Wisalaga April 2019, my friends from Wise Scootering asked me if I wanted to join them on their upcoming one week trip in Málaga, Spain. They told me they would need some pictures for the promo of the brand, the riders and the trip video. So I checked if I was able to come and quickly decided to go with them because I knew I would spend some good times there. So we drove from Lyon to Paris together with Nico. Then had some beers at night in Paris to talk about what was planned for the trip before going to sleep. The next day, we woke up early to go to the airport in order to meet with Martin and Antoine there. Everyone was already happy to be here, it felt great whereas the trip has not yet begun ! We packed the scooters in the bags and then checked in to board the flight to our destination, Málaga. Let’s go for one week in Andalucía !
The crew We were six persons on the trip. A major part of the riders from Wise Scootering were there, plus me helping them with the photos. Five french guys and one Norwegian dude. Martin AndrĂŠ and Nicolas Jacob were the main filmers during the trip with their HD Camera. Both of them also had a vintage camera to create some content. Martin with his analog camera and Nico with the Super 8 his grandpa gave him. Antoine Delcampe brought his Canon VX Camera that he bought just before the trip, so he also shot a lot of content in SD, in order that the video will have two different image aspects. Adrien Kingolo, the latest addition to the team, was there to shred with his Norwegian team mate Sten Magnuss. By the way, Sten left the team recently so this was his last trip with the Wise crew... And finally, I was there with them all to shoot photos of the crew. But my Canon 6D crashed on day one. Martin land me his own 6D all trip long so I could keep working, thanks again! And I also shot with my analog camera, so the idea was to mix both kind of photos in that book to get a HD/SD render too. Enjoy it guys !
Mornings Even if we didn’t spend too much time at the appartement during the trip, we had an everyday routine. Nico and I were the first awake, making coffee for each other every morning. Then Martin and Antoine would get up and take the second round of coffee. And finally Sten and Adrien were the last awake. We were having some healthy breakfasts with fresh fruits on the sunny balcony, which was really great for the mood of the crew. After that, everybody started preparing themselves for the sesh, taking showers, packing the cameras and checking the spots we would hit during the day. And eventually, we were leaving the flat around 11am to start riding before the real heat came. We actually did that exact same routine all week long, which probably helped us to be fit and ready to shred the city during the days !
Collision Filming can be dangerous ! Proof is that collision, between Nico and Martin’s bars... The guys are always trying to film the lines on point and be as close as possible when it is needed. But sometimes, if you are too close, you or the camera can be hit by the rider’s scooter. That is exactly what happened there. Martin was doing a line starting with a wallride to whip, then a 360° bartwist flat and ended with a 180° benihana to fakie. Nico was trying to be as close as possible during the 360° bartwist. Some tries, the bars were just over his head. But after a few ones, the bars ultimately hit his head and he directly felt on the floor. It started to bleed hard, so some people from the bar in front of the spot came to help. We checked the wound carefuly, it was not so big so Nico decided to go to the pharmacy to get some sterie-strips. And after that, he was back and ready to keep riding. Next spot!
Beachtime Our AirBnb was located outside of the city center, where mainly local people live. First of all, we were close to a big park and a nice street where we could go to some affordable and great bar & tapas restaurants full of locals. But the great thing was that we were really close to one of Málaga’s beachs. Since the city is located in the South of Spain, and that it was the beginning of May, the weather was really nice. Like 25°c to 30°c each days (at the same time, it was 12°c in France). So after heating hard all sesh long, we could go to swim and enjoy the sunset on the warm sand. Well, our first time the water was pretty cold (everyday actually...) but it felt so good to relax in the sea. We were then drinking San Miguel and playing cards on the beach, which was perfect after a good day of riding. We came back there a few times the days after, and even went for a last swim before getting on the plane back. Great place for sure!
First Days The two first sessions were all about exploring the city and its spots. We were riding through the whole place in order to check the spots and think about what we could do on it. We crossed a lot of great spots and hit some of them on the way, but we were trying to keep the tricky and heavy ones for the last days, in case something would go wrong... Those two first days were pretty productive though, and I think it is always like this at the beginning of a trip. But still, the hardest part was coming after because we knew we will have to ride heavier to get the bangers! At the end of day 2, we pretty much saw all the places we wanted to go later and already got some solid clips on the spots we rode. So it was time for us to relax with some beers and play a chill game of ÂŤScootÂť all together on the spot before heading back to the appartement for a good dinner.
The hills Mรกlaga is a city surrounded by the sea on one side and by a lot of hills on the other side. Those hills host the suburbs of the city. And as our experience as riders tought us, probably a large amount of spots waiting to be shredded. We actually knew about a massive ditch that was located at the bottom of one of those hills, so we decided to go in its direction and start exploring around it hoping to find some others. We took the bus from the city center and started climbing the hills for 30 minutes. We crossed a lot of big buildings and spots on our way up. Once we were at the top, we rode downhill to warm up at the ditch before hitting the few spots we saw. We were lucky because we found so many good spots. Actually, too much spots for only one day... But still, we managed to get a lot of good clips, it was a very productive day!
The Wall By the end of this «Málaga’s hills sesh», we fortunately arrived in the middle of some massive buildings where we were sure to find a spot. Better than that, it was a big corridor full of stairsets. Some of them had handrails, some others with walls. THE perfect spot ! So Adrien started first with the biggest handrail he could find on the spot. Then, Nico followed on a heavy over the fence heelwhip gap heelwhip. And finally, Sten decided to ride the orange wall. It was located at the bottom of the stairsets, in front of some benches full of local people. Everybody was watching us since we arrived about an hour ago. So, we asked Sten to try it fast in order to leave before they call the police. He did 3 tries before making a hole in the wall. Next try was the one, so we packed everything and left very fast because the locals were mad for the hole and started insulting us in Spanish!
