Léo Valls

The new video production courtesy of Louise Skateboards consists in no less than ten minutes of creative urban skate creative magic all assembled together via elbow grease and helium by Stéphane Feugas, high wire filmer extraordinaire who didn't fall asleep at the wheel of the editing either, as the final product is as meticulously crafted as the most suspect of devices. The devil went down to Bordeaux and Montpellier for the most part, Vincent Dallemagne technically wins the race but each and every of the numerous participants owns their individual merits. The general universe is as captivating as it is delirium tremens-inducing and should put a face on most faces or at the very least, get them out of the house!

It is no less than six years that Marshall Nicholson spent restlessly working on his second independent, full-length skate video (after "FEED YOUR HEAD", and shorter clips such as "JIVE"): "HOT PLATE", a few parts from which had already found their respective ways online before - notably via Theories of Atlantis and Vague Skate Mag. Talking Theories, they are still hosting this interview with Marshall by Mike Wine where the approach for, and process behind the piece were discussed in length; Vague, on their end, had Dom Henry take over the interrogation room, which resulted in even more commentary from the author.

Now, Marshall is a full-time father and still undertaking new projects, be it video-wise or not as he's also been busy managing Palms Skateshop; and yet in spite of such an intense schedule, today, he's delivering and serving us the full "HOT PLATE" - now watchable in one shot fired from Fort Myers, Florida but also, by extension, N.Y.C., Baltimore, Chattanooga and Tokyo. A whole universal story wrapped up within exactly forty-two VX-1000-driven minutes; Douglas Adams himself never was this correct at estimating the meaning of life.

The first excerpt from the new Far East Skate Network DVD "BEYOND THE BROADCASTINGS" (available straight from them here, and in Europe here) to pop up online is no other than Léo Valls' part, filmed by Shigeta Iha at the service of Takahiro Morita's vision and theory - one according to which, allegedly, early morning energy is especially favorable to purely spontaneous skateboarding. And so that's how, throughout one month back in 2014 (right after the filming of the Magenta full-length video "JUST CRUISE"), filming meet-ups were arranged every Saturday, 5:30 A.M. at the Sunplaza spot in Nakano, Tokyo prior to exploring the neighboring streets and alleyways, in search of the next curb to exploit - and let's not even get into the now world-renowned metaru banksu de gozaimasu... The footage took its time to show up, but the energy only aged like the finest of Bordeaux wines - and here's perhaps an opportunity to remind you, on a side note, about the recent release of "BORDEAUX EXPOSURE III" by Julien Januszkiewicz, here. The - original - soundtrack is by the amazing Yoshiharu Yoshida (of O.P.S.B.), and it's Léo's wife and newly a mother, Lauren, who sings and will teach you some yoga.

LIVE has been sharing Julien Janusckiewicz's skate works since the very first "BORDEAUX EXPOSURE" back in 2013; in the meantime, the series has gotten itself a second chapter, a handful of one-offs such as "LEO AND SERGIO" or "SWISS EXPOSURE" and is now just about to take its next step, due next spring, as "BORDEAUX EXPOSURE 3" has been boiling in the pot for long enough to juice out this trailer. So, on the menu: mostly Bordeaux, but also a few grams of Paris, Milan, Geneva, Montpellier and Lyon for good measure, all repped by their respective locals. Talk about an appetizer!

Please feel free to explore Julien's Vimeo here and as far as words are concerned, you can also dive back into this vintage interview regarding the original installment in the series, to get familiar (again)!

Chris Thiessen, longtime indie skate filmmaker brought under the worldwide spotlight as a participant in the Threads Idea Vacuum artisanal think tank and then via his direction of some volumes of the TransWorld SKATEboarding full-length video legacy, LIVE hasn't been without presenting his works before and we even interviewed him regarding "RIDDLES IN MATHEMATICS", that one time. For a little bit now, he's been dropping fresh edits of raw footage on his YouTube channel and after, notably, Yaje Popson and Brad Cromer's respective turns, it is now time for a Frenchman to be treated with the same deal: Magenta Bordeaux rider Léo Valls, to be accurate, on the basis of clips collected between 2016 and 2019 in Atlanta, N.Y.C., Los Angeles, Long Beach, Miami, Bordeaux, Paris and Barcelona - with some guest data in the mix, contributed by Yoan Taillandier. Quite the frenetic dance around the world, as though in hopes to tame that crispy VX-1000, eventually!