FREE 18

FREE 18

MAY JUNE 2018

DANNIE CARLSEN | THE MAHALO SG

Globe is proud to introduce Dannie Carlsen’s guest colorway in Mark Appleyard’s Mahalo SG. With red & white hits from his countries flag & the classic Nyhavn buildings on the the footbed, this pair is to celebrate the Danish lads heritage.

@globebrand_europe | GLOBEBRAND.COM | est. Australia 1994

ALBUM - ETNIES FEATURE FILM AVAILABLE MAY 1 ON DVD & DIGITAL DOWNLOAD etnies.com/album

CHRIS JOSLIN RYAN SHECKLER MATT BERGER NICK GARCIA TREVOR MCCLUNG

RYAN LAY AIDAN CAMPBELL BARNEY PAGE WILLOW DAVID REYES

JAMIE TANCOWNY SILVESTER EDUARDO SAMARRIA BREVARD KOICHIRO UEHARA

FS BOARDSLIDE POPOVER

| PHOTO BY KYLE SEIDLER

14

Purple Pressure

32

44

JĂŠrĂŠmie Daclin

60

Club Rave Madrid

72

Josef Scott Jatta

90

Here and There

102

Fast Carnival Tenerife

114

In Threes

Cover

Mikey Patrick Backside melon Potenza, Italy Ph. Maxime Verret

Contents Carlos Neira Ollie in Barcelona Ph. Gerard Riera

In late March I was invited to judge the first ever skateboard contest in Saudi Arabia. Unless you’re making a pilgrimage to Mecca for Hajj, it’s close to impossible to get a visa to visit Saudi Arabia, so I jumped at the opportunity. I didn’t know too much about Saudi Arabia or if there was any skateboarding going on there, but I was eager to check it out.

After a five-hour flight from London I landed in the Kingdom’s second biggest city, Jeddah, which sits on the coast of the Red Sea. After two long hours waiting at immigration, where officials took me and my passport back and forth to different booths and vestibules, I was finally granted a visa upon arrival hooked up by the kind folks at FISE who had organised the contest.

It was now 6am and already 26 degrees as I walked with my shuttle driver to his mini-bus. On the drive to the hotel I noticed many familiar names on the buildings we passed: Starbucks, Hugo Boss, Burger King, Puma, Canon, Porsche and even Chuck E. Cheese’s. I also saw quite a few skate spots. I arrived at the hotel and got to sleep five hours before getting some food and then heading over to the contest site.

It was now 2pm and it was HOT! I mean scorching! Hardly anyone was outside. Apparently everyone was inside in air conditioning at this time.

There weren’t that many spectators for the skateboard street pro qualifiers, but ten of the total 14 competitors made it to the finals. These were all guys that flew in for the contest, no locals. After the comp I decided to skate around and explore Jeddah with Dlamini Dlamini, a South African skater who was there for the contest. When the sun goes down that’s when the locals come out. All along the water (where the contest was held) there were hundreds of families with blankets having picnics. Kids were running around everywhere playing and laughing as we skated by. We were greeted by looks of astonishment and wonder, as I’m guessing not many people there were familiar with seeing people riding skateboards and hopping onto benches to slide them. There were a lot of spots: tons of marble, smooth ground, low rails and perfect never-before-grinded ledges. Dlamini and I only skated a couple of hours and then we got too thirsty to continue; we had forgotten to bring water and couldn’t find an open shop or water fountain anywhere, only dozens of public phone-charging dock stations. All the spots we skated had no previous skate marks on them and we didn’t see any other skaters out. In fact, I had yet to meet a local skateboarder from Saudi Arabia — that would change the following day.

Day two of the FISE contest was the skateboard street pro finals, but prior to that would be the amateur contest. When I arrived at the comp I saw there were seven names on the list for the amateur comp. But by the time the amateur comp was scheduled to start, only two skaters had shown up.

During practice I went down onto the course and spoke with one of them. He told me his name was Feras Ali (he had perfect, banging hardflips!). Feras told

me he had travelled eight hours from Riyadh to attend this contest. I asked him what it was like skating in Saudi Arabia’s capital city. He told me there was no scene, and that he was the only skater in the entire city. He said he usually had to skate by himself, or he went out skating with a group of BMXers, as they were the only other people he could hit the streets with.

Feras told me he and his BMX mates constantly received tickets and were sometimes arrested. He said in Riyadh they didn’t understand skateboarding and it was a more conservative place than Jeddah.

Feras told me he’d only lived in Riyadh a few years and that he was originally from Sudan. ‘In Sudan,’ he said, ‘at least we had a scene there.’ This was equally mind-blowing to hear! There are no proper skate shops in all of Saudi Arabia he told me; you could only buy toy skateboards there. Feras said he had to order all his skate products online from the US. I was astonished to hear about all the obstacles Feras had faced just to remain a skateboarder. I remember when the majority of my childhood friends quit skating by the time they got to high school — and I thought that was rough… Imagine being the only skater in a city of six million! ‘This spot sucks’, ‘this park is lame; too many bowls’, ‘I don’t like skating with that crew’ all these complaints seem trivial. These are phrases that Feras has never had the luxury of saying. Think about never being able to stand on a board first before you buy it; so many things most skateboarders take for granted some people never even get to experience. The whole conversation with Feras really put things into perspective for me.

Feras went on to win the amateur contest.

Some officials from the local government placed a medal around his neck at the awards ceremony. If you could have seen the smile on his face…

Skateboarding is indeed getting bigger and more mainstream, but, lest we forget, that’s not the case everywhere.

But little by little things are changing in Saudia Arabia… The Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is beginning to bring much needed reform to the Kingdom. Religious restrictions are being eased, women are being granted more rights and apparently, as of the time I’m writing this, the country is scheduled to begin issuing its first tourist visas.

Perhaps soon Feras will stop getting hassled so much for skateboarding, or better yet: maybe he’ll soon have a few more skate buddies to join his street missions.

Will Harmon

FREE 18 Editor in Chief: Will Harmon Photo Editor: Sam Ashley Associate Editor: Arthur Derrien Sloppy kerning: Be n Wea v er & S eb H ow ell Patent pending: James Jarvis Printed in the UK. Free is published six times a year by FSM Publishing Ltd. freeskatemag.com @freeskatemag freeskatemag@gmail.com

Brian Delatorre Switch wallie Lisbon Ph. Alex Pires Page 14

Purple Pressure

As the Converse Purple photos by Jon Coulthard and Alex Pires started trickling in one thing immediately became clear: Brian Delatorre was on one! He had loads of photos, and at sick looking spots, so naturally we thought: ‘Why don’t we interview Dela for this Cons article?’

But it wasn’t until after talking to Lee Berman (Cons TM) that we found out that it hadn’t come easy for Brian. For the first six months of filming he barely had anything. Here’s how Lee put it: ‘As we approached his last trip which coincidentally was over his 31st birthday it was still unclear whether or not Brian was going to be able to have a full part. On the eve of his

With Brian Delatorre & the Cons team Interview Will Harmon Portrait Alex Pires

birthday it was almost as if a light switched on in his head and the stars aligned. The skating Dela did in the next week was unmatched to anything I’ve ever seen him do; everyday it was another banger and one closer to his goal.’

Better late than never! Sometimes that deadline pressure is all you need.

Dane Barker Alley-oop 270 San Antonio Ph. Jon Coulthard Ok to start chronologically I’m going to ask you how you got on Cons?

Brian Delatorre: Yeah you’re going way back! Yeah I was getting flowed shoes at first through Jon Coulthard. I would hit up Jon back then, and then there were talks of me getting on that kind of fell through… Then that MIA part came out and Brennan (Conroy) hit me up about Habitat and I couldn’t say no. But back then with Habitat it was the whole package deal with the boards and shoes.

Oh yes Habitat shoes I remember…

Yeah so he (Brennan) was like ‘yeah if you wanna ride for Habitat you have to ride the shoes too.’ And I was like ‘uh, I think they might be about to put me on Cons, but alright…’ So when Habitat footwear went out of business I basically had to start from scratch again. So then this was like four years later and I hit up Jon like ‘hey, what’s up… again?’ And then I became a Cons flow rider for another two and a half to three years.

Ok… And then Lee (Berman) started working for Cons. Pretty much Lee and Jon… …They had faith in you.

Yeah and then the GX1000 video came out like two and some years ago… Or three years ago? Time, what is time? Time is flying. But yeah after that video came out Lee was pretty much like ‘hey this is it!’ A strike while the iron is hot kinda deal… And to be honest I told him ‘hey if this doesn’t work out, I’m done. I’m just

Tom Remillard Frontside ollie the channel Los Angeles Ph. Jon Coulthard

Felipe Bartolemé Frontside boardslide transfer Madrid Ph. Jon Coulthard

gonna skate for fun.’ I mean I skate for fun all the time, but I’m not gonna take it as my job. I’m just gonna go and work at a coffee shop again or whatever job I can get.

Yeah because you did that before right?

You worked a ‘normal’ job?

Yeah when I was living in New York I was working at a vegan restaurant. I did that until I was 26. And then Habitat was under Burton for a while and I was doing ok getting paid as an amateur. I was making enough to pay rent and get by and not have to work a real job for a little

got us all tickets to where we needed to go and really helped out with the (GX1000) video. And then that transitioned into ‘ok this (GX1000) video is going to come out and then we’re putting Al (Davis) on and we’re putting Brian on.’

So were you old friends with Lee? How did you know him?

Lee and I go back… I’ve known Lee forever since like the Satori days.

So at what point did Converse first start talking about doing the Purple video?

I first heard about it two Novembers ago.

And they basically gave us 14 months to film it. This is the shortest time I’ve ever had to work on a project of this size, which is fine, but it just means a little more pressure. It should be good!

So how long do you usually have to film a video part?

Two years, maybe a little longer.

