Edit & Photography by Nomades Skateshop
Text by Yannick Clatot
London is the first stop and the whole crew is exited to spend the next coming days in Britain’s capital. After crossing the whole city with our van we finally dropped our luggages at the hostel that will have to stand us during the next three days. After spending so much time on the road we decided to meet Leon Humphries and some few friends in a bar watching a soccer game and having a beer – the English way. The evening was cool and friendly but Nicolas and Mathias decides to turn it wild and go party all night…
On Saturday the 16th we met at a spot called Elephant and castle with local skaters. The skate spot is a small place with lots of small curbs looking short, but where everyone had the chance to expose his creativity. Mathias Silhan was the first who saw the bank to rail near a curb spot. Here, the session started to get serious: Jumping from the bank to top acid, then quickly followed by a jump from the bank to fishbrain to gap.
Everyone seems warmed up now and Horn decided to go full speed soulgrinding a curb and then gapping 180° the sidewalk and some few stairs after. The session is on and the guys a churning out tricks all over the place. Leon Humphries recommended us to follow all local skaters to a really old skate place in London that has just been rebuilt. It’s a bowl with a really large bottom and everyone had a blast here cruising. This first skating day ended with our filmmaker, Mathieu Heinemann, jumping over the crew for a nice group picture.
On Sunday the 17th we had the chance to meet English skaters to their ‘sunday meeting spot’. This little skatepark was full of young kids with scooters and skateboards, but the main attraction for bladers was a curve curb on two levels, allowing nice switch ups. Nicolas Auroux decided to kill this spot with some of the cleanest tricks ever: Soulgring to true top pornstar from the high to the low level of the spot. After this it was time to move on and shred some London’s street spots. Everyone seemed to enjoy skating rails, creative spots and was happy being in London’s streets. We ended the day and our trip in England at a huge bowl on Stockwell road in Brixton, where Joe Atkinson laced a massive 540° abstract out of the bowl in front of happy Portuguese people celebrating Portugal’s win at the Euro 2012. A little bit later, it started to rain and we went back to the hostel and have a rest before moving on to Cologne, Germany the next day.
-Yannick Clatot
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