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.

Jarne must have stacked up a lot of good footage if he can afford to let both those tricks go into a trailer… Be sure to get your hands on a copy of issue 113, Jarne’s 16 page interview in it is banging.

On the cover of this month’s issue we’ve got Adrien Coillard taking out Geoff Rowley on Lyon’s famous hubba for the second time. Yep, the little guy who casually gap to bluntslid the beast in issue 110 went back for more.

In related “Bon Voyage” news, we covered Brophy, Flo, Joey, Pete Eldridge and Sammy Winter’s trip to China. The article should give you a good idea of the standard of skating we can expect from this new Cliché video. Only 4 days to go!

Since Element Europe are also working on a video (Hold It Down) we decided to send Sam Ashley to Morocco where Karsten, Nassim, Madars and Phil were out on a filming mission. Needless to say they absolutely killed it. With a crew like that what else would you expect?

We even managed to fit in Michi Mackrodt, Kenny Reed and globe trotting photographer Alexey Lapin’s recent  trip to the Balkans.

As you can tell from the titles on the cover we’ve also picked the brains of some pretty funny characters this month. I’m sure a lot of you will find the Pearls Of Wisdom with the one and only “Give your life to Christ”  Christian Hosoi quite interesting.

Samu Karvonen gets the first interview slot and tells us about organising a skate flea market, why he eats food from dumpsters and what he knows of Quicksilver’s plans for the Euro skate team. The second goes to Element Europe’s Jarne Verbruggen who came through with 16 pages of all terrain savagery. Finally we’ve got an Effect with Tom Day. Those of you who (like me) haven’t seen very much of him before this are in for a shock. This guy destroys some seriously unwelcoming terrain. Can’t wait to see the footage of these tricks in Heroin’s “Video Nasty“.

Now that you know what’s in there, go and get yourself a copy!

As a part if the awards we are giving you, the public, the chance to have a say too.

Just follow this link or click the image below to access the voting page for your chance to decide who should receive the award presented at Bright tradeshow in Berlin on January the 20th, 2012.

8am departure from Vienna to Cologne.

Jarne and Nassim showed up 1 hour late, straight from a party with no sleep.

Too easy to not take advantage of the situation.

It could be enough…

But it’s not!

Guillaume did that on purpose. Fair play!

Too late to complain. Push the game to the limit.

Finally arrived in Cologne to meet the crew 2 hours late. Time to count the points and figure out who’s the winner !!!

Guillaume’s friend from Vienna is the happy owner of the one and only Kit from Knight Rider the 80s T.V show.

As you can see the T.M, Alex, looks just like David Hasselhoff.

The proof in the pudding.

Phil ski-doing.

Nassim getting ready for the Larance challenge.

Guillaume taking his Revenge after Nassim ripped off his t-shirt.

Luckily for Nassim he still had the shorts to go back to the hotel in…

Guillaume ate shit.

Austria’s fine art graffiti.

Austria’s fine riders.

A spot of modern day chilling.

I wasn’t even aware of this challenge!

Jarne took care of the tooth brushing with beer…

And Guillaume went for the red wine.

Nassim was trying to skate, and we had to keep quiet to avoid the security guard. This is what you have to do when you really want tranquility.

Phil killed it as the second angle man.

No comment.

We drove to Vienna that night to go to a party. Jarne warmed up with some Jagermeister.

TM Alex was feeling the Hugo wig.

Phil about to make his own interpretation of Hugo.

Nassim and his own interpretation of what is real gangsta!

Jarne chillin’, Niki filmin’ and Ruben skatin’…

Nassim foolin’!

Phil post session restin’

Nassim keepin’ it clean after a gypsy night.

This was on the way to Linz after the night at the skatepark. This water comes directly from the mountain and was drinkable. Maybe not after we washed in it, I guess… Belgians on the rocks !

Manu Magreiter showed up and explained to the boys where to jump because the river was only 2 meters deep…

…actions speak louder than words. Manu back flipping first go, no pussy !

Meanwhile Guillaume made the most of the river with a wash and shave.