A few days ago I copped a Cliché 5 panel hat at my local shop. Being super stoked on it I went to my skate video library and watched some Cliché videos. I watched Bon Appetit, Deja Vu, Hello Jojo and Clé. I was truly amazed at how good these guys were and at how much much it seemed they were having while skating. There was something that truly won Cliché a special spot in my heart, The Gypsy Tour.
What exactly is the Gypsy Tour? It’s a two week road trip skating and partying through parts of Europe, but the catch is each skater can only spend ten Euros per day. Think of it as a Beauty and the Beast tour but 20 times more hardcore. Instead of camping outside of skateparks, hiking in the woods with your friends, and doing demos. These guys are sleeping in old abandoned factories some without tents or even sleeping bags, Taking showers in public parks, chugging a whole bottle of wine just to acquire ten Euros more, and even losing their bags leaving them borrowing clothes and skate gear. 
You people might be thinking that these guys are just plain stupid, knowing that they could simply go to a nice hotel and eat nice meals at nice restaurants, but that my friends would be taking out the adventure in traveling, and adventure is a huge part in skateboarding. What would be the fun in skating at the same skatepark every day? Part of what makes skating so fun is to go at three am to skate that ledge spot that you know is a bust in the middle of the day, to run from the cops so you don’t get a ticket or busted, or to steal that stop sign down the street so you can cover that crack before the handrail.
Skateboarding is illegal in a lot of places and frowned upon and overlooked in every place it is practiced. We are cut from a different cloth. We do shit you average Joe would never think of doing. Normal probably think we are crazy, irresponsible, or just downright stupid, what they don’t know is that we are the ones having all the fun because we actually don’t give a fuck what people think and we do what we want, when we want it. 
I wrote this because I see that a lot of people forget what it is to be a true skate rat. I see a lot people just skating their local park and even though they are having a blast and progressing a bunch, I feel they are missing out on the important element of finding new shit to skate, and doing whatever it takes to skate it even if it takes a few fences to climb and a few cops to run away from. So people next time you go out and skate, make sure you include some adventure in your session believe me it will make it a thousand times more fun.
It was kind of hard finding some clips that could represent what I wrote, but I did the best I could. So… yeah, enjoy.
These two are links for the 2nd and 3rd gypsy tours:
http://www.fuel.tv/gypseatour
