Riding Onewheel in France

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Checkout our latest post with the veterans riding Onewheel in France: Justin de Baere, LeSs Is More, and Fabrice Salvan

#1. This is so awesome having you guys take the time to share the stoke riding Onewheel in France! Thank you for sitting down and sharing your story, please tell us your names, where you are from, and what you do for a living. 

My name is Fab, I am 40 years old and live Near Toulouse City, South France. For over 10 years I have been selling homemade gourmet sausages at an outdoor marketplace.

My name is Leslie but my friends call me Less’ and Instagram knows me as Less isMore. I live in Montpellier – south of France – and i have 2-jobs. I have just created a company – Let’s Ride Onewheel France – i offer Onewheel sessions to discover Montpellier and surrounding. 

To make ends meet, I am an executive assistant at part time. And I am working on developing my own clothes brand too. Which is time consuming, but I believe in it.

#2. When did you first start riding Onewheel?

Fab: I am a Kickstarter backer, Got the V1 s/n446 the 15 April 2015.

Less: I tried for the 1st time in May 2017 and i received my Onewheel+ in July 2017. And then my whole life changed. 

#3. Did you know each other before riding Onewheel and how did you all meet?

Less: We did not know each other. Fabuz was the 1st person to make me try his V1. I posted a message on the OW French forum to know if somebody in Montpellier could makes me try the Onewheel before to buy it. Fabuz answered fast and offered me to try his board. We live at more than 2-hours by car so i went to meet him in Toulouse. I remember very well this day. I really appreciate my friend Mister Fabuzz!!

About Hafid, we first talk together on Instagram (like the main persons i met in this community) and when I went to Paris, we met and shred the city together. He makes me visit the capital, that was totally awesome. He is THE friendliest meeting of my 2018 year and now one of my best friends and we crossed the Atlantic twice together to participate to FLF.

#4. Riding Onewheel in France, how did the public react to you at first when you started riding around Paris and your hometowns?

Fab: Onewheel is still a kind of UFO for most people, but people are curious and stoked about the Onewheel. Cops are also friendly towards riding onewheel france.

Less: The reactions of the people were funny and still it is. Everybody is surprised and curious about the board. I was the 1st person to ride a Onewheel in Montpellier so i cannot deny that a lot of people turned their head when they saw my board. 

#5. How did you get involved in the community and let everyone know riding Onewheel in France was cool and spreading the stoke?

Fab: I first met awesome people on the old-school OW forum. Schuyler Ortega and Chris Unger and many other !!! the first bonds of friendship were born there!

Less: I discovered the Onewheel thanks to an advertising on Facebook, i suppose that its because I am a snowboard addict too (targeting adds!!). I have created my Instagram account 4 months after my OW+ arrived.

And i think it was my friend Hafid who recommended my name to the ProFam on the FB group.

#6. Fab, Leslie, and Hafid, you flew all the way from France to Asheville, NC for FLF 2, please tell us about your journey and what happened along the way.

Fab: Best days of my life, with the best welcoming by the U.S Onewheel fam. Believe it or not, a brand new unboxed XR was waiting for me…The only downside, time went way too fast!

Less: I was supposed to participate to FLF2 but i broke my elbow in NYC few days before the festival (obewheelinh). I think it was one of the big bad events of 2018, but it made me stronger. I was so bummed to not meet for real my ow buddies and to miss them so close… 

Fortunately, my friend Hafid was here (Sonny, Harrison and Stevie too).

I was welcomed in Sonny Wheels’s house (during few days before my return in France to have surgery) who i had the chance to meet and to know. 

After this failed, I could not not to come back to FLF3…

#7. Leslie, what did you enjoy most about your experience at FLF and visiting NY?

Less: The thing i enjoyed the most was for sure to meet for real my Onewheel buddies during FLF.

Obviously the FLF3 was so f*** amazing!! (Sorry I’m too French to be polite 😉) I recommend to every person who is addicted to Onewheel to buy a ticket plane and to come to FLF!!! The best festival i ever participated. I think to come every year to FLF is going to be like a pilgrimage for me!!  Foshooo!!! 

Riding NYC is like Paris, just Magic!!! The streets, the ambiance, the traffic …. Thanks to Harrison and Stevie from the NYC Crew who loaned me their board, I discovered NYC in a very cool way, i literally shredded the city (unlike the previous year when it was rather the city that shredded my elbow!).

