At the age of 20, young Frenchman Tim Débauché already seems to have wiggled himself into all the right places and is well set up to start a successful career in skateboarding. While the internet seemingly still likes to remember him wearing the sponsored beanie, by now he has quit the contest circuit, grown out of some sponsors’ aesthetics, and has evolved into a gritty-looking footage machine with a good taste in tricks, spots, and music. Andrew Peters, who chaperoned and photographed Tim during his short stay in L.A., checked up on him to reminisce and dig a little deeper into the mind of an up and comer.
Filmed by Ruben Delisle, thumbnail by Andrew Peters.
It depends, you know. If I do nothing the evening before, I would get up around nine or ten. If I go out, it’s more like eleven or twelve. Yeah, it’s not early.
No, not really. Sometimes I wake up early to go fishing or stuff like that.
During the pandemic lockdown with some friends, we bought some fishing stuff and we really enjoyed it. So now we’re fishing a lot.
Yeah, that’s so cool.
So cool. I’m actually at the lake where I usually fish right now.
Not on me. I’m just chilling.
Oh, yeah. It’s a ten-minute scooter drive.
Yeah, it’s like a little scooter. Everyone has that here where we live in Biarritz. You need a license, but you can drive it at, like, 14 and it’s a hundred bucks. It’s pretty cheap.
Yeah, it’s funny.
Yeah, but L.A. is too big for that. It’s really small here. You can cross the city in, like, 15 minutes.
Yeah, a little bit. It’s so big, you can do a two-hour drive to go skating and you’re still in L.A. That was crazy for us.
You can find spots everywhere. We stayed in a pretty good area. Echo Park is perfect to search for spots while skating, with no car and no driver’s license.
Oh, yeah, that was the best thing to do.
Yeah, I hope so, it’s pretty cool.
I got them from Daniel [Vargas]. After two or three weeks skating with them, he was like, “If you want to start riding Welcome boards, I’ll start sending them to you.” He’s so nice.
Yeah, maybe in August. Paris and down here, you have to come too. We need you. We’ll be down to come back to L.A. with you too.
Maybe just head to a beach and watch the sunset, drink some beers, because that’s what we do here. I’m sure you guys are going to like it.
No, because we don’t have that many street spots. We usually go to a skate park. It’s in another city, like a ten- to fifteen-minute drive from my house and we go skate there almost every day.
Kind of. There is also an indoor park in Biarritz.
Yeah, because of my brother and my father too.
Yeah, he was a skater.
Yeah, but like in the eighties and nineties, so when my brother was born, he had to get him into skating and then me when I was born.
Uh, no, he passed away when I was, like, ten.
Yeah, I hope. Thank you.
No, no, no. We just get together and have fun. He’s a really technical skater, like, on curbs and stuff. He’s so good.
That’s a hard question. I don’t know. Before, I was kind of the same, like, more technical. Right now, I just like trying to do what I like and what is fun to me, you know? I don’t want to struggle for two hours on a trick. Just have more fun with it.
When I was young, I was doing a lot of competitions. That’s how I met Noah. He did all the comps as well. He was living in Normandy and there was the French championship when we were like 13 or 14 years old. It was fun at the time.
No, no, no. It’s not my thing anymore, I don’t really enjoy it.
Yeah, I got on Red Bull when I was 14. I was young and I was pretty stuck with that. Last year, however, I quit because it was just not my style anymore.
Yeah, I did. I had to wear the beanie all the time, like in clips, in contests, and everything, and that was so annoying.
In contests and everything. Like two years ago, I was filming in Paris for a part and it was so annoying that sometimes I would take it off, but for most of the tricks, I had to wear it.
I don’t want to do that again. It’s not worth it.
Yeah, exactly.
"I would much rather look like a red chicken than a Red Bull. "
No, that was so annoying.
I was the oldest and I was born in 2001, so I was showing my ID and sometimes they would only look at the 2001 and figure I’m 21.
Yeah, that’s pretty much it. After that, I was with Ryan and you: beers, wine, and backyard fires.
That’s hard because I love junk food, so I love everything out there. Oh, I know, I know. The chicken.
Yeah, hot chicken. We don’t have that in France where I’m from. Daniel brought us to Dave’s hot chicken. After that, Noah and I were going there all the time. Every night.
Yeah, it will take off. It could be sick.
I would much rather look like a red chicken than a Red Bull.
Not that much. Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. The bread! I forgot. We were buying bread at the store, but it’s not the same as where we live. I think I can say bread is better in France.
To be honest, I don’t eat vegetables, so I’m really not a big fan of French cooking. I like it really classic.
Yeah, that’s what I like. That’s the shit.
Oh, the corn dogs. Those are sick. Remember the place we went to in Pasadena, I don’t know the name, but we were together. This place was so good. The corn dogs and hot dogs were perfect.
I’m eating fruits. I like all the fruits. I’m not difficult with fruits. Yeah, I really need to get into vegetables.
I just wake up and go skate. Then meet up with some friends, and after some time, maybe we go to watch the sunset and drink some beers. That’s the classic one.
I’m trying. I’m enjoying it.
Right now, not really, but I’m going to try to go to Paris with Ruben in June or something like that.
I’m going to try to film some more stuff with Ruben. Start a new thing.
"I really need to get into vegetables."
Yeah, it’s only L.A. footage.
There were just so many spots to film out there. It’s good to keep it focused in one place.
I did one in 2020 during summer, but that was really short. We filmed it in two weeks.
Noah is a footage machine. He’s the best at this. He can do a part in one week if he wants.
I miss that right now.
I would be so down to film a part in England, going around London and everywhere. It looks so good on video.
I’ve been there once but only for, like, five days, so I didn’t get that much.
Yeah, he’s really trying to get into filming right now, he’s one of my best friends too. We met around three or four years ago cause Ruben was hanging out with some friends of mine, and it just worked like that.
The band is not really well-known. They have, like, 2,000 views on YouTube. It’s called “Everyone Asked About You.”
Cause I like searching for songs. It’s almost like emo music or something like that, the melody and the guitars.
On YouTube, Spotify, and SoundCloud. Find one thing and then just keep on searching through.
My father loved music, so, at my house, we were always listening to hard rock, metal, and stuff like that. I think that’s how I got into it.
Yeah, yeah.
It’s really hard to tell. It’s kind of impossible.
Really, I like a lot of things. I can probably write a little list and send it to you afterwards if you want?
Oh, that could be a sick one.
All right, let’s go.
Keep an eye out for Tim's Playlist on our Spotify soon!