Honestly I’d like six more months than what I got now, which I think everyone on the team would agree with me. Well maybe not everyone, some people are quicker than others at getting footage. And you know after getting back from those (Cons) trips you have ten days to recover, or two weeks to recover from the last one and then you’re back on the road again.

If you don’t have many responsibilities or a real life at home then you can pull it off. Like say I’m full blown skate rat, with no responsibilities, I’m twenty years old, my body feels great, then I can keep skating after this trip.

It’s different when you hit your thirties.

Yeah, I never thought I’d ever be saying that. Age is just a number, but at the same time my body… If I try a trick and I jump, then I’ll be sore for like four days after – instead of just like the next day I’ll be good.

You learn how to pick and choose your battles. You become a little more practical.

And so I spoke to Lee about you beforehand and he said this was your ‘coming of age part’. Do you know what he means by that?

Kinda, maybe. Maybe because I’m older and we’ve known each other for a while and he’s seen my transition from skating big rails back in the day to now how I’ve bit. Then I moved from New York to SF and toned it down a little bit… like I said when GX1000 came out it was Also you’ve been in the game for quite a pretty much Lee that really got me in while now and you get picky… You don’t there with Cons. want to have the same video part as the So Lee Berman really had you and the last so you need to switch it up right?

GX guys’ backs?

Yeah. I mean the tricks are pretty much…

Yeah that was all Lee’s power move. He You know I’ll occasionally try some new

Kevin Rodrigues Wallride Barcelona Ph. Sam Ashley

Louie Lopez Ollie Hermosa Beach Ph. Jon Coulthard

Brian Delatorre Backside Smith grind Thessaloniki Ph. Jon Coulthard shit and scare myself, but for the most part you know… I’ll nollie flip some stairs and all, but the rail’s gotta look cool. I’m a little pickier. It’s just got to be a little more aesthetically pleasing to me as opposed to just some random spot.

Yeah you care a lot more about how the spot looks now than when you were younger.

Yeah definitely. That goes with getting older too; I remember getting taken to spots in my late teens and early twenties and I’d just want to skate everything.

Nowadays on trips, especially the Cons

trips, it’s very time sensitive. So you have an idea like ‘ok cool, I saw this spot, I like the way it looks, let’s try it.’ If it’s a no-go and I don’t do it then that’s it. That’s the way those trips go. And sometimes we’ll go back to it, but I don’t know… I’d rather not go back to it. It all depends.

You prefer to just give it your all once…

Yeah exactly and you feel bad: you don’t want to take everyone’s time if other people want to try stuff.

It’s definitely a different dynamic on trips, because you don’t want to hold everyone up trying your trick at the spot.

Rémy Taveira Switch frontside shove-it to switch crooked grind Lisbon. Ph. Alex Pires

It’s not like skating in your hometown.

No it’s not. And it’s also different when you’re on this big trip with a lot of people. These big ten person trips…

You’re not gonna film many lines huh?

Yeah exactly I’m not gonna try a line!

There’s no way I’m going to try a line

Raney Beres Bluntslide transfer Bobigny Ph. Alex Pires

because lines are exhausting to me. Even if it’s two tricks - two tricks can even be pretty difficult. Change is good though and it’s all about adapting.

And there are a lot of videos that are like this now because of the demand… A lot of brands feel obliged to put out videos quicker so it’s changing people’s skating: there’s not as many lines… Do you see this happening?

Yeah I guess it could be seen as kinda good in a way. Like ‘OK cool, I have to film 15 tricks as opposed to 30 tricks’.

I’m really coming around to it… I mean I like video parts, don’t get me wrong, I’ve had quite a few. But I really like going on a two-week trip, which will go into a 7-minute edit and everyone gets a photo in the article. It’s quick and it’s rapid-fire and I like that more now

Sage Elsesser Tailgrab Athens Ph. Jon Coulthard because what the Internet has done to skating. It’s very rare that you’re waiting for something to come out; nowadays there’s an oversaturation of content.

And what can people do? What can be done to change that?

Dude I mean… Stress less! That’s what you can do; you don’t need to stress as much anymore. People are going to watch it and they’re going to go on to the next thing.

And then they’ll be some people hating, but whatever. Those are just people sitting on their asses behind their computer not doing shit.

But I see what you’re saying… If you go on this two-week trip then people watch it once: boom – it took you two weeks.

But if you work on a project for 14 months or two years, people still may just watch that once. And you’re like ‘fuck I spent two years of my life for that!’ you know?

Exactly! Two years into three minutes.

Two years of stress and occasionally pulling hair out of your head or you know sometimes you have a great day. But if you really look at it two years, three minutes of footage, you watch it once and then on to the next thing.

That’s a lot of work and a lot of stress on your body…

It’s just how people consume skate videos/edits these days. I think it’s changing the way people make videos.

Yeah and it has. And I see the way some of my friends do it where they go on these trips for two weeks, come back home, and then just chill. They may skate around a bit, stay loose, don’t stress about filming, and basically they’re just kicking it waiting for the next trip.

So you must really respect someone like Tom Knox who films a full part when he’s at home in London with loads of lines?

It’s amazing! And you know with him

juggling a family… I have the utmost respect for him. He’s extremely motivated and I think with that it’s all about the filmer/skater relationship. That plays a huge part, because then you’re just going out with your friends. And that’s why I really like going out with Ryan (Garshell), because it’s the same dynamic. I’ve been doing this with him for like 15 years, because he grew up in Florida.

Is Ryan making another GX video?

Yeah. It’ll be with all the new kids and shit and a little bit of the old squad.

Sick! So filming with Ryan is just like going out with your friends skating.

Yeah there’s no stress. ‘Cool we got something today!’ If not: ‘awesome’. It doesn’t matter.

So you must have felt a little more pressure going out with Ben Chadourne filming for Cons?

Louie Lopez Backside 180 to switch frontside crooks San Francisco Ph. Jon Coulthard

Mike Arnold Pole-jam 50-50 Almada Ph. Alex Pires

Yeah a little bit – just because of the whole deadline thing for a full-length project. There’s also a lot of money involved and there’s a lot of things you have to take into account. It wasn’t like Ben was putting pressure on us, but it’s also like a trickle-down effect.

Yeah Converse needs to have this video out at a certain time, and it’s not like Ben

wants to pressure you, but he just knows he has to deliver a video on this date.

Yeah Ben’s the dude who’s like: ’I wanna go on a homie trip’. Ben’s like: ‘I wanna just go skate with my friends’. Ben is like the purest, but when you have the higher ups pressuring Lee, and then, not necessarily pressuring Ben, but like ‘hey Ben we gotta figure out rights to

Brian Delatorre frontside 50-50 grind Marseille Ph. Jon Coulthard the songs’ and all of that shit. Time is ticking…

Yeah I understand, the trickle-down effect. What’s the significance of the title ‘Purple’?

It’s Ben’s 16mm camera. It says ‘purple’ on it and he was wearing purple Converse a lot, ha ha, so I think that’s the significance of the name.

Who were you most impressed with on the Cons trips for this video?

Bobby Dekeyzer – he’s amazing to watch.

I heard from someone he has tons of footage for this video…

He’s got like ten minutes of just insane lines. He’s the definition of someone who can just play with his board; it’s pretty magical to watch. Him and Louie (Lopez)…

Those two are on a whole other level. And I rarely see Louie freak out too. Fuck I wanna aspire to being like that: like fucking Buddha and shit. Instead of

a shitty situation. I do a little dance; do a little smile… You know a smile goes a long way man!

It does!

Lee told me the other day that Jon had told him that he handles his job very well. Every trip there’s going to be one person, one person that isn’t going to have a good trip. There’s always someone that’s going to be feeling down and that’s every trip. And I think that’s just basic human stuff, but you know we’re all there for each other. Lee is always like ‘handle your shit; do what you need to do’. Aaron (Herrington), one of my closest friends, just went sober, because he was having a tough time. And Aaron’s a big part of those trips.

Well like you said this is less time to film a video part and you really have to focus, it’s stressful.

There are a lot of ups and a lot of downs. A lot of ‘I’m high and I’m riding it’ and when it’s down you’re fucking down and you’re emotional and you’re just not all there. It’s hard to watch because all you can do is say ‘I love you man, but I don’t know what to do to help you.

The only one that can help you is yourself.’ Even myself when I stress out on shit, I have to tell myself ‘OK the only one that can help me is me.’ These guys can pat me on the back all they want, and tell me things are gonna be fine. Me knowing that, you still feel a certain way… But it’s interesting man, there are a lot of highs and a lot of lows… A lot of ins and a lot of outs.

Well the video’s pretty much wrapped up now right?

Yeah pretty much.

What’s next for you?

Ryan always has this saying ‘continue directly’. So continuing directly: just moving forward, on to the next thing, on to the next project, skate with your friends more and continue travelling as much as I can.

And I guess you’ll be filming for the next GX1000 vid…

Yeah for sure. Lately I’ve just been stressing over a trick he’s all quiet and having fun man, that’s it. You want some calm like he knows he’s gonna do it last words? Here are some last words: eventually. just have fun and ride it. Just ride On the flip side, who is the biggest whatever this is happening right now and stresser on the team? dance and have fun. And don’t take I don’t know, me! (Laughs) Everyone kind yourself too serious or else you’ll… I of stresses, it’s skating. There are have lost sight of it sometimes where I’m moments when the vibes are high… Jon really hard on myself and you look back (Coulthard) likes to call me ‘the vibe’. on it and you’re like ‘why was I I try and keep the vibes positive. I try tripping?’ There’s no reason to trip: to keep it flowin’ even though it may be it’s all good!

A NEW ELEMENT AUDIOVISUAL PROJECT COMING 2018 #ELEMENTPEACE

TYSON PETERSON BY BRIAN GABERMAN.

