On Friday the 20th of March 2015 in House Of Vans London, Cliché Skateboards premiered their latest video ‘Gypsy Life’. Now for many young skateboarders today, your knowledge of a ‘Gypsy Tour’ may be as weak as your knowledge on Cliché Skateboards themselves and their history within the European scene. All we can say is, get to know! You may be head over heels for some of their larger American riders such as Joey Brezinski and Daniel Espinoza, but it was their riders such as Javier Mendizabel, JJ Rousseau and our personal favourite, Lucas Puig, who made Cliché as globally recognised as it is.
In 1997, Cliché Skateboards owner Jeremie Daclin, who had previously ridden for Deathbox Skateboards, decided to develop his own brand based in Lyon, France, by producing equipment aimed towards supporting European scene, which he has always maintained as his top priority. After their first video, ‘Europa’, came out in 2000, Cliché Skateboards reputation began to grow and since then has become one of the most relevant board brands in modern day skateboarding.
Now you may be wondering, what the fuck is a ‘Gypsy Tour’? Well it’s exactly what it says on the tin, the team go on tour and live like gypsies! Realistically, this is how most tours should be spent when skateboarding, each rider is given a limited amount of money each day, sometimes as minimal as 15 Euros, they drive all over the country, sleep in tents and skateboard! Honestly, what more do you need? Okay so we admit, we would rather live in hotels and enjoy a shower here and there, maybe even eat some proper food to keep you going, but you wouldn’t have them unforgettable memories of taking a shit in the woods, or drinking a bottle of wine in one to scram for an extra 10 Euros!
Anyway, after taking a long break from the ‘Gypsy Life’, Jeremie decided that it was time to take the team on tour again, this time including Cliché’s young guns Kyron Davis, Max Geronzi and Paul Hart. Unlike their previous tours, Cliché decided to merge ‘Gypsy Life’ with a full length production, which included full parts from most riders on the team. As much as this surprised us and admittedly took away from how the original video’s were presented, ‘Gypsy Life’ still maintained the documentary aspect behind the tour, only this time the skateboarding was way gnarlier and admittedly wouldn’t have been quite as memorable without giving each rider individual parts.
Overall it’s everything we expected from the video and more. The crowd was in stitches with how the language barrier affected each interview that was had between some of the riders as they discussed the amount of shit they all went through during their tour, including the use of a seatless chair to take a shit, classic! It looks as though Boris Proust has done it yet again, considering one of our favourite videos was Cliché’s last full length video, ‘Bon Voyage’, we knew ‘Gypsy Life’ wouldn’t be anything short of amazing and it certainly delivered!
We will be hosting a premiere in store on April the 10th in store, so come down, bring your friends, some beer and enjoy the good times. Don’t sleep on this one!