Lucien Genand interview

Interview: Kingsford
Photography: Bartoloni

Tell us about your hometown of Annecy.
Annecy is a little city in the eastern part of France. It’s quite close to Switzerland and particularly to Geneva. Annecy is rather touristy, the old town is beautiful but it is mostly known for its lake, which makes the city a great place to be in the summer. There are some spots here and there but it’s better to go to Geneva – that city is really sick to skate!

How is the skate scene in Annecy?
The skate scene here is pretty eclectic and there are a lot of new kids skating in the town hall square. Kids do not only meet at the skatepark and it’s good to see them hit the streets a bit. Before, our friends from Cinquième Terrasse were here and we used to go filming with them a lot. Now most of them have moved to Paris, but my friend Thomas (Vigoureux) and I are always motivated to film. Also, we have Geneva only 40 minutes away so we try to go there as much as we can.

Who are some skaters from Annecy people may have heard of?
The guys from Cinquieme Terasse I guess. I think people should know about Lilian Fev, Nicolas Gisonno and Elliot Bonnabel… Nabil Slimani too.

Where does the name Cinquième Terrasse come from?
The name comes from the place where it all started.

You mentioned most of the crew moved to Paris.
Yes. 5T started in Annecy – the first videos were filmed around here – but a few years ago the majority of the crew moved to Paris so I guess it became Paris-based. I think that moving to Paris was really beneficial for the guys and for the crew. They have never been so creative and it’s been a real pleasure to watch the crew evolve over the past few years.

Will you move to Paris soon?
Definitely! I really want to move there to be closer to the 5T guys, but it’s not that easy finding a flat there. Thomas is moving there so I will be at his place a lot and the Rave guys are also there: PJ Chapuis, Edouard Depaz, Léo Cholet and Amelien Foures. PJ is always down to go filming and there are so many crazy spots in the centre and in the suburbs. It’s a really dynamic city. I go there regularly and I’m never disappointed. I don’t know when I will move there but it will be soon.

What do you do when you aren’t skating?
I work at ABS Annecy, the local skateshop of Annecy. I like working there.

I heard you studied carpentry.
Yes, I studied carpentry for three years. I really like it but I don’t intend to work in this field for the moment. I want to focus on skateboarding first. I can always get back to carpentry in a couple of years, when my body won’t let me skate more than one day in a row (laughs).

Tell us about your burger sponsor.
So it’s a local burger restaurant in Annecy that I used to go to often. It’s called The Roster.  They noticed that a lot of skaters were coming to the restaurant and they reached out to see if I was down to skate for them. The food is good, – they use quality local produce – and I though it was funny to have a burger sponsor, so I accepted.

How was it working on a video part during the pandemic?
The first lockdown was pretty hard. Nobody was skating and we could only leave our house for an hour and you had to stay within 1km, so I didn’t skate at all for two months. During the second lockdown, PJ gave me some papers from Rave that allowed Thomas, Seba (Bartoloni, photographer) and myself to be outside. The papers said that we were shooting for a marketing campaign. The second lockdown in France was a bit more chill than the first one – people were allowed to go to work. It was perfect because the streets were empty, which meant we could skate spots we couldn’t usually. Every day was a Sunday, so that meant a lot of Sunday spots.  Every time the cops came to see what we were doing out in the streets, they were kind of impressed – Thomas was filmed with the big (Panasonic) P2, Seba with his camera and flashes… and with the papers from Rave too, we never had any trouble.

Who are your top three favourite skaters?
Firstly I would say Cyrus Bennett because he is so versatile, Kevin Rodrigues for his creativity and his dress style and Bobby De Keyzer for his technical ability and his incredible pop!

What are your plans for 2021?
We have a video project with the Rave guys that also ride for Converse (Edouard Depaz, Alex Richard, Fred Ploque-Santos and Paul Austin). I am also filming with Thomas for the next ABS full-length video and I will go to Paris to film with Elliot Bonnabel for the next Cinquieme Terasse video. Maybe I’ll start working on a new part and maybe I’ll move to Paris too. I’ll see how things go.