Whirlwind World Tour: or how the industries took me to France.

JUST AS HOT

WORLD INDUSTRIES WAS NICE ENOUGH to take me to Europe this year with Berard, Duffy, Carlos and Bartie. Missing from the crew was the redneck from Florida--Peterson--who rolled his cankle two weeks before the trip. Damn, love seeing that dude out of his element (which is anywhere except Florida)! Most of the time was spent in Lyon, which is a cool city with plenty of bars and sight seeing to check out before it cools off in the early evening. People are a lot friendlier there than say, Paris, and the chicks are just as hot. So yeah, it's a go! And boy do I love drinking beer in public; it's the best! We got some shit taken care of in Lyon as World is filming for a new video, and we also had our share of binges along the way.

IT'S HARD

WE ALSO HIT UP Marseille/Quiksilver Bowl Riders Contest 2005. On the beach (even though there weren't enough topless tits, like in '95) with free contest poison to go around. It was hot but that didn't stop skaters from going all out, or even Phelper who was wearing jeans, a beanie, and a wood-splitting vest in the heat. It's hard enough to watch the contest, since there are six skaters in each 10-minute heat and the park is huge--nevermind trying to shoot the Jam thing or write an article letting people who weren't there know what went down. Every heat was on fire, but in the finals the three French skaters were all over the park; you could tell they have that place dialed with huge transfers. They were throwing out everything that they had against some of the best Americans.

FOR REAL

BENJI DID HIS SHARE of damage to the whole park and the French crowd was on his side 110-percent. TNT, Omar, and Senn are no joke when it comes to tranny; these guys have been killing this type of terrain for years and with style. Senn was in his zone and skating the jam when some skaters still had not taken their opening runs--that's what I'm talking about! TNT's so sporadic ... it's a pleasure to watch this dude skate. None of his runs are planned and he's got style for days. Tony got third and a nice check. Omar's not foreign to contest situations and it showed--tricks, transfers, and always throwing the 540 like icing on the cake. First place and a fat check, Omar kills it.

The Anti Hero crew camped out on the hillside overlooking the skatepark (see last issue), and that's where the lurkers were lurking hard--it's where the real party was going on; every day more people and more umbrellas from the contest made their way up there to keep the sun out. Marseille was literally on fire--for real!