Not Your Usual Skate Contest | Red Bull Bowl RippersWhat makes a skatepark truly legendary? After all, we are living through the second golden era of the skatepark, with new designs and world-firsts popping up globally like mushrooms after rain. And yet, there is only one Marseille. Pro skateboarding action returned to Marseille’s iconic beachside bowl in September just passed, as Red Bull Bowl Rippers continued the Bowl Du Prado’s legacy of enshrining legends into a new era. The park, designed by Jean-Pierre Collinet, has been skated daily for over 25 years and has been visited by every great of the genre in order to leave their marks on the lore. As well as the Cardiel’s, Speyer’s, Trujillo’s and Petersen’s there are also the local names like Molinier, Benoliel, Salah and the Matheron clan who have all contributed to the skatepark’s worldwide notoriety. It could be argued that nowhere in the world is better disposed towards running skate events than the infamous Bowl du Prado in Marseille, France. Like Sydney’s Bondi, the bowl itself heats up a fulcrum of skate intensity which in turn sits within the wider ambience of the beach life that surrounds it. Skateboarding events are generally at their best when these worlds collide, and nowhere do they collide more agreeably than in Marseille. As our barnstorming skate extravaganza packed the famous beachside hill with thousands of rowdy French spectators, Marc Churchill and Corbin Harris chop it up with both the skaters involved and internationally-respected industry veterans like Greg Poissonnier, Chris Gregson, Bryce Kanights as well as organiser Jeremie Grynblat and local hero Vincent Matheron to discover what it is that keeps people returning to this unique proving-ground time and again down the decades. As Australia’s Poppy Olsen observes: “There’s so much energy to feed off…it’s kind of hard to explain- but it’s just… great!” Enjoy the people who k