Who am I ?
I come from Bayonne, in the Basque country, France, where I grew up (in particular, in the small and beautiful town of Hasparren). I completed high school and my first two years of University in Bayonne, before going to Toulouse to finish my bachelor degree in Economics (in France, the system is a bit different. A bachelor does not really exist, it is called a “licence” and takes 3 years to complete) and get my Master’s degree in economic theory and econometrics. I continued on a PhD in Economics at Simon Fraser University, in Burnaby, BC, Canada, and recently graduated. I have to say, I am pretty proud of it! You can find here a document where I talk about my experience.
Outside of school, I have broad interests. I wouldn't call myself an expert in many domains, but there definitely are activities I am well versed in. This section aims at sharing some of these activities, and informing about them, as many will be unfamiliar to the casual reader.
Among topics of interest to me, you will find Basque pelote, skateboarding, cooking and card magic. But it does not end there!
Basque pelote:
We start this section with my first love: Basque pelote. Being from the Basque country, I got into Basque pelote early in my childhood. How to best describe the sport? It is a collection of sports that involve using either your bare hands or different types of rackets or “baskets” to hit a hard ball against a wall. It can be played 1 VS 1, 2 VS 2 or sometimes 3 VS 3. The rules are simple: hit the ball against the wall until the ball falls outside of the allowed area, or until the other team fails to get it. Once a team arrives at a certain number of points, it wins.
The sport can be played in 3 different areas, 1 outdoor, and 2 indoors. The outdoor are a is called a fronton, and is pretty much a big pink wall. Sizes can vary across towns, but every town in the Basque country has at least one fronton. They are open to the public, which makes it a perfect opportunity to have fun outdoors!
The most played sport of this collection is called Pala, or rubber paleta, as it involves using a wooden “plate”, the pala, to hit a rubber ball on the wall. The palas weigh between 300 and 500 grams, and can be found anywhere in the Basque country for a low price. Instead of rubber balls, people typically play with tennis balls in casual settings.
I played a lot of this sport, and still do when I go home. But what I mostly played was hand pelote, the bare hand version. It is rather difficult to describe it to people who don’t know about it, but it basically consists in hitting a ball (or pelote as we call it) with your bare hands (although some wraps are allowed). The pelote is very sturdy, and weighs around 100 grams for adults who compete. It is wrapped in goat leather, so it is not as hard as a base ball, but they are very similar. So hitting it head on can be painful, and many players get injured. Of all the friends that did not know about it and tried, none of them liked it. I suppose it takes some conditioning to enjoy it, which I got early on in my childhood so that now, I always enjoy hitting it. It is this kind of pain that somewhat feels good! All the other sports that involve using a racket (most of the time a wooden one) don’t involve that pain, so I recommend anyone to try it some day!
The sport is played in France, Spain but also in some Latin American countries, such as Mexico and Argentina.
Here is a video of the bare hand 2017 France championship:
Enjoy!
Skateboarding:
I am a huge skateboarding nerd, in particular street skateboarding. I have been skating for about 14 years now, and this sport (it can be argued that it is more than a sport, but I use this term for convenience) has evolved a lot. It went from a couple of skaters in a low competition environment and not having a very healthy lifestyle to a very competitive sport were skaters are closer to athletes in terms of lifestyle (and remuneration. You probably heard of the Street League contest series or seen these pairs of Nike shoes, a pro model design by a pro Skateboarder, Stefan Janoski ). A turning point for skateboarding was the release of the Tony Hawk’s pro skater video game series, and later the appearance of social media that allow for photos and videos (in particular Instagram). It gave skateboarding a lot of exposure, so that it is now possible to continuously watch new skate content of high quality. Some argue that this overflow of content is a good thing, while other regret the good old days of watching the same skateboard video dozens of times, waiting months for the next one to be released. Both parties have sensible arguments. On one hand, being able to watch so much content is a sign that the industry is expanding, and the level increases at a faster pace than ever before. Plus, women skateboarding is getting more and more popular, with female pro skaters than did the loop! On the other hand, it puts the viewer in this state of bulimic consumption, where once the last jaw-dropping video part is watched, one clicks “next” and does not take the time to digest the epicness of what he saw. It makes videos less memorable, although the editing is flawless, the music perfectly aligned, the last trick an absolute “face-melter” as they say, etc… Here is a link to the biggest skateboarding magazine, that is probably now the biggest skateboarding website: Thrasher magazine. You can browse for hours without watching any mediocre content.
Another thing that is great about skateboarding is its level of creativity. New tricks (or combinations of) are created every day, and all kinds of approaches are being taken. Among many others, I must cite Rodney Mullen, that many (including myself) call the father of modern skateboarding. He is mostly famous for inventing the kickflip, but he also was the first to come out with almost all of its variations. His forte was originally freestyle skateboarding, but he changed his field after street skating came out. He even made a Ted Talk around skateboarding. Here is one of his most famous videos parts:
No need to know skateboarding tricks to enjoy that video part.
Here are a couple more videos to show you how diverse skateboarding is: Dan Mancina (who is blind), Felip Nunes (double leg amputee), Daewon Song, legend of skateboarding and still active after 40 years old, William Spencer and his acrobaties, Almir Jusovic and his unorthodox stance. And there are many more! Here is the last one, this is my best friend, a true beast!!
Cooking:
Cooking is not a passion I would say, but rather a hobby. I like eating good things, so every now and then, I try to make something different to spice up my meals !
I enjoy baking the most, in particular kneading dough. But I can make all kinds of dishes. Here is a book I would recommend to anyone who does not want to buy fancy expensive ingredients, nor knows the cooking jargon. It is a book by Françoise Bernard, that contains a lot of recipes. Most of them involve simple ingredients, so often you already have what is needed on your shelf to follow one of her recipes! As an example, the chocolate mousse recipe from her is the simplest I have seen, yet the best. And it is hard to fail that recipe! Here it is.
For her recipe book, you can find it on Amazon for a very decent price.
Another great resource is the following blog by Nami, a Japanese blogger based in San Fransisco. Her recipes are Japanese mostly, but delicious. I am particularly fan of her matcha based desserts!
Card magic:
I have always been fascinated by what someone can do with something simple. That goes for skateboarding of course, but this section is about magic. In particular, card magic. I also like coin magic and other types of close up magic, but card magic is what fascinates me the most, and what I studied the most. With a simple deck of cards, one can create wonders! Sleights of hands are a huge component, but dexterity alone does not guarantee success. The same way a soccer player is great at manipulating the ball, juggling etc, his performance in a soccer game relies on other skills: vision, instinct, the ability to make the most of opportunities. For a magician, training starts with practicing sleights of hands, but performing is about telling a story, redirecting attention and sometimes deceiving. Those skills are harder to get a grasp on. They involve knowing yourself, and most importantly knowing how the audience perceives you.
I personally was amazed by sleight of hands, and read/watched some magicians’ work on how to make some moves, and incorporate them in a routine or a trick. I came across The expert at the card table by S.W. Erdnase, and The expert card technique, by Hugar and Braué, two amazing books with different focuses. While the latter is a magic oriented book that teaches sleights of hands for the purpose of performing tricks to an audience, the former is considered as a bible in the field, and focuses on sleights of hands for the purpose of cheating at a game table (although some magic tricks are proposed at the end of the book). It contains detailed pictures of the moves, and can make you amazing at Poker, as long as you get to shuffle the cards! It can also train you to detect cheating. It is an amazing world that is worth discovering, especially since YouTube made access to magic card content easy, immediate and costless. You might still have to buy the secrets to some tricks, but the videos can give you an overview of how it looks when performed correctly. Here are some videos that are worth checking out: