of humour too. It’s been starting to feel a bit like home recently, but I'll always have that connection to Cornwall. I’ve been really missing it recently and look forward to doing a good stint back there soon. I’ll probably be out here for a while longer, especially with my parents coming out to visit soon.
And you've been spending a bit of time in Indonesia as well?
Yeah, I spent two or three weeks in South Sumatra recently. More like two weeks actually. Ed West, Tyler Boyce and I were working on a little project which we’re in the process of releasing. I probably shouldn’t name exactly where we went but it was paradise, and a long way to take a longboard.... We didn’t really know what to expect when we were envisaging the trip but it was so much better than what we were imagining.
We ended up making a 9 minute longboard film called ‘Tea Breaks and Tiger Tales’. We're hoping to release it at the end of July or early August - just trying to organise a premiere here and work out dates and that kind of stuff. I haven't really done anything like this before, so I’m pretty new to it all and trying to figure it all out….
What inspires you outside of surfing?
Photography has been a big passion of mine since I was young and I actually preferred it to surfing for a long time. It also sits hand in hand with surfing and everything in between. I’ve been having to travel a bit lighter for the last few trips but usually my hand luggage would be full of random cameras. My grandma recently gave me her old video camera which I’ve duct taped a fisheye lens onto, some of that footage looks pretty cool.
Who inspires you within surfing?
There are so many it would be hard for me to name just one haha. It has been so inspiring surfing the points in Noosa this past year or so, watching world class surfers like Harrison Roach, Mason Schremmer, Matt Cuddihy and so many more. Style wise I’ve looked up to Karina Rozunko and Lola Mignot since I first started longboarding.
So how do you find it now being able to travel the world with those girls for trips and the Duct tape events etc?
It's kind of a dream come true travelling with those girls, I always thought how cool it would be to travel with them so I definitely have to pinch myself sometimes. It's also pretty nice realising that they are all just normal people like you and I. Sometimes over Instagram; your favourite surfers appear like celebrities so it can make it scary to say hi, that’s how I’ve always felt anyways.
How would you describe the wider female community in surfing?
It seems to be growing massively everywhere, there are so many amazing female surfers out here that I’m constantly being inspired by. There’s also been a massive growth in Cornwall over the past few years too, with some great younger surfers coming through. I’ve also noticed a massive push in the industry and media, there’s been a lot of support for female surfers throughout Europe, this has really helped me over the past couple of years.
Nice and what advice would you have for any girls starting out longboarding?
The main advice that I kind of followed was just take one step at a time, you don't want to rush anything - it's kind of best to just take two steps forward and two steps back - just get comfortable controlling the board and staying in the pocket really. I know that occasionally I would try running to the nose to try nose-ride like a pro and I don’t think that really helped me much.
Any other last words? Any advice for your former self or a message that you want to leave to the internet?
That’s a tough one…. Cornish pasties are better than Aussie pies.
