Meeting… Édouard Depaz!
Photos: Yedihael Canat (unless noted)
Interview: Clément Vanpé
Bordeaux is now the French capital of a certain type of skating, that you can not call “underground” anymore, as it speaks to many across the world… And young Édouard, at 19 years of age, seems to come in direct lineage from that “street” thing. Tomorrow, we’ll premiere his new part, done by the Black Room heads, and we are quite happy to associate with this first real exposure of such a fine young man. Before he shows you what he got, tomorrow, let’s meet him first…
Benjamin Deberdt
Hello Édouard, what are you up to, right now?
Hey there! Well, right now, I’m at my girlfriend’s tying to chill a bit. I’m just back from Lille, and getting mentally prepared to work for two months, in order to make a bit of money, before moving to Paris in September.
I heard you used to be quite the Leo Valls protégé when you were younger. Are you guys still cruising together?
No, not as much… Now, I have school, my girl and the buddies I skate with whenever I have a bit of time. So, yeah, it’s hard to combine it all.
Can you tell us how you hooked up with Black Room, and how the whole thing turned into this edit for Live?
Well, "Peps" [Guillaume Anselin, NDLR] had asked me to come to Basque Country to shoot pics for a couple days, early last year. I was in Bordeaux, and he told me two of his friends Joaquim Bayle (who runs Black Room) and Maxence Cheval were in town for the day before heading to the Basque shores. So, he gave me their number, and we ended up spending a great week over there, and getting along just fine!
As for the part, we did filmed quite a lot during that one week, and Joaquim told me he could put me up in Lille for the end of the summer. I jumped on the opportunity, and we kept on filming, thinking that if we kept going at it like that, we could end up with something cool. He then came back to Bordeaux twice, and right now, I’m just back from Lille, where we just put the finishing touches on the edit!
As people will see, you have been around in order to film. How was that week in Spain?
Yah, we did go on some great missions! The week we spent between Basque Country and Saragossa was just too good. We moved around quite a bit, had a blast, and what was cool is we did visit the areas, going through Las Banderas and many small villages. In Saragossa, we also met up with the Nomad heads which are great people, and that showed us around a bit. It was nice; I’d love to go back there with the same crew!
Backside nosepick.
When you were over here, in Lille, you had the chance to meet and skate with the Zeropolis crew. What do you make of the Lille scene?
I had already been there once, so I knew the Zerop’ guys, we had a good time, skated a bunch, and drank too many beers, maybe! [Laughter] Then again, some were working, and others were hurt. So I couldn’t skate with everybody, but I found the whole vibe was great!
Are you getting helped at all, or you get by with just your student budget?
As for hardware, I try to get by on my own, even if Baron Clothing is helping me to get dressed up like a grown-up! [Laughter] I used to get some help from Nomad, at one point. But, in the end, with the price of train tickets between Bordeaux and Saragossa, my studies and the crisis in Spain, that didn’t work out… But I still keep great contacts with the local scene over there!
Looking at the part, one can feel you managed to appropriate different times of skateboarding, and mix all those influences in a coherent manner… What inspires you to do so?
End of the day, I don’t try to be different, or anything like that… I just learned different tricks. Plus, I’m not a big fan of flip-in flip-out combos. So, I try to look at spots differently, and see if I can do what I do on it, really.
You are moving to Paris for your studies, next year. How do you apprehend leaving your Bordeaux cocoon and try to join a new scene?
One day or another, you got to stand on your own two feet! [Laughter] I am pretty happy to move, actually, plus I do know quite a lot of people in Paris, through skating, so I’m not too worried. The only that does bother me is that I already barely see my Bordeaux homies, because of school, so it might even get worse, in terms of hanging out with my buddies from the HK crew!
To round this up, what projects you have lined up, skating or not?
As for skating, I have strictly no idea. I keep on skating and having a laugh with my buddies. As for school, well, listen, I just passed my first year for ECV, so I’m going to continue that. But I would like to move to the States, maybe NYC, who knows!?
Kickflip. photo: David Manaud