Seaside As our AirBnb was close to the sea, we were always coming back home via the beachwalk. Doing that, we crossed a lot of spots, particularly the famous blue handrails and the big pyramids. So we decided that we should get there on Day 4. First, we started riding the pyramid to warm up. The spot was looking nice and massive because of the huge column at the middle of it. But, even if the riding was good there, the sun was killing us!Maybe because we were riding at lunchtime... in the beginning of May... in the South of Spain... Anyway! We managed to get some solid clips there and went to the blue rails where we were hosted by some grilled fish smells, delicious! We spent few hours there, having 3 or 4 clips at the end. But most of all, some intense sunburns. We then had to cool down in a park to rest and eat some fresh food before heading to the next spots.
The food We were leaving the appartement late in the morning so we had to lunch during the sesh. It was actually the perfect break to rest and cool a bit between two spots. Some days, we found great restaurants full of local people to lunch well at an affordable price. But the other days, lunchtimes were mainly about having a sandwhich or a salad with some fruits in a public park. Playing kendama during the diggesting time and heading back to the city to ride. Then at night, since I am quite into food, my homies were expecting me to prepare some tasty diners at the appartement. We cooked some pasta con chorizo, chicken with curry, while eating local fuet during the making. It was funny to cook together and everyone was helping. And since life in Spain is not really expensive, we could mix that with some tapas restaurants during the week. We went to eat tapas 3 or 4 times, having calamares fritos, patatas bravas, croquetas y pulpo. Delicious! And on the last night, we went to have a really great burger to celebrate the end of the trip. Good food always makes things even better!
Content We actually came to Malaga not to film only one trip video, but several ones like Adrien’s or Martin’s. So the idea was to shoot a lot of content, videos and photos, in order to be able to produce the projects we had planned. To be honest, it was really intense during the whole week. And of course, especially during the sessions. Because each project was important, we could not spend to much time on only one trick. Plus the fact that we always had to think about which video the trick will be used for... And after all, sometimes the trick was judged not appropriate for the personal edits so it would end up in the trip video. That explains why Martin and Adrien has got less clips than the rest of the team in the trip video, because they needed a lot of clips. It was quite confusing sometimes but at the end of the week we achieved to stack enough footage for all videos!
The DIY There are some popular spots in Mรกlaga, and that DIY is surely part of them. It was located on our way between the appartement and the city center, so we were crossing it everyday saying we would ride it the next day. But we actually rode it only on our fifth day, because we wanted to stack some real street footage first. Good time riding there and having a beer with a great sunset. But we had to leave it fast because we needed to hurry to buy some food for the night.
The rail That spot was Martin’s battle of this week. Before the trip, the guys already knew about it. And we actually crossed it during day one saying that we will come back later to ride it. It is located in a very crowded place : so hard to ride. The first sesh on it was on day two. We tried to ride it at lunchtime supposing that it won’t be so crowded, but no. Too many people were passing by, which ended up with Martin turning completely mad. Both Adrien and him secured a clip, but Martin wanted to get something better. So we came back there on last day and tried our best to block the people with our scooters. We had to ask them to wait in Spanish, and I even talked for 20 minutes about scootering with a Spanish grandpa, also in Spanish! And at last, after a lot of patience from Martin, he ended up getting the trick he had planned. It really was a rad team work guys!
El Museo The very last spot of the trip was a perfect ledge located on the side of a Museum. We wanted to get there since day one but did not find the time to do it before. Sten had the idea of a hurricane grind with a fakie nose manual. And Martin was thinking about a noseblunt combo. Both tricks were technical so we knew we would spend some time there! Nico filmed the line of Martin first. I shot some photos and I had to pee. So I reached the Museum in order to check if I could use their restroom. Found it and ended up crossing the exhibition about Egypt, which was pretty interesting. When I came back to the spot, I saw that Martin was just done, so it was Sten’s turn now. For his trick, Sten had to land on the road. So we were all shooting and checking the cars at the same time, making that technical trick even more difficult to get. After a couple of hours, we managed to get a proper clip before being kicked off by the police. And the night had arrived anyway so we came back home for the last night of the trip.
Hasta luego After 8 days in the city, it was time for us to come back home ! It was a great experience for me once again. I had the chance to have fun shooting photos with great people, to meet Adrien and Sten that I did not know before the trip and to spend time with my good friends in a city I’ve never been to. Sten was the first to leave for his flight early in the morning. We woke up at 10am, packed everything, went for a last swim at the beach and left the appartement to chill in the city before the flight. We had some last tapas and cervezas at a local bar. We also shot some profile pictures for the video before heading to the airport together with my french homies. We waited for a few hours there chilling and playing Kendama in the hall. Then, we saw that our flight was delayed, and then delayed again and again... And finally, after 5 hours waiting, we managed to board the flight to Paris and we arrived there at the middle of the night. My dad kindly came to bring us back home and we finally had the chance to rest. Thanks again to my friends from Wise Scootering : Martin, Nico, Antoine and Balthazar for the opportunity to come with you! Thanks to my family and my friends for always supporting me in my projects. Thank you guys for your time reading this, hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed making it. And finally, thanks to scootering for being that thing that makes our lives so special. See you later guys ! JÊrÊmy Suchet
