Thrasher Magazine

Photo: Dillon

Milou's been around the world more times than you've been to the store and still makes time to film parts between the flights. Cairo catches up with the French jetsetter to talk wild nights in Vegas and how his new part almost vanished forever.


Techno and tech-gnar, Milou's new Pizza part is an undeniable force

Hey, Vincent, you’ve been all over the place recently. Where are you right now?
It’s been crazy lately—on a plane every day. We were in Philly and it was really fun. Then I ended up in the van with Jamie, Pedro, Kirby and Kaylanne on a little trip to Baltimore and New York. Now I’m in Paris.

Damn, dude, sounds like you're traveling a ton. Where are you headed next?
Everything’s pretty packed, but I’m going home for two days, finally. Then I’ve got Street League in Vegas. Are you coming?

I might have to come out to Vegas to see you.
You gotta come out! I don’t know if we’re going to skate a ton but we’re gonna party.




Have you ever been?
Yeah, I’ve been to Vegas. It’s kinda crazy. It’s good for like two days and one night, if you don’t get stuck. Last time we had a good friend show us around that used to work there. He was working for some clubs and I just get a text asking, “What’s your hotel and room number?” So I tell him and he replies, “Be downstairs in 20 minutes.” And next thing you know, there was the biggest limousine waiting for us that took us to a crazy club where we didn’t have to wait in line or pay. There was a table waiting for us with everything ready.

That’s like a movie experience of Las Vegas.
We were on the brokest trip, sharing a bed for four people and we had a crazy VIP rich-people experience in Vegas. I was pretty happy.

That’s pretty amazing.
You should come, ‘cause he might hook us up again.

Yeah, we’ll see. I’m gonna jump into the video—it sounds like you started right after the Olympics and Street League?
I think it started the same way I said earlier—I hopped in the van with Jamie Foy when he was on a Dickies trip. We were just hanging out, then I got in and started getting clips. I think we spent five days in Atlanta and North Florida, then I stayed with him in Miami. And you know Jamie—he stacks three-to-five clips a day, so if you are able to follow him, you come out of the trip with some stuff. So that’s when I started and we tried to keep it mostly footage in the US. When I’m back home and filming, I keep all those clips because I’m trying not to mix US and France. They just look really different.

Immune to jetlag, Milou flys out of this feeble to flat     Photo: Zaslavsky

So this part is all US-based?
Most of it is likely Atlanta, Florida and then the North Bay. There’s maybe a couple clips in LA. But that’s how we worked on it—five days here, a couple days there.

So you didn’t have an idea to make the part from the start? It was just that you went on that trip with Jamie and thought, Hey, maybe I could do a video?
Yeah, exactly. Skating those contests, I wasn’t able to skate on a regular schedule. So when I’d have a couple months between them, then I’d hit up Ref and say, “Let’s get a flight a go film some stuff.” That’s how it just worked out.

That’s perfect. How do you mentally prepare for a contest? Is there something that you’re thinking going in?
Last year was crazy trying to qualify for the Olympics. There were twice as many contests. Usually, I just skate Street League and some Indy events. So I wasn’t able to go on as many trips. When I have a contest coming up, I try to prepare a little for that. At least I’m not trying to film a crazy banger right before. I'm not trying to get hurt before that contest. You go skate a park a little. When there’s no contest for a month, then there’s at least two weeks I can go film. So that’s how I do both. It was pretty good this year, because there was a couple Street Leagues and they were all during the summer months.

I didn’t realize there were so many more contests before the Olympics versus a normal year.
Yeah, ‘cause they have to run all these qualifying events. It’s like an extra stop after you already skate a Street League. Normally it’s just done after. So you still gotta get ready if you want to do good. I do want to do better than Yuto, right? It’s impossible though.

Gap to frontside nosegrind, don't give Yuto the pin

But you don’t do anything to get your mind straight like, It’s two weeks before the contest; I’m not gonna skate street.
It's not anything special. I just don't do anything stupid. Let’s say I go to a party one day, then the next day I might not skate. Also, the last two years I’ve been trying to be more healthy. If I know I have something I want to film or if I know I'm going on a trip for a month or two, I'm gonna quit drinking a little bit before and get ready. Because, especially if it’s with Ref, it gets so intense. It's just nonstop from 9AM ‘til 10PM. We just skate and light up spots. So if your body’s not clean, then you won’t be able to take in every chance or every spot we go to. I do the same thing for contests—if I know I’m gonna go to a contest in three weeks, I clean up my body, stop drinking, go to the gym or do physio.

So it sounds like Ref is pretty on top of it, getting people out skating.
Right now, we have a really good crew with the Pizza team. No matter what happens, we all are motivated to skate and are a good group of friends. Everyone is just really easy and hypes everyone up. And then Ref is there to make sure we keep moving, like, Alright, wrap it up.

Yeah, the team captain.
He’s the guy to say, Oh, I saw a spot. Let’s check it out. And then he’ll throw an idea out like, Hey, Branny, you could do this! And Ref will also be the first one skating flatground when we get to a spot.

