Shaun Paul Interview – Issue 48

We have uploaded Shaun Paul’s interview from Issue 48 conducted by Josh Sabini with accompanying photos by Luke Browne, Joel Powley, Sam Coady & Rafal Wojnowski.

Back issues and merch available here and be sure to check out Shaun Paul’s Business lounge part out featuring some of the photo’s featured in moving form. Oh and everything else he’s put out as it’s all top tier shralpboarding.

Introduction & Interview by: Josh Sabini

Photography by: Luke Browne, Joel Powley, Sam Coady & Rafal Wojnowski

Every year as soon as Australian winter hits, every Australian (including myself) flees the “cold” Southern Hemisphere with their sights set on the dream that is European summer. Long days, nice weather, beautiful cities, endless spots, great food and no thoughts other than, “This is nice, I wonder where we’ll go next?” Shaun Paul’s Euro summer has extended a little bit further into a Euro autumn and, as you’ll read below, sounds like it’s been one for the books. I called him after the skateboarding leg of his trip was over, now staying with his girlfriend in a forest cabin in the south of France a thirty minute drive away from the closest supermarket, where the only noise that interrupted our call was a tractor driving past. After months of skating, trips, filming for a new Butter video and his upcoming New Balance part, it’s exactly what he deserves.

How’s your trip been?

It’s been good. I haven’t been skating for the past few weeks, which has been super nice. I was in London, then went to Helsinki for a month, and we did a trip to Normandy with Majick Templeton, Matthieu Lucas-D’Souza and some of the Finnish and Kiwi dudes. Then I met my partner in Bordeaux, we did a week there and now we’re two hours east, where she lives in a little town in the Dordogne region. In two weeks I’m coming back for two weeks and then I’m going to Colombia on a Butter trip.

How was Finland?

Finland was dope, I love it there. All the skaters there are really nice and there are so many spots. It’s a really nice lifestyle, you just ride your bike everywhere, go from spot to spot, and end the day at the sauna. In the summertime the sun doesn’t really set, which is cool. At midnight the sun goes under the skyline, then it looks like it’s going to rise for four hours and then it just comes up. Majick has been there every summer for the last three years, so he’s made good friends there and has a whole crew there, but it was the first time he’s ever brought other people from his side of the world there so it was his two worlds meeting. From Melbourne it was Matthieu and me, then from New Zealand Charlie Aubrey and Cato Dobbs and my homie Joel, who’s originally from Western Australia but lives in Milan. It’s definitely a place I want to go back to and spend even more time there next summer. It was so nice staying in one place for a while. I enjoyed it a lot more than the usual Europe trip where you’re bouncing between cities, you make better friends this way. 

It would’ve been so nice being there for a month, especially coming straight off intense skate trip mode in London, trying to film as much as you could in a week.

Yeah, that was stressful. It was just Quentin Guthrie, Dougie George and me filming for Butter. We were just there to skate, and didn’t have much time to chill. In Finland it was nice, I could have a day off every few days and not be like, “I only have a few days here and I have to skate all these spots.” At the same time, I do enjoy that pressure.

What’s Majick’s connection with Finland?

He met this guy called Kusti at the skatepark in Berlin, he just came up to him and was like, “Hey, do you want to listen to this song? It’s been stuck in my head for the last two weeks.” Majick said yeah and then they just spent a couple of hours listening to music together. Kusti invited him to Helsinki, he ended up going for a month, met everyone and has been going back every summer since.

That story is so good. I wonder what the song was.

I think Majick said it was some new age shit. Finnish people are on their own thing, which is really cool. There’s this brand there called World Peace and we kept calling them the Drain Gang of skateboarding, they’re all like the Bladee and Yung Lean, it’s sick. Their style is pretty fresh and super refreshing, but very much of that style. It also makes sense with where they are in the world. Majick was showing me all these Finnish videos and I found them super special. 

There’s something special about it, especially when it’s genuine and not trying to be what other people around the world are doing.

Yeah, they don’t want to do anything like that, they’re very happy being themselves and expressing themselves. There’s another brand there called Tikari Skateboards which has been around for twenty years. We went to the prem of their new video and I had never watched anything like that before. I can’t even explain it, you have to watch it. You know how the Sour skating is all thinking out of the box, and skating obstacles you wouldn’t think of? I feel like this Tikari video was like that but on a whole other level.

It makes sense when you think of the way people like Eetu Toropainen and Jaakko Ojanen skate.  

Completely. It’s just this mind-blowing, ‘the world isn’t what you think it is’ kind of thing. 

Seriously. How was going to the sauna?

That was something that might not be crazy to people in Europe but going and doing nude sauna for the first time was something I was scared of for a while. We would go to the Sompasauna, which is a public woodfired sauna on an island in the forest a 30-minute bike ride from the city. In Finnish culture they grow up with saunas, every house has a sauna, it’s so normal, but it’s a bit of a culture shock when you’re not used to it. You walk into the sauna and it’s twenty naked people all piled in, you find a spot and then a sweaty naked dude with a tall can of beer slides in right next to you. But, after one sauna session and walking to the lake you understand why people do it. I was hyping myself up for the first two weeks like, “I’m going to do it, I’m going to go naked and do it”, then by week three I was going by myself. I was loving it and was like, “What’s the point of even wearing clothes at any time?” It was a pretty nice experience, getting more comfortable in your own skin.

