Bigger Spin / EP 013 - Seb Daurel

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Hangar Darwin, Bordeaux

Seb's place for both types of daily grind.

He manages the skatepark, builds and repairs the obstacles, welcomes the youth, gives out trick tips and skates vert.

It's also the place where he holds costume parties, chit chats and front blunts with Tom Penny, and films some episodes of the Sebdoshow.

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The Alfred Danay stadium ramp

Seb's first proper introduction to transition skateboarding, not counting those prior attempts at turning his parents' table tennis table into a ramp.

Originally an initiative by Jim Lalondrelle - below, on the right.

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Toutânkhamon mamèn'!

One board that really fascinated Seb as a kid - a Sims deck from the eighties, aka. back when skateboarding was still a counterculture producing unique, unclassifiable items.

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"Ushuaia" on T.V.

 

Back when Nicolas Hulot was pushing French T.V. show hosting to the extreme on Saturday nights, skateboarding got to be the subject of two features, including this document from early 1990.

That was when a lot of people's minds were blown, and eyes open by the possibilities of street skateboarding and the Paris scene, back then represented by Tramber, Rakike, Morgan, Olivier Saint-Jour and many more...

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The Blagnac skatepark

A small town near Toulouse, Blagnac got its moment of skate fame back in the days thanks to Les P'tits Pois Sauteurs, a local non-profit organization behind the birth of this amazing skatepark eventually graced by the presence - and skating - of various U.S. and European pros, skate camps and demos.

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The European Bones Brigade

Powell Peralta caught a glimpse of the European skate scene very early on, and once created a European team of various skaters from the Old Continent.

Somehow, Seb gave a photo to Frank Messmann, team manager at the time, and made it on the team (as well as Stéphane Larance, whose Bigger Spin is still up here).

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Alex Moul & Sami Hariti

The British Alex Moul was a true U.K. legend back in the nineties who, for some reason, never blew up as much as Tom Penny did, despite a comeback in the U.S. in the naughts.

The German Sami Harithi wasn't much older, and also incredible as a skateboard - enough to be granted his own section in the Powell video "Celebraty Tropical Fish", that is.

Local heroes, so to speak.

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The Grand-Bornand

A spectacular contest held in the French Alps circa 1989-1991, and a mandatory drive for many skaters' parents whose offspring wanted to be delighted with the sight of U.S. and European pros.

The Daurel family drove all the way from Bordeaux in a R20, only to reach the eye of a gigantic storm and see Lee Ralph skate barefoot.

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Lee Ralph

A legendary ginger skater from New Zealand, who disappeared for a while only to be found again decades later, in the naughts by Dustin Dollin.

He was notorious for skating without shoes, and an eponymous documentary film: "Barefoot: The Lee Ralph Story", may or may not exist.

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Patrick Bermudez

Another skater who can be seen in this short clip of a demo for a 1993 T.V. show with Gérard Holtz, in which SÉBASTIEN DAUREL PUSHES MONGO.

He lived with Seb in Toulouse for a bit: salad days as their only income was from sticker sales, and they had girlfriends too.

Their spot of choice there was place Occitane, with Jean-Pierre Avezac and Sébastien Cordes. Real recognize real...

 

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Cliché

1997. Jérémie Daclin launches Cliché Skateboards, and the rest is history.

Sébastien's name might have been missing from the first ever ad in French magazine SuGaR (only to be included later), but he really was involved from the very beginning of that beautiful ride.

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Adidas, Paulo and Gonz's shoes*

The brand with the three stripes caught skateboarding quite early on, at first with Mark Gonzales as their only rider... only to give him one of the worst designed pro models of all time.

At the time the image and intent of the brand aren't clear, which Seb covers quite frankly in the podcast.

Then Paulo Diaz (below) and Quim Cardona got on, a bit later.

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Mark Gonzales

In 1996, Mark Gonzales moves to Lyon for a year in order to live with his girlfriend, who studies there.

That's when he happened to do the notorious grind to wallie nosegrind on those green bars.

Opening up new perspectives, again...

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Sébastien, Bastien Salabanzi and music

Around a street corner in Paris, halfway through the opening of the art show Seb & Nils, Bastien Salabanzi shows up with a guitar and gets this graceful groove going.

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Marc Haziza

Marc is another French icon who devoted his entire life to skateboarding, and still lives it full time.

Along with Seb, they explored most skateparks in and around the country, and in the podcast Seb tells a funny story about one of Marc's misadventures in San Francisco.

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Minuit

A classic Bordeaux-based, night time video epic, produced by another legend who shall remain anonymous and put together by a crew of great creatives.

It involved a great O.S.T. and a rad, full part of Sébastien skating both street and his own backyard bowl.

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@sebdoshow_

 

Léo Valls + David Manaud + Sébastien Daurel = LE SebDo show.

Fifty-nine seconds of hilarity complete with acting, costumes, music, special effects and narratives.

In theaters, soon... (Or more instantaneously, under recap form on the @bigspinpodcast Instagram.)

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Tom Penny

Under the spotlights for two years, then a cult for the next twenty-five.

Tom Penny used to visit France yearly with his mother, Belinda, who liked Périgueux.

Apparently, Belinda still lives there to this day, as a painter.

Consequently, Tom speaks French, bluntslides at Darwin, and rock to nose tap reverts his way around the Bolo bowl.

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Guy Mariano - "Video Days" (Blind)

The year is 1991: "Video Days" hits skateshops worldwide, and the planet finds out about a fifteen-years-old Guy Mariano, writing the history of skateboarding alongside his friends Mark, Rudy and Jason.

Sébastien has fond memories of that part.

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BONUS

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"Diagonal"

Sébastien had a full part in the Adidas video, which features many a demonstration of both acting and skating prowess.

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Daughter and father

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Sébastien Daurel is on Instagram, here.

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See you soon for more things Big Spin!