An Interview From Sea Department

Sea Department send me a few questions on Reddit, and they're quite good ones, so I thought I would share the answers with you all here:

Hey Tanya! Lovely to have you here, hopefully you'll want to stick around. Some questions from me.

How did you get into wrestling, and once you started doing it, did you think it would be something long-term or not?

Great question! It's a fetish of mine, and I'm sure I share my experience with many people here - it's built in! I used to beat up the boys on the school playground - and also my sister - so my parents decided to put me into judo lessons. Sadly when I was 10 or so and getting quite good, they got a bit scared that I would seriously injure myself so they pulled me out.

I also used to tussle with a family friend from America where grappling is part of their curriculum...

I loved rugby at school (when my parents found out I was playing they wrote to the school saying they would only allow touch rugby - I was so annoyed. I talked with my mother about this when I was adult and she said that because I'd had cancer as a child they were just so worried about me and decided that I could get into as much trouble I wanted when I became an adult - and I'd be responsible for my own injuries!

I got involved with the LARP scene when I was 16 and played regularly for about 5 years. I found the lack of 'real' sword-fighting really annoying though so I joined a HEMA club where they taught broadsword fighting. Then I got into canoe polo (it's deliciously violent - youtube it) and that's probably been when I've been at my fittest and was throwing guys of every size and fitness around London Wrestling Studio (LWS) with impunity.

I started when I was 19. For those of you who have maths brains, you'll find that doesn't match with 2009... I started with a very dodgy studio when I found it on gumtree and while I loved the wrestling it was run so badly (and dangerously) that I left. Then on the old Informed Consent forum someone mentioned Honey and LWS so I looked her up - and here we are today!

2009 is when I consider my official start date, as that's when I received my first training.

How does a session at the Submission Room look like? How private is it, do you have to go through a lobby of people etc?

I've chosen to be exclusive to the Submission Room for my matches in London, and the reasons why are: firstly, I've known Pippa forever and she's an old LWS grrl. Secondly - she runs it like a BOSS. There's never any drama and I love the socials. Thirdly - the studio is great. There are three rooms, the mat room, the bedroom and the dungeon, so whatever session I want to do, all the facilities are there. It's tucked away wonderfully so there's no weirdness on the street to ruin my vibe and when booked, we get the whole space to ourselves. (Don't worry, there is very robust security in place.)

It is lovely bumping into other wrestlers as they finish and start their session, and I like playing the fun game 'Who's in the shower?' if it's running when I come in.

The little lobby/kitchen area is a nice space to chill and get to know someone pre-session before we get into our respective headspaces...

A session is usually, you book for say, 2.30pm, we arrive up to 10 minutes before, get to know each other, go up to the mat room, when we're both warmed up, I set the timer and then when my tinkly little buzzer goes, I unwrap myself from you and you go have a shower. Then you head out while I clean the studio (ask if you want to know more about how we keep the studio sanitary) and then I head out.

If an opponent wants to hang out with me afterwards, or wants to have a longer chat before, they can contribute to my Ko‑fi page to have a drink with me so we can enjoy the session for longer and I can add the funds to my content creation pot =D

What type of session is your favourite?

So a rule in my general life (and one that helps being polyamorous) is to not engage with comparative thinking. So I don't think that A is better than B or rank my top 10. There are of course exceptions (my favourite colour is red) but I find that if I rank things, then I'm always diminishing something, or I find that no matter how much I'm enjoying something I know that something will come along and top it.

So I just try to enjoy whatever is in front of me to the max!

However... the sessions I tend to enjoy the most are when I dominate someone's mind/spirit as well as their body. I think most of you will resonate with that - after all, why not just go to a judo class? Why come to see us lovely ladies of strength and beauty....?

There's a heavenly frisson when I know I've reached inside someone and am controlling them. That their desire to fight back has been extinguished by my feminine beauty, power and strength. That I can do whatever I want with them.

And the battle that sometimes goes on to get there? Delicious!

Do you prefer winning or are you not that bothered either way?

Hard one! I'm competitive as hell. I have one opponent that I've been seeing almost monthly for 10 years and we have a wonderful dynamic. Obviously over that time our fitness comes and goes as we both have rich lives outside the scene which often take priority over workouts, so sometimes he will be able to best me more easily. I think he really enjoys being in control, and enjoys me suffering!

I hate it! But..... it's also kinda fun. 🤫 I think every gent out there that's ever been bested by a woman knows that infernal frustration of losing... that is kinda, weirdly nice!

I have opponents who are happy to wait until I'm strong enough to fight them more fairly for an honest defeat, and I have ones who are happy to have handicaps to make up for the size difference, or are happy for me to play with their brains (mmm brains) in the special way that I do so that they actually can't fight back because they've surrendered to me from my whisperings alone.

Favourite outfit if any and favourite move?

I love scissors, especially with a sleeper hold. School girls are great and of course, my deadly grapevine. I basically like pressure-to-pain moves so that I can pin you forever, or punish you with impunity, depending on my mood.

How do you think you'd do against a 6'7 guy that weighs 120kg?

I wonder why you could be asking Sea Department? 😋

Hmmm... that's a pretty big difference. If you don't have any training. I think I would clean the mats with you, no matter how unsanitary that would be 🙈

If that's muscle, or you've had training, I think I would use my early aggression to tire you out, fight dirty using pressure points, scratching and biting if we're allowing that, and then once I've worn you down, dominate the match with arm bars and head scissors.

It's actually the height difference that would be the most challenging part of this, but I think I'd have you!

Thanks for the interesting questions Sea Department, I enjoyed answering them.

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