Noah Mahieu & Raphael Langslow – That’s Cool
Interviews by Zach Baker
Augustin “Nonni” Giovannoni: At the beginning, we were meant to do a part with Raph in Paris. Then Noah wanted to film a part. Then it just ended up being a video with the two of them… doing two parts and filming the other people on trips to Paris as well, which was nice.
Diego Todd: I’ve been with Raph in Paris two summers in a row while he was working on this. I didn’t know what he was filming for. We’d go to a gnarly spot, or be talking about a gnarly spot and he’d be like, “Oh yeah, I did this on it
last summer,” and I’m like, “What? Where’s that footage?” and he’s like, “Oh, we’re saving it for Nonni’s video,” and that’s when I kind of heard about it.
Nonni: [Raph] came to Paris the last few summers, since 2022. The first clip for the video was 2023. It’s the crook bonk at le Dome… The same day Jack O’Grady did a line there: he ollied the double set and then lipslid a rail down the seven stair.
Max Palmer: I think they were in New York for 10 days maybe, or a week. It wasn’t that long.
Nonni: We were there for like three weeks almost, I think. It could be a video, just that trip.
Noah Mahieu, boardslide to noseslide, New York City. Ph. Ben Colen
Kinser Cathey: That’s right when it was officially nice out in the city, that was maybe the beginning of May.
Cyrus Bennett: I guess maybe it was like in June. They were here for like two weeks. They got so much shit. I definitely was there for like three or four dope ass clips. The one that sticks out the most was the gap back noseblunt on Allen. I kind of just pulled up and he landed it third try. I think they went maybe twice but I kind of pulled up right when he did it.
Kinser: The gap to curb. Yeah. I watched traffic for that one. It didn’t even take that long. But that’s classic with Noah. That was maybe 10 to 15 tries. “Don’t try as hard,” as he says. That’s Noah’s advice when you’re battling something: just like try a little less hard, think less.
Max: [Noah] had a lot of spots from last summer. He was here staying with me and we kind of harvested a lot of those spots. He had a lot of shit that he wanted to go back to… He had a lot of ideas for New York already, so when they got here they just started going in. I would meet up with them at one and Noah would have already got two clips.
Nonni: Noah had some ideas… And we just cruised around I guess.
Raph Langslow, frontside 50-50, Paris. Ph. James Griffiths
Cyrus: We would always be pretty fucking deep. It was like the beginning of summer and everyone was out. But [Noah’s] pretty good at spotting something he wants to do and just breaking off and getting it done… coming back with a clip. He’s pretty efficient that way: he knows what he wants to do, gets it done, then links back up like an hour or two later.
Jack O’Grady: I was injured… I was just going to PT a lot. Nonni stayed at my house when him and Noah came here, but I came on the session a couple of times. Some days I wouldn’t come out… He would just stumble into my house at probably like 12 o’clock and we’d just go to the deli up the corner from my house. We’d just sit on the stoop and he would
just tell me about all the good shit he filmed that day. We’d do that almost every night.
Enzo Kurmaskie: I was kicking it with them like every day when they were here. I had to work for part of the time they were here but besides that, I was with them almost every day. There was like a weird lull in filming with everything else. And Nonni was just so down. It was really fun to be out with them.
Nonni: Max snapped, Enzo snapped, everyone snapped.
Noah Mahieu, gap to backside nosebluntslide, New York City. Ph. Ben Colen
Jack: [Max’s] noseslide onto the New York planter fence thing to front board to fakie. Obviously, you see so much footage of Max skating stuff like that. It was so sick that day because we were just… I mean, I wasn’t even skating yet. I was just chilling; I was on the bike. Then Max had this idea and we pulled up to that and then it was just, I don’t know, I don’t think you could see like a more Max Palmer spot ever. It was just sick to be there. Obviously I’m new to this city so I just walk around and see those weird planter things everywhere and straightaway you think of Max. It was sick to see him pull that out of his ass out of nowhere.
