By now you’ve seen Mason Silva’s new Take a Lap part on Thrasher. If not, we’re impressed that you somehow missed it.

For a slightly different perspective on the process of filming a video part, we called up Los Angeles skater Ginger Caranto, who is Mason’s girlfriend and de facto roommate. Ginger is a designer working at Apple, rips bowls all around LA, and sees a SOTY doing mundane house tasks daily. Her perspective is of great interest to us and our readership, so we asked her a few questions and learned a lot.

Village Psychic: Hey Ginger, sorry – there’s an ice cream truck outside of my window right now.

Ginger Caranto: Oh, no worries, I can’t hear it.

VP: Perfect. So, for those who don’t know, tell us where you're from and how you got into skating.

Ginger: I'm from Venice, California. Mason is actually the one who taught me how to skate. Growing up I surfed and could push around on a skateboard, but it wasn't until after we were dating for about a year that I actually became interested in learning. Earlier in our relationship, I went to the Element Skate Camp with Mason in the Sequoia Mountains and I was sitting around all week with these skate ramps everywhere. There was this one foot mini ramp and I asked Mason to teach me how to drop in on it. I basically got addicted after that.

VP: You started skating out of boredom.

Ginger: (laughs) Yeah, pretty much. Everyone was skating and I was just sitting there in the heat, I figured I would give it a try.

VP: When was that?

Ginger: Oh, gosh, maybe like six or seven years ago.

VP: What do you do for work?

Ginger: I work at Apple in design operations. I had originally started there four years ago as a graphic designer on Apple Music. My role has evolved specifically into design operations where I work with designers, producers, and tech teams to create processes in order to scale our design systems across media products like Apple TV, music, fitness, podcasts and maps.

VP: Did you go to school for design?

Ginger: I went to Parsons in New York for fine arts. I was really into oil painting and drawing. I actually only lasted a year in New York. I couldn't do the winters. I was going to transfer to Otis, but that summer I started interning and decided to take a break from school. Then my career started to evolve. I got a job at Stussy designing men's graphics for their T-shirts, after that I went to Vans to work on social media there. From Vans I came to Apple.

VP: It sounds like everything started working out before you had a chance to go back to school.

Ginger: Yeah, exactly. I'm glad I went out to New York and tried it though. Growing up I always wanted to live there, so I feel like if I never did it that year I would still be itching to try it out.

VP: Who do you normally skate with?

Ginger: It always changes based on where we live. When I first started skating we were in Long Beach, and I would just skate with my friend Izzy Panasci. She actually dates Nick Michel, she just designed a Frog skateboard for Nick. She’s a really amazing artist and designer. Then we moved to Venice and I would skate the park every Saturday and Sunday morning, so I just became friends with the people that were always there on the weekend mornings. Now we live on the East side and I'm still trying to find a park that I like, I haven't found the one that motivates me to get out and go skate yet. Since the move I haven't skated as much as I'd like to. I'm slowly getting back into it. I skate with Jackie Wung and Lizzie Armanto now that we’re over here.

Ginger takes the kink and the corner at Venice Park.

The night Mason went pro. Ginger’s name was on the board, so she went pro too!

VP: They both rule. Do you have a favorite skater?

Ginger: I mean… obviously my favorite skater is Mason (laughs). He taught me how to skate and was my inspiration to skate in the first place. Aside from Mason, my other favorite skaters are Breana Geering and Lizzie Armanto.

VP: All three are very sick. How is Mason as a roommate?

Ginger: He’s a pretty good roommate. I'm pretty OCD and have to clean every day. He does the dishes and laundry and I do more of the deep cleaning stuff. We have a good balance.

VP: Let’s talk about when Mason first went pro.

Ginger: I was actually doing freelance work at Element for their women’s social media. Mason was really close with Cole Matthews (TM at the time), so Cole looped me in before Mason knew that he was going pro. They were going to do it at… (yells to Mason) Mason, the video premiere you went pro for Element at, was that the Red Balloon?

Mason (in the distance): Am Scramble.

Ginger: Okay, it was Am Scramble. Element had actually shown me the deck before. His first board was an illustration of the Manhattan Beach Pier, and there was a tiny illustration that says ‘Ginger's Ice Cream’ shop (laughs).

