When I first heard about Julien Benoliel’s invitational best trick contest at the DIY bowl he built I was a little sceptical. I knew he would invite the right people but at the same time that thing is so ridiculously tight that I just couldn’t see how anyone could do proper tricks in it, even dropping in feels gnarly. I can’t believe some of the shit that Karsten, Fernando and Jarne managed to do…

Juju obviously smashed it.

The Volcom europe team ( Eniz, Axel…) also came down for a little demo…

Karsten was doing some nice frontside crooked grinds…

Jelle Keppens hung up a few photos.

Tommy Guerrero played some music.

Bud, Marseille’s first real skateshop in almost 10 years finally opened it’s doors.

For more information about the events to come (Cliché and Lakai demos, the Wu-Tang concert, etc.) visit This Is Not Music‘s official website.

Daniel Espinoza and Rick Howard.

Daewon, Daniel Castillo and James Craig lurking in the background.

The Nuge, Al and Dustin Dollin.

Nassim!

Ellington and Al.

J.B

The “Nuge”, Kenny Anderson, Brophy, Sammy Winter, Mike Carroll, Braydon, Herman and Shane Heyl

Sammy Winter and the man behind Bon Voyage: Boris Proust!

As you can see the flyer is in French but you should be able to just about make out what’s going on.

Marseille hasn’t had a proper skateshop in almost 10 years so to celebrate Bud skateshop’s grand opening the locals have organised a massive event that includes  Cliché (24/05) , Volcom (28/05) and Lakai (04/05) demos, Tommy Guerrero (26/04) and Wu-Tang (24/05)  concerts and an invitational contest on the ridiculously tight DIY bowl Julien Bénoliel is currently building…

Here are some photos of what the bowl looks like so far.

Marseille is also European capital for culture this year which means that tons of money has been invested into the development of new museum, theatres and art galleries as well as in the redevelopment of  run-down areas. This mean stuff to do when you aren’t skating and millions of  new spots to hit when you are skating. If  you were looking for a place to go on holiday during that period then believe me Marseille is your ideal destination. And I didn’t even mention the weather or the legendary bowl by the beach…

Check out this website for more info.

Skateistan are hosting a “Skate with Skateistan” session at the Southbank on the 21st of this month and the team, plus Skateistan founder Ollie, will be there.

Later on in the day there will be screenings of the Skateistan short films and a chance to chat with the team. The sessions are free and open to all. Further information is available on their blog. Check the flyer for all the info.

Jérémie Daclin had the hectic Jam session under control.

Adrien Coillard didn’t seem too nervous.

By 7pm the skatepark was rammed with impatient skateboarders desperately trying to find a good seat for the video.

Cliché hooked us up with some tasty donuts.

Alex Maison after hearing that Cliché were going to surprise his buddy Flo Mirtain with his first promodel later that evening.

It’s on! Next stop the Voxx bar.

Surprise! 

Flo, Lucas, JB, Boris, Clément and me enjoying some celebratory shots at the Voxx. Thanks Nasser!

Flo got given a few of his boards to hand out to his mates. Naturally Nikwen got his first!

Lucas, Seb Housset, Maxime Géronzi and Mat from (Official skate shop Toulouse).

Flo is stoked, Steeve Ramy is trending hard and Adrien looks a like he should get some rest…

Charles got one!

The partying went on for far too long… Boris and the boys looking fresh. 7am after-party at Hotel de ville.

Bumped into JB, Gégé, Al and Boris at the airport. Everyone seemed pretty rinsed from this weekend… Have fun in L.A guys!

All in all it was an incredible weekend, I can’t wait for Bon Voyage to finally drop on iTunes and DVD (28th and 26th of April).

In the meantime you might as well rewatch this.

Some of the guys from the American and European Emerica teams will be going around the UK towards the end of April. The flyer above has all the info you need.

Most of people come to Estonia by airplanes but Russians still prefer overnight trains. Here we got Gena Kakusha having his morning tea before arriving toTallinn.

One of the best things about Simple Session is free shuttle bus between the official hotel and the arena. Here we got: me( Kirill Korobkov), Samu Karvonen and Willie Makela on the bus ride.

When it comes to big airs Tim Zom knows what’s up.

Max Kruglov didn’t come to mess around. He went straight to bs noseblunt on the first warm up.

It was way too crowded on the course during the practice. All the 70 riders we re allowed to skate at the same time. It was pretty dangerous for everyone. Max Kruglov catched Manny Santiago’s board with his head.

Korahn Gayle was another victim of the chaos.

Fernando Bramsmark did a stalefish on the obstacle that was bigger than some people’s houses.

Daniel Cates came to judge. He was marked as Daniel Gates in the judges list.

Alex Mizurov saved this trick for the finals – double bs flip up the gap.

Alex Mizurov and Manny Santiago visited Estonia for the first time.

Gosha Konyshev refused to go out on Saturday night and killed it on Sunday. He got the 6^th place.

Maxim Habanec slided on this bluntslide all the way down in his run. This thingl ooked like the funnest part of the park to me. I wish I had my skateboard with for this obstacle.

Maxim Habanec and his crooked grind up in the tech section of the course.

Maxim Habanec and his noseblunt slide in the rails zone.

Samu Karvonen and Dan Cates.

Phil Zwijsen did the biggest fs 180 of the weekend.

Proper fs 5-0 grind on the round rail always looks good. I am sure Phil knows that.

Phil Zwijsen and his stalefish transfer.

Russian delegation consisted of (from left to right) Misha Poponin, Gosha Konyshev, Sergey Dubrovin (Union Skateboards team manager), Gena Kakusha, me (I was one of the judges) and Dima “Flin”. Oh yeah, I forgot about Max Kruglov who came from Saint Petersburg in shining Audi A5.He didn’t need a free bus, he came to win.

Bs bluntslide into the bank by the skater who I don’t know.

360 flip by the Portuguese guest.

Woody Hoogendijk was as good as this crail grab on the first day but he got hurt during the semi-finals warm up.

Willie Makela comes to Estonia for Simple Session every year.

Madars Apseand his signature wallie 50-50.

Gap to fs nosebluntslide that happened during the best trick jam.

Austyn Gillette was there too – bs smith grind.

If the best trick contest happened on this obstacle, Maxim Kruglov would have won it too –360-flip up and over.

Champagne in the bus.

We had few hours before the train after we checked out from the hotel on Monday and I decided to cheat the fear of heights.

I don’t know what to say here. Her hat pretty much speaks for the whole picture, Monday afternoon in Tallinn.