Nike SB AF-1 Creased Euro Tour
Photography by James Griffiths
Words by Arthur Derrien
As the 22-person posse slowly assembled outside our hotel in Amsterdam, it all felt very Videoradio. Actually, the AF-1 branding covering the massive bus we were about to board was probably closer to Wu-Tang World Tour levels of in your face, but you get the vibe: it was a lot. And to be honest, the energy as we drove over to our first of many extremely hectic demos kind of reflected that. Some jokes were cracked, some water bottles and posters got tagged up, and some tentative laughs were had, but nobody was fooling anyone; it was intimidating.
Karsten Kleppan, backside Smith grind, Antwerp
At the same time, I’m not sure what I was expecting. Sure, like the Clan, the Nike SB team was very much on this trip “for the children” (and they certainly came out in swarms every single time we pulled up at a skatepark), but the overwhelming feeling was that this crew kind of still actually were the children. Or at least that they were still completely obsessed with skateboarding in the same beautiful way as the kids they were showing up for were. You should have heard how gassed some of them were about meeting JB Gillet in Lyon, or seen the glimmer in Bobby Worrest’s eyes as he did his first few laps of HDV (levels of palpable joy that were matched only by the “yeeeeeargh” that echoed around the valley of the Versus DIY as he randomly decided to zipline 15 feet above our heads for lols). There was no fake bravado, no egos, and the only rap-fuelled menace we had onboard was a cheeky, baby-faced Italian whose stage name is The Real Chicken Little. So yeah, not exactly ODB… And it’s not to say there wasn’t a little bit of drinking and smoking and card playing going down on that coach, especially during the first few days, but for the most part our memories from the road are wholesome ones, with everyone respecting each others’ personal space in order to recharge both the bod and the social battery to be on point for the next stop.
Eetu Toropainen, backside 360, Milan
They’re images of Casper grinning in a corner after eating his weight in sweets, or of Will and Vilma having a 2-hour heart-to-heart over a game of FIFA on her Nintendo Switch, not of boozy back-of-the-bus carnage. Even Dylan Jaeb, who’s probably the closest thing we had to a Method Man or a Muska in terms of him drawing the biggest crowds – dude’s lifestyle couldn’t really be any further removed from that of our Cadillac-driving friend at the peak of Circa. He’s 22, has never drunk or smoked weed, and is one of the most humble, self-aware people we’ve ever come across on these types of adventures. So yeah, no chance he’ll rock up blasting a fat boombox, but rest assured, it’ll be the very same superstar energy when he fucks up your demo, frontside flipping humongous rails in three goes and whatnot. The only difference is that he’ll be spending the following two hours watching skate videos that came out before he was born or filming the Alps through a plastic bottle for his Vlog rather than going on a drum-and-bass bender with Paris Hilton.
Ville Wester, backside noseblunt, Lyon
What, you don’t believe that it’s possible to be that big of a name in this game and still remain true to your inner grom? This quick catch-up we had with Dylan after the dust had settled should give you a better idea of what we’re on about here…
Can you share a memorable interaction with a skateboarder you looked up to growing up?
Dylan Jaeb: I’m from Hawaii, and so it’s kind of similar to being from a small town in that you wouldn’t really see pros. And the first pros we’d see would be when they’d come to vacation in Hawaii.
So we’d see their Instagram story and recognise the beach they’d be at with their girlfriend or something and be like, “Oh shit, this or this pro is in town!”
So we’d make sure to go hang out at the skatepark in case – actually, we’d just be there all day anyway, haha. But we’d really make sure, because a lot of times those guys would bring their boards on their vacation, and we’d get to see them for a second skating the mini-ramp in their surf trunks or something. But anyway the first time that happened, we heard that Ryan Sheckler was on the island, and my dad knew someone that knew someone that knew him or something, and so they lined it up, and told Ryan he had a huge fan! So we got to meet him on the beach when he was having a bonfire, and me and my friend got a photo with him, and he told us to come skate the park with him the next day… It was really cool. And he was awesome to me, and at the time, he was the man! Plus, the person who had mentioned he had a huge fan had even shown him this hardflip I’d done, and I remember him talking about it and just being so excited that Ryan Sheckler had seen my trick!
Ryuhei Kitazume, frontside crooked grind, Lyon
How do you navigate being on the other side of that now?
