A journey like many others
Thought I would share the text I wrote for the latest SB Journal issue with all the non japanese speaking folks out there. I know there are a few…
This was written under the guidelines provided by SB’s great editor, Senichiro Ozawa, around the theme of your personnal journey through skateboarding. Quite a theme!
I believe the journey started with the first copy of a magazine I bought at a skateshop…
I had to take the train for 45 minutes to Paris, then get to the end of one metro line to find it. It was a TWS, and it was very special, as I would probably not see another sort of skateboard media for months… Videos were more than rare, then, and we did not have a VCR, anyway. So, this was all I had to find out about what skateboarding was, from my little village in the countryside. That and the stories my cousin Seb would bring back from skating in Paris sometimes…
It was a thick magazine, filled with a lot for a kid that did not know anything. Every page, advertisement, colorful picture, strange American slang was an information, and worth gold. The 80’s were ending, and let me tell you that, even for a French nerdy teenager, it was not necessarily a pretty sight! Lot of colorful plastic, and an era about to end. I remember this issue telling stories that were so foreign to my life. There was an article on an abandoned swimming pool in the desert, somewhere. The Nude Bowl… There was no swimming pool where I lived, even if people had big gardens, or farms. And if someone would have owned a pool, it would have been square, with no transitions. Most of the photos were of vert ramps. The main interview was of Rob Roskopp, I believe. He was talking about racing cars and thinking a lot about death, which sounded odd. But interesting, in some ways…
And then, there were two small photos, black and white photos, of Mark Gonzales and Jason Lee skating a brick bank, or some sort of volcano. There was a bank in my village. It was made of dirt, and in the winter, when it was getting too cold for rain, it would get hard enough you could skate it! Maybe this is why I remember those photos… The abandoned swimming pool in the desert, and the two weirdly dressed guys skating in the streets of Los Angeles. It was so foreign that I could only want more.
This might be why skateboarding lasted more than one summer or two. There were way too many questions to find answers to. And too much fun to have in the process.
The years passed and the world got smaller, as skateboarding and traveling would allow you to meet some of the people in the magazines. Or people that were not in it, but maybe even more interesting. Way more interesting than Rob Roskopp, for sure. Even if they were nobodies…
Sometimes I think I should look for this old magazine, just to see if my memories are right. It is somewhere in a box, at my parents, in the same village. The same house in the countryside. Maybe I’m confusing the first few magazines I saw. I’m not sure about those street skating photos in that one. And Jason Lee? He would have been super young… But, it doesn’t matter, does it? The memory is great as it is, and it still is pushing me, somehow…
I’m sure your journey has its first memory, also.
0’5” is a hint on things to come… More, later.
In the meantime, enjoy Ludovic Azémar last trailer for his full length independent video project, Color Your Memories… Paris premiere next week.
Ah, being 14 again, like Mark…
I’ll speak for the people involved from exhibiting artists to the builders, for as much work as it was, The Obstacle was a incredible thing to be part of. Thanks to everybody that made it happen!
Hope you had a chance to stop by…
Merci, SB Journal!
While my body and soul were deep in The Obstacle, the latest issue of SB Journal showed up in my mailbox, which is always exciting…
This is the Journey issue, and, as discussed in a previous blurb, it features texts and photography from people all around the world, sharing how far skateboarding, in one way or another has led them… A journey we can all relate to, even to the smallest scale, like, let’s say go to the next small town to see if there might be a place to skateboard there, when you are 14.
So, as I was doing some catch up on the world and its rotations, I spotted this on the SB Journal website:
Now, I know the internet is all about self promotion and all, but I pondered even mentioning it here, but as I know it comes from the heart from Senn Ozawa and the crew, I thought I should embrace it, and share the photograph of Mark that is featured in the Journey issue.
It’s been an honor meeting you, Mark, and Senn, and I believe this is the best part of the journey!
The journey is inside you…
SB Journal is this great publication from Japan I have been lucky to work with for about a year, now…
They just released another themed issue, based on the idea of Journey. To celebrate this, SB Journal has been poking contributors about travelling stories and road essentials for a B-side to the paper copy.
Brush off your japanese skills and check it out, here.
Kenny Reed’s quote is real, by the way…
