Geneva - Switzerland
June 2021
On the most western point of Switzerland lays a city named Geneva. Some of you might know it because of « le jet d’eau de Genève », the international headquarters of the UN, it’s magnificent lake or it’s reputation of being considered as part of France by the rest of Switzerland.
Geneva is in my opinion one of the best city to skate around in Switzerland. The spots are a little more rough than in Zurich (and I’m talking about « swiss rough » which is quite insignificant compared to other places) but there are nonetheless as many as in Switzerland’s biggest city. On an international level, Geneva shines less bright than Zürich (even though Switzerland global influence on the worldwide skate scene remains very little). This is maybe due to a lack of proper media coverage in the area.
Most of Geneva’s skaters are pretty lowkey on the European scene and probably don’t know them except if you ever visited the city. There are five skate shops in the city: 242 Genève, doodah, tranzport, Blue tomato and pulp68 (the last one being more of a skateboard museum than an actual shop). So with that many shops it is no wonder that the skate scene is quite big and it is growing bigger from day to day. There are quite a few skateparks in Geneva: about six of them.
The biggest being the one in Plainpalais and my personal favorite being the one they just built in Mies, a small village on the outskirts of Geneva. There used to be a major central spot in Geneva called “le Grütli” but the local governement decided to shut it down about ten years ago.
Nowadays skaters usually meet up around Plainpalais skatepark and 242 skate shop before going on a street mission. Skateboarding sessions in Geneva are usually pretty mellow as most of the skaters here skate mostly manuals and ledges. At the end of the session, we usually end up skating ledges at the skatepark or flat ground around one of Plainpalais’s many pick nick tables.
Apart from skateboarding, Geneva is a lovely city during the summer. You can either walk around the many parks that the city has or swim in the lake or in the Rhône river. Beware that the Rhône can be very dangerous and that only good swimmers should swim in there.
If you’re looking for a good burger you can go to Inglewood hamburgers. A now famous chain restaurant serving the finest hamburgers in town. If you go there, make sure you try the Oreo cheesecake too. I’ve got to warn you still, the restaurant opens at 7 in the evening and there’s no table left around 7.15 so be there as quick as possible.
What more can I say, Geneva has a ton of spots, great activities during the summer, good food, good bars. Just make sure you come during the summer because it rains a lot during winter and there’s no covered spot or covered skatepark.
My name is Simon Perrottet, I’m 25 years old. I’ve started skating around twelve years ago. I grew up in the saint jean area which is quite known for its spots. I’ve been sponsored by 242 skate shop for about eight years now. I’m part of the OG2000 crew which was formed around 2013-2014 when the generation of skaters that are a few years older than me wanted to start something of a brand/crew/family identity. This whole crew is also a way for us to celebrate the memory of our friend Alex Lezzi who passed away in July 2014.
I’m not quite sure who actually started it but if I had to guess I’d say Gabriel Zufferey (Geneva legend) Guillaume berthet and Hugo Radi. We made 2 full length videos: one called OG2000, the second OGZOOO (which is unfortunately not available online anymore) and a shared video with our friends from cinquième terrasse crew called TCHOCK. We’ve also made a few smaller side projects and dropped a few clothing collections .I’ve been filming a bit with guillaume berthet lately and maybe we’ll come up with another project in the near future.