I definitely try to hold on to that feeling I just described, and I think about it… But it just never feels like you’re now actually the person that’s on the other side of that. Because when a kid comes up to you and talks to you, they just want to be heard and tell you everything they need to tell you. So actually really trying to listen is the best thing you can do when you’re in that position. They have so much anxious energy, often from practising what they’re going to say to you, that the goal is really to just make them feel as comfortable as possible. Because my knee-jerk reaction is to always just have a normal conversation with them and be like, “Hey, where are you from?”, that type of thing… But usually they just want to tell you things that they know about you, or have seen from you, so just sitting there, looking them in the eyes and really listening feels like the best thing you can do.
Do you have any examples of times when it’s felt like you yourself have really had an impact on a kid, or made them feel special?
I don’t know; it might be hard to think of something specific.
Sora Shirai, frontside 180 to switch crooked grind, Paris
What about the kid you met at Woodward?
I don’t know; I don’t want it to sound like I’m bigging myself up, haha. Maybe you can tell it.
Okay, I’ll try, and you can add to it. So you and Eetu [Toropainen] went to Woodward to judge a contest they were doing for the kids there, and you met this one kid that was really passionate about skate videos, and you guys really connected with him…
Yeah, we ended up just hanging out with him a lot, and he was just like really, really stoked on skate videos, and I guess in this era that’s kind of rare. Like most the other kids there were just skating really hard to win this contest at the end of the week, but this one kid, it was like he wasn’t even really there to skate, I mean he skates good too, but he just wanted to talk to us about videos and music, and show us this playlist he had with all the songs he was going to use…
And so when you got home, you sent him a camera…
Yeah… I had an old HPX that kind of worked, so I got it back into a usable order, and I sent it to him.
Vitus Silas, frontside kickflip, Hilversum
What made you want to do that?
I don’t know… If there’s any chance that he goes on to make skate videos; that’s awesome. It’s so worth it.
What would be your dream line-up of skateboarders for a mega-demo tour like this one? It can be anyone, at any specific point in their careers.
Hmm, let me think about who’s really good in front of crowds; some people really feed off it… Bastien Salabanzi! When he’s at that contest doing all the cab double flips, and the cab flip front board fakies and stuff…
Ah yeah, like at the time of that Bastien Salabanzi Show video?
Yeah! He could probably just do it alone, haha.
Dylan Jaeb, frontside 180 kickflip, Antwerp
Is there anything you find difficult about doing long demo-focused trips like this one? Anything you particularly enjoy?
You mentioned this before, but the social battery is probably the hardest part about doing this type of trip, but for me, it’s a lot less pressure than filming. It feels a lot less scary to just go and do the tricks that you know how to do in front of people. I try to remember that it is inspiring to see stuff like that in person. And I don’t know, I have a lot more motivation a lot of times. When you’re filming stuff and it’s just you and a filmer and a couple of friends, it feels almost like you’re not doing anything that’s that worthwhile sometimes, even if you get a good trick. It’s like, you know that it’s good, but… So yeah, having that many people around to basically show you that they care is inspiring. It makes me feel like skateboarding is worth it in a lot of ways that you don’t feel when you put out a video part, because you just have comments, likes or whatever to look at, things that don’t actually exist in your life. Having those real interactions makes it all feel a little bit more legit.
Sora Shirai, caballerial backside tailslide to fakie, Munich
Starting to get the picture? And this feeling he describes, about in-person events almost acting as a reminder of the value of what he, we and everyone that contributes to skating in any way, big or small, does… It was all around us every step of the way on this trip! The sentiment would be shared in all the heartwarming conversations we’d have with parents attending the skateshop signings, regardless of if their kid was ecstatic from meeting Sora [Shirai] in person after studying his unreplicable tricks for months, or because it was their first window into this whole fascinating world that exists around their new hobby (and that they got free pink stickers!). It would be described as essential by these shops’ owners to bridge the growing disconnect between the skateboarders they serve and the products they stock, and would get the plaza’s old farts reminiscing about their own glory days and the moments that first gave them the bug (you know the embellishing lens of nostalgia is hard at work when this AF-1 demo is getting compared to Tyrone Olson and Dave Mayhew’s HDV visit for Osiris’ The Storm).
Vitus Silas, frontside 180 kickflip, Paris
When you spend days on Street View looking for spots, or editing a photo, or chasing whatever rainbow it is you’re chasing, it’s easy to forget to zoom out. And often even when you try, your feeble attempt at explaining to your partner or civilian flatmate why exactly you really need to go out and buy more Bondo despite coming home, hobbling, sad, and covered in shit for the third evening in a row, or why you’re losing sleep about a song already being used in another skate video, or whatever, it falls flat. We love to forget that we need these perspective resets, so when you finally do get them, and they hit like they did on this crazy meet-and-greet marathon, it’s rocket fuel for the soul, no matter how all-consuming this bloody thing is.
