A
JOURNEY
FROM PARIS TO STUTTGART AND BACK FOR THE MAKING OF GX1000’ LATEST FILM “JAGEN”
Photos&Text FelixAdler
SwitchOllie
Nile’s got the meanest pop and will go over anything you toss in his way. Maybe that’s a relict from a career in Basketball he had almost pursued instead of skating.
How come the basketball thing didn't happen for you?
My last year of high school I tried as hard as I could to make the basketball team. I did that for 12-14 months and didn't skateboard at all. I ended up riding the bench, I wasn't as good as the other players, so for me I was like, "let me get back to the ska te shit." That was about the peak of my basketball career!
Glad you ended up skating
again. What was it like to skate the most hectic spot in Paris out into the streets right by Bastille?
Honestly it just reminded me of SF. It's kind of the same, you've got spotters in the street, which is nice. It felt like I was home. And then also me not landing it on the first day was just like Nile in SF. Clas sic, always got to come back to the fucking spot!
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Rob’s built like a tank with the mental calmness of ten Buddhas. Whether it’s a slam that would have cost anyone else their leg or a three hour battle that would cause outbursts of frustration in damn near anyone, Rob stays calm and collected. We were fairly surprised to hear Rob speak french all of a sudden. A skill that would come in handy on more than just one occasi ons! Turns out he has family ties and even lived in Paris for a couple months before!
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“This area looks like every spot is someones house.”
“You mean like San Francisco?”
– Ryan Garshell
Nosegrind
Matt definitely fought some of the hardest battles, tossing himself into Paris traf fic until two in the morning on two separate occasions. Ultimately having to give up the battle. After getting a bunch of clips he also bagged the slam of the trip during a night session on a bump to bar in Stuttgart that nearly sent him to the hospital. On a boardslide try he clipped his front truck, and went for the worst case scenario of having
one leg on the in and one of the outside of the rail. He en ded up getting tossed over the bar like a cowboy at a rodeo. While everyone was still vi sibly in shock over what just happened, Matt got up and ran back for another try be fore ultimately sitting down and giving in to the pain of his bruised ribs which took most of the impact. Luckily a nurse randomly witnessing the scene came over, put on her gloves and after a quick examination could reassure Matt that at least nothing was broken.
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Just when you think Jeff’s bagged enough tricks for the day, he will come across another spot that needs handled and won’t wait long to do so. This was the case with the coverspot, previously attem ped by none other than Mike Caroll. The kind of dedica tion does not always come without a price however and so, alongside Nile, Jeff beca me the second one to have his setup swallowed by Paris’ canals when he tried to clean up the Ollie over a rail into a bank he‘d landed on the previous attempt.
The "bust" we got from the canal spot was a bit of a spe cial one, with the actual per son shouting at us not even being on site?
Yea, they were tripping over the loud speaker and I tried one more Ollie after I made it. On that try I lost my board and I was about to climb down the bridge to get it. Then they washed my board away into the canal by ope ning some of the lower flood gates remotely.
Which city would you rather revisit?
I have to say Stuttgart, to go back and do those sick routes!
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Willow was the wild card on this trip, but seemingly assimilated into the group within the first five minutes of hanging out. He is probably head to head with Jeff when it co mes to getting the most tricks and put himself through hell to get the make on some his ma neuvers. More Willow moves from this trip are coming up in his SOLO 48 Interview!
Gapto5-0
Upon arriving in Paris, we were greated by heavy rain during the first two days. On the hunt for skateable, rainsafe spots, we didn‘t get too lucky. Sean eventually broke the curse by starting the trip off with a gap out to wallie nollie, simply ignoring how drenched the spot was. To his own surprise his wheels never made contact with the wall. „What? Maybe re-run that?“ Sean managed to stack a bunch of footage in Paris before he unfortunately bus ted his knee on a heavy session in Créiteil. He tried to work his way back to skating throughout the rest of the trip in Stuttgart, not leaving any options unexplored.
How do you deal with injury?
It always helps to keep a posi tive mental attitude. For me, if
I can prioritize my needs over my wants on paper and start crossing things off, it helps make progress. Counting bles sings never hurts when you feel bad about something. Finding various ways to create outside of skateboarding has helped me a lot mentally when I have been hurt. I dabble in cooking, art, and music to fill the void of not being able to skate. With injuries I have been very persistent with physical thera py and when I feel the progress it motivates me to keep at it. Just being around friends will also help a lot with coming back from injuries physical or mental. Many people have had similar issues usually and can point you in a good direction.
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Bluntslide
Zack’s spot choices on this trip were definitely some of the rougher ones. Whether riding down the mossiest steep bank in town switch or fully sending it into a cobblestone bank with little to no room for error, he did come out on top after absor bing some nasty takedowns. Stuttgart‘s downhills were definitely smoother than the skatespots of his choice. Sin ce San Franciso is not too big, and the guys have their routes figured out, it seemed like a welcome change to explore the downhills Stutt gart had to offer. I overheard Zack say he‘d describe it as „Twin Peaks on steroids“, which coming from these du des sure is a massive compli ment!
Any last words Zack?
Yeah! I just wanna say thank you Oli, Maxi, everyone at Beast Distribution, Arrow & Beast and everyone we met in Paris and Stuttgart for the hospitality! And thank Wein steige hill!
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