‘Being an outsider myself along with being in and from France brings a different perspective as well, at least I hope so.’
BEYOND BOARDS
Quentin Delille
Beyond Boards
October 2024
Had the lockdown something to with starting your podcast Beyond Boards in late 2020?
Absolutely. Right before Covid started mid-March 2020, I went to my parents’ vacation home in Brittany (in the Northwest of France, by the Atlantic Ocean) with my cousin Guillaume for what was supposed to be a 3-day weekend. But while we were there the French president/government announced a national lockdown. My cousin and I decided to stay in Brittany instead of going back to Paris where we lived. Before Covid I had been working for a number of years in the wine industry, more specifically as a sommelier in a Parisian wine bar up until the beginning of the pandemic. I had unfortunately also been suffering from alcoholism and depression for a number of years. Being isolated in Brittany offered me a chance to finally quit drinking, something I had been wanting to do for a long time but couldn’t achieve until then.
Beyond Boards on skateboarding grew from Beyond Bars on alcohol addiction and sobriety?
Yes, pretty much. What happened was that In March 2020, after completing these 12 episodes of Beyond Bars I felt like I didn’t want to focus on addiction and sobriety anymore. I was coming up on one year of sobriety and was feeling more and more comfortable in my new skin as a sober person. I enjoyed doing a podcast very much though and thought to myself that I should continue doing one, but focus on a different topic, something I’m profoundly passionate about and can talk about endlessly. Skateboarding immediately came to mind. I started skating in the year 2000 at 13 years old. I fell in love with it and skated a lot until 20/21 years old. Around that time, I had a gnarly ankle fracture and skateboarding was never the same after that unfortunately. My flick disappeared along with my confidence, and I didn’t enjoy skating anymore. I kept watching skate videos in the following years but never fully got back into skating myself. Anyways, I thought I could start a podcast dedicated to this life-long passion, but I didn’t feel super legitimate to do it since I don’t skate anymore and was never really good at it or anything. Also, I had no connections whatsoever in the skateboarding industry, apart from Neal Mims and Brandon Turner that I just mentioned. Still I felt like there was room for a podcast that could explore skateboarding in a different way than what I had seen and heard on the Nine Club or the Bunt up until then. So, I started Beyond Boards in March/April 2021, with the intention of doing at least 6 episodes, maybe 12, some in French and some in English, and try to focus on things aside from the act of skating itself. I don’t find it very interesting to ask a skater how he does his kickflips!! But I find it much more interesting to hear about his/her life, what brought him/her to skating, what his/her interests are outside of skating… Hence the name Beyond Boards. We’re 2 and a half years later and I just recorded episode 60… I still can’t believe it!
‘I especially like that last part because it brings up some interesting questions and stories I wouldn’t have thought to ask about.’
Your podcast is ‘dedicated to the actions and interests of skaters beyond skateboarding’. What makes Beyond Boards different from all the other skateboard podcasts out there?
Honestly, I can’t say my content is so much different than what other skateboarding podcasts are putting out. Not trying to reinvent the wheel here! But as I said I try to focus more on the life and journey of my guest aside from skating itself. Being an outsider myself (not having any ties to the skateboarding industry) along with being in and from France brings a different perspective as well, at least I hope so. I also don’t interview many pro skaters. I’ve had a few for sure, but try to focus on people who do other stuff around skateboarding: photographers, filmers/filmmakers, team/marketing managers, writers, journalists, NGO workers, teachers, academics… I also try to have a good mix of different nationalities. But inevitably a lot of my guests so far have been middle aged white dudes from Europe or the US!! Hopefully that will change over time. I’m trying to get people that you don’t really hear/see much on other skate podcasts, like Atita Verghese from India, Ruby Mateja who co-founded an NGO called Free Movement in Greece, Kuba Kaczmarczyk from Warsaw, Poland who’s been making amazing videos for years with his Grey Area crew…After doing it for a while I organically developed somewhat of a structure to my episodes. I usually cover the life and journey of my guest chronologically, starting with how he/she started skating up until their recent and upcoming projects, and finish our chat with some surprise questions from friends of theirs. I especially like that last part because it brings up some interesting questions and stories I wouldn’t have thought to ask about.
I like those surprise questions from their friends. Are all people you are reaching out to coming back with questions?
