This week-end, just a few hundred yards from Jemappes skatepark in Paris, a small group of students organized a festival dedicated to the culture of skateboarding.
Views on Skateboarding, associated a photographic exhibition, projections of skate films and an amateur skate contest over the course of the week-end.
The organisers, who go under the collective name of Nollie exhibited paintings and photography from professional skate photographers, such as Cedric Viollet to those of the pro- skater, Samuel Partaix who displayed a personal collection of shots, documenting several skate trips with his friends.
My personal coup de coeur was came in the form of a tomb shaped skate board courtest of the collective WoodiArt.
The court-métrage Qui Sera le Maitre produced by by the French skater, Sylvain Robineau, was shown in a small downstairs cinema, alongside a series of short films by the skate brand Oxelo, shot in India, Miami, Berlin and Morocco, courtesy of byCapsusFilms.
Views on Skateboarding was a super initiative from Nollie, who successfully brought the art of skating without any pretense, to the public for a week-end.
From the 25th of April until the 9th of June, THIS IS (NOT) MUSIC festival will dedicate a huge open space to celebrating board and street culture, through contemporary art, music, action sports, street art, customization, graphic art and film projections.
Organized around a large exhibition, this manifestation initiated by the Cabaret Aléatoire, will hold concerts and soirées, installations and street art performances, sports demo’s and competitions, film and documentary projections, conferences, meetings and radio presentations that will be spread right out over the Friche and on into some more unique surrounding areas !
This is a list of just some of what will be going down over the course of the event :
Eric Koston 2 CHOMP OLLIE TOUR supported by Nike
Sausage Fest skate demonstration sponsored by VOLCOM
Last summer, I stopped a guy skating in the street, to ask him where he’d bought the bought he was cruising on. A small wooden deck with soft wheels, perfect for street crusing, resembling an early 1970′s Californian skateboard. The board in question was a hand-crafted model by a local French brand, Footloose.
The wood derives from the Gascogne forests in the south-west of France and every board is hand-crafted individually by one of their ‘shapers’ and to correspond with the demands of the individual. With a team of collaborating artists and surfers that counts Robin Falxa, Margaux Arramon Tucoo, Jerome Junqua and Kim Francis, and based in Biarritz and Anglet, Footloose brings skating right back to its surfing roots.
A smart phone application endorsed by professional riders, such as Eero Ettala, Mark McMorris and Hallador Helgasson that locates and rates skate and snowboard spots, has just been launched. Spot Digger utilises location-based technology to search, reveal and rate the top hidden riding locations around the world. You want to hunt down the set of killer rails you saw in a snowboard video filmed in Helsinki? No need to traipse around the Finnish capital in sub-zero temperatures, connect yourself to Spot Digger and the huge hidden stair-ways you you dreamed of will be revealed and located for you in a touch of a few buttons.
Hypothetically, this should be any passionate free-stylers dream application, but does this mean as everywhere becomes accessible, that the notion of a private secret ride session will cease to exist as all our favourite spots are revealed, photographed and rated for and by anyone in posession of a smartphone? Personally, I think we should just accept the nature of the sports we love and concede that, since social media networks and smart phones became part of our day-to-day lives, they’re undergoing an inevitable transformation in the way their practiced. And anyway, the more riders the merrier, right ?
Spot Digger is currently available on Android, the IOS version will be available in January
Back in 1997, the standard garb for any Lagwagon /NOFX / Pennywise loving punk rocker consisted of a pair of extra baggy Carhartts, a grey DC hoodie, a pair of Etnies and a skateboard, which was all attainable for a fair price down the local skate shop. Legitimate were those who’d hum along to Kill all the White Men whilst relentlessly trying to pop shove-its up a curb.
However, those who’d be caught huddled up in the aforementioned attire, smoking a roll up around the back of the Peel / West-end Centre with a perfectly new skateboard, that had effectively never had and never would be ridden came the penned word ‘walk-board’ which basically meant it would never actually serve as more than just an accessory.
I thought I’d heard the last of this derogative phrase at the end of the 90′s, however just recently, thanks to a launch of an ‘old-school’ plastic board, I’m all of a sudden reminded of this ludicrous terminology, although no-longer applicable to 14 year old FAT Wreck- Chord fans, but 20- something working Parisians.
This is all down to the production of a company saving toy, the Globe BANTAM. The brightly colored mini plastic cruisers that has become a regular feature in the hippest of hipster Tumblers.
Here are 10 more reasons hipsters LOVE the BANTAM (and why you shouldn’t buy one) :
1. Because it has no grip, so when they carry it, their Lacoste poloshirts’ don’t bobble at the hip.
2. Their plastic surfaces are easier to clean, so they can wet-wipe all those nasty germs off after an Instagram session alongside the Canal St Martin
3. The multiple colour boards give more of a colour range to work with and to match their brand new limited edition Kenzo Vans with.
4. Because it’s plastic, there are no tale-tale wear and tear signs, so no one can say you haven’t ACTUALLY ridden it.
5. Because the advert was on FUBIZ.
6. Because in the aforementioned advert, there are also some bowl riders who look totally rad, skating the guys in Lords Of Dogtown, which is totally vintage and totally now.
7. It equally features hot american babes chilling around a pool in thongs drooling over the skaters, and you want to create the same effect when you cruise along the Grand Plage in Biarritz on your holidays
8. Because when you go on holiday to the Biarritz, you look a bit more credible if you rock up to your beginners surf lesson with a skate.
9. Because it’s always cooler to say ‘I skate’ to your surf instructor, as a way of convincing him you’re ‘extreme’ and you know what foot forward you are.
10. Because they’re ONLY 99 euros (a LOT cheaper than a fixed-gear).
And a bonus reason:
# Because girls come up and speak to you in English, because they OBVIOUSLY think you’re an Australian surfer. Therefore cool.
C’est le mag alternatif d’action sports diffusé sur Canal Street tous les jeudis présenté par MOI! Vous allez retrouvez entre autres: du Freefight, du snowboard, du catch et du BMX….
C’est le mag alternatif d’action sports diffusé sur Canal Street tous les jeudis présenté par MOI! Vous allez retrouvez entre autres: du Freefight, du snowboard, du catch et du BMX….
