Thrasher Magazine

After steadily putting in the work for the past few years, Una earned a spot on some of the top brands in the business. Dime? Check. Vans? Bigger check. Krooked? Smaller check, but still sick as hell. On the occasion of her headlining the new video Don’t Stop, we tapped her close pal and Credits alum Breana Geering to get the skinny on Lil’ Tubsy. Read up as they chat shitty jobs, hair care, sleeping pills, puking and touring with a new crew.


Una hops in with Eddie, Andrew, Simon and the team before closing out with some of her best clips yet

Hey, Una. What are you doing?
I'm rolling a joint.

I actually wanted to ask you about your spliff ratio.
That's the first question?

I mean, you're the one rolling a joint, so you kind of started that conversation.
Well, it's changed over the years, but right now it's about 60/40—so 60 weed and 40 tobacco. It used to be almost all green. It was like 75/25. Does that answer the question well?

Takin' the high route over the steps with an ollie   Photo: Lebel

I think that answers the question beautifully.
Anything spicier than that or with more tobacco is gonna make me spin out. I’m not that good at spicy.

You’re not a smoker.
I’m a toker, a midnight joker.

Does the smoke help with your curly hair? I was wondering what your regimen was for those?
Yeah, my hair only curls if I smoke weed.

Oh, wow, you must smoke a lot.
Yeah, it’s normally just straight, so it’s a lot. I feel like you know my routine.

Well, you have to tell me. This is an interview!
Okay, okay, it’s just funny because I feel like I’ve had the same one for five years. People like Fabi always comment on how I smell the same and how I haven't changed anything.

I’m gonna rephrase so you can just answer the question. What is your hair regimen to keep those curls so tight?
My hair regimen is conditioning my hair almost every day. I don’t really use shampoo that much. Most of the time it’s just conditioner, then I brush it when it’s wet and finish with the leave-in conditioner or some oil thing. I can’t really brush unless it’s wet. That’s what it is and I’m just waiting for that miracle routine to come out. I’ll get a silk pillowcase one day.

Didn’t you just go on a skiing trip with your family?
Yes, I did. Usually, around Christmas time my family will try to do a ski trip. That’s been for a couple years, like a New Year's tradition. We go with a couple other families to make it more affordable. That was in Revelstoke, and it was really fun. My brother’s a really good skier and snowboarder and my parents are good skiers.

What's better, a backflip on skies or a front lip in the streets?      Photo: Lebel

You’re a really good skier too, right? Like you can backflip?
I can backflip, but that doesn’t mean I’m a good skier.

That’s the only sign that you’re a good skier.
Well, I’ve been doing it longer than I’ve been skating. That mountain is kind of advanced and it makes me feel like I’m not that good. There’s just so many really good people. Snowboarding is hard.

I went the other day and got fucking smoked.
Vans ski?

What?
I was saying it like a question—Vans ski?

Do they sponsor any skiers?
I don't think so. I think it’s only snowboard.

Great. I think we covered skiing.
Yeah, I was raised on the hill. Park crew’s in my blood.

Where did your nickname come from?
The nickname Lil’ Tubsy came from my brother. He and his friends were making silly nicknames for me and my friends. But then I was trying to find a username for my email on MSN. So it was like you had a Hotmail account and then your MSN account. I was like, “Yo, can you make me an email?” So him and his friend made it for me, but they were kinda makin’ fun of me, like callin’ me a little fatty. But I didn’t really get it and I just thought it sounded cool. So I was like, This is dope, and then it stuck. It's weird, having a short kind of unique name, ‘cause you don't really get that many nicknames. If you have a more basic name, I feel like you get a lot of nicknames so you’re not confused with other people. But if you have a rare name you don’t really have to. So I never had a nickname. But if I didn’t wanna use Una, Lil’ Tubsy just became that. I still use that email.

That’s sick. I still use my Hotmail too.
That’s dope. Shoutout! It’s not even a company anymore. I get fucked around every time I use a new WiFi. They’ll lock you out of your account.

From Hotmail to hill bombs, Lil' Tubsy catches a crook in SF    Photo: Bram

Oh my God, it's so bad. You've had other jobs besides skating. I think I remember you having a pretty cool job where you delivered pizzas, but not in the traditional fashion.
Yes. I worked at Domino's, on the electric bikes. So that was pretty funny, and it was nice in the summer because you only have a small radius around your store. The weather would be nice. So you’re out on these e-bikes where you don’t even really have to pedal. You’re just kind of vibing. I had a really sick manager there. I say that because they let me go on skate trips with really late notice. But then in the winter, like in the rain and the cold, it was really shitty.

