Finding Love At The CPH Open
I have to preface this article by stating that despite working for MC for over five years, I wholeheartedly admit I still don’t know that much about skating.
Naz and Josh tend to take care of that realm, and although I absolutely appreciate all there is to appreciate about it, I admit I am under-versed in tricks and talent. That said, as a now Biarritz-based individual, even I knew CPH coming to town was quite the big deal. How big? I was surely about to find out.
With the first day set in Bordeaux cancelled due to blazing fires and a government ban on cultural activities, Biarritz became the opening day of the entire saga. The afternoon rolled around, I put on my boots, charged my batteries, sculled a 8.6% beer and spent an ungodly amount of time geeing myself up in my bathroom to rock up solo, hoping for dear life that I’d be able to pull off some kind of content miracle. I was well out of my depth and to be honest, for the first time in a while, a bit nervous to join in as this wasn’t the world I knew well.
As I arrived at Cité de l'Océan I immediately ran into Biarritz favourite, Juliette Lacome, who introduced me to some more of Biarritz's beloved Madeleine Larcheron and Sam Partaix, immediately dissipating my fears of a solo, content-less day. Unfortunately, that relief was short-lived. As I went to load in a new stack of Polaroid and take advantage of the 50 million skaters coming up to Sam as I stood next to him, I realised I had the wrong size film. Don’t even ask how I did that, a full brain melt. This is the part where I have to preface again that I’m obviously not a photographer which is why I was opting for Polaroids because they’re pretty hard to fuck up. And yet here I was fucking it up. Luckily, given I’ve been in the deep end a few times in my life I bought my point and shoot as backup. Three shots left, a new roll in my bag, I’ll be fine. And then this is where it went from bad to worse because instead of it being a fresh roll of film, it was a used roll that I must have accidentally packed. Panic. I tried calling my mates who were coming through a bit later but as the content gods would have it, I wasn’t getting much reception. The stress was high but after a good hour or two of trying to get back up, I finally accepted defeat, realising there wasn’t much more I could do by this point except be there and take it all in.
For the most part of the afternoon Émilie Alexandre and Robin Bolian were holding down in the Skate Her bowl session while every skater under the sun was launching themselves into the stratosphere on the ramp. Everywhere you looked, someone was in the air. It was absolute chaos of the best kind and I was in awe. Some more mates joined me and we got to work on the three euro beers watching on as the rail was added into the ramp. A lesson in aerodynamics was on and school had been sat. Then just as I thought the capacity of people hurling themselves off things couldn’t get any more insane, the drop in competition began. Somehow I convinced some of the photographer only crew up the top to let me up there with them not yet realising the shit I was about to see go down. I genuinely don’t know how anyone looks at a vertical incline of that size and thinks let’s go down that on a piece of wood with some wheels but here I was being proved wrong with every minute. Ruby Lilley managed to pull off a run unscathed for the girls and then the Brazilian kid Miguel Lealskt came in and shut the whole thing down. I have zero idea what the thing is called that he pulled off but I do know it was fucking insane. The entire crowd erupted and if the party hadn’t already kicked off, it was well and truly time by now. I joined back in with the crowd who were now inhibited enough that you could make friends with anyone, although I can’t say it was a struggle at any point in the day. In fact, the whole day was spent making friends with anyone and everyone and I laugh at myself writing this thinking it would have been any different. This is the skate community we’re talking about here, notoriously the most welcoming of them all, and here I was being welcomed with a warm hug and a cold beer.
After some deliberation in the carpark, lifts were sorted to the afterparty. I was doubled on a pony bike by a stranger called Helly who didn’t even join the hundred deep line to the club, but simply rode off into the distance. I wonder where he is now. The afterparty went as one would expect with hundreds of professional skaters in town but I tapped out pretty early by usual standards, the disappointment of my film escapades catching up with me and a story I didn’t yet know how to pull off.
While the CPH Atlantic Vacation was set to move to Bilbao for the next few days, I initially didn’t intend to follow. But after some convincing from my mates who saw how devastated I was that I didn’t get to pull off my vision in Biarritz, I decided it would be worth going down to Bilbao on a redemption mission. I hopped in the car and made the trek across the border with my friend Bridgette in tow. We rolled into La Kantera which has got to be one of the coolest skatepark set ups I’ve ever seen and a crowd even more packed than Biarritz. The speakers were blaring, the bar was cheap and no bit of concrete was spared from onlookers trying to get a glimpse of the world’s best doing their thing. Within ten minutes, we struck up a conversation with local Bayonne skater Sam, who turned out to be one of the world’s most helpful people on the planet, introducing me to any skater that walked past us and quite literally saving my job. Friends were made, polaroids were secured and the afternoon was spent in the company of some of the most talented and friendliest people I’d ever met.
To me, I’ve always looked at skating as the embodiment of style, talent and sheer insanity. I love that it’s the only sport where the aerodynamics of the clothes aren’t a factor and that everyone, no matter your age or skill, shares the same concrete. I’ve said this before, but even just posting skate content on Monster Children’s instagram, I’ve always noticed the difference of how supportive skating is compared to the other worlds we operate in. Everyone is hyping everyone up, always. To see it in person and to be welcomed as I did was something else.
Just as the commenters dubbed Miguel as the people’s champ after again owing the bowl sessions and closing off the day, the clouds opened up to a complete downpour, moving everyone along to their next destination to continue hydrating. While there was certainly some heavy consideration going into figuring out if we could stay and partake, being stuck two hours from home didn’t seem like the brightest idea after the chaos of the last few days. Instead, we opted to head home, me sat smiling the whole way back like someone who’d just been on a good date. I came out to CPH nervous to meet everyone and left in love.
A big thank you to everyone at CPH for putting on an absolute show, to those who let me stick a camera in their face and especially to Sam and Bridgette for all your help.