Page 33 Hermann Stene, ollie Philadelphia. Ph. Zander Taketomo Page 34-35 Magnus Bordewick, hippie jump Mallorca. Ph. Zander Taketomo Page 36 Danny Brady, Pupecki grind London. Ph. Sam Ashley Page 37 Chris Jones, ride-on 50-50 grind Barcelona. Ph. Gerard Riera Page 38-39 Gustav Tønnesen, gap to frontside feeble grind Barcelona. Ph. Sam Ashley Page 40 Eniz Fazliov, ollie Porto Cristo, Spain. Ph. Fabien Ponsero Page 41 Chris Pfanner, ollie over the rail to Smith grind Limassol, Cyprus. Ph. DVL Page 42-43 Andrzej Kwiatek, ollie into the bank Warsaw. Ph. Kuba Baczkowski

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When Jérémie Daclin was 20, a TV crew from France 3 came to film him and his friends at Hôtel de Ville in Lyon, where he grew up skating. When they were done jumping over each other’s boards for the cameras, one by one they were asked if skateboarding was something they could picture themselves still doing later on in their lives. Unanimously the answer was ‘no’, that it was a ‘kids thing’ and that they’d grow out of it. Twenty-five years later Jérémie is the guy crossing the Atlantic to skate supermarket car parks at eight in the morning with skaters he met over Instagram. Along the way he grinded some seriously fucked up hubbas and started Cliché, kicking the door open for all the European board companies we have today. His passion for skateboarding has done nothing but grow and his contribution to our culture is immeasurable.

And when you look at some of the decisions he’s had to take, some of the obstacles he’s faced, both as a ‘pro’ and with his brand, nobody could have blamed him for getting sick of it. Yet here he is sat in front of me banging on about how he wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Not quite what you expected huh Jérémie?

Page 44 Jérémie Daclin Interview Arthur Derrien

Can you start off by telling us a little bit about picking up skating in Lyon? Around what year was that?

Where do I even begin, ha ha! It was around 1988. Like for a lot of people it started off with me just doing it with a few friends and loving it because it went hand in hand with discovering the city, getting away from your parents’ house and the feeling of freedom that goes with all that. I’d also add that one of the main differences with skating back then, way before the Internet, was you didn’t really get to see many videos. You’d be able to get magazines but still that’s a static image, it’s not enough to understand whole tricks. Getting out there and meeting other skateboarders was pretty much the only way to properly see new tricks, which is why contests weren’t seen as wack like they are now. They’d be where you’d actually get to see new skating and meet people. So yeah at first Slappy Ph.

backside

it was a lot of comps… That’s how I met loads of the Parisians and started becoming friends with people from other cities, then going to visit them and stuff.

Lyon had a pretty strong scene because of La Piste, which was at the time one of the best skateparks in Europe. There was a bunch of dudes my age that were ripping and then there was JB (Gillet) and his crew coming up… And Fred (Mortagne) was there documenting all that with his first videos.

How did you first get sponsored?

A shop called Le Surplus d’Ainay (which later became ABS) started hooking some of us up. That lasted until one guy took a super expensive complete and we all got kicked off because the owner realised he couldn’t afford it, ha ha.

Then what? I seem to remember the first few experiences you had with American brands sponsoring you not being the best…

nosebluntslide,

Venice

Lyon, 2018 Nikwen

me up and my only point of contact, Pierre Andre Senizerg, I just couldn’t get through to. This was obviously long before mobile phones and stuff so all I could do was just wait there.

How long were you left there on your own?

Someone came to get me the following day.

I remember trying my hardest to skate just so that I wouldn’t fall asleep but ended up giving in every now and then. I remember the airport people constantly making announcements saying ‘please do not skateboard…’.

And then when you finally got picked up what happened? Didn’t they take you straight to a contest you hadn’t been signed up for or something so you couldn’t even skate in it?

Yeah basically, ha ha.

I’m guessing that didn’t go on for much longer after that?

No it wasn’t really working out, ha ha.

But I got on New Deal and that’s when there Yeah then came V7, the first skate was the whole thing with the 1281 video. distributor in France. They started What was that? importing stuff like Tracker Trucks and They basically sent someone over out of Blockhead (boards). Through them I the blue (Gorm Boberg, who kind of filmed started getting sent stuff from those for them) and I got half a day to film my brands direct from the States as well as part for their video. being put on the mailing list to receive Lovely…

Transworlds… So that was great.

That’s just how it was back then though.

It’s when you actually went out there I wasn’t even fazed by that sort of thing that it gets interesting though! Tell us about the because in Europe we were so detached to time you got forgotten at the airport. what was actually going on that I didn’t I got flown out to LA to link up with the even question it. I had a day to film a Blockhead guys and skate a comp, but when part, no way of seeing the footage, and I landed in LAX nobody was there to pick that was that.

50-50 grind,

Ph. Benjamin

Paris,

2000 Deberdt

At least it was maybe a more honest way of representing how people actually skate, rather than these days when people spend a week trying one line with tricks they’ll never be able to do again.

I guess, but not being able to really see or know what you had for a video was tough.

Was it the same for everyone though?

Like was your footage alongside the footage of people that had more time to film?

No it was just us Europeans, it’s like we were always just an afterthought. The same thing happened with a Tracker Trucks video I was in: the Euro TM dude showed up one day, I had a few hours to film then that was it.

I guess shooting photos was the same for everyone but that was even worse! You had no way of knowing if the photographer had actually got the shot or not. You just had to wait and hope.

It was a completely different time for skating in so many ways. It felt like you couldn’t really have a future in skateboarding. In 92/93 the industry was tiny, there weren’t that many proper brands run by skaters, being ‘pro’ didn’t really mean anything. Like I got a board on Deathbox, but I never got paid or anything like that. At most I got given like ten of them or something… Which is why the whole time I had a job on the side; I never thought of skateboarding as a way to earn money or as a career.

What were you doing on the side?

I was working with an artist that made these big glass sculptures for a bit.

Then I opened a skate shop in Lyon called All Access, which was a great introduction to the business side of things in skateboarding. It really made me understand skate shops’ needs better, margins, working with distributors… That sort of thing.

Which in turn helped you realise that starting your own brand could actually work…

Yeah. There was that and there was also the fact that Brooklyn Boards (whose distributor was based in Lyon with Zoo York’s and who I was friends’ with) put a board out with my name on it and it sold really well.

What like a guest board? ‘Cause you weren’t skating for them were you?

No I wasn’t skating for them. And yeah sort of like that but this was before ‘guest boards’. Gonz did the graphic. It was to see what would happen if you put a European name on a board, see if it would sell… And it really did so I knew there was potential.

Also you need to remember that things weren’t how they are now. This was a time when skateboarding was already global in the sense that people were skating everywhere but almost only skateboarders from California were benefiting from it.

You couldn’t really make it without being there, which is why Flip felt like they had to move out there when they did… In Europe the only skateboarding we’d have access to, the only skateboarding we’d ‘consume’, was American. I wanted skateboarders to make it without having to go out there. I wanted us to have our own industry.

Which we now have, in part thanks to you and Cliché opening that door…

You mentioned the Gonz doing the graphic for the Brooklyn Boards model that sort of set the wheels in motion. He spent a year in Lyon right? That’s why he has a bunch of footage there in that Real part, like that long curved 50-50 on the mini hubba… What was it like having him around?

Yeah I filmed that one!

No way?!

Yeah that’s what was so crazy about that whole period, there wasn’t really anyone filming most of the time when we’d go skating and he’d always do insane stuff.

Obviously occasionally there was, like for that famous 50-50 wallie 50-50, Fred was there, but he did so much crazy shit that was never caught on film.

Any examples?

You know that transition to wall spot that used to be right by the station in Marseille? The famous one where Natas (Kaupas) had a photo doing a frontside wallride on it and later Bob Burnquist did a rock fakie in Menikmati? Well Gonz did a frontside rock on that with no filmer and the photographer who was there shooting fucked up the photo so nobody ever saw it!

What?! That’s so gnarly!

That sort of thing happened so much with the Gonz; his skating was so instinctive that without warning he’d just do incredible stuff. Like if we’re cruising and he sees a bench he’d casually just no-comply lipslide it or something mad like that.

I’ve definitely got a lot of good memories from that whole period; he was in the shop almost every day…

Sick. Coming back to what we were discussing earlier, from what you learnt from opening the shop and the little ‘test’ you did with the Brooklyn Board thing, you decided to launch Cliché on your own… Can you tell us a little bit about that? I still find it crazy that

when it started off it was just you basically doing everything.

Yeah I don’t know what to say about it really… It was just lots of calling up shops and packing boxes whilst still trying to skate as much as possible.

But you were also doing everything from the team to the graphics to all the admin shit that comes with setting up a company… It’s nuts.

There were also so many weird little things that today we have a hard time imagining, like after shooting a photo having to run around the city to get the film scanned for example…

What’s also interesting is that this being the ambitious project that it was, especially for the time, you’d be expected to want it to be the only European brand. Except rather than trying to crush the competition, you put some money towards helping start Antiz, gave them all your production contacts, etc. Can you explain the thought process behind this?

I was convinced that the more proper Europeans brands there were, the better.

It would help give European skateboarding credibility, help us slowly start having our own industry, that kind of thing. And I was friends with Hugo (Liard) so why not? I told him everything I knew, shared my contacts… In fact you know the OG Antiz logo with the upside down A? Hugo drew the A but the font used for the other letters was a Futura Extra Bold, which was the same we used for Cliché at the time. Eric (Frenay, the Cliché art director) made that logo…

I had no idea! Can you explain how you put together the original Cliché team and how it ended up being quite different from the one that appeared in Europa?

The reason why the OG team was so different to the one that appeared in our first video is that people in Europe weren’t really used to filming proper parts back then. You need to remember that this was before Puzzle (video magazine) and stuff… So you’d sponsor people because they were incredible skateboarders, like say Manuel Palacios, but that didn’t mean they were necessarily capable of filming parts.

