Fresh to you from the urban playgrounds of France, we have this scene/ride report from Max Sorin. He's "Brigadier" on the 'Fish, and we look forward to more from him in the near future...including the pending slalom/slide contest in Paris!

Sunday 26th February, 11 AM. My cell-phone rings. It was so hard to open my eyes and pick up the phone! I had been fast asleep in bed with the woman in my life, she was naked and warm. The phone broke this marvellous instant! It was Yoann, aka

4 hours later, I met Colossius in the Saint-Michel subway station, to take the subway train. The 30 minute railroad trip was used to eat small cookies from Britanny. So good, dude ! At the station, our friend Nicolas, aka “Wave”, came to pick us up in his small Renault Clio. I thought we would be 3 cars and a maximum of 8 or 10 riders for this session but, when we arrived to the first spot, I saw 9 cars and 19 persons !!!! It was crazy! Here we were in full winter, with so many to ride together. Even in the summer, we don’t typically get this many riders!

After donning leathers, helmet and slide gloves, Colossius told me :”There we go !” Situated in a tiny forest, the spot he’d found is not like Maryhill or Chamrousse but, believe me, riding a spot like that near Paris is wonderful ! The asphalt’s quality is very nice, there is a big ess curve to experiment your sense of slide trajectories, and it’s a very nice spot for downhill boarder cross. It lasts 1.2 kilometres, and the approximate speed when bombing is 50/60 km/h.

After my first run, I had a big banana in place of my mouth! I had not practiced downhill for two months, and my legs were hitching me. I was frozen by the cold winter, but very happy. So, we walked to the top of the spot, and I jumped into a boarder-cross with Colossius, Hang-ten and Votour. Hang-ten made a fast start! I tried to catch him, but his Landy drop-speed has Randal Luge, and my Landy DH RACE has just poor Randal II. Arf !

After a few runs on this spot called the D202, we decided to move on another spot, the D208. It was very funny to see a big queue of nine cars full of guys wearing leather and duct tape ! This other spot gets more speed: it’s more turny on the top and it ends with a long straight run. The approximate speed is about 60/70 km/h, nice sensations ! We all went down together for the first ride on this spot, it was insane! I made my second run with Colossius. I was first, but he was just behind me trying to pass the whole time. As we came through the turny section, when he was just 30 cm on my left, an emergency firemen’s vehicle was coming straight at us, up the road! Colossius passed at full speed, less than 70cm from the vehicle. We both said “Huuuuuuuu!” when arriving at the bottom!

We looked for the time, it was yet 6:00 pm! The night was young, so a few of us decided to move on another famous spot of the region called ”Les Hauts de Chevreuse”. And why is this spot famous ? Because there is a damned hairpin ! Exactly the same kind of Hairpin you can find in Chamrousse in the French Alps. Since this spot is also nicely fast, you take this hairpin with a good speed. It’s a very good place to work the hairpin technique. I stopped my riding for a while and started taking pictures, because I had no more energy in my legs. I had skipped lunch. Bad idea !

Watching my mates going so fast in the hairpin was a very cheerful thing to see. The sound of slide gloves blasting the road, was also a pleasure that I had missed for a while. After an hour, the session ended there. I was completely hungry, and becoming nervous because I wanted to get a cheeseburger and we were in a forest. Argh !

Hicks, from the Chaostribe crew, dropped us off at the train station, and I came back to Paris with Damiche and Colossius. 30 minutes later, we arrived at Saint-Michel, and decided to get some burgers. We went to a Quick fast-food. I took two bacon burgers, two big portions of fries, and one XL Coke. Man, this was the best after-session meal of my life ! Yeah! Long live burgers!

Upon arriving home, I felt renewed and full of energy so I decided to end my day with a solo cruising session in Paris. So, I took my Supaflex 140 and went out. As I live 15 minutes from the Eiffel Tower, I decided to go over there. I sat just under the Eiffel Tower and ate a hot-dog. I told you I was hungry today!

This was the best day of my Parisian winter ! A marvellous downhill session. I have seen many friends and this hot-dog was good, dude! This evening when I went to bed, the "banana" was still there on my face! Two days later, as I am writing this report, I still have it because I am thinking about the coming summer in France. It’s gonna be hard to choose your free ride event, this year will be full of downhill events in France!

So if you decide to come in France, bring your deck and I will take you to eat cheeseburgers !

In the Parisian Team we had Yoann AKA Colossius, Clement AKA Hang-ten, Celine AKA Surfocean, Arnaud AKA Votour, Damien AKA Damiche, the whole Chaostribe team (they are a downhill crew from Saint-Quentin en Yvelines http://team.chaostribe.free.fr), and also the whole Stupid longboarding crew, another crew from this area http://longboard.site.voila.fr. All the photos taken during this session have been made by the guys from Stupid longboarding, and we really thank them for their professionalism and holding the camera in the cold during this afternoon.

I want to dedicate this report to Princess Burger from Houston, the best burgers I have ever eaten !

Max AKA Brigadier

[Editors note: the images we recieved for the article were way more than what we needed. They really submitted some quality shots, the photogs at Stupid LC sure have skills to capture the sessions moves. We put the rest of the images we didn't use in the Gallery]

4 hours later, I met Colossius in the Saint-Michel subway station, to take the subway train. The 30 minute railroad trip was used to eat small cookies from Britanny. So good, dude ! At the station, our friend Nicolas, aka