84 THRASHER
Skatepark locals of the world: everyone realizes that you
can do many, many difficult tricks at your park. Your mas-
tery of your terrain is unparalleled. However, it is unnec-
essary for you to do each and every one of your tricks,
over and over, and as often as you can, when pros from
elsewhere come to skate your park.
Daewon was the star of this demo and the kids went
was
apeshit when he pulled a switch nosegrind to shove it
down the pyramid ledge. JB also got down with some
frontside kickflip tailslides.
Ickhip tanishides
The next stop was Marseilles, France, home of the world-
famous skatepark. At least, it's world-famous to some.
"We gotta demo here?" the
boys asked.
Although Daewon, Marcus and Shiloh enjoyed a short
late-n launch
ate-night
unch session out of the smooth bowls, it was
decided that the next day's demo would be held at a loca-
tion more suitable for showcasing the crew's talents.
On a side note, it is no secret that many Europeans look to
the US for pop culture guidance, but the kids in France
have really taken it to heart. Every inch of France is covered
in tags and graffiti and Paris is completely worked. Even
"It's an odd thing when an
entire global demographic
wants to be Tupac"
national monuments like the Bastille are covered in paint.
"To smoke! To chill!" was sprayed across the side of an
old church in some attempt to capture the flavor of US
street vernacular.
At one demo, the taggers were battling to see who could
get their names on the obstacles the fastest and largest.
After each new one was added, the crowd would cheer.
Hip-hop was definitely in full effect as well. Some kids.
were even yelling
We even yelling out, "West Side!" in heavy accents at
the demos.
It's an odd thing when an entire global demographic
wants to be Tupac.
The
The demo in Marseilles was at the Justice Center and fea-
tured some benches and a polished floor. Mini-ripper
Bastien Salabanzi was there and kept almost constant eye
contact with Daewon as he systematically went through.
all his flip tricks. The little bugger rides for Flip now.
JB switch
backside flipped over a chair, and he and
Enrique
both
gave the kids a lesson in bench skating.
Daewon gave up his shirt to the hungry crowd and I auc-
tioned it off in a game of skate trivia. Considering the lan-
guage barrier, the kids knew a hell of a lot about
American pros and companies.
Our eighth day had us back in Paris for a demo with the
Axion team: Guy Mariano, Kareem Campbell and Gino
lannucci, who had been touring Europe simultaneously.
The crowd was large and raced back and forth across the
outdoor plaza to form observation canyons whenever any
pro came close to a trick. It got so bad that Morgan found
some metal barricades to set up to insure the skaters had
IRRIDUBL
LAZN
enough takeoff and landing room. Each time a
skater would move to a new area, you'd see a
mass of people follow, with Morgan lugging a
giant metal fence a few paces behind them.
Marcus once again set the stakes high with a
gain set
warm-up kickflip down a four-flat-four double.
set. Then Guy showed up and tried some
switch 360° flips down it.
wall
The next showdown came at three big steps
where Guy doled out a giant varial heelflip
and Kareem unloaded a smooth switch hard-
flip. If that wasn't enough excitement, a
vicious
dog was cruising the place, indiscrimi-
nately biting people, including a a heavy-set
gentleman who got bitten on the tit.
got
Next stop, Brussels, Belgium, where we were
picked up in a windowless cargo van by Alexis,
one of the Belgium distributor's shippers. The
hotel we stayed in was probably about three
hundred
years old I and as I loaded myself and
my bags into the one-man, phone- -booth-sized
elevator, all I could think of was, "Man, it
would
ould suck to get stuck in
in this thing."
Five and a half floors later and there I was.
I started to sweat as I looked at the control
panel and hit the alarm. Nothing. I tried to
laugh at the irony of my predicament, but
that soon gave way to pounding at the
door and walls.
"What are you doing?" Alexis, our host,
called to me, about ten minutes later.
He pressed the button and I was free, though
considerably more wound up than when I got
on the elevator. I used the stairs for the
remainder of the visit.
Clockwise front left: "I've got Rectors
older than you." -Monty Nolder to
Bastien Salabanzi. A little metal kicker
in Paris gave Daewon a chance to
unload some Gardena, California
style 360° flippery. Moody Paris scene.
In a rare moment of seriousness,
Enrique Lorenzo switch shoves to
switch nosegrind. Marseilles, France.
L