Scene / Perpignan
Photos: Julio Sola
Perpignan might not be the center of all French skateboarding discussions, but the city that once ruled over the Kingdom of Majorca has raised a few phenomenons, that have made some noise way far from home. Its strategic location, just a stone throw from Barcelona, might be a part of that…
Not knowing much more than you, really, we thought our first Scene feature should hit a place that lives at its own rhythm, far from all the media noise.
Therefore, here we go, for a collective conversation with the crew that holds it down, at the bottom of the page!
How would you describe your local scene, at the moment?
The local scene, well, it’s a mix of generations, a pretty tight group, with its ups and downs. We got Seb Housset, Max Geronzi, the Tailpied brothers, Jordy Bouchal, Flo Vatin, and then the others… The younglings of La Skatasse, the local association. With age, its gets a bit spread out, but the crew is still here.
What would be the historical figures, then?
Seb Housset, Max Geronzi, and all the scmucks in the video, really…
Max Geronzi, ollie up backside noseblunt.
Perpignan is not very high on the list of French destinations, let’s put it that way… Are you fine with that?
“Oh, boy, we don’t care…” It’s a local saying! [Laughter] We had our glory days, don’t worry! Seb Housset, back then, put the area on the map. You started to see our spots in magazines. Also because we are connected with Gerona… Seb wants to say, “what’s up” to Raul Lupinez, AKA Lupi. He’s the pure Catalan, nervous and technical.
And we do get some transit. Just the other day, imagine that, central Perpignan, on boulevard Felix Mercader, Chico Brenes was skating a ledge! You walk out the Casino supermarket, and here is Chico! We are a destination, don’t worry!
Nathan Tailpied, frontside flip.
Why so much footage from Barcelona and Badalona, then?
Wintertime, we often have to cross the mountains, to flee the wind. The “tramontane”, as its called, can blow around 100Km/h for two months in a row. While, if you drive 40 Km south, you are in Spain, and it’s bliss. You don’t question it too long. And we were motivated to film for this… Usually we stick to Instagram and iPhone activities… [Laughter] No, but seriously, the wind was on Perpi, so we just drove to Barci… We had some footage from the other guys, so we decided to mix it all, and give an idea of what is our skateboarding. But, if you want an idea of our city, come visit us. We’ll welcome you, for sure!
So, the Toulouse locs also have the keys of Perpignan, then?
Romain Jorda, his dad lives around here, so with Étienne Baunin, they’ve been seen a lot here in the Catalan capitol. So, they allowed the others to discover our local spots. The transit is more in that direction, especially if the sesh ends up as a night out on Costa Brava, for a little party night at Cadaques or Platja d’Aro, for the fearless. You’ll see how it goes down.
Getting back to skateboarding, what’s the dynamic at the moment?
Max is building a bowl in his garden… Seb is working on his skateshop in Philadelphia, where he spends the majority of his time, for skateboarding and family reasons. In terms of playground, we got Morgue 66, a warehouse lost in the middle of the vineyards, where some do a bit of concrete, while others cook some Catalan grilling… Also, Nathan runs a skaters’ bar where our heroes meet up at night… There is no more skateshop in Perpignan, and the local association is barely alive… So, that makes it a bit hard for the kids to meet up… The street spots are outside the city, also. We have a streetpark, though, that does the job.
The scene is split in two… But friends stay tight!
Seb Housset and Jordi Bouchal had put their city on the map a while back…
Our bonus part shows how they did it!