I was so proud of him, but I was so nervous too. I remember going to the premiere, we went to Pizzanista before, I was sweating and couldn’t even eat my pizza. I was just so nervous and excited for him because he had been working so hard.

VP: How did Mason leaving Element come about?

Ginger: That was a crazy time. He was going back and forth on the decision for a long time. That has probably been the hardest decision he's had to make so far in his career, because he was so close with everyone there. When everyone else started leaving slowly and things were changing it was just time to move on. Once he finally made that decision for himself it was like, “Okay, no matter if I have something lined up or not, I'm just going to leave. I want to start a new chapter in my career.” There was about a year of limbo, but it all worked out in the end. We talked about it for a while before he actually fully committed to making the decision to leave.

VP: You were coaching your boyfriend through breaking up with someone.

Ginger: (Laughs) Exactly. That's actually a really good analogy.

VP: What about Mason winning SOTY?

Ginger: I found out about a week before he knew. That was so hard to keep a secret. I was working from home one day and Mike Burnett (Thrasher editor) called me. He had texted me before to make sure Mason wasn't home. When I got that text I was like, “Oh my God, oh my God.” He called me and told me, “Hey, we're going to surprise Mason next week, don't tell anyone.” I was shaking on the phone. It was so hard to sleep those nights before it actually happened because I wanted to tell Mason so badly he was getting it because he was so stressed not knowing what was going to happen.

When you skate with Lizzie, that means you skate her ramp too.

VP: It seems like the type of thing where on the outside he’d be saying “I don't give a fuck what happens really. I probably won't win it.” But inside he’s like “If this doesn't happen, I'm going to be so bummed out.”

Ginger: (Laughs) No, that's definitely how it was. Yeah. He was like, “Whatever happens happens. It's fine either way.” But he put in a ton of work that year.

VP: Do you see a difference between Mason when he's working on a specific project with some goals in mind versus when he's just being a professional skater?

Ginger: I feel like Mason is always focused and wanting to work on something. Even when he finishes a project, he doesn't really give himself much downtime before starting to work on something new – he never really gives himself a proper break. Even after winning SOTY, a week later he was thinking about what he was going to do next. I think for him, that next thing was to create and build a part that he could fully take his time on and curate the tricks and the music just the way he wants to, rather than feel like he's rushed to put stuff out. I think that's something that I admire about him so much, is his motivation and drive. He is kind of a perfectionist.

VP: Do you have a favorite part of his?

Ginger: I’m not just saying this, his part that came out today, Take a Lap, is my favorite part so far that he's made. He really took his time on it. To me, it feels like the most cohesive part he's made, from start to finish all the way through. I thought it was special that Ryan Lee got to edit it for him. Ryan actually hasn't edited an actual part of his. He did that X-Games Real Street part, but that was kind of a Red Bull contest part. He and Ryan have been best friends since childhood, so that made it that much more special.

VP: It felt like he was skating more the way he wanted to, rather than trying to skate how he feels he needs to.

Ginger: That's exactly what he has told me, pretty much verbatim. That part was purely for him. He wasn't feeling like he had to prove anything to anyone.

VP: Do you guys skate the same size board?

Ginger: Yeah, ever since I started skating I just skate whatever boards he skates. Mason, do we skate 8.25s?

Mason (again in the distance): 8.28”!

Ginger: Sorry, it's an 8.28” .

VP: That makes it easy for both of you. Have you ever been in the Real van on a filming mission?

Ginger: Only one time. We met up at Tim Fulton’s house. It was me, Tim, Jackie, Mason, Nicole Hause, and Buffy Milner. We all got in the van together and skated South Pass, and then we went to a spot for Nicole in Highland Park. She did a hippie jump over this bank. I don't know if that counts. I didn’t skate the street spot, we were just all cheering on Nicole.

VP: That is a very cool session. Okay, last question, does Mason hook you up with Nikes or do you have your own shoe plug now?

Ginger: (Laughs) Mason definitely hooks me up with most of my shoes, but Scuba is also super generous and will send me shoes.

Ginger Caranto: Skater, Designer, and Mason Silva's Roommate