Meeting Julien Cudot

Interview

Hello, Julien. Could you introduce yourself?

Hey Alex, my name’s Julien Cudot, I’m 22, born and raised in Paris and still living there, at Nation with my girlfriend, a long-time friend and a roommate. I’ve been doing aggressive skating for 15 years.

How did you start skating?

Well it’s kind of funny, not so long ago I realized that all the skaters I know started after seeing skating vids or friends skating. But for me, if I remember well, I was just trying all the basic sports like football, basketball, judo, swimming, etc. to find the good one, but I’d never go further than the first initiation class. And then I wanted to try skating, in a skatepark right away. I don’t know why. My mother found Roller Park Avenue in Vitry-sur-Seine, in the Parisian suburbs, and we all went there for a family trip. I was 6 or 7. I spent a terrible day falling and falling again. I can’t say I enjoyed it. I dropped the idea right away and, like, one year later, I don’t know why I wanted to test again. My father brought me there and it was just as if I knew how it worked. I could go down the little ramps and all. I didn’t understand, but I’ve (almost) never stopped since then.

We remember you when you were very young, you already had a high level. How have you been training all these years?

To be honest, I’ve never really trained and I don’t have the feeling you’ve got to train in street skating. According to how much you dig it, you go skating more and more and you improve by yourself. That’s the best way. You choose everything without even realizing you’re making choices. It’s all natural.

What is your best memory?

I think it was when I won the Bitter Cold Showdown in Detroit, USA, because I hadn’t even imagined I could win this contest and get this huge hammer and the 500$ wad of 20$ bills! It was so unreal that when I took the hammer, I took it with one hand at the end of the handle as if it was a fake, and I almost smashed Brian Aragon’s head, who was 2nd. Only big names had won that contest and the videos were just amazing. We were 4 Frenchies over there, it was something. Otherwise, far too many criminal associations that I couldn’t disclose here without compromising myself.

What is the contest you’d like to win and why?

The Montpellier FISE World, because I should’ve won it in 2007 already, and because it’s one of the few left I haven’t won yet. It’s the biggest family contest in the world.

Tell us about your sponsors…

Kato of Remz supported me for a few years from 2007 with free pairs of skates. Then USD helped me quite a lot to travel for several years. Now I skate for the Parisian brand Trigger.
The owner of the brand is a Parisian street skater and he’s also been one of my best friends for a good while. Obviously, Grindhouse Skateshop, the biggest online street skating shop in Europe, supports me too. They’ve always supported me to the max in my best moments and during bad patches too. And now, I’m discussing with other brands, including Ground Control. It should be officially announced soon.

How has the world of street skating evolved since you started?

At the beginning, we’d just skate together. It wasn’t much about the Internet and we didn’t know anything about street skating.
I discovered street skating with videos like Straight Jackit by KFC, Ego, etc. and it’s hard not to say that today, the level has dropped a lot. Most of the big names who pushed the limits of street skating have stopped or just changed focuses. It seems there’s not that many people to take up the torch. That’s exactly what Trigger Skate wants to do: putting forward the new skaters who are able to push the limits of street skating so-to-speak, with skaters like Michel Prado, Carlos Bernal and Beat Schillmeier. If you don’t know them, check out their parts on Youtube/vimeo, you won’t be disappointed! Everybody’s focusing on style and control. That’s cool too, but it’s just not my thing, and one thing’s for sure, everybody wants to see big tricks back in the game and have a kickass time watching. I wasn’t even sure of it because it had completely disappeared. But lately a few old-school style big parts with huge spots and lots of risk taking etc. were released and they met quite a success. People just make do with what they’re served, but in the end, most people want to see big tricks pushing the limits… but clean tricks. Today’s equipment allows us to do huge tricks and stay clean.
As for sponsorship, I don’t really know how it was before, except that it was better. Haha. Otherwise, all I could see is that everybody’s been affected by the crisis for a good bunch of years.

How do you see your future in skating?

More street skating, but then I realize that I’ll have to start taking care of my body. Otherwise, I’ll do my best to try and develop Trigger Skate to the max, and aggressive skating, and support the skaters who deserve it.

Free space, if you want to add anything…

A big thanks to my father, my brother, my sister, my mother for always having my back and having helped me so far the best they can, and especially about skating. I love you.

Video

Technical facts

Surname: Cudot
Name: Julien
Nickname: (la) Cudz / Rido / Cudlard / Atchoum
Born: April 19th, 1993
Height: 1m70 (yo it’s Saturday, I’m rounding it up)
Weight: 65 km (rounding it down, this time)
Country: France
Born in: Paris (12th arrondissement)
Living in: Paris (11th arrondissement)
Started skating in: 2000/2001
Category: Pro alaz
Favorite tricks: True soul/makio, kick the moon (backflip)
Studies: final year of high school, stopped before final exam.
Work: Pro skater
Strong points: err… I don’t know, I spin fast haha and I was kind of famous for landing a lot of first tries on big tricks in competition.
Points to improve: focus, lifestyle, spinning to the right.
Other sports: trampoline, cliff diving, pool, poker, badminton for a little while two years ago hahaha and skiing, water skiing whenever I’ve got the chance.
Last film: Point Break. Never seen it before.
Favorite music: I’m kind of back to Boss 2 Panama by Alpha 5.20, but I listen to pretty much anything, and old-school French music.
Video games: Nope, but since I’ve moved in with my girlfriend and my buddy, we’ve been playing motorbike games and GTA quite a lot.
Readings: I brought comics that I love re-reading from my parents’ place, but my last book dates back from my ex, it was the book that Jacques Merino wrote in prison. He’s one of my favorites, together with Hannibal Lecter, and The Green Line is my number one.
Likes: women (my woman), food, booze, skating, poker.
Dislikes: chicks, addiction, morons.
Qualities: duuuh that’s hard. haha I don’t know, I try to be generous but apparently I’m a penny-pincher. Nah, more seriously I’ve tried to think a bit more lately, to be able to evolve to the best with the people I love.
Flaws: too nervous, impulsive my girlfriend says. But it’s only with her because I love her too much. She’s the only one who touches me right away, with my family of course.
Club: daddy RSCT and bro Anthony Avella
Team: Me, myself and I / Trigger skate / My baby, Faroudje, my roommate and I.
Worst memory: too many hangovers.
Spoken languages: French, English… and Spanish needs a little week of immersion to come back alright.
Alcool or fruit juice? Alcool but I like the taste of real fruit juice better.
Beach or mountain? Beach, that’s why I’ll focus on mountain next winter.
Morning or evening: Night
Cheese or dessert: Cheese
Rap or techno: rather rap
Football or rugby: none, I don’t really actually know the rules of either of them, but I still have the feeling that rugby is cooler on a good many points. 

Links

Photos : Adrien Anne
Greg Mirzoyan
Antoine Dujoncquoy
Sebastian Hofer