Category: Features

The Old Truman Brewery
2-25th November Bricklane, London

09.11.07 – Words and photos by Phil Procter

The UK media has had many darlings, 60 years ago it was social commentary of Orwell and the predications that led him to write 1984, this last couple of years its favoured a more blunt and urban approach with Banksy’s social one liners.

Combine these two, and their influences and we have today’s fresh meat, Shepard Fairey.

As a Gorilla artist working Americas east and west coasts he has now reached the inevitable plateau of gallery spaces. Skaters will be more familiar with the name than most as he has worked with the likes of Element co-founder Andy Howell and more recently, Plan B for a range of pro decks which rapidly turned in collectors items. This is on top of cover art for DJ Shadow and The Smashing Pumpkins latest album to name a couple.

Ninteeneightyfouria is an extensive collection of the newer work from Shepard Fairey, gone are the giant OBEY slogans and blunt, intimidating images of Andre the Giants’ face, his trademarks have now found a subtler home in the makeup of his art. As with the Orwell classic 1984, these posters are all aimed at the Big Brother element of society.

Fairey’s influences stand out clearly, not just from his Orwellian outlook, but looking in to the constructivism style he vents through, encompassing the poster campaigns of communist propaganda both from the Eastern Block, and Asia are prominent. Also from the old eastern bloc, the vast attention to detail that Alphonse Mucha displayed in his own poster art in the last century can be seen to great affect in Fairey’s latest multi-layered works.

The examples on show in this huge 20,000square feet of warehouse space take in many genres, from a collection of stunning mock album covers to posters of musical icons, notably Joe Strummer and Bob Marley. While these figureheads from the last century are acknowledged alongside socialist icons he stabs pointedly at capitalism.

The artist still maintains he personally has no problem admitting he is a part of capitalism, in the Guardian this week he was quoted “I’m not against capitalism. If I was, I wouldn’t live in the US. If you work you’re participating”. And work he does, some of these pieces in the gallery are yours to take home for a mere £30,000, that is assuming you have a ceiling high enough to take some of these billboard size works home with you!

So from the humble beginnings of an 18 year old making “Andre the giant has a Posse” stickers in a skateshop in Providence to a 37 year old hitting major gallery space in capitol cities the world over the art has kept the same vibes, and attracted critics praising in all corners of art.

The UK’s own Banksy has got involved and they have exchanged techniques and gone out and put up pieces together and sited each other as major influences. Even famous Banksy pieces in London now have some Obey posters strewn up around them after a tour of the city earlier this week. With global momentum firmly behind the Obey bandwagon, BigBrother can expect to see Shepard Fairey on more and more of his cameras in the future and you can bet there will be an Obey sticker on to the side of it!

Showing daily at The Old Truman Gallery on Bricklane, running now until the 25th November, its open daily 11-7pm – free entrance

www.stolenspace.com/gallery_nowshowing.php

Go to www.obeygiant.com for more.

So, Kris Vile and myself went on a little mission a few weeks back to go and check out the Brussels stop of the Volcom Wild in the Parks tour whilst also getting the street missions on in the few other free days we had.

We had some local knowledge in that one of their team riders – Fabien Verhaeghe – and also their returning ex-pat TM Hans Claessens we’re locals.

So was their other Euro rider – who has recently been made into Flip’s newest Am – Axel Cruysberghs, although at twelve years old his street knowledge wasn’t quite as built up as the Rain Man memory recall Hans was capable of.

The spots were so good – the city stuff was a treat, but like most great skate scenes, it is the suburbs which hold the true delights. This goes not just for the golden session spots, but also for what’s new, too. Having people speak the local lingo aided us no end – especially having the local contacts. This never came truer than in getting the lowdown on the new park in a little town called Namur located in the French speaking part of Belgium.

The hot tip off of this new park just seemed to work so well even though skatepark sessions on a weekend are usually busier than their street counterpart. I think a couple of days skating hard for twelve hours a day pushed us this way. A cold beer and a few laps catching our back trucks on coping worked a treat, too. After the hour drive out to what isn’t the largest park I’d even seen (Think Borehamwood size) we wasted no time, rolling until the sun set.

The park is pretty unique. It’s not a street park, although it has street stuff. It’s not a bowl park, even though there are bowled parts and it’s not a driveway sort of place, even though there are driveways.

If you can imagine, the park is sort of Q shaped. Or maybe not. I guess the only word which could adequately describe it is organic. The mini ramp flows into the flat hip, which curves around into the hubba which…you get the idea, right? It’s cruisy. You can go at it Stockwell style and just pump about all day or you can up your game and throw down some manoeuvres. I’d leave the grinds over the deathbox on the vert wall to the likes of Axel, though. That thing is just plain scary.

Check out the video clip of the Volcom crew in action during the afternoon – and then get yourself on a cheap flight across the English channel and go check it out for yourself. Tin heap skateparks are a thing of the past.