Was that the last job you had?
Besides a skateshop, yeah. And then I worked at Good News, a skateshop. But that's when I started working more weekends and was trying to come over and skate Vancouver and visit you. And then right after that, we signed with Vans. That was like the jumpstart. We started getting paid and then I moved to Vancouver. But yeah, I had Domino's and the flower shop job before. The flower shop was really sick. We worked with all these really cool, older people who just knew a lot about plants and had me carry dirt around.

You’re like the dirt-carrying meathead.
Yeah, I was supposed to be the backbone—or the bitch boy. But then I wasn’t really that strong and I kept getting hurt skating. I remember I fell and sprained my wrist and I was like, Hey, guys, I can’t really lift anything. And they were like, Why are you here, then? I thought maybe because they just wanted me around. And then I also worked at a coffee shop. It was a coffee shop/bakery thing with two of my best friends, but we had a fucked boss.

You’ve worn glasses your whole life. How is it skating with them on?
I haven’t worn them my whole life. I started wearing them around grade seven.

Okay, that’s basically your whole life.
I didn’t have ‘em for a long time and then I realized, Wait, people can read this shit? But then skating with glasses, I don't really notice it. It's just like wearing glasses in general—they just become part of your face. You only notice them if they don’t fit properly and they’re falling off. Like my old pairs, they would fall off when I’d land or when I’d look down.

They must fly off all the time.
Not so much, actually. They kind of just wedge into your ears pretty good. But you know when my glasses fell off on the last trip, right?


No? Did you break them?!
No, I was getting sick out of the side of the van, because of the airplane. We just landed in London and it’s me with all the Krooked guys in the van. I had broken my original pair back home, so I was wearing my backup glasses. So we landed, met up and we’re about to drive two hours. But I tried some sleeping drug that fucked my stomach up. So I was puking a whole bunch—consistently puking. And then the guys were like, “Are you okay? Can you drive for a bit?” I was like, “Yeah, I'm chillin’.” And then you know how those vans don't really have that many windows that open?

Yeah, they're like three inches wide.
So I start to feel a little chunk comin’ on and I was like, “Yo, can you pull over?” And the driver’s like, “We don’t have anywhere to pull over to. Just hold it for a sec.” I was like, “I can’t hold it.” So I actually lean backwards so I’m going over the top of Andrew Wilson and out his window. I had to go back a whole row. And then I'm leaning out the window, puking and the wind from that—because we're on the freeway—just ripped my glasses off. I was literally puking in my hair and shit and then the driver was able to pull over. All the guys were like, What the fuck? I was like, “Sorry, guys, also I lost my glasses. Can we go back?” And they’re like, “No, it’s a freeway.”

No goin' back, wallie up to boardslide    Photo: Lakusiak

Oh my God!
So then I’m just fucked. I couldn't see you for like three days.

What did you do?
I found this UK-exclusive 24-hour glasses delivery online thing, because all of the glasses stores we went into said they’d take two weeks. And we're only on the trip for like eight more days. So I just put in my prescription and within 24 hours they were delivered to our hotel. But I went three days pretty blind without knowing that. Then I had these prescription sunglasses, but they made me look even more blind.

Like a little blind mouse.
I'm pretty sure I got a few clips and Bram and Mack were just like, These clips are kind of fucked. I’m like, Yeah, I know I look like the actual fourth blind mouse dropping in. So I’m still rocking this pair. They were 40 pounds or something.

That’s not even bad!
I know, and contacts suck. They hurt and they’re hard to put in. 

So glasses for life?
For now.

What’s the difference between going on these Krooked trips as opposed to the trips we went on or ones with just your friends?
I feel like trips with any team are always different from each other. Like, Krooked trips are way different than Dime trips that are different than others. But Vans has such a variety and a massive team whereas Krooked is pretty tight-knit. A lot of the people know a lot about each other, so it’s really cool to be a part of it. It’s also a little intimidating. They all have their thing. They all know each other. But then I fit into that better than I expected. Then there’s times they talk about some skate history thing—like some Gonz thing, Drehobl thing or random Frank Gerwer stuff. The Deluxe history knowledge in there is so sick.

That’s probably cool though, ‘cause then you learn these little facts you wouldn’t otherwise know unless you were with them.
Yeah. Another way they're kind of different is that even though the skaters are all really good, there's not a lot of pressure. Most of the pressure, I was putting on myself. In general, the vibe was pretty relaxed and kind of organic. I really liked that they didn't force that much. But everything that came out of it was really sick. It’s not like, This is what’s happening and this is what we gotta do. It’s like, This is kind of the idea.