Enzo: [Union Square board to noseslide] was one of the only times I’ve seen [Noah] slam and battle something. It was fucking gnarly. He got into one of the noseslides where he like stood up on the noseslide and ran into the rail after, you know, like the second rail. He checked his chest on it… But he did it pretty chill. It was only two times… He tried it once and got tired then tried it another time. He was so chill about it. The second time he went, it was within like 30 minutes.
Ryan Mettz: Which trick are we talking about? I remember I linked up with Max and we were going over there because Nonni was over there and… Logan maybe? Or no. I remember a couple people were filming and one of them was Nonni. And Enzo landed something right as we walked up. Or no, Noah landed something right as we walked up and Enzo was trying something right after. We were just chilling there eating Pret. There were a bunch of people there. I probably had
a falafel wrap, a coffee, maybe chips at that time. Highly likely that I had a bag of chips.
Raph Langslow, ollie, Paris. Ph. Alex Pires
Nonni: Noah and I were in New York, then Paris for like 10 days and then Biarritz for a couple days. Noah and I, we didn’t go to Copenhagen [Open]. I mean we don’t have to go there. It’s for the best, I reckon.
Diego: I kind of on purpose went to Paris while Copenhagen [Open] was happening because I knew no one would really be there. [Nonni] came back from New York… He took a red-eye flight from JFK to Charles de Gaulle, went home, dropped his bag off and then pushed to meet up with us. He skated all day off of no sleep and filmed me. We tried tricks off of no sleep. I would ask him how he’s doing and he’s like, “Um… I’m fucked. I’m fucked; this is so gnarly.” Then later in the day I’m like, “Dude, you don’t… I don’t think I’m going to try anything else. You should go home and sleep.” And he’s like, “Okay. Thank you, Diego.” It was pretty sick that he did that.
Max: The Paris trip was… Well it was all the same trip… It was just gnarly because we came there straight from Copenhagen Open so we were already fried and then it rained every day we were there.
Ben “Lincoln Child” Lawrie: I wasn’t even supposed to go there this year, but I managed to pull it off at the very last second. Like I’d been begging Geoff [Campbell] for months to get me a flight to go there after Copenhagen because it’d be silly not to. Obviously Nonni and Raph and everyone were filming this video and I was like, “I need to go there.” It’s such a waste of a flight around the world to just go to Copenhagen and come home. But literally the night before Geoff was like, “Dude, if you really want to go to Paris, like if you miss your flight, I’m gonna have to figure out how to get you home somehow. So just miss the flight and I’ll have to figure it out later.”
Noah Mahieu, gap to frontside lipslide, Paris. Ph. Alex Pires
Amelien Foures: Raph came after Copenhagen. I witnessed a few rail tricks, which is not super common in Paris. There are not many rail skaters in Paris, so it was pretty impressive. He was finding some rails that we’d never seen before and just like… He was skating them straight. I don’t know, it was kind of crazy. He’s going fast, that’s pretty impressive. When you see it on a rail, in person, he goes fast and he’s really powerful.
Ben: I feel like Raph is the perfect person for skating a city like Paris because he can go for shit. He’s really consistent with what he can do and he doesn’t give a fuck about cars and things… The busyness doesn’t really faze him.
It’s almost like the sketchier things are, the more likely he is to actually go for it.
Diego: Did someone shoot a photo of that gap 50-50 gap on the bike rack in the middle of the street? He like gaps the street? I was watching cars for him for that. That was pretty gnarly. He’s got mad pop.
Ben: I was there for that gap to grind in the middle of the road. That was fucked man. I was like blocking traffic and there’s motorbikes coming around the corner without worrying about red lights and shit, you know? They’re just like flying around the corner out of nowhere and like Raph’s almost hitting them and shit. I don’t know… He thinks it would be a good clip if he almost gets hit by a motorbike. So he’s stoked either way.