Yeah it’s such a vulnerable experience, especially being with your friends.

We went with the guys to my friend Hertko’s house and like 12 people pulled up, the Kiwis, then a bunch of the Finnish guys. We all started walking to the sauna and the Finnish dudes just stripped naked and Cato and a few of the younger dudes were shocked, not sure what was going on.

I bet, especially for them when they weren’t expecting it. How’s your knee feeling after all that skating?

It’s alright. I can skate, but I definitely still have pain. There are problems with my hips and ankles too, but if I open them up, give them time and treat them nice I can skate with less pain. It’s been nice since I’ve been here, I’ve stopped skating and there’s a gym twenty minutes away from the cabin. I’ve just been trying to build strength so hopefully my knee is in less pain when I can skate again. I was out for nearly a whole year and getting back to skating has taken so long to even trust jumping down an eight stair. In London, I filmed a switch back 5-0 on this little handrail. I hadn’t done one down a handrail in two years and I didn’t even realise until I claimed it. It’s strange to start skating again because when you’re skating regularly you do all your tricks. Even while filming in Finland I was doing tricks that I hadn’t done in two or three years, it didn’t feel like that but everything plays through your mind when you’re not comfortable or a bit scared. It’s been good to push the limits and be like, I can do this. I never used to have a second thought about jumping down something a little bigger, I guess it takes time to get that confidence back.

Especially when it’s been a whole year and you were skating through the injury for a while too.

Yeah, it’s strange because when I started filming again, I couldn’t do what I was doing before, I just wasn’t at that level of skating. It was super frustrating because I’d film a clip, then look back at it a week or a month later, and it wouldn’t feel like an actual clip but more just throwaway. Recently, when I’ve gotten a really good clip or something I’m stoked on, it’s such a crazy feeling. It just takes time to get confidence back. Even looking back at tricks I did three or four years ago, I wonder how I even had the confidence to do it. Now I’m slowly regaining that confidence and thinking that maybe I could still do something like that. I just turned 28 so I think I’m alright. It’s just confidence, going to the skatepark, jumping down things a bit bigger… “training” essentially.

When you’re on a trip too you’re skating to film, so it doesn’t feel like you’re getting in those “training” type skates.

It’s good, being on a trip forces you out of your comfort zone. If I was just in Melbourne I’d take it at a bit of a slower pace, which isn’t so bad, but it’s nice to have it be a bit extreme. But that extreme also meant I was super sore. It’s been nice being here in France, I’ve just been able to chill. This area is so beautiful, there is this huge river that goes through the towns and the other day we got canoes and spent the day riding them down the river. It’s been super nice to just be in nature after being on a crazy skate trip vibe where I’m only thinking about getting clips, and instead I can go have a nice walk or go for a swim.

What are you filming for at the moment?

A New Balance part with Majick which we are going to try to put out in January. When I get back I’m going to have to skate a lot to try and finish it on time, especially because I want to come back to France and start that process of moving here. The only thing that’s keeping me in Australia is this video. Not in a bad way, I just have to lock in to try and finish it by then. I’m hyped on it and working with Majick is great. We’ve created a good relationship in the sense he can tell me when I’m acting crazy, or if I should stop filming a trick because I definitely have a problem with pushing it way too hard. I also trust his taste and opinion on stuff so it’s been good to work with someone like that. We’ve been going on so many trips this year, I haven’t even really been skating in Melbourne that much.

Something I’ve always liked is how involved you are with your skating and the way you want things to look.

It’s pretty bad. I’m a little self-conscious about being so involved, especially as being involved in the editing process can come off as being a bit self-centred. I wish I could let it go, just skate and not get as involved. That’s another good thing with Majick – if I need to be less involved he’ll just let me know, and I can be confident of his judgement. It’s been really good. We’re trying to figure out songs now. We’ve been editing the video ourselves, I’ve been making a version of the edit, sending it to him and he’ll make an edit and send it back. He’s down for the input as well. He doesn’t want it to just be all him because it’s our project, together. I like filming and editing a lot and if I was a filmer I’d be very involved in the editing process too.

Come on, don’t undersell yourself, you are a filmer!

Oh yeah, I have a lot of credits.

They’re really building up.

I know, I know, it’s good. Even that Rowan Davis 50-50 in New Zealand, I was getting tagged so much by Girl Skateboards and Thrasher. I’d be like, “Woah, did Thrasher post me?” and it would just be, “Filmed by Geoff Campbell and Shaun Paul”.

That’s so dope.

I definitely have a passion for it, but don’t have the energy or time for it. To be honest it’s been the last three parts which I have basically edited. I’m always worried about stepping on the filmer’s toes, but everyone I’ve worked with has been really understanding. It’s never been completely my edit, it’s just been me playing around with the tricks and the song I want. It feels more like we’ve worked together on it. If I had the chance to edit other people’s footage I would, but the only footage I have on my phone is my own footage so it’s all I have to work with.

It’s cool though, it ends up being an accurate display of you, the music like and what you like at the time.

Yeah, exactly, that’s what I liked at the time. But also, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if it was just a surprise.

What’s next for you from here?

Finish this part with Majick, then I’m going to try to move to France in February and get a year long visa. I just want to float around, maybe get a sublet in Paris.