That’s a whole other thing than just being good, you need to think about stuff in a very different way and really push yourself. That’s why working on videos is a good way of updating your team, it allows you to know who’s actually going for it and who’s not. Seb Daurel is another great example of this… I’ve seen Bob Burnquist watch him skate and be in awe because he was doing fucked up shit, but he’s just incompatible with the

process of filming a proper section.

Which is a shame ‘cause we’ll never have seen him skate to his full potential…

Also when I started Cliché sure we had three pros (Roland Gueissaz, Seb Daurel and Jérémie) but I was giving product to like 20 people or something so it wasn’t like a properly defined team. Even Flo Marfaing was sort of part of it then…

With the video we set strict, high standards and it’s what helped properly define the team.

How did Ben Derenne end up making that video?

Ben Derenne was the guy behind Puzzle and they wanted to do a part with me, only since I was busy with the brand I thought it might be hard for me to make time for it. So I convinced him to start working on a Cliché video so that he’d focus on the others and I wouldn’t be under pressure to film, ha ha.

That video obviously had a huge impact on European skating but how much did it actually change for you guys as a brand? Did sales go up a lot? Could you actually start paying yourself and the team after that?

Sales went up yes but it didn’t really change anything for us. It was exactly like what Steve Rocco always explains about launching World Industries: we’d put 10,000 in and make say 15,000 back but there was always such a high demand that we kept having to reinvest everything to match it. So you pay to produce, then shops pay after 30 days, then you need to reinvest more because they want more… So quickly we were working in big quantities but we’d still never have money!

But I knew what we were doing had potential. The fact that we were skating all the same spots as in Menikmati (because of Fred being in Lyon) also meant that people were really paying attention to what we were doing… But it got to the point when I was sick of not paying my mates that were filming, riding or doing anything for the brand so that’s when the Salomon thing came about.

What happened with Salomon?

They were basically just an investor but from the day they came into the picture I was able to pay riders properly and do all the shit I’d been wanting to do since the beginning. We still had complete control over every aspect of the brand but it made it a lot easier for us to keep growing, keep making videos…

They are also how Link Footwear came into the picture right?

Yeah. Basically Salomon really wanted to

make skate shoes. This was in the 2000s when there was a massive boom in the skate market… I was running Cliché at the time and to a slightly lesser degree Link (Al Boglio was more in charge of that one). Anyway so they wanted to make skate shoes, the problem was that they wanted to go at it with a Salomon style, ultra tech, product development strategy. In retrospect I think the approach should have been a bit more ‘skate’.

I remember thinking it was weird how there was almost a year of hype /marketing around it, with a really sick team (JB, Lucas, Marcus McBride, Cale Nuske, Alex Moul, etc.), ads in US mags, etc. before anyone had even seen any shoes in real life.

Yeah, and then finally when the shoes arrived they decided to shut the whole thing down! What’s crazy as well is that at the time Salomon belonged to adidas and we were initially like ‘just give us adidas moulds and we’ll work from there’, to keep it simple. But they had something else in mind. They wanted these shoes to be waterproof, bulletproof; you name it, ha ha.

Was getting French Fred on board for Bon Appétit a difficult one?

Not at all… He’d done his thing in America and was in exactly the same state of mind as us. We wanted to show the world that we could do it just as well as them, but at home and with our methods, our approach.

Can you explain what the initial concept for that video was and how it changed along the way?

The idea was to base it around the feelings you get from being in these

Boardslide at Bercy,

Ph. Benjamin

Paris,

2000 Deberdt

Frontside air at

Ph.

the ClichĂŠ Seb

ramp,

Lyon, 2005 Michelini

different parts of the world we visited to skate. It was only supposed to have sections like the Asia one or the Maghreb one and not have any proper parts. Only the ‘rules’ that define traditional skateboard videos caught up with us (which is ironic for a sport that’s not supposed to have rules) and we ended up compromising and having a mix of both. It’s just too hard to do when everyone’s waiting for that part from Lucas Puig or whoever.

It was before everything was on the Internet so we’d actually be discovering stuff for the first time on all these trips. Like no other skate team had been to Greece before us… Now if you just Googled: ‘skateboarding Greece’, a million photos would come up in a second and you’d get a good idea of what was there.

I remember going to the premiere in Lyon and suddenly realising how big the brand had become. Did it feel like a turning point?

Yeah I mean it also came at a time when everyone in skating really started paying attention to what was going on out here, which helped a lot. All these Americans started coming or even moving to Barcelona…

It almost felt like more of a turning point for European skating as a whole.

If my memory is correct the following video, Freedom Fries, came out just over a year after right? Which was an insanely short amount of time, especially back then. Why so soon? Did any of the dudes on the team struggle with it?

Everyone was still in filming mode from Bon Appétit so we just kept the momentum going. It just felt easier back then: we’d go to a country where there was a distributor we got along with, film some tricks, come home, film some more, find another place… And they all had fresh legs back then, ha ha.

I was hoping your answer would lead me into this question a bit better but here we go: after that the team changed quite a bit… Can you tell me about letting Vincent Bressol, Thibaud Fradin and Jan Kliewer go? How did it happen?

How did it happen? It happened because a decision had to be taken

and I took it.

Skateboarding’s a weird one because it’s not completely a sport, it’s not completely an art but it’s a lot of you. It’s probably the only ‘sport’ that you do dressed the same as when you’re not doing it, which when you think about it nicely illustrates how blurred the lines are. What you are in life feels very intimately linked to what you are in skating. So if someone tells you ‘you aren’t as good as you used to be’ it quickly becomes super personal, you start to think that it’s because you’re not as cool of a guy anymore. So basically in some cases it was really tough, but with time everyone managed to be adults about it. Vincent Bressol even comes to hang out at mine in the summers!

And from a brand perspective do you think it was the right thing to do? I can’t help but feel like it’s the older guys that have already put out a bunch of parts with a company that hold a brand’s image together. Not the new guy that’s just been put on… Like how Girl and Chocolate keep their Gino’s or their…

Well not Gino (Iannucci) ha ha, he’s gone.

Oh yeah ha ha! Well you know what I mean. Let’s say Chico (Brenes) then. Basically don’t you think people would rather wait five years and see a video with all the guys they’ve grown to love and associate with Cliché, rather than have ones coming out all the time with new dudes?

The difference is that in Europe not everyone’s as iconic as a Gino or a Chico or a JB. That’s sadly just how it is… Someone like JB can afford to only put out a part every five years; his image isn’t going anywhere. If your older guys aren’t selling boards and your flow dudes are really pushing themselves and coming through with incredible footage you sometimes just have to make some tough decisions.

What about Pontus?

What’s funny with Pontus leaving is that one of the things he criticised us for is putting him under too much pressure to film and stuff, and when I spoke to Kevin (Rodrigues) recently he was saying one of the main reasons he left Polar was that he was under similar pressures from Pontus…

I always thought it was cool that you guys gave him what would have been his Bon Appétit footage for his own vid (Strongest of the Strange).

Yeah I mean it comes back to what I was saying earlier about helping out Antiz…

We were stoked he was doing that and I think what he’s doing now with Polar is great. The more good videos are getting made, the more magazines exist, the more proper companies with ads and paid photographers, etc. the better. It’s a whole eco-system and every little part is important to make European skating, as a whole, stronger.

The only problem is that people have to play the game fairly. It’s so easy to make boards in small quantities now that anyone can start a board company, which I encourage. But we need companies that pay their pros, pay their filmers, take out ads in magazines AND SELL IN SKATE SHOPS. Because if they don’t it drags the whole industry down.

Which is kind of why with Film (Jérémie’s new truck company), I’ve been going around to all the shops, speaking to them face to face just like I used to when I first started Cliché. Making sure I have a real human connection with them, not just sending spread sheets. Shops are such an important part of the puzzle yet so many of the big brands take them for granted… We’ve all been that kid that goes into the shop just to talk to the people in there, stare at the board wall and dream about the stickers.

Coming back to Cliché, what happened when you guys made the deal with Dwindle?

One thing is that we were no longer in contact with the product in the same way; almost all the stock was in the States while we were in Lyon handling the creative side of things.

Was it like with Salomon where you guys felt completely free to do exactly what you wanted or were you suddenly under pressure to do certain things?

For one it meant that we had to put more Americans on. That’s when (Daniel) Espinoza came into the picture… We were kind of hesitating between Evan Smith and Espinoza at the time. Evan was super keen and I was leaning towards him because he was also incredible at tranny and stuff but in the end we picked Daniel because Lakai were pushing him hard, which was a big plus then.

The other difference is that we had to start putting out way more products to fit their drop calendars. Like ‘we need this amount of pro model graphics for

this date, this amount for this date’, so we had to slightly change the way we worked. Before we had the stock with us so we’d spend ages working on a series, put it out, work on another, and when we’d run out of stock, then put that one out and so on.

Which means that you had more time to come up with cool ideas and ways to push/ market them…

Yeah. But it did help a lot in the sense that we weren’t spending as much time packing boxes… And it gave us the freedom to do region specific boards. Like say red boards smash it in this country we can just get a bunch made and sent just to there, that sort of thing.

What also needs to be mentioned is that in recent years the amount of tasks you have to do for one product have multiplied. If you put out a series now it has to be some kind of collab, you need a launch party, you need a clip, and you need a million posts ready to push it on Instagram and Facebook… It’s endless.

Before you had your boards in a catalogue and that was it.

I think that’s one of the things the Crailtap brands really struggled with at first. Everyone used to do everything they could to get their catalogues because they were incredibly well made, with tons of great work from various artists and all that. Each one was a work of art! But they really had a hard time with getting that magic across and onto different platforms. It’s this transition into a new way of doings things that really hurt them I think.

I feel like you guys really did well with that transition, but did other creative areas possibly suffer from it slightly? I remember seeing Rasta logo boards and thinking that wasn’t very Cliché…

We’d always have to do stuff like that though, that’s just how it is…

You need to sell boards to be able to do cool shit…

Exactly. One thing that definitely changed in terms of graphics is that we suddenly had access to legendary artists like Mark McKee, which is great, but a lot of people, like Flo (Mirtain) weren’t really feeling it; they thought the boards looked too cartoony.

And let’s face it: it’s also really hard for old brands to constantly have to reinvent themselves…

And you guys lost French Fred at a time when it was all quite tricky…

No but I’m not even talking about that.

I’m mean more generally. Twenty years,

that’s a generation; if it was cool for the dad and he wears Cliché shirts it’s going to be hard for it to remain relevant and cool enough for the son to want to wear them. That’s why Mike Carroll talks about the 20-year curse for skate companies, that’s when Gino left Chocolate. And with this constant flow of skateboard content, new brands, etc., the life span of big brands is only going to get shorter. That’s why it’s more important than ever to have strong magazines and media outlets that filter through all this and reinstate the relevance of the brands that are playing the game properly. It’s the danger with sites like HellaClips that puts a video some random dude filmed in his backyard on the same level as videos brands put 50-50 grind

Ph.

lots of thought, money and energy into creating. Kids are completely lost!

For sure. And it’s kind of the role of brands and magazines to ‘protect’ our culture, make sure that a kid that has a million followers on Instagram but never filmed a proper part doesn’t get turned pro or get covers, etc.

Yep. We love saying there’s no rules in skating but there are and that’s part of what makes it special.

What’s scary about all this is that because of the way things are changing you’ll find some shops pre-ordering shitloads of boards with some cat on them from a company that has a non-existent team but then will look the other way when it comes to the Girl/Chocolates.

Even though these are the brands with artwork from people like Evan Hecox who

at Mathias

Foch,

Lyon, 1998 Fenneteaux

remains the same.

Bon Voyage was made

by Boris Proust and not Fred, but it’s also the video with Kevin Bradley’s first proper part…

Fuck this is a bit all over the place but we completely skipped over the Gypsy tours, which were a huge part of the brand and something I know you personally felt very strongly about. Tell us a little bit about how you came up with the idea.

It’s nothing special really it’s just the way I’d always travelled and a way most skateboarders are used to travelling. Only this was when reality TV was just starting to emerge and really showing the behind the scenes of skateboarding tours wasn’t something that was really done back then. I’ve always liked trying to push what could be explored with skate videos, trying different avenues…

But to be completely honest when Fred and I decided to actually try this we had no idea what have inspired every company and every would come of it. We’re lucky it worked generation of skateboarders. These are out so well and got such a good the guys who set the standards in terms response. One of the main things we felt of videos… For everything basically. had worked is that it was finally a When you guys put out Bon Voyage, skate video that could be enjoyed by French Fred was long gone and it was full of people that didn’t skate, that could new faces… From the outside it really felt like a give them insight into what it was like… new Cliché. Is this something you were aware Without coming across as too corny for of? the people that do skate.

Yeah because it was a new Cliché. A Exactly. Going on a skate trip is such a skateboard company is something that’s in crazy experience on so many levels but constant evolution; filmers and riders it’s something that until then could inevitably come and go and that’s fine, only be shared with and understood by a as long as the essence of the brand very small amount of people. This made Backside lipslide

Ph.

at La Mike

Kantera,

Algorta, 1997 O’Meally

it accessible to everyone.

When Pontus was still on he always used to complain about the hotels we’d stay in on trips and I remember saying to him, ‘you’ll see, one day we’ll do it how I’m used to travelling!’ Shame he was no longer on when we actually did these.

Who would you say had the hardest time on those?

I mean JB didn’t come on a single one, ha ha.

What, but you’d sometimes invite him?

We asked him to come on every single one, ha ha.

I loved the fact that there was always a guest on it too. Bringing Fred Gall was genius.

Thanks, but to be honest that’s what I’d always done anyway. I always loved bringing a skater that wasn’t on the team on trips; we did it with (Louie) Barletta, with Wieger (Van Wageningen)…

Wieger very briefly skated for Cliché though didn’t he?

He did but I’m talking about a different time when he didn’t… He’s such a good dude Wieger. Did you know that when Wieger heard Dwindle were going to stop Cliché that’s when he decided to quit enjoi/Dwindle?

No I had no idea…. How did all that go down for you guys?

Well Al (Boglio) was in closer contact with them, I was more talking to the team and stuff. But I guess yeah they just gave us the news with a couple of months notice so we could try to land on our feet and that was that. Some of the guys on the team did, some didn’t… Dwindle had loads of companies under their umbrella, they needed to cut one, we were the last ones to join, makes sense that we’d be the first to get cut.

What’s certain is that the rise of all these smaller brands definitely made it tougher for the bigger brands like us.

Yeah I mean if you’re an established

Backside tailslide,

Ph. Mike

Warsaw,

2001 O’Meally

brand with lots of big name pros, an office, some full time staff and you’re competing with small brands that out of nowhere are smashing it but have close to zero outgoings, it’s going to be tough. Can you tell us about the office come up?

Ha ha. When we made the deal with Dwindle one of the things we wanted was an office in Lyon, which they agreed to pay for. Only instead of getting them to pay rent on this small apartment in the centre of Lyon we decided to get a loan, buy the place and basically get them to pay the mortgage on it. We’d just send them an invoice every month…

And it so happens that the month they decided to pull the plug on Cliché was the exact month we finished repaying that loan, ha ha.

I love how Cliché allowed you to go on so many incredible trips, launch so many of your mates’ careers, be involved in so many creative projects, and as if all that wasn’t enough the month it all ended you got a sick flat three minutes away from you favourite bar!

Winning at life.

And we all got to live from our passion for so many years… But I kind of hate thinking about the past and what could have been done better. I believe in the future and there’s so much great stuff going on in skateboarding right now that that’s what I want to focus on. Like you guys did something about skateboarding being in the Olympics: obviously that’s not really my thing but I love that skateboarding now spans from the Olympics to slappies and that everyone can find something in skateboarding they’ll be into.

And even me, with my ageing body, I’ve always managed to stay excited about skateboarding. I’m always going to love skateboarding and I’m going to do it for as long as I possibly can. I had periods where I skated big stuff, a period where I skated transition and now I’m into slappies! I still feel like I’m learning new tricks.

What’s funny is that out of the ten years or more that I’ve known you it feels like now is one of the periods where you’ve been skating the most… Even though your body’s been taking some serious beatings.

I guess there was a whole year between the end of Cliché and the beginning of Film and sure I broke my hand or whatever but I was so happy to have all this time that I really got into the rhythm of skating a lot again. When you do a sport regularly you hurt yourself, that’s normal, but if you spend your

life 100% most what

waiting around for your body to be you’re going to regret it. Make the it while you can. I’m 45 and that’s I’m doing.

I know! I love it! Tell us about these trips to LA you’ve been going on with Benoit Gonsolin and stuff…

In skating through Instagram you end up making connections with people your age, who are on the same page as you, into the same things… One day Benoit and I just decided to cross the Atlantic and meet them in a supermarket car park at 8am to do some slappies, ha ha. And they’d trip out because we’d go to all these spots they’d never hit, go to SF which they’d never done…

I bet they were shocked by your motivation! And what’s funny is that you’ll probably be 100% at all times for another ten years, ha ha.

Of course! I’m going to make the most of it for as long as my body holds.

Plus you’ve built the bowl in the garden and you keep extending ‘your’ slappy spot (Venice Lyon)…

Yeah I mean you need to give yourself the means to keep going for a long as possible. Skateboarding is fun but you can be serious about your fun! You know the last slappy vacation to LA? I didn’t drink for a month before that or when I was out there because I wanted to skate every day and feel as good as I possibly could on my board.

It’s the thing with working in the skate industry it’s easy to think it’s all fun and games but you need to be serious about some stuff to give yourself the means to do what you want to do.

Can you tell us about Bonjour, the board brand you guys almost launched when Cliché ended?

When it ended everyone on the team was like ‘start something new!’ The spirit was still there; only to do things properly we wanted to pay salaries… And we were trying to match offers… …on Lucas.

Yeah which was pretty difficult to match.

Not impossible with loans and stuff, but these were big amounts.

So that’s why you didn’t do it?

No, it’s also because making a new board brand is cool, everyone is doing it right now, but you’re only new for six months and then what? We wanted to play the game properly by paying our pros, taking out ads in magazines and everything I spoke about earlier but when you’re competing with a multitude of smaller brands who aren’t, it sucks.

We knew what the market was like and decided against it in the end.

It was going to be Max (Géronzi), JB (Gillet), Lucas (Puig) and Flo (Mirtain) right?

How far along were you with all this when you decided to drop the idea?

We had the graphics, the suppliers, we’d spoken to distributors who were willing to back us, all we needed to do was ‘press the button’ and we didn’t.

So it’ll probably never happen now?

No probably not…

What’s your favourite thing about working in skateboarding?

Probably that you find yourself meeting and working with all kinds of people on all sorts of things. I love how varied it is…

One day you’re working with people from the music industry, the next you’re putting on an event, the next you feel like you’re running a youth club, after that you find yourself pretending to be a real businessman when dealing with certain people from the industry – all whilst being surrounded by your friends.

What made you decide to start a truck company?

Because it’s been the same three or four truck companies on the market since forever… Nobody really ever gets paid for riding for them, even if you get a colourway or something, and I guess I want to build something with a team, go Layback Ph.

frontside,

on tours, make videos… And to be honest it’s also that I love this industry. I love how passionate we all are, I love meeting and chatting to everyone involved in skating, that’s just how it is…

These days it’s trucks, before it was boards… I feel like what matters the most for you is to be able to keep doing cool stuff! Good luck with your new truck company and thanks for taking the time to do this!

