2005 en

First steps in BUGGY SKI happened in Busan in South Korea. Jean Yves had received Chinese skis from a Korean sponsor. It had been several years since he thought of armor to go on the snow. And then all of a sudden it was possible. So he built the first version of the prototype in Busan, under the eyes of Chae Sun, with the support of Kim Nam Hoon.

Warm test

The Prototype was tested on a toboggan run near the Haeundae Exhibition Park, once the customers were gone.
A first attempt showed that one could slip in all positions, but with small differences with on the road. Some supports would be different and the gestures should be adapted. At the end of the meeting Yves had already made the changes that will make this machine really versatile.

Pictures of First steps in BUGGY SKI

Almost by chance Jean Yves appeared as Rollerman at Cosplay meeting. The most bizarre thing is to encounter copies in the realm of fictional characters by a real personage who does not yet have his copy in the fictional world. Like two extremities whose curved space brings back to a point of convergence. We were definitely from the same world, and for someone from the outside, we were one.

Reverse the Cosplay

The Japanese had trouble understanding that Jean Yves Rollerman is not the reproduction of a manga character but surely the opposite. They asked all the time “but who are you?” They did not want to hear the patronymic of Jean Yves, but the reference to the under culture of the annimation.
This cosplay took place in Busan. It engendered strange mixtures and furtive encounters where the participants are punctuated in the postures of the drawing of the comic strip heroes.

Pictures of Rollerman at Cosplay in Busan South Korea

Perfect casting

The plastic of the bodies of extreme Asia corresponds particularly well to the ideal of the manga character. This gives a dimenssion of perfection difficult to reach in Western cosplay.
The erotic charge of the characters is undeniable, but keeps the innoscence of the youth, and the freshest of the costumes made by hand, at home, with the friends, and with humble means.

Blue Santa is new

In order to continue surfing the wave of notoriety, it was decided to spend Christmas Day participating in a record attempt to group the most Santa Claus in the same place.
By having enough of red santa, and having for sponsor the Paran website which means blue in Korean, Jean Yves has decided to make a Christmas father with wheels, blue.
link to prototypes here

No record no party.

The number of participants was far from enough, but the show had to be done anyway. The fleeting pleasure of meeting k-pop stars on stage during a camera shutter. Clic clac, and everyone is dispersed in the cold mist of the evening of December 24th.

Christmas is also a minor celebration, as people celebrate with friends with alcohol and without gifts. We were again in an improvised love hotel. Small room cramped, half-naked Chae Sun in blue bunny suit, and the falling ears of the “Were Rabbit” of wallace and groomit, made with the remains of the lost Santa Claus. The Christmas spirit cultivated in the Blondeau family sealed around the family reunion and the happiness of being a frat runie, did not take place in this space devoid of aesthetic spirit.
it announced the end of a prophetic year, of the year that would soon be born.

The blue Santa Claus costume, with its soft fur, had a funny effect. He declaimed the urge to hug. You can see kids caressing the arms. But under the soft fur, the metal armor kept its strength, like an iron hands in a velvet glove. It’s actually more complicated. The armor being a shell that protects the hypersensitive Jean Yves, the fur that surrounds reveals the true nature of the one who animates the shell: sweetness.

Making the advertising Megapass in Barcelona then finishing it in Seoul.

After meeting TV reporters in Kaunerthal longboard world championship, it took one year to make the KoreanTV come to the house of Jean Yves that was in Frankfurt Germany at this time. They made a great report between Frankfurt and Paris. It was a hit in south Korea, and a big company asked Jean Yves to make an advertising film that was going to be shown every day 20 times a day on every channel. here are the pictures.

Shooting the film was every thing but an easy holliday. Days starts long before the sun comes to be ready to film with the first rays. Every shot is for real, have to push accelerate, make the stunt, brake, stop, stand up, get back in position, and run again. repeat it all the day till sun goes down. then production meeting in the night. Team was korean, spanish and french. Korean director acts like master of SM games. Nobody understands that floor is the most important thing for BUGGY ROLLIN. We spent days on a floor made with disjointed wooden slats. Always repeat the same gestures with maximum precision. fight with the ground at each take. To brake just at the edge of the harbor, has a few centimeters to fall into the water every time. Nobody saw him. But we did it anyway. And we held all week. And even there was energy left to roll in the streets of Barcelona at night. We were fit like hell.

