Today Place is proud to present Victor Campillo. A skater we feel is on his way to becoming a legend of French proportions. He reps his city Marseille to the fullest and is one of those types of people that is searching for what he can do next on his board. Oh yeah…did we say he reps Marseille? He is part of the Quotamine crew, so you know friendship and community mean something to the man as well. Still, we wonder…why didn’t his homie warn him a car was coming? Anyway, watch the part and enjoy reading his words. Victor is worth all the attention he is getting!
Interview by Roland Hoogwater.
Photos by Andréa Semerdjian, Clément Chouleur, Brian Bunting & Sebastiano Bartoloni.
Film and edit by Miguel Costabel.
Hello Victor! How are you?
All good man, we are in Barca now. It is so sick!
How is it there compared to Marseille?
The weather is a bit better and the curfew here is 22:00 instead of 18:00. So you have a bit more time to skate and not be locked inside the house.
What is going on in your life? How have you been?
In Marseille, before this, I was working and now in Barca, my daily life is a bit different (laughs). I am out here with some homies and we are trying to film as much as we can. I am working on something for RVCA and they are stacking clips for my homies brand. RVCA is supporting me with a budget on this trip so I am stoked.
As they should! Can I ask what kind of work you do back in Marseille?
I work in this store that is sort of a pawnshop. You can give us jewelry and we give you a line of credit. It is a bit more complicated than this but basically if you pay us the credit back, you get your jewels back. So if I am working there I don’t really get out to skate much but I do try and do as much skating as I can.
Luidgi Gaydu (Quotamine) told me you filmed this part during the lockdown in France? How did you manage that?
(laughs) It was easy, we went out every two days. In the beginning, we snuck out just me and Miguel (filmer). But later on, things became less strict and we managed to go out with a little crew.
No brush ins with the law?
Not really, more people complaining as usual. The first three months of lockdown it was harder but now, things have really relaxed a bit. You just have to be at home at 18:00, so we do that.
You can tell the streets were pretty empty during some of the filming of this part.
Some of them but not all, some of it is also filmed in Switzerland which was a bit more chill for us.
How has it been with the curfew, are you the type of person that likes to chill or do you have loads of energy.
To be honest, I don’t mind it, we just leave to go home and chill or we go to a homies place to chill. Right now in Barca things seem a bit more relaxed, different types of stores are open. I am just a bit worried about going back to France with the testing and all.
Yeah, having done four tests myself I can tell you it is not a nice feeling.
And it costs a 100€ so that is pretty expensive.
So what do you think about the part, are you happy with it?
It is good, I am happy with it. Not my most difficult part trick wise but I like it.
I have to say it might be my favorite part of yours, I understand that you have your own idea about the level of tricks but it is nice to see you cruise a bit more and do some different things in this one.
Don’t get me wrong I am really happy with this part. It is just a bit less technical than some of my other parts.
Important question though, When you Ollied into that little sidewalk bank, was there nobody checking for cars? That could have been nasty.
Normally the filmer tells me when I am good to go and the light was red so it was supposedly still safe to try. But luckily I didn’t get hurt, no injuries or anything. I was going pretty fast on that one too (laughs).
Is that your favorite clip in the part?
No, I think the stuff I did at La Mairie is my favorite. The flip into the bank, I wanted to do that for a long time and the Switch Flip as well I never skated the spot that way. I am happy with that stuff there is some really good stuff in there.
Do you plan tricks or do they happen during a session?
Most of my tricks in Marseille I planned, the stuff in Switzerland obviously just happened. The Ollie over the rail to Wheelie into the Frontside Wallride was also something that just happened. We where on the spot and I was just searching for something to do. I had never done that trick, but for a while now I knew it was possible and it just happened.
When we skated together in Paris it felt like you were experimenting on your board. But did you get this one from a video or how did you come up with it?
I think I actually saw Roman Gonzalez do that one before. I am pretty sure he is the one that gave me the idea.
That makes sense, he is the master of the Frontside Wallride.
I feel like I do to many Wallrides so maybe after this I need to chill.
Reynolds does a lot of Frontside Flips so it could be your thing.
That is true!
So when is this RVCA part dropping?
At the end of this year.
Excited about that, I hope you have a good time in Barca and I hope we see each other once the Covid restrictions relax a bit. I want to also give you props for representing and supporting the skate scene in your city. I see you posting and pushing positive initiatives in Marseille and we feel that is super important.
Thank you, you have to! Some years ago people didn’t think about Marseille in France. It was more about Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon or Toulouse but now you see that people are excited to travel to places like Marseille now.
True, true, I think I am out of questions. Victor thank you for this Interview and I wish you safe travels back to France.
Thank you man, stay safe!
