In Marseille, the Bowl du Prado is a lively place of skate culture. A space for meeting and sharing around the passion for skiing.

“It’s amazing, this place”, Stéphane cannot help marveling at this place that he knows by heart. And for good reason, he comes almost daily to the Bowl de Marseille, a high place for skateboarding in the Marseille city. Moreover, he says it himself, he has “discovered skateboarding thanks to this place“.

He has been practicing this extreme sport for several decades. But he himself still struggles to define this practice. “Skateboarding is a bit different, we tell ourselves that every day. It’s falls, it’s dopamine, it’s mutual aid, it’s passion. We’re children when we skate. It’s like a drug.”

When eyes fall on the Marseille Bowl, it’s a step back in time. Until 1991, the year the structure was built. Signed by skateboarder and architect Jean-Pierre Collinet, the Bowl is directly inspired by the empty California swimming pools that welcomed the first skateboarders in the 1970s.

A legacy that practitioners still claim today. Like Adam, 17, “a child of the bowl”.

“It’s recognized all over the world here. It’s the first bowl in France, where you can turn without stopping and without ever doing the same line (note. trajectory). Even in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater, there is the Marseille bowl”, he exclaims, referring to a famous video game sold around the world.

For Adam, skateboarding is serious and coming to the bowl, “it’s not joking”. “VSa remains an extreme sport where you can get hurt. There are little ones, who come to ride a scooter but without really paying attention. VScan be very dangerous.”

The young man appreciates the diversity of the public that comes here. “There are a lot of different people here”. From the most beginner, to the most experienced, like Eliott, who is preparing for the French championships. A competition scheduled to take place from June 24 to 26 which will see the best French in the discipline compete.

Eliott comes there to skate, of course, but also “find your friends”. “Here, you can really be who you are, there is no one who will judge you”.

But all separated this appeal to wrinkle. It’s something that Stéphane is looking for here, a form “of authenticity”.

“In Marseille, it’s an energy that is apart, there is a crazy level, but at the same time it’s super accessible. There are some, they are killers, but they won’t hesitate to come help you if you are just starting out.