📷 All photography by Anthony Acosta
We had a plan to go to Argentina in May of 2020.
Around the time that the planning stage would’ve begun, some …things happened.
When those “things” got less intense, we hit Majorca instead.
After that, it was back to the drawing board: Argentina, for nothing.
Knowing that that the Lotties video featuring Nick Michel’s breakthrough part was due out any day — and that Nick would soon be fielding offers from SpaceX, the Golden State Warriors and Goldman Sachs — Chris Milic, the eclectic C.E.O. of Frog Skateboards, had to act fast. The window to remind his star teamrider about skateboarding’s humble joys was closing, as he would soon be speeding down the Pacific Coast Highway in a Lamborghini Countach, on the way to his first billion.
After millions of dollars spent on airfare and accommodations, nearly a full day of traveling over sea and land, and much meticulous planning that it takes to get dozens of boys across the Atlantic, we were in Paris asking the immortal question that guides our lives: “Where are we gonna skate today?”
About 70% of the way through the trip, Nolan revealed that the only reason he swam to Paris (he’s not a big fan of planes) was for the purpose of skating the famous colored manual pad spot seen in a myriad of skate videos growing up. Much to his dismay, when those “where are we gonna skate today?”-convos were taking place and the spot would get mentioned, the proceeding thoughts were familiar…
“I think that’s still under scaffolding?”
“Are there other spots around there?”
“It’s not as good as it looks in videos.”
“We gotta take a train to get there…I kinda wanted to push around today.”
See, it doesn’t matter where you are, or how many new spots you haven’t grown bored of skating you’re surrounded by. The struggle is real no matter where you go. The only difference is you might not be able to kick it with Sophie that day.
Watch below to see if we made it, or if we did in fact, come to Paris for nothing.
YouTube blocked the video is Canada on account of the fire George Michael song. Canadians!!! Here is a Vimeo link.
Edited by Hjalte Halberg. Features Keith Denley, Kadeem Walters, Nolan Benfield, Daniel Kim, Jesse Alba, Chris Milic, Hjalte Halberg, Andrew Wilson, and Zach Baker.
