Skateboarding. Just when you think you have the contest scene all figured out and know who all the dominators are going to be, along comes some French dude to shake everything up.
Take the Dew Tour in 2019, for example. All eyes were on defending gold medalist Kelvin Hoefler and 2018 silver medalist Nyjah Huston. Those two win pretty much everything, but Aurelien Giraud caught them both slipping. In fact, neither of the favorites even made the podium. It served as a reminder, as skateboarding heads towards its Olympic debut in Tokyo, that anything can happen.
We caught up with the reigning Dew Tour champ remotely from his home in Lyon, France to ask him about last year’s upset, the Olympics, the current pause in the contest calendar, and the unconventional way he’s kept his 360 flips in good form while confined to his living room.
Last year was your first time at Dew Tour and it seemed like everything clicked as soon as you showed up for practice. You took 2nd in the semifinal, then won the final in a super-close battle, just .3 points ahead of Sora Shirai, partly thanks to that hardflip front board to fakie. Let’s start there; what was it about that event that came together for you?
That event was so lit! Nice people, nice place, amazing bowl final, and street final. That was insane.
I think a lot of people were surprised by that street podium. It was you, Sora Shirai, and Felipe Gustavo, with defending gold medalist Kelvin Hoefler in 5th and Nyjah Huston way down in 7th. A lot of the biggest names there didn’t even make it to the final.
Just to see them skating, it’s already incredible. They’re such insane skateboarders! They almost never miss a trick, so you just try to do your best and have fun, and let’s see what happens.
Do you feel like people started taking you more seriously as a competitor after that win? You weren’t even officially pro yet, at the time.
I don’t really know, but I’m trying to do my best to be one of the top skateboarders, and working for that.
You’re currently ranked #6 in the World Skate rankings, #1 in France, and #2 in all of Europe, so you’ll almost certainly be going to Tokyo. Has there been increased attention on skateboarding in France because of the Olympics and around the national championships event you won there?
We have two different visions of skateboarding in France. We have all those guys who like contest skateboarding and all the commercial stuff during the last few years. And on the other side, we have those guys who just want skateboarding to stay in the street, meaning no contests, no commercial stuff, and all the new things coming for the next couple years.
Now that the Olympics and everything else is on hold, how have you been spending your time?
I’m skating every day and riding dirt bikes.
What’s the situation like in Lyon? Are people still mostly staying home, or is everything opening back up?
It’s finally almost finished, so everything’s gonna open back up in two to three days now. Can’t wait!
Has it been better for street skating in Lyon during the quarantine? Looks like you’ve been getting some good clips for Instagram.
During the quarantine, sadly, I didn’t skate, I just played Skate 3. I had some shots in my camera roll so I posted them. Now we’ve been getting back out.
Now that the Olympics are an extra year off, do you have any new goals or anything specific you’re working on?
I would like to film a new street part and have fun all around the world. That was pretty hard with the coronavirus, but I’ll do my best to do some stuff ASAP.
One last question: How’s your mom’s glass coffee table holding up?
I don’t really know! I was sleeping and it broke during the night with a heavy sound. So weird!
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