#8. Tell us what the Onewheel scene in France is like.

Fab: Good Vibes, European Community is growing fast and big Onewheel events could come true!

Less: French Onewheel Crew is full of talents, for sure!!! 

From each part of France, you can find somebody passionate by his Onewheel. Riding and practicing solo or trying to find other buddies to share some ride. 

American riders are inspiring us, but some French riders can compete with the best American riders. And European scene is increasing too.

#9. Leslie, you were able to make FLF3 this past year tell us what you enjoyed most about the event.

Less: Sorry but i cannot identify a specific moment during festival because all the days was amazing for me. The road from NYC to Asheville with Harry, Yursil and Dano… 15-hrs by car!!! Wednesday, the group ride for Jesus. To discover the hard trails was craziness and so freaking good. And the 1st official day too, sunny, warm, and good mood … (I am still shivering!) And the competitions were so rad too!!! 

See Vitto how I am totally unable to choose one specific moment, impossible! 😂

#10. Justin, you were one of the first riders out in France, how long have you been riding and how many KM have you ridden in that time?

(See YouTube video) 

#11. Have you had any friends from the online community from other countries visit and ride with you in France yet?

Less: The first European buddy i met was Gerard from Spain. We rode 3times together, 2 in Barcelona and Gerard came once in France. We shred Montpellier together and it was so cool to see my Spanish buddy in my town. 

From Switzerland, Nicorufflionson. We do not Onewheel together, but he joined Hafid and I to snowboarding in French Alps. Thanks to Onewheel and Instagram connection, we met each other’s. 

I had the pleasure to welcome Georgio from Russia and ride with him in Montpellier.And without forget my buddy Ignatz Pfefferberg, he did not come to Montpellier but came to FLF3 too and he is from Germany. Without the Onewheel, all those meetings (in France, USA, Spain, Germany…) could never have taken place.

#12. Where are your favorite spots to ride?

Fab: Paris of course and my Pyrenees Mountains (South France) are full of empty & endless Trails and Downhill!

Less: Montpellier for sure. Streets, off-road, nature… every day you can ride different flat and ambiances. Paris with my best friend Hafid, for sure!!! Font-Romeu (ski resort) where the off-road sessions in the backcountry made me quite think at Reeb Ranch playground. 

And the beaches in Sète, my city of birth close to Montpellier. 

But The world is my playground. 😊

#13. Do you consider Onewheel a sport and where do you see Onewheel in 3-5 years?

Fab: Pro riders are definitely pushing the limits to what I’d call “Extreme Sports” but as a recreation, it’s an awesome ecofriendly mobility device. Everybody needs a Onewheel! 🙂

Less: Except a little of body cladding and balance, i do not really feel it like a sport. But to me it is a way of life, my main way of move, my hobby, my passion, my drug and now my job. So maybe I am not really objective anymore. I am not a scientist but i think Onewheel provides the same sensations of well-being and the same pleasure hormones than sport so i will highly recommend it to every people too stressed or unhappy… like the sport.

#14. What are your plans to continue spreading the stoke riding Onewheel in France and Europe?

Fab: I let Leslie answer that question.

Less: To spread the ow stoke i still enjoying share my sessions on Instagram. i also created my company – Let’s Ride Onewheel France – i offer Onewheel sessions to visit Montpellier. 

I am trying to meet others Onewheel riders when its possible.Since few months, Hafid, Fabuzz and i are thinking about to organize a ow festival in France. we talked about it between us, im working on it and we would want to speak with FLF’s team to know what would be possible to imagine in France/Europe. Something like European FloatLife Festival… will see. (now I guess this project its more official 😁). 

#15. If you could tell Future Motion, your online followers, or the Onewheel community across the world anything what would it be?

Fab: A float a day keeps the doc away!? Right!?

Less: To FM: please we need asap a SAV in Europe. We cannot continue to send our board in USA when they need to be repair seriously. Even if we have a warranty. That is not ecofriendly and does not make sense considering the price of the boards. 

To my followers: Big thanks because they always send me good vibes, I am feeling lucky to be support. Even if it is just Instagram. Thank to this social network, i lived a ton of crazy moments and above all i met lovely people.

To the Ow community: come oooon to South of France!! Or let’s shred together at the next FLF. 

Love Ride Smile & StayPro. ❤️👊🏽💋 – LeSs

To check out these awesome people and other Onewheel community members click here!

Stay.Pro!