Landing in South Korea

Landing in Seoul. After flying 18h to Hong Kong to get a cheap ticket, Jean Yves arrives at the brand new Korean airport of Incheon. Head ruffled, eyes tired, he discovers a committee home with a multicolored banner “welcome Jean Yves”. A huge flower bouquet and TV teams fighting for the head of Jean Yves. What a surprise ! As soon as he has landed, change of costume, he puts on the armor and has to make an arrival in the airport in BUGGY ROLLIN. We go on with an appointment with a manufacturer of carbon roller blades unknown until then, Which Jean Yves must speak as if he had known him forever. You have to deal with TV questions like “why did you choose this manufacturer?” Lunch with an importer of roller skates, that Jean Yves will never see again, but that we treat like the best friends of the world, and the traditional one. No one to explain the subtleties of the tradition. We must decode to all coming. The tone is then. Jean Yves’ agent for Korea, Kim Nam Hoon, had prepared everything except Jean Yves, who discovered things once in the situation. It is necessary to improvise all the time, and especially to get rid of situations that have not been chosen. It will take 2 years for decisions to be finally made with the consultation of Jean Yves.
That day, there was Ji HA. It was the first time that Jean Yves met him. Ji ha had to film the dynamic skating plans at the airport and in COEX. COEX being a complex of new underground shopping malls in the center of Seoul. Ji HA always said to be careful “be carefull not crash someone!” And he was repeating himself by running backwards with speed skates with long blades, stable, but not manageable. In fact it was he who almost crushed three grannies and two kids.
The photos below are from the day of arrival at COEX.

But the day was not over, They spent the evening on the slopes of Nam San, the hill in the center of the city on which there is a big TV tower, behind the opera, to look for a sloping road to to make pictures of decent. It was 11 pm It was about -10 degrees Kim Nam Hoon said stop. Jean Yves was a little disappointed. Drop off at Love Hotel Ceylon. Room too big, bath for 4, no window. The solitude of luxury, the ephemeral luxury of the star, the star of a day. The day has passed.

Jean yves always dreamed to go and live in Asia. But the reality of the situation and the hard stones of korean culture will not exactly fit the dream. Maybe that is exactly the interesting point of this adventure of life.

Meeting Korean Politicians on Skates

Among the surprising encounter of South Korea, Jean Yves have been welcomed by the Korean parliament in line skate club. Important Korean politicians claim to come to parliament by skate. Nice ! Some of them tried the chest of BUGGY ROLLIN. But did not roll on four legs . Why ?

They even prepared a banner for the event

Making  Korean TV shows.

We had interview show on stage or visit of KoreanTV almost every days. Our Headquarters was a love hotel near olympic parc. It fit to the Lifestyle of Kim Nam Hoon the former agent of Jean Yves who had for favorite office any Starbucks. It was funny to receive TV in love Hotel where it is traditionally a place of discretion. Service is gold rule in South korea, and it was difficult to know where friendship ends and bizness starts with the hotel management. This was a fun period of fame, and cruel loneliness.

Activelly promote Megapass in many Korean cities.

We did not have photographer with us at the beginning, so we miss the early cities like Busan beach, Chunchon.
Daegu marathon.
And the crazy pace continues. Arrive on the scene before dawn. Stay warm. perform on stage perfectly with Daft Punk for accomplice. Gray day but colorful people from the heart of Korea.

Incheon in a hot summer day with petite fee running around.

Finally little fee come from France to share these moments of madness. She always brings light, a spark of happiness and freshness. She can be seen on a photo with her red hair.
It was a very hot event, wrapped around the slalom competion under a vertical sun next to the brand new airport, on land borrowed from the sea.
There was always this distortion generated in the meanders of approximate translations. How much sense have we lost? How many subtilites had to be sacrificed? What a frustration to not be able to come closer to heart with the people of Korea. Only the gestures remain. But gestures like the rest do not necessarily have the same meaning and especially the same value as in native France.
Little fee brought immense happiness and left Jean Yves in Korean loneliness.