Saint-Étienne,

2018 Nikwen

E V RA Page 60 Commentator Aurélien Mangin Photography Clément Le Gall

Extremely happy to be with you today commentating on this RAVE skateboards tour in Madrid. The conditions are ideal for some boardslide frontslide, ollie drop in, dry flat, with an average temperature around 15°C and cervezas are in the cooler.

The team sheet is, as expected: Alex Richard who’s coming back from an injury, feels great having him back on the field, the experienced 32 year old Olivier Durou known as ‘Boucle’, the two ‘Béarnais’ skaters PJ Chapuis and François Tizon, the ‘business angel’

Constantin Delmas, Edouard Depaz, son of Arathorn king of the seven kingdoms and the newcomer Léo Cholet.

You’ll notice some absent players: Paul Austin (pray for him) sidelined until September and Fred PlocqueSantos who has no excuses.

A few words about the backroom staff: Clément Le Gall, who seems quite alert (hopefully he’ll find the lucarne with his Canon 5D), Tim ‘Frank The Buff’ Reinson behind the VX, Tom Amiot part-time Team Manager and his sidekick Aurélien Mangin.

00:00 07:00

The referee blows his whistle and the clock starts ticking. Six days in Madrid.

03:00

It seems the guys are starting to acclimatise to the field, the first Chinese noodles have been ordered and eaten on the spot.

We were not expecting this, or at least not so soon! Alex Richard sends a switch ollie one-foot over Plaza Reina Sofia’s long double set!

09:00

Alex just came back from injury, but the different tries seem to have aggravated his previous wound. Léo Cholet is warming up on the touchline.

10:00

Léo Cholet finally replaces Alex Richard. The rookie is celebrating his first appearance.

14:00

Olivier ‘Boucle’ is getting tense, he throws his board here and there against the curbs.

18:00

The referee has to take action against Olivier Durou, and he is shown a yellow card. Hopefully he’ll keep that temper under control.

26:00

Oh gosh! The stadium has been a bit sleepy for a while and Edouard Depaz is here to wake it up!

Wallride nollie over in the Castillan capital.

27:00

Straight from the kick off, substitute Léo Cholet doesn’t give us time to catch our breath and shows us a very nice hardflip over a bench.

29:00

‘Despacito’ is echoing around the stands.

Please let go of the iPod Constantin Delmas.

35:00

Cooler break.

Cervezas just arrived. Skaters are staying hydrated as they should.

39:00

PJ Chapuiiiiiiiiiis!!!!!!

Switch noseslide pop-out for the supporters.

Assisted by Clément Le Gall.

42:00

Strange idea to commentate on a tour with a livefeed, hopefully you are all enjoying it from your sofas.

44:00

We note some signs of fatigue on the field.

Players are requesting beers, queso in the sandwiches, Isostar and foot massages. Thomas Millot starts jumping in on the action and is already in the alleys of the DIA supermarket to prepare for halftime.

45:00 + 2.00

First half ends.

Respiratory assistance has been requested

by Olivier Durou, we hope he’ll be part of the second half.

46:00

Thanks to Seven Mad for the halftime refreshments.

Don’t know yet if the crew will be back on the field in a better shape than before the break.

50:00

Oh my fucking god! Boucle who was putting in a catastrophic performance and even requested respiratory assistance at halftime, dedicates a superb crooked grind to gap to every fan who has supported him through his struggles!

52:00

I have no words to describe this… Only one minute after the restart, the Cahors native, Olivier ‘Boucle’ Durou, 32 years old, comes back with a backside tail frontside noseslide.

What a beautiful, emotional sporting moment we’re witnessing right now.

Bravo!

53:00

Olivier, after removing his jersey to celebrate, has been shown a second yellow.

The referee ushers him to the exit – such a shame to lose him. We hope the team won’t be too affected.

61:00

The dismissal of Olivier seems to have impacted the crew. Many tricks have been attempted but none of them have materialised.

Unlucky.

63:00 PJ Chapuis is complaining about his knee, but the guy is a soldier and indicates to the bench that he doesn’t want to be substituted.

69:00 Thomas Millot is very nervous on the side of the field and won’t stop yelling at the referee. The fourth official gives him one last warning or he’ll be sent to the stands.

75:00

Oh Jesus! Léo Cholet, the rookie of this team, makes a great impression and succeeds in executing a sumptuous switch front tailslide pop-over in stoppage time!!!

79:00

Has anyone had any news from Kevin Costner? I can’t seem to reach him through his beeper.

84:00

Berlin and Nairobi are attending the match but no signs of Tokyo or Rio. Denver?

86:00

‘Doudou’ Depaz seems to be going Super Saiyan 3.

We expect something from him any minute.

87:00

‘And I say, hey yeah yeah, hey yeah yeaaaah I said hey, what’s going on?’

Edouard Depaz completes a resplendent double with this magnificent switch frontside nosebluntslide.

90:00

Three minutes of stoppage time has been announced by the fourth official.

90:00 + 02:00

Hard to believe but even with a malfunctioning knee PJ Chap’s succeeds in an outstanding wallride nollie!!!! Clément Le Gall is not too far behind and doesn’t miss the shot either. ‘Félicitacions Edinson’.

90:00 + 03:00

Full time. And the game ends with nine goals scored. Like they used to say over the border: ‘On s’est régalé ce soir, en tout cas on te le souhaite!’

On the last evening of his recent south London escapade (Josef was in town to finish getting photos for this article), Josef (Scott Jatta) was Page 72

Josef Scott Jatta

Text Arthur Derrien

Photography Gerard Riera in Barcelona unless otherwise stated

Backside Smith grind

London

Ph. Sam Ashley

Kickflip frontside

tailslide introduced to the joys of Peckham’s Wetherspoons and late night karaoke spot.

We’d planned to sit down for his interview the following morning but of course when it came down to it ‘surprise suprise’ the chat didn’t turn out to be as quite riveting as we’d hoped. Although there’s no denying this had a lot to do with us feeling too fragile to string together proper sentences, I’d also partly blame the streak of bad luck he’d experienced over the last few days. The ruthlessness of this city’s

Ollie fastplant

Girona

Ollie Manresa April showers will suck the life out of anyone, so imagine if you’d spent most of your ‘pro skater life’ spoilt by Barcelona?

Anyway because of these unforeseen circumstances, instead of hitting you with the standard Q and A, I’ve resorted to simply sharing a few random things I’ve learnt about the man ever since I met him in Helsinki back in 2013. It’s a bit all over the place but hopefully it’ll give you an idea of what he’s about.

Looking at our f r i e n d s h i p chronologically,

Backside nosebluntslide

Manresa

I guess the first thing I learnt about Josef (the hard way) was actually on that trip to Finland: unless you’re 100% certain you’re welcome, do not try to enter his hotel room. Half of your bicep could find itself pinched, crushed even, in a fully closed door, and left there for five very long minutes while you scream in agony. I didn’t even know flesh could be stretched and flattened like that. It was pretty traumatising…

Not entirely sure what this story really has to do with anything but I guess it’s quite amusing that five years later I’d be sat here writing about how hard I back the guy.

So here we go: Josef was

Frontside feeble grind transfer

born in Gothenburg but is half Gambian (his dad’s side).

His parents would speak English at home, which is why he’s been fluent from an early age despite never really being particularly thrilled by school. He’s been to Gambia 18 times and absolutely loves it… I also recently found out that his African name is ‘Kool’. Again not entirely sure how essential this information is but by the time you’re done flicking through this, I think you’ll admit it’s pretty fitting.

He lived with his parents in Sweden until he started getting paid to skate, which was when he turned 18. Less than a week after his birthday he was throwing himself into the deep end with a one-way ticket to Barcelona: straight to Winkle’s house. Admittedly, on paper, that kind of sounds like a recipe for disaster, and if

Bigspin to

frontside boardslide

you ask him about it, he’ll say it definitely was at times. Nobody’s ever truly safe from the dangers of that place’s nightlife… Looking back on it though, the main thing he takes from the whole experience is that it’s allowed him to spend the last ten years of his life skateboarding all over the world with his mates without EVER having to work a ‘real job’. And although he’s back in Sweden now, judging by these few pages, his lifestyle’s probably not going to

Backside tailslide

Crooked grind

Girona

change any time soon. Especially since he’s always stayed loyal to DC and Bjorn Holmenäs (Sweet then Sour), despite getting serious offers from countless others…

The thing that I’ve grown to find hilarious about Josef is that he only seems to have two modes: ‘hibernation’ and ‘turbo’. You’re probably thinking ‘I know loads of people like that’, but you don’t.

He honestly takes both of these to a whole new level. How often do you hear about humans (even skateboarders), who when choosing to relax, stay so glued to their couch playing video games or ‘really doing nothing’ (his words) that they actually

Frontside bluntslide

Frontside 180 kickflip

develop ‘chilling injuries’? That’s right, at one point this winter Josef chilled so hard, melted in one spot for so long, that he managed to quite badly hurt his groin. You need to remember that this is the same guy that kickflip back three’d Besos. It’s like he bottles up all his energy, then can’t get the lid off. So when he finally does it explodes! If you ever get a chance to see him skate concrete parks you’ll see what I mean. He skates bowls like he’s being chased by a pack of

Boardslide to

fakie

Hyenas; it’s fucked. Thinking about it now that’s probably also why he turns into such a little demon when he drinks… And why he skates so well on a hangover!

The lid hasn’t been put back on.

This is something Gerard Riera (who we put in charge of shooting this interview) must have figured out from the get-go because since we started the mag I don’t think we’ve ever seen anyone get 90% of their photos for a 16-page interview on one trip to Barcelona. Although the fact that Gerard has a car and that his phone contains 5000 photos of mostly untouched spots scattered around the Catalan capital probably also helped… Either way this is some of the best Josef we’ve ever seen and from what I’ve gathered he’s been killing it in Guatemala with the Sour boys since. Maybe he’s lost the lid?

