Bigger Spin / EP 014 - Charles Collet
The second episode in the second series of French skateboarding podcast, Seb Charlot and Arnaud Dedieu's Big Spin, just came out! You may be familiar with the routine by now - such an event is synonymous with the corresponding complementary Bigger Spin article. In both cases, Charles Collet gets the spotlight this time, as the show's latest guest. The Grenoble grom inspired by local names such as Soy Panday and Nicolas Levet, but also by Dustin Dollin in the early 2000's promptly grew up into an early Cliché staple head, relocating to Lyon, hanging out with the Antiz guys and revealing himself throughout his career. Well, much more about that in the new episode of Big Spin, stremable above, and if you can't grasp the French language then fear not: the Bigger Spin on this page should help you comprehend all you need to know!
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Marquetery
“Marquetery is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures OR SKATEBOARDS)” – Wikipédia
Marquetery is Charles' new found love. After studying the craft in Lyon for a year, career-wise, he eventually opted to stay in the field of wood manipulation, just in a different way!
Watch a clip, here!
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Fred Demard
OG Grenoble figurehead, for a while the editor of the defunct, classic French skate mag Freestyler, then Soma Skate Mag, now it's ABS Skateshop that he manages, located right next to place Championnet, le spot.
Swing by and say hi to him - his persona of an old, jaded bear shouldn't hide his truly nice nature.
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Nicolas Levet & Soy Panday
Two skateboarders who helped Grenoble skating grow, one generation after Mimi & Fred's.
One of them is a Lyon-based, radical straight-edge activist, the other one is your average mundane Parisian, just limitless.
They both love skateboarding.
Nicolas once made the video "Fuck Shit Up", in which Charles had his first ever part.
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"Misled Youth" (1999) by Zero
The 1999 Zero video, in which Jamie Thomas is notably featured, immortalized in the process of performing potentially harmful handrail stunts. Charles grows up on this (in addition to Soy Panday, and Nico Levet).
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Sébastien Michelini aka. Spoon
Sébastien Michelini aka. Spoon, skate photographer from the 2000's.
He helped contributing to Charles' career a lot, as he was the first photographer to shoot with him.
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The Small Place rail
Most certainly an initiative from Jérémie Daclin.
Disregarding whatever the official name of the plaza might be, that's where this small rail was set up, and locked up outside its opening hours...
Charles tells the story of him once looking around Lyon for the Cliché guys so he could get the key to the lock and skate the rail.
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"Bon Appétit" (2004) by Cliché
A Fred Mortagne video, released in 2004, featuring a baggy-adorning Charles just coming into play.
As a bonus clip, here's the BFFS ("Behind the French Fred Scenes").
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Gypsy Tour
A concept tour Cliché came up with, involving leaving on the road with nothing but tents, a crew, a van and a couple of euros per person. Everything captured on video and photo.
Some people have fonder memories of such trips than some others…
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Jérémie Boissonnet, aka. Mimi
A board culture super hero.
Smooth style, long hair (at the time), Mimi (not to be confused with Gégé) carried all of Grenoble skateboarding on his shoulders for a bit, entering every contest and possible French event (whereas Fred Demard remained mostly local).
He also was team manager at Volcom for a while, but that's a whole other story…
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Maxime Genin
He was from just the next generation after Charles', and specialized in handrail skating.
He won the French Teenage Tour and seriously got into skateboarding as a career.
Déter’.
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Cliché @ Dwindle
After a good while of being supported by various corporations, Cliché ended up as a completely independent company.
After years of international tours, everything went back to local and then, keeping one's head over the water isn't exactly easy.
That's when U.S. distributor Dwindle intervened - the home of Almost, Enjoi and even Zero for a short stint.
Unfortunately, Cliché, the latest addition to the group, also happened to be the first one it actively terminated, for a variety of reasons.
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Chartreuse
A very easily headache-inducing liquor from the mountains around the region of Grenoble.
One of Charles' boards for Cliché reuses the codes of said style of booze, and Greg Marley, Le Voulz’, Grégory Laufersweiler was behind the graphic.
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Christiania in Copenhagen, Denmark
An out of this world out-of-bounds in Copenhagen with its own inhabitants, decaying skate ramps (unless they have been cleaned up) and most notably, tolerated cannabis sales out in the open.
Charles spent his holidays there with Raoul Fernandes once…
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THE slam @ le Dôme
As seen in the aforementioned BFFS... A tough one to stomach, in between many more.
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Cale Nuske
The Aussie Cliché hooked up in the 2000's, who was killing it and then a bad knee took him out.
He was quite handy with handrails as well…
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Rekiem Skateboards
Charles' new home.
It is with those boards that he now mostly skates bowls with Lucas, Sam, and a bunch of younger guys...
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ALBAN's QUESTION(S)
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Dustin Dollin in "Baker 3" / 2005
Dustin Dollin… a living novel.
Often spotted around Paris with Rémy Taveira's crew these days, he wanders about, drinks wine and skates…
Word on the street is that he's been working on a video part, which is a fathomable possibility given the man's potential and endurance.
Anyway, this incredible part is the one Charles chooses to pick, out of so many.
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Lucas Puig
Charles' trip companion for a good while, Lucas pushes skateboarding to its limits to this day…
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Find Charles on Instagram, here.
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See you soon for more things Big Spin!
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