Making show in amusement park Lotte World in the center of Seoul.

Lotte World is a park in the center of seoul. Parks are places where we forget ourselves. Questions of identity, of spatial and temporal cultural reference, float on the outside, like an island on the sea. This park is especially conceived as an island in the city and on a lake. So it’s a place we lose its bearings. This is not a place that likes JY, he loves the depth of roots and souls.
For work, so we had to do shows. Once again the language maintains almost in mental and sentimental prison. We would have been able to work again with the multicolored flower skaters, especially as we had stoc in women’s armor.

Marathon Ilsan with Katherina as model

Ilsan was, in memory, the last show for Megapass. A last effort on behalf of the sponsor to put the eyes full with prominent guests, hostesses in the colors of the brand, charming journalists. Katarina was among the hostesses exported from Russia, cultivated, and attentive. We eventually crossed her path a few years later after an alley.
From Ilsan only these nostalgic photos remain, of a period gone by.

Meeting Kids in Busan Arapina youth hostel

In the events chosen by Kim Nam Hoon, there were mysterious convolutions resulting from business dealings, friendships or services rendered which were not explained. So we went to Busan ARAPINA.
As often Jean Yves was debarque in the situation with three words: “make show now”. It’s up to him to fend off filling the gaps with sense and wit. Guess gauge, imagine, create somehow, and save situations he had never had the keys. Patience and unconsciousness, confidence often granted too generously for the sake of living the moment, extraordinary and everyday. Mark the memory of adventures lived by chance and talent.

TV show race against Moto

Finally an event that has been designed around the fantastic capabilities of the BUGGY ROLLIN armor to break down the chronometers in downhill racing. The road was chosen by JEAN YVES, WHICH IS A GUARANTEE OF QUALITY in terms of speed and technicity.
A first part that plunges like a cliff, a left turn 90 degrees down on a channel with concrete sleepers that have no humor for the mistakes of trajectories, and a series of plunging reminders as a result of waterfalls.
What a surprise to deposit the bike on the first ten meters. And what a surprise in the eyes of the motorcycle rider to see Jean Yves eat his muffler when braking the first left 90. I think he was nice and did not open the gas cleat. We were still in the 100km / h.

Shoot is studio 3D pictures.

Maybe the best studio picture ever made. Maybe because Chae sun was here there was something magic on this day.
It was another day where two words were used to describe the situation in which Jean Yves was going to be dropped. “3D Photo” had told KiM Nam Hoon as he put Jean Yves in the car of “Sweet Satan” with Chae Sun. It had left for 2 hours of road to cross the legendary corked traffic jams of Seoul.
Fortunately the photographer was good, the muse was adored, and the model competant. We have never been able to reproduce such a quality of shooting. The metal armor having been mltraitee for 10 months on the roads of the events of the cornee, it had been repaired with plastic film sticker.
There is an ambivallent feeling of declining armor, and propulsion of the image, that still remains today, more than ten years later, the fetish iconic picture of Jean Yves used on most avatars of Internet accounts and on the back t-shirts from BUGGY ROLLIN’s team that can be found in the shop section of the site. That is number 18

In youth Hostel Again.

Being close to kids is enjoyable. They are a mix of shy and interested. They were very surprised to get special attention and care. And it was my real measure to surprise them. We hope they keep good memory of it. It would be nice to meet them again. If you watch these lines, drop a message in contact with Jean Yves, he will do his best to answer you . Good luck in life !

 

 

This photos of BUGGY ROLLIN in Japan 2005 were taken in Shinjuku, Hakihabara, Ginza, Ueno park and Yokohama, by Korean Photographer “Sweet Satang” with the Kin Nam Hoon Team. We used Silver suit. Jean Yves Blondeau was the model and pilot. Japanese people keep asking who are you ? the answer should be ROLLERMAN ! But at this time we did not use this name. It came from journalists and from crowd. One of the best memory was to dance with the dragon in china town of Yokohama, and meeting maids in Ginza.