Raph Langslow, frontside nosegrind, Paris. Ph. James Griffiths
Jack: Me, Raph, and Gabbers [Gabriel Summers] Lime-biked to this rail that Raph was claiming. It was a pretty big rail and Raph was pretty scared to do it. Gabbers kept giving him shit and it was pretty funny. I don’t know if he was really gonna do it or not but then I guess Nonni came after filming LC [Lincoln Child] at the other spot. He just did like a classic Langahs tre flip on flat, pushed down the hill, ollied over this thing and then he grinded this rail… Like second time trying it. But it was pretty good because as he rolled away, the cops pulled up as LC was smoking a joint and we thought the cops were like pulling up to kick us out. So I think Raph saw the cops and freaked out and fully committed to the rail… But they were actually just like pulling up to get LC’s details down because one of the neighbours snitched on him for smoking weed at the spot. So I think it was almost like a blessing in disguise. He was doing the line up the street and then saw the police and was just like, “Fuck, I guess this is it, last shot,” and just went full committee city and did it, but then they just didn’t really care about skating anyway.
Ben: He landed this fucking line in Paris, right… I was about to get arrested by the cops for smoking weed. And he like, lands this line, and I’m just like, in the background, fully just getting fucked over by the cops. They’ve got my weed in their hands looking at it, and he just lands the line, and I’m stressing in the background. They searched my bag and found the weed and I was like, “Oh, sorry… This isn’t weed, it’s CBD.” I basically just stuck with it being CBD and I told them that I didn’t have the receipt, but I bought it next to a tobacconist next to Bastille. The guy said something to me in French after, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. They just made me mush it into the ground.
Nonni: Noah’s dad lives nearby Biarritz so it was fun to do like a three-day trip from Paris with Max and Raph, so they could see more than Paris. I’ve never been there before as well, so it was all new for the three of us. It’s quite funny to try surfing and shit like that.
Noah Mahieu, backside wallride, Paris. Ph. James Griffiths
Max: As soon as we got into the countryside, we all felt a massive relief because we’d just been in Paris, in the rain, staying in this shitty basement Airbnb that was all mildewy. Ben was convinced that there was an entrance to the catacombs in the backyard of the Airbnb and it was full of mosquitoes… So we got down to the beach and we all were so relieved and it was so nice. Biarritz is really sick. It’s like, incredibly beautiful but not great for skating. It’s like crazy rocky beaches and incredible Victorian architecture on the beach and everything’s super fancy. But it’s really nice. Noah’s dad lives in Hossegor. It’s like 30 minutes from Biarritz. It’s a famous surf destination and it’s just a little surf beach town. But it’s all forested. So you’re like driving around in a forest, but you’re also on the beach.
Philippe Mahieu: What did I think about Max? I was really pleased to meet him. Actually, I met him once in New York, like two years ago, because I spent a week there. Noah skated a little bit with the guys, so I met Max and Cyrus, but we didn’t really have time to talk or whatever. So [this time] we had a little bit more time. It was cool. I was really pleased to show him the proper way to eat baguette in the morning, which is salted butter and a little bit of jam, so that you have a mix between sugar and salt. It’s very good, and I think he enjoyed it. We got a few beers and we skated a little bit. We have some curbs at home, so we had a little session. That was amazing for me to skate with those guys at home. You know it’s a bit like the countryside here. It’s just by the ocean, it’s not a big city, it’s a little village, so that was cool.
Nonni is a little bit… We say reservé… You say “reserved?” You know, someone who doesn’t talk so much. Well, after a while, you know, he’s talking a little bit more and more. So that was nice.
Raph is… It’s nice to talk with him, you know? It’s easy to talk with him. He seems like a really good friend to hang around with.
Raph Langslow, crooked grind, Biarritz. Ph. Clément Le Gall
Nonni: It was sick. Noah was just hyped to have us at his house and skating the curb in his driveway. We’re skating that and his dad came out and skated too. It was pretty awesome. It’s nice to be able to involve other people from someone’s family in a project.
Max: Him and Noah have such a good rapport, it was really fun to see. They’re like best friends, but he’s also his dad at the same time. Makes perfect sense why Noah turned out the way he did. It was just awesome to be in his hometown with him because he was so excited to drive us around and show us all the spots and, you know, tell us all the little hometown stories.
Philippe: That was nice to spend some time with them. It’s cool for me because Noah, you know, when he comes back from the trips, he tells me about a few things, but most of the time I don’t know the people he’s talking about. So this time, I had the opportunity to meet them.