AARON HERRINGTON

@chrystienyc

Edouard

Depaz

Page 90 Here and There Levi’s in Napoli

Words Val Bauer Photography Maxime Verret

Gap

to

crooks

We’ve just started working on a new edit series with Levi’s skateboarding called Here and There. You can tell from the title that we headed to Napoli for the first episode. We got lucky enough to escape a very cold month of February in France and England but ended up getting six out of 12 days of rain and snow where it was neither expected, nor welcome.

I’m not going to spoil too much about the edit because it will speak for itself. However, there are still some things I can tell you about this trip. For Levi’s this was the very first project

involving riders brought together from different countries in Europe and they might not all be very common names for your readers. So, if you’re nerdy enough to be interested in some aspects of the protagonists’ personalities then keep reading.

For sure we’ve been eating more than our fair share of pizza. Someone said once that you are what you eat. At some point Max (Verret) agreed and thought there might be similarities between members of the crew and their picks!

Charles

Backside

Munro

50-50

drop

down

Ale

Cesario

You can’t trick the local. His choices speciality or the margherita when he were various but he never really made any wasn’t feeling it. No secret pop-related mistakes. He’d go for each spot’s diet was noticed during the trip though.

Ollie

Charles

Nosebluntslide

Munro

transfer

Edouard

Depaz

Heavy and powerful on a board, he went for the same recipe on the first night.

He quickly learned the quattro formaggi might be the only sanitary choice while

Ollie

in a crappy kitchen. After this digestive experiment, he went back to his classic mix: meat and some sides.

pole

bonk

Charles

Munro

I’ve been told that he used to be called Mad Max or even Tony Montana back in the dark era when the ‘I’m just going for one beer’ evenings would turn into all night benders lasting until 7am. But Manny says he’s quite done with that character. And from what I’ve seen I can tell he’s

Pupecki

grind

focusing on his skating now, one day after the other.

As surprising as his skills are on the board, he would rather go for a pale piece of chicken with some frozen French fries, when he’s not asking for some uncooked version of ham as the main topping on his pizza.

back

to

regular

Quentin

Boillon

Luckily Quentin broke his phone before leaving home and not many restaurants were offering WiFi. So he had enough free time to let his brain decide what he would eat. As you can see on his

Ride-on

backside

Instagram account, he likes being a creative and trendy little guy. But when it comes to pizza, he plays it OG: prosciutto is Dartagnan’s go-to.

smith

grind

Manny

Lopez

He’s the typical humble and quiet kind of guy. You might have seen this sentence a lot before, but Manny lets his skating do the talking (as you’ll see in the edit).

He is also vegan and his pizza behaves in

the same exact way as him: a simple but, tasty garlic tomato sauce and some aubergine pieces here and there but none of those pretentious artichokes: alla romana for him!

When getting in touch with a skate guide, it’s kind of a Russian roulette sometimes. In Napoli, we were more than lucky to be driven around

by Mario Torre. If you ever feel like travelling to southern Italy, do not hesitate a sec about contacting this guy; he is the man of the situation around there! Mario runs a core skateboard distributor in Italy, providing some of the coolest board companies in Europe over there. He’s truly devoting his life to skateboarding and he runs Playwood Distribution together with his wife. The guide is often a key to the success of a trip, but most of the time they remain in the shadows… Which is why this time we decided to give him some of the shine he deserves for all of his help.

Briefly, who are you, where are you from and what’s your relationship to skateboarding?

Ciao! My name is Mario Torre, I’m 41 years old and I live in Bellizzi, a small city close to Salerno. My relationship with skateboarding has been obsessive since I was 10 years old. I would say my passion is even stronger than it used to be.

In which way is Naples and southern Italy special to you?

To me, Napoli is a balance between love and hate. I like the city and all it has to offer (same for south Italy) skateboarding wise.

I have always hoped for crews to come over and visit Napoli and the south; we definitely have a lot to offer. And the cherry on the cake: our food is the best ha ha!

So why does the city get such a bad rep?

Napoli is a city full of contradictions. There are no rules; this is great sometimes, but it also makes you feel bad. In the streets you can see so many shit things happen while the people there don’t really care. That kind of stuff

damages the beautiful parts of the city.

Also, the beach: first you think of the beach and its great landscape then it’s like showering in the dirt — this ain’t the best feeling huh?

It’s the same thing concerning the people. Some people (not all of them) wake up everyday to steal from others. Come on! Let the city shine for its beauty, not for the bad attitude.

How many trips do you think you’ve been guiding around this area?

Since my first one five years ago, many! The first one was an Antiz tour; I was so stoked and afraid at the same time about not being able to manage it. In the end it worked out fine and it was really fun! So why wouldn’t I keep doing this marvellous thing? Anyways don’t be afraid, the spots are waiting and the quest never ends so everyone is welcome.

Concerning us, who do you think is the weirdest guy of the crew?

I tried to talk to everybody during the trip because I like to know about each guy’s background and stories. No weirdoes… Maybe me because I was the oldest!

Who’s the kindest?

Everyone was kind to the old man! Especially on the last night when everybody offered me a Barolo wine bottle; I was really touched.

Will you miss any of us?

I’m missing you all, especially at breakfast on the first days after you left. Nobody was trying to make coffee without filling the machine with water, ha ha!

Who has given you the best impression on his board?

Everyone was amazing to watch, but I think Charlie was the MVP of the trip. Also watching Edouard and Quentin playing games of s.k.a.t.e. was funny and stylish at the same time.

Anything else to add?

Hope to see you soon somewhere in the streets! Skateboarding is the best thing ever.

Mikey He seems to get along really well with Charles. Makes sense that they both skate for Palomino then. I’d like to talk shit about him but I already did about Charlie… Plus Mikey looks more like a rugby player so I won’t play it

Backside

Patrick too risky even if he’s proved he’s got a strong sense of humour through a collective Tinder lesson. He also seems generous as he let me eat his homemade French fries while he was having his pound sized steak recooked.

disaster

Page 104 Fast Carnival Tenerife Text Sami Seppala Photography Fabien Ponsero

Wester Judo Ville

Ville is pushing full speed…

Weaving and dodging the crowd of freaks in the afternoon sun… You have angels, demons, cows, cowboys, families, teens, hot girls, gay boys…

A bat-family helps to manage the human traffic. A cowboy stamps some authority into the scene. A wolf-man is nervously sipping a beer.

Boom! Ville powers over a bench. Like he’s done a few times before. But there is always something or someone coming onto the firing line of him and Jack’s VX. And Fabien is lurking somewhere with his camera. What a perv.

The crowd goes aaaaape shit.

It’s a group experience, a communal adrenaline peak, with cheerleaders and shit and high fives in every direction.

We are in the heart of the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and shit is going pretty crazy around us.

Looking at the festival protocol of the second biggest carnival in the world – once the Queen of the festival is elected (in my books Ulph), the first part of the carnival ends, and the actual street carnival begins, lasting for ten days. Ten days! We see people snorting coke in the street corners. All sort of shenanigans are starting to take place, but the vibes are good.

Ville gets his trick. We duck into the crowd. Go get some more costumes. Walk up the streets to a ledge spot for a beer. The sun goes down. We weave through the intensifying crowd. Get lost. Get stuck. It’s getting hectic.

Urban life is too much for us. Well not for Ville. But he is doomed to be a part of the weirdest tour anyone has ever been on. A carnival of its own.

We decide to go get our van from a harbour parking lot and escape back to our sweet cave down by the beach.

Who is here in the van? Ulph ‘Ulphman’ Andersson in his wolf mask. Nisse ‘Skurki’ Ingemarsson and the leather jacket that apparently, every man must have (according to Kyy). Alberta

‘Rodriquez’ Nyberg and his maracas, Magic kung-fu boy Ville, The Cowboy and Fabi the French perv snapper and Fast’s newest pro signing – Gnarly Jack finger finger.

We sleep in our volcanic cave next to the beach, drink gallons of wine, eat wraps and skate. The good life.

How did this happen?

We wanted to do a Fast Wheels trip and found a window where at least some of the team could get involved. We booked the tickets without realising the carnival was on.

We met up in Barcelona for a sleepless beer-filled night, before heading for a torturous early flight (depending on your point of view: an early flight or a very late one).

Our dismay about the carnival had turned into total amusement. We got some damn fancy outfits before heading out – and before we hit the airport they had kind of grown on us. What a weird bunch of freaks.

We land and pick up our space wagon at the airport and hit the road. We go via AJ Project and meet hella cool locals that will guide us through these epic five days. We follow the good ol’ spot instinct and are skating before the clock ticks 10am. Ville, that beautiful bastard child of a beast, clocks footy and clips so we can pass out on some stairs.

No sleep till – hmmm – whatever. Get some cold beers, the shittiest lunch and a ledge plus some stairs and Ulph is on it.

Somehow Nisse manages to wake up from a coma and does a sweet ol’ nosegrind revert over a dirt-filled shit box as the sun starts to settle.

Where the hell should we sleep?

Barney the TM had suggested we camp it. But he’d had to go to the US on a last minute thing (same as Jaakko and the London boys – fuck it, whatever).

The locals give some pointers

Nisse Frontside

nosegrind

Ingemarsson to fakie

Ville Wallie

over

the

Wester rail

as to where it could be possible – where you have less police and a bit less housing.

In the headlights, hovering across the southeastern side of the island, we find a tucked away volcanic cave on a beach and decide this will be our home for the night. (That becomes three nights and we develop a deep love for the cave.)

We set up a campfire, take the guitar out and enjoy the fuck out of our beautiful new home.

Ville sleeps on top of the van.

Fabi somewhere on the hills. The cowboy passes out next to the fire.

