Batardubreak has become one of the top skimboarding sites in Europe. From international traveling media to helping putting together the European Skim League…the Batardubreak guys are doing good things for skimboarding in Europe. We sat down with one of Batardubreak’s founders, Bernardo.
SI: How did the formation of Batardubreak come about?
Bernardo: Basically, I co-founded Batardubreak with Remy ”Rems” Dugoua, who begins to be well known for his photographer’s talents!
Batardubreak was born from the connection between the people of Skimcrash crew and Skimtheworld crew during trips in Portugal.
We went all together to Sununga at the end of 2005 and we created batardubreak in 2006.
Our goal was to put a suspicion of Bon goût and art de vivre in the skim scene.
SI: You guys have traveled around a lot internationally since forming the site…where have you been? And where are you guys dieing to go?
Bernardo: We investigated quite a lot of beaches in Portugal, Laguna, Spain, Brazil, and Chile…
You know, indeed skimboard is for us a pretext to meet the community, the skim family, to discover others cultures and of course new culinary specialties.
Obviously we have to go to Cabo but the new destination which excites us the most is Melaque. This place looks more typical Mexican…
SI: You got to skim Sununga…a place a lot of Americans are dieing to get a chance to skim. What were your thoughts?
Bernardo: If you had asked me to imagine the paradise, I would have drawn you the shoreline and the people of Ubatuba. It was my third time in Brazil and second in Sununga.
The first thing which comes in my mind is the friendship, the brotherhood, the kindness of the Brazilians.
Sununga is an amazing spot in a jungle paradise but it’s not the lonely great spot in Ubatuba…
There are others good skim spots like Massaguaçu, Bonnete, Bikini Vermelha …
As very fortunate people, our Brazilian friends took us on true secrets spots that we named “Kamikaze” and “Ici, c’est Paris”. These places are only accessible by a hike of the death through the jungle or by a boat.
SI: If you have been to the wedge…How does it compare to the wedge?
Bernardo: I went once at Wedge and it scared me…
I don’t know which one is powerful. When both works perfectly Sununga looks a bit easier, because the side is more “linering”.
To give you an idea, Pascal Maire (who did the trip to Sununga with me last month) considers that Sununga is also powerful as Cabo.
SI: What was the formation behind the European Skim League? Who else is involved?
Bernardo: We did the report that so-called European competitions have existed since 1994 (France & Portugal) without coordination between these 2 countries.
Many new competitions and structures have appeared among Europe since 2005
United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Netherlands…
Then, it was time to take our responsibilities to unify us, to create a Euro Tour with a real Euro Champ Title. Personalities like Mathieu Taxi, Joao Dinis, Jack Bedex, Dan Horan, José Costa are involved in.
SI: Who are some of the other figures behind Batardubreak?
Bernardo: Our Godfather, the French legend: Jack Panda Bedex, the guy who created the first real skimwebsite in Europe, the dead famous “Skim The World”.
Pascal Maire (Unamass shaper), Hervé Ledoux (French International ESL Director), Loic Jacckel, Acacia Piks, Guy Mauve, the Thibaud Bros and many others friends, it’s not a closed group.
SI: Batardubreak has featured a lot of great music in videos…What are you listening to these days?
Bernardo: I’ m actually listening some dub/funk mix of Grant Phabao and the selection n°10 of the German electro label Kompakt. Of course we bring back some good music from Brazil, and not anything than the songs of the talentuous local artist of Sununga : Divinoa Santos
SI: What’s up next for the European Skim League for 2010?
Bernardo: In fact the real next step is that our Euro Champ 09, Mega will enter a contest in South America next January or February!
I can’t tell you so much at this time. The ESL staff is working to make the season 2010 something more professional! Don’t forget that 2009, was only a draft season.
ESL 2010 should integrate new people in the staff, new countries and new contests in the Tour and, with more money, more riders, more chicks, and more parties!
Rendez-vous next march in Barcelona for the first event!
SI: What is the story behind the Batardubreak name and logo?
Bernardo: This weird name was found by Remy during a tapas crawl in San Sebastian.That means basically Bastards from the shore break or quite the same as sons of the beach…
We were telling us that 99% of the buddies had a crappy name with the word SKIM, in, like “SkimInvasion” 
for example.
To tell the truth, we hesitated between “batardubreak” and “hunting, fishing, skimming & traditions”. The logo was created by the inspiring Laurent Lozes.
SI: How did you discover skimboarding and get into the sport?
Bernardo: Nothing original except I discovered skimboard on the Mediterranean shore when I was 10 years old. Later, I discovered wave riding and I entered the community with the help of the famous Jack Bedex.
SI: How do you assess the growth of skimboarding in Europe in the last five years?
Bernardo: Globally, on the 5 last years, there was a progressive and solid growth.
Hopefully, Europe went out of yokes of both historic nations (Portugal & France) to open new fronts in Spain, the UK, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Poland…
In some areas, it has literally exploded especially on the French Riviera and in Spain, providing us great riders!
Vivé la france! Vivé BatarduBreak!