Noah Mahieu, switch frontside crooked grind, Biarritz. Ph. Clément Le Gall
Max: That wallride was a whole saga. People have been claiming that wallride for years, obviously, and no one’s ever really attempted it. Or I think people probably have tried it, but because it’s right on the beach, it’s always windy there and the ground sucks. So Raph was trying to do it, just pushing at it, and he was getting pretty close, but then the wind picked up and he just couldn’t get enough speed because of the wind. You need to get towed in. Some random guy on an electric scooter tried to tow him in a couple times that day, but he just didn’t know what he was doing. Then there’s a restaurant at the top, this pizza place, and they open up at like one, so at one o’clock you just get kicked out. So then we went back again the next day with Noah’s little brother, Tim, he has a scooter also. So he meets us there in the morning at like 11 and he’s gonna tow Raph into it. He’s there waiting for us; we pull up and he tries to start the scooter and it just dies. Completely dies. So Raph can’t even attempt it. So we leave the scooter there and just give Tim a ride back and then two days later, it’s everyone’s last day there, and it’s like their last chance to try it. So Tim got the scooter repaired or maybe he borrowed his girlfriend’s scooter, either way, he gets another scooter or gets it fixed and then we go there at like 11 in the morning, maybe 10. And I’m leaving to go to the airport so we just dropped them all off there and I’m like, “Good luck Raph you got this, hope the scooter works.”
Nonni: On the last day, the moped got fixed and we tried. We drove to the spot with Noah and Max, they dropped us at the spot then Noah took Max to the airport, because Max was flying back to New York. In the meantime, we managed to get it done. Then we had a coffee with Noah, Noah’s brother and Noah’s dad by the beach, then we took the train back to Paris.
Ben: Noah, like… You watch him skate, he just looks so calm that It’s like he’s done all of the work in his head before. I feel like he’s thought about it all so much that he can just put it all together once he’s there. It’s different to Raph, because he’s like… If he thinks about it before, he’s way worse at doing it. On the fly he’ll just do it. It’s like the more spontaneous the better.
Raph Langslow, ollie in, Paris. Ph. James Griffiths
Cyrus: [Noah]’s really sweet and calculated and kind of has a more grown up way of going about skateboarding than most people his age. It’s never easy shit that he’s doing. It just seems easy when he does it. And he knows how to do it. A lot of times it looks like he’s skated a spot so many times already or something when it’s his first time skating it.
Diego: The way [Raph] was talking about the video, he seems really focused on doing the best job he can for it, which got me pretty hyped because I’ve been on that same tip recently.
Enzo: Shout out Nonni because he’s such a beast dude. He’s like one of the most dedicated filmers I’ve ever met. He’s so good at what he does, and he’s such a little weirdo. The time I was in Paris, it was funny. We were kicking it super tough because all these dudes were in town and everyone left town at once. I was staying at Auguste Bouznad’s house and I got left alone. Like Auguste went to the south of France, Max left, everybody that I knew pretty much left and I was just at his apartment alone. It was me and Nonni going out every day. That’s when we got really close, like we always kicked it, but then I spent that week in Paris, just me and him. We got so close, just me and him lurking around. It was fucking sick. We went to so many weird places. Didn’t even skate. We had so much time; it was just me and him. Like, “Should we go check this out?” Literally doing nothing.
Noah Mahieu, frontside 180 kickflip, Paris. Ph. James Griffiths
Cyrus: Nonni is awesome. He’s really about it. He’s really there if you want to do it. He’s definitely like a great companion to be out skating with, trying to get footage with… And he’s really funny too, which makes it great. He has a good sense of humour and it’s always fun. He’s really just a skate rat who wants to get footage just as bad as you do, if not more.
Nonni: It’s just fun. We go to a spot and we kick it. It’s always a good day; it doesn’t feel like work. Just like, “I’m with my homies.” That’s it. That’s what matters, I think. That’s what I like the most about it. I’m going out and if something works, something works, but otherwise we’re just going to have a good time. It’s fun. Nothing is stressful. It can be sometimes, but for me, almost never.
