“Don’t play everything (or every time); let some things go by… What you don’t play can be more important than what you do.”
▲ Florian Tournier – FS Bluntslide
Thelonious Monk (1917 - 1982)
Hey Franck,it’s an honor to have you in the mag. What are you doing nowadays? Hey, first of all thanks for the opportunity. Well on a skateboarding level, I’ve just finished the first episode of «Chronicles of the past », a series of 90s footages I filmed and collected over the year in France, England, Germany, US. I’ve started this project during the pandemic with all these footages in boxes, I sometimes put some on my instagram but I love editing so I decided it was time to “play” with those rushes. On a professional level, I work for the TV/Corporate film/commercial business. I try to expand my area of freedom and be in a place where I can constantly develop my skills.
Let’s start from the beginning, how and when did you discover skateboarding? That’s crazy for kids to imagine nowadays, but at that time there was no internet, no youtube and no social media to learn about it. I don’t really remember when it started, around 1987 I think. I just remember that I saw skateboarding as a cool item , and I remember that people in the late 70s had skateboards. One of my neighbor had a plastic skateboard, and I was wondering what was up with the skateboard in the late 80s. I might have been influenced by the movie “Back to the future” too, because there was a lot of skateboarding scenes in this movie, so maybe it has some influences on me without me really noticing it. I remember having my first skateboard from a supermarket. So it wasn’t really a great skateboard to begin with and I remember really struggling to do ollie with it for more than a year. I was by myself and pretty much the only skater in my neighborhood, so no advice and no one to skate with.
Growing up, which guys did you look up to? Which spots were you skating? When I was growing up, I was living in the suburbs of a little town, Tours, and in fact I was looking up at the “local celebrity” in skateboarding, Thierry Mondamert. He was older than me and he had a huge pop for the time. The guy was able to Ollie over a fire hydrant, I could barely ollie onto a sidewalk. We didn’t have too many spots to skate, we were in the late 80s early 90s and we would gather on Saturday afternoons at some local spots, we had a fountain with benches or some other places and from there we would skateboard all around the city as a group, sometimes skating between cars and buses on the streets, it was fun. It wasn’t as popular as it is now since it was forbidden by the police, we would always have to move around the city not to get caught, and the spots were quite rare, it was mostly curbs, benches and a few stairs. There were no handrail at the time in my hometown.
Back in those days, the whole based in the US, did you have going on the other side of the magazines available in France at
skateboard industry was any ideas of what was Atlantic? Was there any that time?
I think there was only one magazine at the time and it wasn’t even a skateboarding mag, it was a BMX mag (Bicross mag) and after a while they had a few pages of skateboarding, so they changed their name to “Bicross & skate Mag”. Quickly I decided to get my hands skateboarding magazines, like Thrasher Transworld skateboarding.
on American magazine and
It was hard to get your hands on one because you wouldn’t find them at your local newspapers stand, just at your skateshop, if you had one in your town.
So it was something really rare to get your hands on an American skateboarding magazine. Once you found one and bought it, that was like having a bible, you’d cherish it, take good care of it, read it entirely… well at least that’s how I treated mine. I also learned a lot of vocabulary in English by reading them. Also those magazines were the only link to the skateboarding scene in America, there was no video magazines or any YouTube or Instagram account to follow every day, and video like Public Domain were once a year, that’s it! I know it might sound weird to the younger audience but it was different era back then just to get news of the skateboarding scene or how to make a trick .... it was hell!!! At least, I knew I was part of the small group, an outcast maybe, a rebel but I liked it, we were such a small group there. At the time, for a city and its suburbs like Tours (we’re talking about 250,000 people) we were probably 30 or 40 skaters maximum.
What was the first skate video you watched and how did you have access to it? The first video that I watched was Powell & Peralta “Public domain”, I think it was their 4th video. I remember having to rent it at the local windsurf shop that had a skateboard corner. I was amazed by this video, I’ve never watched anything like this before, it was a fun “documentary” on skateboarding, not the kind of program you would watch on French TV at the time. Around two weeks later came H-street first video “Shackle me not”, this one was a huge slap in the face!
