I managed to get him on the phone for a chat while he was in Marseille on the first official international Hoddle trip, to get some updates on his past year living out of a suitcase.
Shaun Paul is someone I always bring up when the conversation of favourite local skaters arises. I've been a fan ever since he moved to Melbourne and started trying to burn me when I was trying to do a noseslide nollie frontside flip on the long ledge at City Park. I did it first, so… Anyway, he hasn't been very local as of late. After moving out of his place in Melbourne mid-last year, he's been travelling the world from Alabama to Auckland and basically everywhere in between.
Damn, dope. Is this the first official international Hoddle trip?
Yeah, it's the first one. It's because we were all in Europe at the same time and I asked Caeylen [Norris] if he could get us an Airbnb so we could film for the next video.
You were in Paris before this, right?
Yeah, I was on a DC trip for 10 days. That wasn't meant to be a trip, but it ended up being a trip. We were mainly there because there was a pop-up store and they wanted us to be at the store. We skated a bunch, but it was super mellow. It was one of the more chill trips I've been on. It was my first time in Paris too, which was cool. I like it there.
What was the deal with the Times Square missions while you were in New York recently?
I was in New York for two months before I came to Paris. A couple of days before I got there, [Tom] Snape and Austin Bristow flew into the city. I had been trying to link up with Austin the year before to try to film something, but he is so busy. They were 100 per cent on the skate mission. We would skate Midtown all night for the first two weeks. We would
