Our SOA Paris (@soaparis) team was running around Grand Control, discovering new corners of this amazing place (they even had an airplane cockpit wide open for us to chill). Nozbone skate shop clearly found the perfect spot for their annual skate & music festival: the Benchmark Festival!

DJs played non-stop, setting vibes for the rest of the day until the curtains closed. Pros like Louie Lopez were spotted crushing at best trick. The afternoon contest featured great original obstacles. Fast slappy grinds, blunts, switch blunts, crooked nollie flip out & all that you can imagine in a skate festival were landed!

Around the spot, there was many booth & us, at our #soaparis booth.

Our SOA Paris zine created by Jessy & the zines from @SKCHYFRS & @superfriendlysociety were on display. During our “Pimp my board” workshop, a little girl (& artist to be) took her board home, & she wasn’t the only one. A young woman inspired by her time painting with us started thinking about getting back to skating. Some kids started shy, but soon enough they were splashing Posca paint all over their boards. The artist Rachel (@racheldessine) joined us to paint on the spot a colorful deck, inspired by the young & gnarly bowl shredder Louise-Aina Taboulet (@nanacondaskate).

We enjoyed fruits, skate mags, games, & a photo expo from SOLO Skate Mag (now Bubble Skate Mag) in the airplane cockpit.

One of the top 3 best parts of the day? The screening of the vids at the end. The Pop Trading Company full-length was cinematically beautiful, with insane tricks, drool-worthy spots, and music you’d want in your playlists.

Thanks Nozbone skate shop for the hype, the vibe, the stickers & the memories! See you next year!

Photo by Ekaterina Catherine (@ektrn_nzrv)