The great motivator.
Yeah, the Referee! He brings the rhythm.




I like that. So I heard from Ref that you guys ran into a huge problem in March, but you didn’t even know about it until a little while after.
They didn’t want to tell me, but we lost all the footage.

You lost all your footage?
So we got lucky, actually. Here is where I did a great job at the beginning of the year. That part’s been done for almost six months. Around New Year, I asked Ref to put everyone’s footage on a timeline on YouTube to see where everyone is. Everyone was working on their different parts, and I wanted to see my footage, too, since it was getting close. That way I could see how many back 50s we had, or maybe see if should we add a back 5-0 instead. I begged Ref for a couple weeks to do it and he did. Then, one month later, his hard drive and the computer at the office crashed—totally unlucky. The luck in there is that the main footage was saved. But we lost all the second angles, the roll ups, the B roll and all these clips of great memories. And, of course, we all lost a couple clips—they weren't all on the timeline. I think Ryan was the most unlucky one—he lost everything. Most of his filming was after we made the timeline. But the rest of us had 75–90 percent of our footage, just at a lower quality. So when it comes to editing, there’s a lot of clips you can’t use, ‘cause it doesn’t look so good or you can’t slow-mo it. A part is not just about the tricks, it’s about everything else.

Yeah, there’s the journey of getting all the tricks and what the team is about.
Yeah, especially when we all go on tour, we do a bunch of bullshit. It’s really fun and he’s always filming that. But we had a little luck in our disaster.

Because you had that YouTube link?
Yeah, I’m claiming that I’m proud I made Ref make a YouTube link. They took the drive to a computer place where they said it was gonna be between five and ten grand, and still weren’t sure it was going to work. So we were like, We lost it.

Vincent's frontside 5-0 was almost lost to the sands of time

That’s good you got some of it back. That’s so gnarly.
Yeah, Ref was stressing. I think even now he could joke about it, but is still feeling a little bad about it.

There are some things that are just out of your control.
Yeah, the computer and the backup drive crashed. How many backups do you need?

Sounds like he did all the right stuff. Two is pretty solid. You mentioned the Pizza trips and Ref capturing the bullshit. I remember linking up with you and the team, not realizing you had all been friends for so long. And with that, even though your English is amazing, they’ve remembered a lot of moments that get lost in translation—like saying "my Indys" versus “my undies.”
Ref has a note in his phone that’s really long with stuff I said that’s not really accurate with my accent, so you understand something else. I hope that it comes out at some time. I’m sure Ref’s gonna do a video and he’s gonna post it. We did that Independent trucks video My Indys, so when I say that, it kind of sounds like my undies. So Ref has this video where he picks up my underwear and he uses my voice from the Indy video. It’s like, These are my undies and they’re size XL. They’re really good for kicky front lip. They feel really good. And there are just so many of them.

Kicky front lip, must've worn the right undies    Photo: Zaslavsky

Hopefully we see that montage someday.
I have to give a good one from Vincent Matheron. He’s another French guy. His English is also very good, but some of the stuff, if you translate from French doesn’t work. Like if you want the dessert menu at a restaurant, you ask for the menu. But in French, the word we use translated means map. So at a restaurant, he asked for a map of the dessert. And instead of asking for a doggy bag for his food, he asked for it doggy style.

That’s amazing. What’s your dream team of skaters you’d wanna go on a trip with?
Just the whole Pizza team. Outside of that, the trip I just went on with Pedro, Kirby, Jamie and Kaylanne was really sick. It’s just a different kind of skating. I’m always really grateful to go on trips with different people.

Would you want a pro Tech Deck?
Yeah, that would be funny. I’d be hyped. I used to use a Tech Deck when I was in school. When they took my Tech Deck, I would use my pencil and pretend to do some grinds on the table. I would be pretty hyped if some kids could use a Vincent Milou Tech Deck when they’re bored in school. I had them from people I liked—Reynolds, Mark Gonzales and Marc Johnson.

Picture-perfect switch back Smith    Photo: Muller

Last one, what are your top three go-to tricks.
You’ll have to figure that out when you see the part. Hopefully I don’t repeat too many.

I think that’s great. Do you want to give a shout-out?
Yeah, anyone who supported me through the whole thing. It’s been a dream come true. The last two years have been crazy, and I’m really happy and lucky. Shout-out everyone that supported me and helped me through that—sponsors, friends and family. I don’t want to say anyone, because I don’t want to forget anyone.

I think that captures it, because everyone fucking loves you.
Thank you. It’s a dream come true, no matter how many parts you have.

To have the part come out on Thrasher?
Yeah, because you look it up when you’re a kid and it seems so far. It’s all the way out there over in America, across the Atlantic and you don’t even have a visa yet. Also, Ref making the music for me is amazing. He made it driving back from Seattle. That’s just how talented he is.

That’s awesome. Thanks, Vincent.
Thank you.

Backside 50-50 down and around reppin' the mag. Big LOVE, Milou     Photo: Zaslavsky