This photo of Simon Bannerot wasn’t planned at all, i had actually never met Simon at the time, but our common friend Felix, sent me a dm that day to know if he could borrow the Globe mini ramp keys so they could skate a bit after their surf session. The thing is, the spare key of the ramp that i had was broken so i wasn’t able to help, but i suggested i could show them the few spots around Capbreton if they wanted to, this is how we ended up at the infamous banks by the beach.
That spot’s been skated quite a lot over the years, Matt Mumford ollied into it for a Globe ad back in 2006-7, Jeremie Daclin as well on the other side in 98 if i recall well, Hugo Liard even ended up on the cover of Thrasher France ollieing into it too (yes there was a french edition of Thrasher !!).
Spot’s really steep and crusty, and only the braves dare playing with it (if i can put it that way) !
So Simon being the brave ripper everyone know he is, started playing with it: climb up – roll down, drop-in, roll-in, ollie in….all without any sort of problem, easy.
He then started wondering what he could possibly do down that beast, i suggested that kids nowadays are able to flip like they ollie and that it wouldn’t be different for him…he kickflipped on flatground, perfect catch , « yeah why not? » , got to the top of the bank and started visualizing the flick.
It took him five tries to stomp the trick perfectly, he actually landed perfectly the one he really committed to, the previous four being just « flick, throw away, run » tries…
it all went so fast that i really didn’t have much time to « think » my photo and how i would shoot it, nor setting up flashes so i just followed the flow and there it was, the first ever flip trick down the spot just happened, leaving us speachless and with shaky legs!
Thanks Simon for giving me the opportunity to capture of piece of skateboarding history, and of course to Felix for the DM !!
Simon Bannerot, kickflip drop-in, Capbreton, France – 2022
Thanks Greg!
