Week 6: Skateboard Fever Art Show / 4 days in Barcelona

After another week in Hossegor, Biarritz and Anglet, with a few fun surf sessions, meeting more people from all over Europe, and hanging out, driving around in the trunk and speaking French with my friend Bertrand who lives in Anglet, it was time to venture to Spain, down to Barcelona where my friends from Germany were putting on a Skateboard art show. I took the bus to the border town of Irun, and then hopped on a 7 hour train ride to Barcelona. Making the train with only minutes to remain, I sat down and recollected my scattered thoughts from my strange life I now live. The train was a non-smoking train, but that didn’t seem to stop any of the passengers from going between cars and smoking it up. I kept thinking I smelled cloves, and finally when I smelt another guy smoking something I got up and went to investigate. The younger Spanish guy who spoke no English seemed a bit nervous at first and was trying to explain that it wasn’t a cigarette he was smoking. No problema! 20 minutes into Spain and I smoked a joint with this guy with whom I struggled to communicate. I asked him if smoking weed was allowed in Spain, and he said, “Espagne… ‘living the vida loca!’” Welcome to Spain I thought! Let’s get crazy. I then returned to my seat, in total confusion, wondering what I was doing, and realizing I did not know how to communicate in Spanish, after finally being able to hang on to a conversation in French.

7 hours passed quickly and I arrived in Barcelona at the train station, and immediately went and picked up a Spanish-English phrase book. I made my way to the correct estacion where the hostel that had been recommended to me was situated, and within an hour found it and checked in. A 6 bed hostel room to my self with free internet access. Not bad. Then came the fun activity of trying to find a place to eat and ordering food with my all but forgotten Spanish, which was never good to begin with. I eventually found a little restaurant and ordered the first thing on the menu. Biztec and some other stuff I’d never heard of. Well, to my chagrin, it was a thin grey steak and eggs over easy, too things I do not like to eat, but I wolfed them down readily, with a beer, and I was good for the night. The following morning I struggled for the words to get 100 negatives scanned which I lucked out on because the guy in FNAC (the European mega electronics/photography/music/bookstore) was cool and scanned them all in 90 minutes for 8 euros.

After taking care of some ‘business’ I headed out to Skateboard Fever: A History of Skateboard Art, featuring Jeremy Fish, and Andy Howell, among others. I arrived at the art show right about on time for free Budweisers and to meet a lot of cool people. I re-met Silly Pink Bunny artist Jeremy Fish, whom I chilled out with off and on for the rest of my stay, and my German friends who were putting on the art show, Daniel and Juergen , who proved to be excellent people who allowed me to not feel lost in a very foreign land. My Spanish at that point did not improve too much with all the German and Suisse people speaking English very well, and Jeremy Fish and Andy Howell and other Americans and Brits speaking English. The art show was awesome with a history of skateboarding and an amazing collection of skateboards from the early days of cement and clay wheels to modern day skateboard art.

Randomly, across the street was a Red Bull video editing contest where teams from all over the world (US, Spain, Suisse, Austria, and Germany) had already won the contest in their country and were competing for the Red Bull prize of filming and editing a skate video in a city in 2 days, this time, the city being street skateboarding Mecca: Barcelona. The night ended in the Mau Mau underground club, and then ended again at some club called the Apollo where I saw Andy Howell and posse waiting in a line to get in. The club was a bit silly (not being much of a clubber myself), but crazy loud music, and a bunch of random Barcelonans partying on the dance floor until 5 in the morning. At some point I fell asleep on the stage lying back with my camera bag on. I knew it was time to try and walk or take a taxi home, but luckily the metro had started up again at 5:30, and I followed the punks in the metro’s example of hopping the line and riding for free. I got back to my hostel at 6:30 and slept for a few hours and then headed out to find a hostel in the center of town, away from the skyscrapers, banks and mega-corporations.


Daniel (Fauxami) in the Barcelona beachside park

Without going into detail of being lost in Barcelona for hours, I found the hostel and met up with the German’s and a Spanish artist/skater called Carlos Canillas who took us to the little skatepark next to the beach, where I did not skate but took photos of the Daniel and Juergen and watched some completely gnarly BMXers. The fact that I didn’t skate reminds me that I skipped a day. The previous night after attending the Red Bull contest for the video winner and going to some other underground club when I should have just gone back to my hostel and slept, I learned a new trick. The shoulder plant. Here’s a little how to ‘pull’ the shoulder plant:
1) Skate to a club and watch the Red Bull video contest
2) Cash in your 4 "free" drink tickets (all vodka drinks)
3) Take a pee in the bushes in the back and get kicked out by big bouncer guy
4) Try and get back in to get your skateboard in the coat check and get your skateboard back but not yourself back in
5) Go with the late night German stragglers to another ‘underground’ somewhat sketchy club for free
6) "Buy" your first (and last) drink of the night
7) Skate home
8) The next step is a bit hazy, due to a possible Concussion, but it involves flying through the air and landing on your shoulder and smacking your eye on the sidewalk
9) Wipe blood from eye and ride away like you can pull this maneuver any time any place
10) Finally, ask people in Drunk-Spanglish how to get back to your hostel

Easy. Anyone can do it if you follow my ‘how-to’ closely, or even somewhat closely. So, the next day I was worried I had broken my shoulder and made sure I hadn’t forgotten to get stitches, but all was ok, except my damn shoulder was screwed up for about 10 days. I gladly watched others eat shit skating the shody cement spin ramp with hammered down almost non-existent coping and made it back early to sleep by 12:30.

The following day was my last day in Barcelona, I mulled around the streets photographing some street performers, went to Gaudi park (oh wait, that was the day before when I went solo but same difference for you the reader), and then went with Daniel, Juergen and their girlfriends and a few other Germans to the unfinished Gaudi church which he supposedly designed on Mushrooms. He died 100 years ago or something ,and they are still building the church, and it is a trip. Very psychedelic. We climbed the spiraled turrets to the top and had a view of all of Barcelona. We returned to the art gallery and then I headed off out of Barcelona on the night train to Paris, which came complete with beds to sleep in and cost way way more money than I had intended (wished, dreamed) it to cost. I spent the next week working my ass off in Christine’s apartment (oh yeah we broke up a while ago), and then met my mom and step dad at the airport in Paris (who had just returned from visiting my relatives in England), and drove with them up to Bretagne, in the North of France for a relaxing 3 days where I would work on websites in the car while driving around to beautiful scenic spots and eating good food (the most famous spot in the world to eat Oysters) and staying in a nice farmhouse with a bed without a bunch of drunk snoring farting guys keeping me up all night. I finally obtained some serious rest and lack of spending money which I seriously needed. After I return to Paris for a few days, hang out with Luidgi and possee from the skate shop, and showing my parents around some tourist spots (The Louvre/Sacre Coeur), I am heading back to Anglet to pick up my surfboard and wetsuit I left there, and to surf Anglet and Hossegor and hopefully find some quiet place to work on some websites. The hostel in Anglet is the cheapest place I have found to stay in France, as well as being one block from some damn good waves. Photos coming as soon as I get somewhere where I stay longer than 5 days so I can get my film developed. - Jonny ‘homeless’ Haywire

Or check out: www.concussion.org/new_site/art/skateboardfever/index.html for photos from the artshow in Barcelona.