Albert the saviour arrives on a night flight to surely save the trip.

Wake up fresh – have a swim in the Atlantic Ocean and smoke the brekkie in wraps. Let’s go!

Spots are so varied here it’s a joke. It’s good the boys don’t waste longer than a few minutes to clock the tricks so we keep it all moving and fresh, hitting spot after spot. Town after a town.

During the first proper day Ulph ollies a rail while we sip breakfast coffee. We skate a cement construction site in a desert. We move to a strange town, Las

Andersson Ollie Ulph

Wester Ville Ollie

Galletas, filled with ex-pats, bums and a nice little plaza.

A highlight of the trip happens here. Ulph does a switch boardslide straight out of the van – on a kinky ledge. I head down the road to get cold beers and snacks.

Locals play pétanque and sip Pimm’s in a run-down park. The park benches are filled with hobos.

I find a shop, nod to a beggar outside the place. He looks like he’s been there for 35 years.

I go in and only hear Swedish, English and German and find ice cold Long Drinks aka Lonksu from the fridge! Skurki’s favourite.

Finland’s gift to hangovers. Let’s

take a dozen beers and some spot lunch essentials to keep it all moving. Let’s go! I exit the shop, see two neat tenners, look around.

No one. Pick ‘em up. Look back, see the bum nodding knowingly… I turn back and walk to the homie. One for you – one for us. Not the slightest feel of guilt as everyone who surrounds us feels unreal. Fuck it.

Back at the spot and the lunch is cold and flowing. A local is killing it. He shows us a few more spots. Then we escape.

Tenerife is divided into opposite spectrums of life. The locals are damn nice and open minded. You can feel the African mix in the culture. The city of Santa Cruz feels proper. It has heart.

The south and its resorts are filled with dumb fuck tourists and mobility scooters. We end up at a perfect little hubba in a dumb ass tourist town of Fañabe. Ulph and Albert take care of biz before an overstressed security guard steams onto the scene. We just chill there for hours sipping Piña Coladas to

his utmost annoyance. Oooh the romantic sunset.

The Mountain Side For the last two nights, we go posh and book a mountain cabin with real beds and all.

The road to our remote exile is insanely steep and you feel like you are backflipping when pedalling the 9-seater up the hill.

We find our beautiful little cabin miles above the sea. We put the BBQ on and get insanely hammered. Ha ha! The amount of spontaneous songs and screaming…

The boys have absolutely killed it the past few days. But no matter how hard you kill it – the footy angst of the last day is always hanging hard.

It’s the last morning and Ville does a judo from the roof into a freezing pool. We drive down to Puerto de la Cruz. Albert lands a line before I can park the car.

Ville nails an insane wallie over a rail. We drive up the mountains and

Albert Kickflip

Nyberg

Andersson boardslide find some dry clothes, wear what we can, ditch the shoes and the used decks and hit the airport.

Five nights is max when you attack life as hard as you can.

Going home I get properly sick and spend a week on antibiotics. It was all worth it though. The call of the wild is hard to resist.

Big shout out goes to all the homies at AJ – David kept us in the coordinates. Shout out to Northwest too. Thank you!

Ulph Switch

find a spooky village with a wallie spot for Nisse to cruise. Done!

On our way back to our mountain retreat, we stop to eat at a Guachinche – a local farm/ restaurant. We eat and drink like kings and take five litres of delicious wine with us that cost us €68. Get in! We nearly get our van locked into a parking hall but the universe is with us on this mission.

We are clear. We are free. We

I’ve spent the last 25 years travelling the world filming skateboarding, but when I first saw skateboarding on the pages of a magazine as a kid in New York, the California spots pros skated seemed like another world. In the eighties pros travelled the world like missionaries spreading the gospel of skateboarding to people and places that had never seen it before. The culture of skateboarding rippled out from California to the rest of the world, and back then my corner of the East Coast of the United States was an exotic location.

Reading those skate magazines infected me with the travel bug.

Once I started filming and travelling in the nineties, I had to go to those far places and experience first-hand all those scenes that sprouted up all around the world after that diaspora of skateboarding in the eighties. I first travelled to Europe, Brazil, and China not for the culture but to skate a ledge.

This project is about the outside looking in. Pedro Biagio, Dan Leung, and Karl Salah are all products of scenes far from the old skateboarding epicentre of California. République in Paris, LP in Shanghai, Vila Olímpica in Maringa are as far and away as you can get from Los Angeles (and each other) but those places are where skateboarding lives and breathes today. The skateboarding in those places is updated daily, broadcast live and those plazas are now tourist destinations themselves and

Page 114

In Threes

these three are the best examples of what home-grown talent is to be found there.

These three faces are probably new to you, and in fact they were new to each other.

Riding for NB# was the only common bond uniting all three.

Pedro had never met Dan or Karl before and had never been to Europe or Asia. Karl had never been to South America or Asia and Dan had never been to South America. I wanted to take these three and let them experience first hand the places they all came from. Putting three strangers together and then taking them around the world could have been a risky proposition, but skateboarding brought everything together for them just like it did for me 20 years ago.

New Balance get intercontinental

— Anthony Claravall

Captions & photography Nikwen

Pedro Biagio

Fakie ollie to switch backside Smith

Chengdu

‘I don’t skate rails. But if you bring me to a perfect one I can try something.’

Anthony knew this rail was perfect for Pedro. He loved it at first sight.

A back fifty, back Smith, and fakie switch back fifty later Pedro was grinding this rare fakie switch back Smith on this high but perfect rail. It’s always interesting to see the approach the technical guys have when they’re about to skate a rail.

Dan Leung

After São Paulo and on our way to Rio, we made a stop in Pedro’s hometown, Maringa.

During the entire trip, Pedro was saying his city didn’t have a lot of spots. And he was right.

Maringa is definitely a nice city, but not the best to find perfect spots. But Pedro knows all the little secrets of his city by heart and took us to this non-bump to ledge spot. It was really rough, really high and dirty, but looked good for photos. Dan was on fire in Brazil and proved it again by doing this pretty tall Smith grind right before the rain showed up.

Frontside Smith grind

Maringa

Pedro Biagio

Fakie flip We all know jumping over an obstacle going fakie is not easy. What about a straight fakie flip over a bench? Seriously!?

In order to warm up Pedro did a couple 360 shove-its. I didn’t know it was the warm up trick and shot it. He told me ‘no please don’t shoot it, it’s not good enough’. Are you kidding me? Then I understood why he was saying that when he started to do the fakie flip. Pedro has high expectations, as high as his pop I guess.

Barcelona

Karl Salah

If you are on a trip, you always want to keep the ‘jumping down spot’ for the last day. If you don’t, you are sure to be sore for the rest of the time and say goodbye to your footage stacking dreams. Karl is a smart man and when we first saw that spot, he said he was gonna skate it on the very last day. A bright decision which allowed him to film a ton of lines and other technical shit throughout the week, and still have legs for this nice over the fence gap. He gave everything he had that day. He did it one time but tried again ‘cause he wasn’t happy with the one he landed, until he got hurt. Last day fun day…

Varial heelflip

Vigo

Karl Salah

When it comes to ledge skating, we all know Karl is a master, and this ledge was no exception. It was a pretty slippery low to high ledge that goes slightly down, which you can’t tell from the photo. Karl already skated hard that day and ended the session by gracing this spot with one of the smoothest back tail shoves ever.

Backside tailslide shove-it

Vigo

Pedro Biagio

Kickflip There is always a day during a tour when nothing goes down; either the boys are tired, the weather is not that good, the spots suck or the vibe is moody. It was one of those days: nobody got clips, everybody was tired, and the weather was shitty. Nightfall was setting in, Karl and Dan decided to go back to the crib but Anthony convinced Pedro to go check one last spot. Pedro agreed but said: ‘I’m too tired to skate; I’ll just come to check it for tomorrow.’

We headed to this massive bump to bar in

Chengdu

order to join the Preduce dudes, and Jasper (Dohrs) started to skate it.

I guess Pedro got hyped and wasn’t tired anymore because without saying a word he started to skate. As usual in China, people stopped to watch the session and in a couple of minutes you had dozens of people surrounding the spot and livening up the sesh.

The ollie and frontside 180 impressed them, but the kickflip Pedro snapped got the crowd on fire.

If you follow the Berrics on insta, you already know this spot. Shane O’Neill did a perfect backside flip on it, and the footage was so good that Berra decided to post that clip every damn day on Insta. I don’t know if he still does post it everyday, but yeah you can’t deny the footage was crazy.

This bench is covered in mosaics, which makes it hard to keep your speed, and it’s pretty slippery. The bump is quasi non-existent, and the flat part is long. Add some Chinese lurkers who don’t understand they’re in the way and you have the perfect madness session.

And to add a little bit of spice to this, Karl decided to do a tre flip, a trick that in my opinion is not the easiest to do on this kind of small bump/long flat spot. It was a bit of a struggle but the victory has a better taste when you don’t take the easy way out.

360 flip

Karl Salah

Shanghai

Dan Leung We all have a trick on lock. Like that one trick you love and you have been able to do since you started skating. For Dan, it seems to be the backside nosebluntslide. Every time we had to shoot something for fun or on a small spot, I’d ask him to try a back noseblunt. He has them real good. That day, after a long afternoon skating under the blazing sun, we ended at this classic plaza called Largo de Batata. A spot you definitely have to go to if you’re in São Paulo.

So Dan spotted this gap to ledge and decided to try a backside nosebluntslide. Easy you tell me. Yes indeed. He did a couple, and even filmed it in a line. Right after that he tried to do it again with a flip in. He landed one or two but really sketchy because he was exhausted and the light was going down. I’ll do it tomorrow for sure he said. Guess what, we went back the next day, first spot, and he did it way too easily in my opinion.

Kickflip backside nosebluntslide

São Paulo

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