Not everybody answers and provides me with a surprise question for a specific guest, but some people have shared a lot of questions, like John Dahlquist for example. I’d say at this point among 10 people I solicit for a surprise question maybe 3 to 5 will reply and share one.
‘I think my story with sobriety struck a chord with him (Patrick O’Dell) and he quickly said yes.’
Episode 8 was with industry heavyweight Patrick O’Dell, followed by Michael Burnett, Jaime Owens, Aaron Meza etc which is very impressive. How did you get them all over the line?
Yeah Patrick’s episode was definitely a pivotal moment for me. I’ve been a fan of his work for a long time and was so stoked to get him on. I reached out to him on Instagram, like I had done with most of my other guests until that point. I think my story with sobriety struck a chord with him and he quickly said yes. It took a little while to get him on a zoom call but eventually it happened, and I think that episode brought me to another level, it gave me more credibility. I remember John Dahlquist reaching out to me not long after that, telling me he had enjoyed that episode with Patrick, and I was actually going to contact John to ask if he’d like to do an interview about his work at Bryggeriets!! Stars aligned. He’s been a tremendous help with my podcast ever since, putting me in touch with people, suggesting guests, motivating me to keep going… For example, I got Ali Boulala on thanks to him. Best dude, thanks for everything John. Burnett was much later though. I got in touch with him thanks to French artist Lucas Beaufort (episode 26) who had interviewed him for his documentary “Devoted”. By the way Lucas is another person who has been a tremendous help with my podcast, thank you so much Lucas! I reached out to Michael and offered to do an interview, I thought it was a long shot and that he probably wouldn’t want to do it, but surprisingly he very quickly accepted! I was really nervous during our chat because he’s super sarcastic and I was afraid I might say some dumb shit but it turned out ok. He was much nicer to me than I expected him to be, and he’s also been a great support ever since, providing me with some funny surprise questions for other guests. I think once I got Michael on it really opened the door for some of these better-known skate industry/media people in the US. I’m hoping to get more of them in the future! Stay tuned.
‘To get him (Eric Swisher) on the pod is one thing, but to have him validate my work in this way was so humbling and rewarding.’
Which episode stands out for you personally?
It’s hard to pick just one of course, but I think my best episode yet might be episode 42 with Eric Swisher from the Chromeball Incident. I had been DMing with him for a while, like 6 months more or less, until I finally got him on a zoom call in December 2022, right after Christmas. The pressure was on for me because I consider his interviews to be the very best in skateboarding. I’ve been reading them forever and really admire his work. But I had just done my interview with Burnett a few days before, I guess that gave me a confidence boost. I hadn’t prepared his interview much but there are many similarities between what he does with his Chromeball interviews and what I try to do with Beyond Boards, therefore I feel like we were having a discussion among “colleagues” or something, we could relate to each other’s work very well. Also, he’s such a nice dude, was really funny and generous with his time, he made it very easy for me. I remember him telling me at the very end that I did a good job with this interview and that he enjoyed it, I was over the moon obviously. To get him on the pod is one thing, but to have him validate my work in this way was so humbling and rewarding. My best memory from doing the pod so far for sure. He's also helped me a lot since then, providing friends questions, handing out advice…
Thank you so much Eric. Absolutely awful. I was almost considering throwing it away and asking him to do another interview sometime, but in the end, I decided to use that audio recording despite the bad quality. I still feel so bummed when I listen to it today, it makes the whole episode very unpleasant to listen to. So sorry Raphael! But hey, live and learn. I never ever forgot my mics after that!!
Last question. If you could interview any person in the world, which I guess you can by now anyway, who would it be and why?
There’s definitely still a lot of people in skateboarding that I would absolutely love to interview. Some of them might happen, some most likely won’t, we’ll see. Off the top of my head a few examples: Ed Templeton, Jacob Harris, Kenny Anderson, Tom Penny, Eric Koston, Spike Jonze, Jim Thiebaud, Lucas Puig, Florentin Marfaing, Jason Dill, AVE, Kevin Rodrigues, Matt Hensley, Chad Muska, Arto Saari…One person that has agreed to do an interview but that I still haven’t been able to get on is Kenny Reed. I’ve been talking to him since the very beginning of Beyond Boards! He’s a very busy man and always on the move. So yeah, hopefully one day I’ll get to interview Kenny Reed, fingers crossed!
‘He (John Dahlquist) has been a tremendous help with my podcast ever since, putting me in touch with people, suggesting guests, motivating me to keep going.’