Not only it was more street oriented but the level was so much better than in the Public Domain. I don’t want to criticize the Powell Peralta video, don’t get me wrong, it was filmed with real film camera super8/16mm/35mm and I still have goosebumps when I watch Public Domain, cause it brings me back in 1988 and I love all the memories from that time. The filming was much better in the Powell video but I still love the Hstreet video better. It was shot with your Mom & Pop camera (VHS), so maybe I like it better because there was no goofing around, it was strictly raw street skating, tricks and tricks. So two different styles of videos. To sum it up, it was form before function for Powell and I prefer when things are quite clear and you go straight to the point, like in the H-street video, no fooling around. I still watch “Shackle Me not” from time to time and I still love it. Big shoutouts to Tony Mag (Magnusson) and Mike Ternasky (RIP), for this amazing video. That’s when I understand that skateboarding is about perseverance and progression, it has always been and it always will be. If you look at Danny Way, he was already pro for H-street at the time and he was only 14. Now take a look at the kind of things he skateboards. He skates mega ramps and he’s 45!!! Still ahead of the pack. There’s no better example.
When did you get into filming? I got into filming the first time I went to the USA. I bought my first camcorder at the time in San Francisco, in 1995, It was the Mecca of the skateboarding scene, and I put myself into financial troubles for it. But it turned out to be an investment because that was my way of learning out to film. I don’t really have any regret, it was like going to a Film school.
At some point, you were filming for Cliché, can you tell us more about that experience? For me who grew up watching guys like Jérémie Daclin, JJ Rousseau, JB Gillet, Lucas Puig… it’s like the golden era. I met JJ Rousseau in Toulouse (Southwest of France) in 1999 with others well known skaters from the local scene: Fabien Martin, Guy Dauriac and Lucas, who was only 9 or 10 at the time, I knew watching Lucas that he would be the next Guy Mariano, and I was right. Lucas, he’s a natural, and I’m glad he made it in the big leagues. I went on a tour in Italy with J.J., Jan Kliewer, Pontus Av, Javier Mendizabal, Ricardo Fonseca, Geoffrey Van Hove, Nicolas Caron.
Did you get involved filming with any other brands? Where you around when Lordz filmed their video “They don’t give a fuck about US!” (2003) which is another masterpiece of the European skate scene. No I wasn’t filming for them, just had a few clips here and there in the Puzzle video magazines.
Looking back, who were the most talented skaters you filmed? Which dudes were underrated in your opinion? It’s a tough question, because I saw a lot of top pros from the US, Brazil and Europe pros during contests in Europe in the late 90s. I would list a few pros that impressed me by their consistency and style: Tom Penny, Gershon Mosley, Rick McCrank, Geoff Rowley, Mark Johnson, Kareem Campbell, Rick Howard, Mike Carroll, Brian Anderson.... too many to name!
What was your involvement in the making of Chill skateboard magazine (2008-2010)? In my opinion, this remains the best french skateboard magazine with good contents but without taking things too seriously. I gave them some video clips for the VHS tape they did, mostly shot around the BERCY 5 big ledges. I wish I had more involvement in that project but I was already working for TV at that time.
In 2020, skateboarding is not a secret anymore, everybody have access to it through social media, wearing skate brands doesn’t make you feel special anymore and with the big five shoe brands, there is more money than ever… What’s your perception on present skateboarding? I think it’s sad in a way because even though we felt we were outcast, and not really being appreciated by the rest of the population, seeing that my passion has become mainstream it’s a double edge sword. I wish It would have stayed underground but at the same time I’m happy that people can get a decent pay in the industry (not sure if everyone gets its fair share but still). I can’t stand to see people with a Thrasher Tshirt and they don’t know what it is, it just pisses me off. I might sound old and not very fun to be with but I kinda like the way it was back in the late 80s early 90s where you have to wait a year to get a good video or at least several months and it’s not like that nowadays there’s so many videos coming every day on social medias that you barely notice them, our appetite for videos have increased but our interest for it has lowered at the same time.
Again thanks a lot for taking the time for this interview. To finish, could you give three essentials skate videos to watch? Well three grade video I would started by “Shackle Me not”, the 1988 H-street video, then Plan B “Questionable” video that came out in 1991, and finally Transworld video “Modus Operandi”. I would say those three are special in three different ways, the first one for me it’s about friendship and “mom and dad Camcorder”, so pretty easy access to camera, the beginning of what we all have now. The second one, which is the first Plan B video is about progression in skateboarding, which is a key element, it is super important, creativity makes skateboarding fun! I remember in my neighborhood one of my best friends François, we used to compete on who would you do this trick or that trick first, it’s a good competition and you don’t need any coach for that, it’s just you and your motivation. And the third video is one of the best video that Ty Evans has directed, I just LOOOOVE the editing, for me it was super in sync with the music, it was a tight editing with lots of jump-cuts, it was catchy in terms of music. It was my film school. Thanks for the opportunity, and thanks to the people who helped me along the way.
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