EDITO I’m pretty sure you guys already played Poker, right? So, yeah, you probably know, that after a couple of rounds, if you didn’t found out who’s the fish around the table, it might be, because, you are the fucking idiot! And you’re about to blow it. Actually, you can apply this rule for pretty much everything in life: At job, on the road, etc... Colin and me experienced that, a couple of times during this trip in north of Spain we made last autumn. Yep, unfortunately, we ended up being the fucking “kook of the session” quite ofthen... Doesn’t really matter actually, because we had our share of fun for sure: Trying to find out how to carve a bowl with our brand new boards, while some kids, on sketchy piece of wood were totally killing it; Trying to take off on this small wave, while locals were killing the big ones, etc. Whatever. It’s all about fun right? So, in the end, Colin & me, we pretty much won every fucking time during those amazing 10 days!
“The Kook Issue”
Versus Skatezine & Plus #102 (winter 2015) WWW.VERSUS-SKATEZINE.CA / JEREMYVERSUSDURAND (@) HOTMAIL.FR / COVER: COLINSKY / BS OVERVERT CARVE / PHOTO: JEY
Am I unlucky? I don’t know. I’ve the feeling I have to write that shit down every fucking time I’m talking about a skate trip. So yeah, once again, it all started pretty bad. Here we go: So, I took a train from St Jean de Maurienne. This shit was 30min late. But, until then all good. Took another train from Chambéry to Geneva... 1h30 late... Without a single excuse or explaination from those lazy bastards... So, yeah, I missed my connecting train from Geneva to Geneva Airport. Had to take a taxi. Cost me 30e for something like a 10min ride. Had to run like an idiot to the Easy Jet office to give my luggage. Tight. But I made it. Run to the security check to get in the plane. Tight again. Got in the plane, all sweaty and stressed out... Finally...? Nah... Waited 1h... “We have a problem, we have to call the engineer”... Another hour gone... “They can’t repair it, we have to get in another plane”... 2 hours later... “We have a plane for you guys, but our crew already worked too long now, we have to call a spare one”... Another hour... “Here you go, the new plane, the new crew, have a safe travel”... In the end, I arrived 5 hours later in Bilbao, where Colin was waiting for me... Anyway, I was so happy to see my old mate Colinsky again. Sick. We went straight to a local restaurant for some tappas and cold beers. And, what was apparently a beautiful sunny day all day long (while I was bored as fuck in an airport), ended up rainy... So when we reached Algorta, we had nothing else to do than having some more beers before going to “bed” in the beautiful “love-bus” (see next pages) from Colin. End of day 1. Dead...
Alright that was it for the complaining / depressing thing. From day 2 ‘til the end of this trip, I had a blast. Not sure if it was that cool for Colin everyday, because I kicked his ass a couple of times to skate some more, and he had some computer/nerd/programming/job to do during the small amount of free time I gave him... So, yeah, Algorta... Beautiful... But damn this place is hard to skate! And locals are killing it so bad, I really felt a shame there. That’s pretty much where it all started. You know, the “kook of the session” thing... That was us there for sure no doubt... So we kept moving on to other spots around Bilbao. There are plenty. I can’t remember all of them. But I remember that my muscles were so sore afterward, that I couldn’t move the next 3 days! I should had adopt the “Colin’s way” a little bit more... I mean by that, having a power nap, before, while, and after each session! This fool is a sleeping machine it’s amazing! At the first spot, I spent 2 hours on a FS 5-0 through a corner (check pictures on the next pages) while Colin was having a break. Then he woke up, got a BS pivot on the extention, a perfect BS Disaster on a brick quaterpipe, and that was it. If you already went to this spot, you should check the Thrasher Vacation video in Spain with Raven, G.T. etc. They killed this park! Another beer, and we went for lunch in a great little strange restaurant inside a nursing/church/home. Nothing fancy, but cheap and good.
