Alex Van Hoecke

October 22, 2007 @ 11:52 AM

In those times of faster than light communication, we still tend to focus on what is local to us, or so very foreign and different that it tickles our fancy. And somehow, with a new clip being posted on the web every other second, we still pass talented skateboarders, because, they are from “somewhere else”, while we’re trying to stay up to date on what’s going on in our own area. And, then, you get the odd number, the one even his neighbors barely hear about and have never even seen. The hidden one, with many a story floating about him, but maybe one photo or two over the years to keep people guessing. Alex Van Hoecke is the perfect example of this phenomenon.
Not that he is uninterested, though, but somehow life got in the way more than once, and he had to play with the cards he got dealt. Not one to complain, Alex still had to come a long way to produce the following interview, and it might even surprise a lot of his fellow French men or women. But not one single person who would have ever seen him on his board for the past ten years.

So, with great pride, let me introduce you to France best kept secret, for no good reason…

Text: Benjamin

Photos: Benjamin (unless stated)

Nollie flip in, with a nasty kink at the bottom.

“Watch that man, Oh honey watch that man!

He talks like a jerk

But he could eat you with a fork and spoon

Watch that man, Oh honey watch that man!

He walks like a jerk

But he’s only taking care of the room

Must be in tune”

David Bowie

When we walked in the café next door to Alex’s new house, all the locals at the counter knew what I was in town for. I got introduced to every person in there on a first name basis, until we took our coffees to the non-smoking section —the empty one. In the small village outside Lille where Alex has been renovating a house for a few weeks now, everybody already seemed up to date to what was going on in his life. The funny thing is, in skateboarding, Alex is most likely —if people have even heard about him— referred to as a recluse! But, that’s another story…
It was now time to bring it back to the beginning:

Nose slide double nollie flip out to stretch those legs.

“I started when I was 11. A supermarket board with plastic wheels and neon graphic. My mum brought them home, one for me, and one for my brother: ‘Here you go, here are some skateboards!’ We started like that, doing our building’s parking garage downhill. A year later, we moved, and my brother befriended a guy who had a Vision with urethane wheels! My brother Jon is three years older, and he was my session best friend for seven or eight years. Whenever we had five minutes, we’d go skate the little supermarket carpark, at the end of the road. That was seventeen years ago.
There were a couple kids in the neighborhood. We skated around there for a couple years, until we realized there was Lille which had a reputation, some spots, and some good skaters. Hervé Coneim was already there, and Coma and Rota, those two brothers. We started doing little trips into town. It was six or seven kilometers to get there, so we’d take the bus or the tram. Eventually, we started skating all the way there, so we would save on the tram tickets and be able to buy a drink. So, four or five years after picking up skating, we would be sessioning every weekend at the DDE. We wouldn’t deal with the seven kilometer trek after school, during the week!”

Switch backside flip over that one road gap.

This is where the Alex “legend” starts. On boards ridden to death, or hand-me-downs, he started to land more and more difficult tricks over the big stairs of the local spot, in a place and time when information was not circulating, unless you happened to be skating in Paris or the 90’s Mecca, Lyon. Plus, life started to take strange turns…

“I quit when I was 16. It’s easy, exactly, when I turned independent. I went straight into drugs and all. My parents moved to the Jura region, and I moved into an apartment with my brother. A few months later, I was smoking, ditching school. Six months into it, I was going on the dole! I finished my retail diploma, and went to Professional School for a couple days to check it out, but I wasn’t into it. From 16 to 18, I wasn’t skating. Being independent: smoking, going to clubs in Belgium, in Holland…
I tried to work, but it didn’t happen! I got caught dealing and had to deal with that… then, one day, someone called to sponsor me! A skateshop was opening in Lille. And I wasn’t even skating then! My brother had found out about the shop and showed them a tape he had of me. I got on the team, two weeks before shooting this Check Out thing in Sugar magazine.”

Switch frontside big spin over stairs and some cobblestones.

That day, Alex Van Hoecke got his debut in skateboarding media by shooting a kickflip noseslide down a steep and short hubba. On color slide film. As in, a couple of goes… two weeks after picking up a board again?

“Maybe three… I never shot pictures before. Being sponsored by a shop, already, was out of our mind frame. It was for other people, living in Paris or Lyon! We would not even question it, nor think about it. So, in that the shop opened and helped me out, that was already great. I found out you were coming that same day you got into town, and I was told I should try to shoot something. So, I asked people what would be good. Scared to be old and outmoded, already [laughter]! I was looking at how much the Plan B videos had evolved in two years! Someone said ‘flip noseslide’, and since I had good frontside flips and noseslides, I thought: ‘Here you go!’ It was a very low ledge, really…”

Since then, Alex always had rare — to say the least— but outstanding appearances in French magazines or videos, with parts in now defunct company (such as Tikal wheels and Minutia skateboards) productions. Always doing something different on big spots. Still, you can’t blame him for some “career tactics”…

“I have heard I’m a bit of a phantom [laughs]. I think its partly a choice, but also due to circumstance. Contests, you need to have that mindset. I don’t! And many times, I could not take the opportunity to come to Paris, because of financial problems, lack of motivation or whatever reason. And no, I did not try to expose myself, like people would advise me to. It’s true that it’ll help you with sponsors, and its also true you don’t live out of thin air. And I’m also one of those that can’t work and skate. You can’t work eight hours a day, and then be all fresh to skate. It doesn’t happen. You have to find a compromise: show yourself around enough to keep sponsors happy and avoid working. It’s do-able… [Laughter]
When I was little, I would do a lot of local contests, but when I started again, I couldn’t anymore! The crowd, the pressure, the one minute runs… shooting pictures, I got on with it. There is not even pressure anymore, or if there is, it’s more of a positive one.”

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