Generally for everyone, most of the pressure is what you put on yourself.
In my brain, it’s just this cool brand that's been around for a bit and it's roots are crazy with Gonz and REAL. You see those eyes everywhere and then it’s like, I’m on a Krooked trip?

Classic ollie to urban incline, a la Gonz or Gerwer   Photo: Bram

Do you ever make TikToks on your trips?
I always talk about it. I always have these ideas that I pitch to the guys. I really want to make a TikTok of like, I’m passing the phone to someone who mobs their kickflips. Then it’s like, someone who freaks out after two tries. I think it would be hilarious, but I never have service on my phone to download the sounds or something stupid.

I could see you doing those.
I mean, look out.

What’s your handle? Tell the people.
I think it’s just @liltubsy or my name, Una Farrar aka Big Tubsy.

Yeah, you’re a big boy now. Speaking of big boys, what kind of car do you have, big boy?
You’re talkin’ about my lil’ boy. I’ve got a ‘94 Suzuki Sidekick, four-wheel drive.

I love your mechanic content you’ve been sharing with the world. Did you just learn how to do an oil change last summer or what?
Yeah, last year I saw—again some shit on TikTok—where there was this girl that had super long nails, like those extendo acrylics. And she's like, I'm gonna change my fucking oil with these nails on. I was like, Damn, that's so sick. And then I was also like, If she can do it, I can do it, probably. It’s actually not that hard. So you should do your own oil changes.

You should teach me how to change my oil. I’m fucking scared to get under that.
Actually, I did it the other day. And it would have been easy as hell, but I didn’t have the right socket thing for the tool I wanted to use to get this seized bolt off. So I called Rick because he lives two doors down. I’m like, “Do you have this adapter piece for this bolt?” And he says, “Yeah, I think so. Come up and check.” Then he didn't have it, so he came down and just gave it a good effort.


He cranked it off!
Yeah, Rick McCrank cranked it off. He lives up to the name! If you ever need somethin’ McCranked, call him up.

He's gonna hate that!
He is gonna hate that, but seriously he’s a helpful dude—annoyingly helpful dude.

Why annoyingly?
He’s just seemingly good at everything. He has an answer for this plumbing thing or this electrical thing.

I’m just saying, if you brought back the camo pants and overalls, you might be a better mechanic, too.
I never thought about that! Then I can do everything on my own. My purple cargo camo pants were burned. Should we talk about the part? Did you watch it?

LA style, lighting up the spot and dropping the front lip V-bomb 

Yeah, we should talk about the part.
Remember the lipslide varial flip?

Was that the first one you ever did?
Yeah, it was the first one I ever did. The setting was like you, Ryan and Johnny were on your road trip and you met up with me, Shari, Miley, Chandler and a bunch of other people who were skating LA. Then you were skating that thing with me and you were trying some fucked trick and you kept hitting a pole—it was a tailslide on the Philly step.

Yeah, that was stupid, I don’t know why I was trying that. So you kind of have last part in this in this edit.
It’s kind of a montage-y team-vid thing.

Kind of like your little welcoming?
I mean, it’s me and the boys. It's my first video out there with Krooked, so I'm pretty stoked to be a part of it. It feels like a milestone, for sure. And the people that are in it—Eddie, Simon and Andrew are so sick.

Barrel-blaster shove    Photo: Bram

Who has a trick that stands out?
Simon has this fat kickflip off this apocalyptic-looking spot where the sidewalk’s all broken. He just has one of the nicest kickflips. Eddie's got some fucked clips on that double bank in Copenhagen and then Andrew’s got the steeziest back bigs of all time—just a smooth operator. I’m just stoked to have footage alongside them. The other people on the team are really dope, too. I got to room with Sam Narvaez on the last trip and that was really fun. She definitely motivates me in a lot of cool ways and was there for me when I was talking manic. She skates really sick, too, and she’s an excellent chef.

Yes. Is there anything else Una Farrar needs to say to the world outside of herself?
Shoutout, Breana, for getting these questions together. Thank you to Bram and Mack who were the brains behind the stuff that I love so much. Thank you for including me in this thing that I'm really stoked on. And get it straight!

Perfect.

She's got the tech moves, the timeless maneuvers and today's hottest hits, as shown with this ride-on grind. There's no ceiling to how far Una can take it, and we're stoked to see what's next     Photo: Bram