Next spot was Sondika. A beautiful smooth bowl with pool coping all around. The bottom was still wet and full of leaves, so while I was cleaning it with my hoodie, Colin was... having another power nap! I had a hard time finding lines to carve over the stairs of the shallow end, but finally managed it, fs and bs. That’s pretty much when Colin woke up. He wasn’t happy with his board, so he borrowed mine, and bs carve grind over the stairs in something like 10 min... I mean that’s the way it should be done. Why trying so hard all day when you just could do it easily in a couple of tries? Thanks for the lesson Colin! That was time to hit the road again. Bought a 6 pack and bag of pippas, and we were ready. Oh yeah, I have to say thank you to Colin again for driving me around everyday like he did. That was great. We finally arrived at his lovely place near Ribadesella. A little cosy house in a small village, quiet, near by the beach, surrounded by fields, cows, and... a fucking stupid chicken! I unfortunately didn’t really had the chance to spend much time with his roomate who was moving back to Madrid the day after. But he was the guy that told us the rule of the fish whiling playing poker... Without him, this trip would not had made any sence! Thanks bro’. Beside one evening, when we went out in Ribadella to play pool, and have a couple of Whisky-Cola (where we met the craziest bar-keeper ever), the trip, from then on was really mellow and healthy. Wake up quite early, eat breakfast (bocadillos with Coldog spanish recipe), check the forecast... and go!
Colin is having a nap, while I’m trying to get this FS 5-0 through the corner done...
Colin, killing it, then having a nap again...
Colin / BS Carve grind with my board / Sondika
Nursing house restaurant / Bilbao
I have to thank Grufa too. Yep, he gave me the chance to ride his surf board and wear his wet suit during the trip. So yeah, when waves weren’t too big, and the water wasn’t too crowded, and gave it a try of couple of times. If not, I was chilling on the beach, drinking Mahou, eating pippas, and writing down some lyrics for the Sacs À Gnôle, listening to Innaway... (Soundtrack of the trip for sure! Thanks Colin! So good!). We went a couple of times to Pincho, the local restaurant, to have a beer, or a bottle of cider, a bocadillo, use the internet connection for Colin’s job, and sometimes, to buy a little bit fo weed too hehe. Yeah cider... People from Asturias are as proud as Savoyard with Tartiflette, than them with their cider. It’s great. They have a crazy way to serve it, kind of like tea in North Africa. Funny. Don’t be afraid to make a mess, and to drink it straight, yep, that’s the way. Another bottle is not enough. I don’t remember all the names of the surf spots, and, even in french I wouldn’t be able to describe how some of them were beautiful... Hope the pictures on the next pages will help out a bit. Anyway, don’t go there. Yeah, it’s better to just keep this place the way it is. Wild. Free. Quiet. Pure. Simply beautiful. Can you imagine the south west coast of France without all those fucking idiots? Yep, you got it... That’s where Colin invited me, in a little paradise...
Pincho, thePedrin master! Colin &
/ Vega
And the student!
Colin / Cook of the session!
Eat / Surf / Drink / Sleep
Then I met Pedrin, Colin’s friend, 100% Vega Local. This kid is living the dream. Worked 3 months/year as a surf teacher-photographer during the high season, and that’s it. He just surf the rest of the time, and help his dad from time to time in the garden... and in his pirate bar! Yeah you read it right. A great illegal little bar down in a basement. There is a stage with instruments, and pretty much everybody can just come and jam around. Even the Wailers played there a couple of years ago. Sick place, with punk-rock spirit and surf wibe. Loved it. Thank you guys. We need more places like this! Surfing... Damn it, this thing is so difficult and scary to me. I still don’t really get it. Way too hard for me. But I can’t really explain why, I still feel like trying again and again. Maybe just because when you finally catch one wave you get this unspeakable feeling of speed, floating, etc... Next spring again? Why not? I mean, I’m used to be the “kook of the session” now anyway! Good times. In the end that’s all that matter. Busy living the dream. On the road with my mate, surfing a bit, skateboarding some more, having a beer of two, eating pippas, and sometimes a bbq, meeting new people, having a bottle of cider, and just let it go. Pure fun! Writing about this trip, months later, while working, is kinda frustrating. What the fuck am I doing here hey? Can’t wait to hit the road again! So yeah, after a couple of easy going days, Ramon and Mac, Colin’s friends from Oviedo arrived. The quietness was over. This guys is wild as fuck. Such a contrast with Colin. He didn’t took him too much time to kick our asses to move on. After a crazy spicy chili peppers session on the bbq, we did hit the road, direction Oviedo. There, he organised another little bbq at his place... We ended up being something like 15 guys on his lovely balcony. Great flat. This night, I regretted even more than every other day not being able to speak any spanish. Too bad. But they were kind enough to speak english with me from time to time. Oh yeah, because again, pretty much everybody speaks english there...
