Words and photos Florian Da Conceiçao (@floccon) and Boul
– Boul
So, my name’s Alexis “Boul,” and I live in the Basque Country, in Biarritz. I’ve been into scootering, skating, and DIY projects for about two years now with some buddies in the BAB area.
As for the bowl—we originally set out to check out a concrete slab we’d spotted on Google Earth, located on a beach in the Landes region.
Once we got there, we realized the slab wasn’t really skateable, so there wasn’t much we could do with it. But as we walked further along the beach, we saw plenty of other bunkers.
Then we found this round bunker, filled with dirt and vegetation. We immediately thought, “This could be a bowl.”
The catch was that it took about a 15-minute walk along the beach just to reach the spot.
Anyway, the next day we came back with shovels and dug out the whole circular area. While clearing it out, we found a bunch of bullets left over from the war. So, we named the spot “La Balle DIY” (The Bullet DIY).
Then we started making endless trips back and forth to haul in tiles, rubble, wire mesh, and the first bags of cement to build the base layers.
We kept at it for about eight months.
We were spending so much time just transporting materials that, after eight months, we’d barely finished the base layers.
Then one day, we arrived… and it was all gone.
Everything had been destroyed.
We gave up on the project for two or three weeks.
But then, the people who were still motivated (Shan and Clara) and I decided we couldn’t just leave it like that.
We got our motivation back and hauled in all the cement. We used sand from the beach and rubble from a nearby gravel path, then built the floor in a week.
We figured out that 1.5 bags of cement got us about a meter of transition, and there are 14 meters of coping.
From there, we went full-tilt, knocking out one section of transition a day for 15 days.
Then we painted it the day after finishing the last section!
The goal was also to show that scooter riders love sketchy, steep DIY transitions—even without coping—and that decks don’t necessarily damage coping any more than trucks do.
I heard that excuse a lot when visiting DIY spots—people saying they wouldn’t ride there for that reason.
As for us, the bowl’s motto is:
“Made by scootering for everything.”
– Boul
I first met _.boul_ by chance at a new slappy curb in Capbreton, close to the motorway. We started talking, and he told me about a DIY bowl he had built near the sea wall in Tarnos. As soon as he mentioned it, I knew I wanted to shoot photos there.
I started searching Google Maps to figure out where it could be. I eventually spotted the bunker and asked boul if we could come and shoot at his spot. He was immediately down.
Since I work at Le Park Skate Shop in Hossegor, putting together a small crew wasn’t difficult. The session featured Hugus Nathan, Canelle, along with shop staff Alex and William. Hugus is a true DIY enthusiast who previously helped build Skatopiak, near Bordeaux, so he was especially excited to skate the place.
Before heading to the bunker, we warmed up at the Tarnos skatepark, where local skaters have built and added their own obstacles over the years. The park has really taken on a DIY spirit.
Then it was time for the bunker.
The weather was absolutely wild with heavy wind and thunderstorms rolling inand dark skies overhead. It made the spot feel even more raw, isolated and underground. The atmosphere perfectly matched the DIY spirit of the place, making it an unforgettable session. – Florian Da Conceiçao
