“Come on, let’s have a little fun!” Esco, everyone knows him at Aren’Ice. And no one is surprised when he pulls a black balaclava out of his pocket before performing the tricks. On TikTok, this accessory has become his trademark: under the alias @lalgerien952, the young man publishes very popular videos, some of which have been viewed millions of times. In the images, the skater rushes backwards, jumps and does the craziest tricks with disconcerting ease.
“Today, I’m going to take the ramp and do a 360,” he tells us before rushing onto the ice without an ounce of hesitation. He will only do one take. “It’s raw. Me when I jump I don’t pay attention to the artistic side, ”he summarizes. “Let’s go, it’s good it’s filmed, it’s square. When I get home I cut, I put on some music, and that’s it. »
Who is this masked and unleashed TikTokeur? Above all, the black balaclava hides a big smile. Esco, that’s his nickname, is not one to take himself seriously. “The ice rink is for relaxing,” he says. A hobby that he practices diligently three times a week, but which he nevertheless discovered late. The 22-year-old lives in Sarcelles and remembers having already put on skates once or twice when he was a child at the Garges-lès-Gonesse ice rink with his mother, a figure skater. But it only clicked recently.
“I really started four years ago,” he explains. The ice rink, for him, is above all an outing with friends. “A friend told me, let’s make a video. For me TikTok was a kid thing. He did it anyway and it worked. I did not expect that. “A video on which we see him doing a “slide” on the barrier surrounding the Cergy ice rink has 2 million views.
“Now all the little ones in my house are skating”
The small gang then feels that it has no other choice but to continue. “We said to ourselves: we put on a balaclava for anonymity and let’s go! For about a year, @lalgerien952 has been broadcasting videos very regularly, each time with a little challenge. “By dint of seeing him, we try to anticipate what he is going to do by following him with the phone”, details his cameraman friend of the day who also publishes on occasion under the pseudonym @menotte95. Esco can count on a group of friends who stare at his prowess across multiple rinks in Île-de-France. “In general, she is a camerawoman friend. She’s too good, she stays super stable. »
Among the first subscribers of the @lalgerien952 account, we find the young Sarcelloise generation. In his district, Lochères, and in Sarcelles in general, the hooded skater is no longer so anonymous as that. “Everyone talks to me about it! he laughs. Just the other day, I was going to the bakery, a father stops and tells me that his son in the back of the car recognized me! They say they identify me with the quickdraw, the way I walk, my gestures. »
A tall, slender figure with a clean look, Esco does indeed move in a fluid and airy manner. But it is his freestyle techniques on the ice that galvanize teenagers. Esco is proud of it: “Now all the little ones in my house skate, because I gave them strength! »
Youssef is one of them. “I try to learn like him! », smiles this young resident of Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis). The 16-year-old high school student had never thought of putting on skates before. “For me, it was necessarily something artistic, not at all made for me. And then he discovered the TikTok account @lalgerien 952. “I realized that skating wasn’t just dancing, there was also freestyle. For the past month, Youssef has been going to the ice rink three times a week. “I’m starting to get by, I can already do crossover,” he smiles as he puts his things in the locker before entering the arena.
Spotted by the recruiter of a hockey team in New Aquitaine
He can count on the advice of Esco who loves to share his know-how both on the Internet and in real life. Aware of the audience he is addressing, he often accompanies his videos with cautionary advice. “I know a lot of people are watching me, I’m paying attention. And for example, I never jump over real people. I know I can do it but I prefer jumping bars or sausages it’s less risky. »
On Tuesday evening, Youssef is sure to find his mentor at Aren’Ice because it is the multi-sport evening. On one side we dance, on the other we learn hockey and in the middle we do freestyle with all the necessary springboards and obstacles available. “It’s nice, we exchange a lot to progress”, explains Fiona who never misses a session. “I don’t know how he does it, he’s an angel! commented Maxime watching Esco take off from the ground.
Others have noticed, the young Sarcellois, who works as a handler, has already been contacted by a hockey team recruiter in New Aquitaine. “But I don’t know how to handle the stick, it’s useless,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. Esco does not yet imagine being able to make a living from his talent. “When you visit a country on vacation, it’s not the same thing as living there every day. I don’t want to waste my passion. »