Colin & Pedrin
BBQ in Oviedo
I met some really great dudes this night. Like Jou Ming from the hardcore band Total Disaster. We talk about music all night long, watching video clips and some other random crazy stuff... I also met the man behind the skatable church (La Iglesia Skate on Facebook or http://churchbrigade.w ix.com/iglesia for more informations). First of all, when you wear a tractor-farmer T-Shirt (“John Deere”), you win at life in my book (Even if a “Fendt” one would had been better!). He took care all night long of the bbq, while talking about the crazy project he started; he bought an old church for 1e, and built a fucking skatepark inside! I just heard about it a couple of times before, and was so impatient to finally see/skate it... And the day after, we went there! Thanks Ramon! They were still building a lot of stuff, so we could just skate the micro-ramp, but I mean, that was already amazing. Straight out of hell! Amazing spot! We also went to Oviedo skatepark, which has a funny little bowl with enough light for the late session. And then to Avilès, and its pretty big skatepark. Wasn’t the best park ever, but for once, I was able to skate not too bad, which is always a great feeling. I love rad transitions! Great lunch at the Don Sancho restaurant which took us 1h to find, and it was already time to hit the road back to Ramon’s flat, for another crazy night with his friends!
The man behing the Church project... and his BBQ!
After 1,000,000 beers we went out for another 100 liters of cider with Jou Ming and his mate Tony. We visited a bit the city of Oviedo, I mean the bars, spending money on every fucking stupid cash machine, eating tapas for free, talking with every stupid french and german students that were on our way, ended up going home when the sun was already shining since a while. That was it for Oviedo. It was finally time to leave Ramon’s stupid cats! ;) Thanks again for everything. We had a blast at your place, it was great! On the way back, we made a quick stop in Gijon. The old city near the ocean is really beautiful. The skatepark too. But we were just too sore. Couldn’t do anything anymore. At least I tried! Ended up being pretty much the “kook of the session“ once again... Colin managed to land a couple of Bonelesses and Fs Flips on a nice looking natural pyramid. Then Santander, right during the pick of Ebola... Strange, we are not dead yet?!... Whatever, it’s another subject. Alright, so we did skate in Somo, a little surf-village near by Santander, with a really good skatepark. Original, well done, smooth, lights, and good crew of locals. It was really the perfect spot for a last session. Colin ripped the wave apart (cover), and did a full speed noseslide on a curb in front of the beach...
Before...
After!
Colin / Money, moeny...
Colin / Girls, girls, girls...
Just kooks!
Colin / FS Smith / The Church
Colin / BS Flip / Oviedo
Ramon / FS Rock’n’roll / The Church
Ramon / Sw Rock’n’roll / The Church
Jey / FS Feeble / Aviles
A couple of beers later, we went in Santander again, to find a parking lot to spend the night. It was Halloween, and my last night in Spain, so we decided to have a little bit of a party. We went out around 12 pm, but the streets were empty... Bars were empty... Kind of strange... After a couple of whisky, we were both like “Santander night life sucks, fuck that, let’s go back to the bus and sleep... or get in a cab, and find out a cool place to have another drink!”... So yeah, you can imagine, what we choose... 2 am, in the middle of the city, finally, people were popping out from every little fucking streets, all dressed up in their best Halloween costume; Strange feeling, but funny. The party was just starting, but it was already time for us to go... A short last night in Colin’s bus, a couple of more hours in another bus to Bilbao airport, a plane to Geneva airport, a train to Geneva main station, another train to Chambéry, and one last one to Saint Jean de Maurienne... Finally back home... Dead... But alive! Again a huge thanks to Colin (and all his friends) for everything. Those 10 days were really sick. The perfect amount of everything. Hope to have the chance to see you again somewhere nice boys. Oh, and if you, dear readers, were courageous enough to read this shit until here, now, it’s time for you to close this crap and go hit the road!
Colin / FS Flip / Gijon
Cider Bottle Tower
Colin / Noseslide / Somo
Jey / Carving around / Somo