VANS Thursday Sessions / WEEK 4 / REPORT
It all went down last Thursday for some French skateshops from all over the country, or the previous Thursday for some others, due to the heat wave; but now it's done and eventually, the 2019 French Vans Thursday Sessions have come to a close, after a fourth installment involving many a local activist, product distributor, filmer, photographer, skateboarder - people who more often than not are just as anonymous as they are hyperactive.
The recaps for each former edition are respectively and chronologically to be found here, here and here!
But what's relevant to our interests right here, right now, is the whole lot of new clips, photos and other fresh news the people has produced; namely the ones of ABS Annecy and Grenoble, la familia Bud Skateshop, NDJ in Nantes, Shifty in Dijon, Okla in Toulouse and Wall Street in Lyon.
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Video: Marc Leblanc
Let's start to wrap this up with the Annecy locs; or maybe the #VeniceAnnecy locs, as Jérémie Daclin is already coining - and once again they steal the show, always on new terrain too.
This time, it is on a rad local - get it? - spot marrying the perfect slappy curb to a perfect environment of D.I.Y. structures that it all went down - and even ended on the high note of a classic-styled sticker slap contest, as though to ensure everything has come full circle and that some folks get to walk home in new shoes, too. The clip is once again Insta-fire as they say, and up to par with the great legacy of content the Annecy has been producing for those Vans Thursday Sessions the whole time throughout.
Ph.: Sebastiano Bartoloni
Ph.: Sebastiano Bartoloni
Ph.: Sebastiano Bartoloni
Ph.: Sebastiano Bartoloni
Ph.: Sebastiano Bartoloni
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Video: Arno Wagner & Thomas Guérin
Unmistakably, the aforementioned neologism "Insta-fire" shares a suffix with a theme that was common to every player in the game that week: the heat wave, ensuring that literally everybody brave enough to show up would still inevitably moan about the hundred-plus degree weather at at least one point. In Grenoble, the soundtrack of the resulting clip has to be the most blatant representation of such a phenomenon: "c'est la canicule, il fait trop chaud, sa mère" - we'll leave it up to you to translate that bit online, provided that anything online can do it justice ever.
Them dudes hit up skatepark de la Fontaine, at parc de la Poya, as the spot to go barbecue themselves on. The hottest heads even hit the rail, to roll away with some Vans freebies.
Some footage of Arno Wagner can be seen in the (brillant) newest Film Trucks video.
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Rouen
Video: Franck Wenning
Once again, as far as the Rouen episode of the Vans Thursday Sessions is concerned, LIVE passes the mic over to Franck, of the local Bud Skateshop, to recount the day better than we could:
"And we're back for this fourth Vans Thursday Session in Rouen, right in the midst of the heat wave and all the young (and less young) heads are still down to meet up to skate.
We started out at the rails near place de la Pucelle, where everybody warmed up with boardslides.
Then we moved on to the new plaza next to the Musée des beaux-arts, but it was getting way too hot to skate there actually.
So we moved on to the city hall for a quickie, then back to the shop for some Crunchy Mellow pizza as usual - thanks, Vans - and cold drinks.
Then some legs started itching again and their respective owners went back to skate Le carré, a spot just next to the notorious place des vandales..." - Franck Wenning
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Marseille
Video: Jona Bertrand
Further down South, it is Léo Vagoyeau who's about to speak for them Marseille locs:
"For the last Vans Thursday Session in Marseille, people met up at Bud around five in order to then head over to La Friche, the skatepark just nearby.
Due to the heat wave, we focused on the obstacles that were in the shade, i.e. the hip and the ledge.
Ph.: Christophe Reverbel
On the funbox, Karim Chérif, Samuel Geoni, Ben Raitano and the Cafards younguns all went for some improbable transfer wallrides; eventually, it's Ben who made his, leaving his mark on a location where that trick hadn't been done before!
Ph.: Christophe Reverbel
Then people moved on to the ledge, and dismantled it with some tech such as Michael Kuba's frontside ollie switch crooked grinds, amongst many other performances.
Ph.: Christophe Reverbel
Everybody then headed back to the shop for the Vans and Bud prizes, pizza and drinks, as well as the premiere of the new Film Trucks video, "Nouvelle Vague"!
Really, thank heaps to everybody who showed up, as well as to Vans for the great vibes!" - Léo Vagoyeau
Ph.: Christophe Reverbel
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Montpellier
Video: François Hermessan, Franck Wenning
The narrator for the Montpellier iteration of the ultimate Vans Thrusday Session is no other than François Hermessan:
"That Thursday, we left the shop by tram around five to go to Odysseum, a spot with flatground and blocks.
The younger guys played games of S.K.A.T.E., whilst the elders hucked; all in spite of the unbearable heat.
Around a quarter to seven, all them peeps headed back to the shop to get some well-deserved cold drinks.
In order to share the last few prizes, we settled for a ollie contest in front of the shop, and then went on for a premiere of the new Film Trucks video !" - François Hermessan
Ph.: Cheir Chevalier
Ph.: Cheir Chevalier
Ph.: Cheir Chevalier
Ph.: Cheir Chevalier
Ph.: Cheir Chevalier
Ph.: Cheir Chevalier
And here's the best trick of the day, by Damien Philippe:
Video: François Hermessan
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Video: Ilies El Khomri & Damien Indersie
The Nantes-based NDJ locals kept it as simple as it gets this time, as to better avoid heat strokes, and chose a simple flatbar to unleash a little barrage of impertinent tech on.
It is in a just as impertinent manner that most of them players earned their respective prizes, thanks to the aforementioned little barrage of impertinent tech on a simple flatbar.
Are you still following?
Ph.: NDJ
Ph.: NDJ
And since we're at it, here's the newest production by the local Zes't Skateboarding crew comprising Damien Indersie, Alan Sanchez and Ilies El Khomri, entitled "Mucho Cariño" and conveying plenty of tenderness, as expected, all the way from their Peru connections to Paris and Nantes as a collective.
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In Dijon, in addition to - again - the nearly unbearable heat, the Shifty locals also had to make do with the one stemming from the local municipal police, competing against the weather in terms of absurd harshness.
Whatevs - onto the next spots, in this case a flat gap and one not-so-obvious ledge, all the while flashing them moves on the way...
And then of course, the usual - back to the shop, food, drinks, freebies, the whole picture!
Crooked grind tuck-knee. Ph.: Shifty
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Video: Elliot Simpson
Once again the Toulouse-based Okla locals are displaying great concern for the type of warm-up spot that is so fun one is bound to get stuck there all day, for this last installment of the Vans Thursday Sessions in the pink city.
Here, we're talking a perfect buffed two set that just looks perfect for any fancy maneuver one can think of, regardless of their style, getting shredded by folks strong of fighting on their cobblestone-paved turf.
The energy is so communicative, it's easy to want to have been there too!
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Video: Guillaume Colucci
Last but not least, to wrap those 2019 French Vans Thursday Sessions for good, the Lyon-based Wall Street skateshop entourage had photographer Loïc Benoît rip, mentally and garmentally unless that was a side effect of the heavy heat, or shinners. Anyway, the man still got the job done.
The session went down at place Jean Jaurès (that appears to be a skatable plaza in every self-respecting French town imaginable), and over an improvised flat gap; rad times and great homie vibes on some spontaneous obstacles, a chill approach which happens to only be that much more welcome, given the climate that day.
Ph.: Loïc Benoît
Ph.: Loïc Benoît
Ph.: Loïc Benoît
Ph.: Loïc Benoît
Ph.: Loïc Benoît
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