Words and video by Kevin Parrott

The Namur skatepark is situated at the following address thanks to Ralph LD’s local spot skills:

Avenue Baron de Lhoneux 8 (Right at the end of the street)
Jambes (South of Namur)

To get there from Namur central station. Exit the station and cross the road. Take buses 2/ or 9 to Plage d’Amée, Jambes.

Here’s a Mappy link.

Words, video and photos: Liam Teague

It’d been a long four years since the last competition down at The Level, so there was certainly an air of high expectation surrounding this event. And it certainly didn’t disappoint. A combination of good music, a brilliant turnout, some amazing skating and some entertaining mic skills from Pasty made for an truly memorable day.

Weather was always a concern as the day approached, and feeling the drizzle as I got off the bus in Brighton I was naturally a little apprehensive, but the park was still more or less dry upon arrival and the rain held off for the day. The jam even started more or less on time, a rare occurrence in skateboarding I’m sure you’ll agree.

The jam started off with the qualifying rounds, taking the form of groups of three or four skaters at a time with a two minute run. This saw a very impressive number of entrants, which would have been even better if it weren’t for the large group with good intentions but who had unfortunately arrived too late to sign up. Nevertheless there was some amazing skating on display in both the sponsored and unsponsored groups, including the likes of Level locals Louis Cooper, James Kilpatrick, Tom Felix, Amir Williams, Isaac Miller, Stevie Thompson, Voi Smith and many more.

After the heats were done and a short interval of absolute chaos with 300 kids trying to skate at the same time, it was time for the finals, which consisted of the best performers from the qualifying rounds each having their own individual two minute run. I can tell you it certainly is nerve wracking knowing that all eyes are on you, but that didn’t seem to phase any of the entrants as some even more impressive skating was churned out by the park regulars who all obviously know the park like the back of their dirty hands.

The unsponsored finals were up first. Mini gangster Ollie Chapman managed 3rd for his stylish run. Henry Kanning took second place for his effortless skating, cruising about the whole course ollieing and grabbing everything in sight. But it was young ripper Isaac Miller who took first place, getting a frontside flip over the big bank to bank gap, one of the most solid, nonchalant tre flips I’ve seen over the hip, and much more amazing skateboard trickery.

Finally were the big guns, the sponsored finalists. This was where we got to witness some absolutely incredible tricks and crazy consistency from the riders, all going big and going off.
3rd place went to Tom Felix, skating everything with his powerful style. He took a rocket speed crook down the handrail, and a scorpion like slam trying to feeble it. He also managed an absolutely huge benihana over the bank to bank. You geeks might just change your mind on that trick when you see it.

James Kilpatrick came 2nd. His run was absolutely mindblowing, landing literally everything with effortless style and finishing off his line with a line 270 flip over the bank to bank.
But the final place went, just as it did 4 years ago, to ex Karma pro and Brighton ghetto man Amir Willams. He certainly earned his place and tore the park a new one with a backlip down the rail, frontside flips out the the quarterpipe and amongst much else pulling a perfect flip frontside boardslide down the rail at the end of his run.

Honorable mention goes to James K, who won a hundred quid put up by Nike 6.0 in their “Killing it” comp, sort of a MVP deal. Well deserved as well, James ripped it up all day, just after winning the Crawley comp last week.
Just time for a best trick comp at the end, with the handrail being the object chosen for the hungry kids to sack themselves on on the quest for some free proddy. A vast amount of NBD’s went down all in the space of about 20 minutes, including Louis Antoine’s flip back fifty, a flip noseslide from Tom Felix, and Aaron Revell taking the prizes with a faultless front feeble.
And that was that, just time for the product toss which saw dozens of kids kicking each other in for shirts, stickers, a beef pie and even an empty cardboard box! Thoroughly entertaining and as always a little embarrassing to watch, but if it keeps ’em happy then so be it, these idiots are the future of skating!

All in all a great day had by all. A huge thankyou to all involved in making this day happen, and it couldn’t have been done without the support of everyone who showed up, whether to help out, get involved, skate, watch and cheer, or just mug kids for stickers.

Keep your eye on the third series of Curbsurfers for the full video documentation. In the meantime, click here or on Amir William’s face for a preview of what went down at the Jam.

Words by Moose
Photos thanks to Ben Norton
Video thanks to Alan Christensen, Moose & Niall Kenny

Well another year had rolled around all too quickly, and before we knew it, our 6th birthday was upon us. Of course you can’t let a birthday slip you by and you should always celebrate it in some way, so naturally we organised a party for all our friends down in the concrete catacombs of Southbank. And with the help of friends and sponsors, as well as the rest of the UK’s skateboarding community, we had a blast!

Calling in some friends from the US, we managed to get the Darkstar team of Terell Robinson, Gailea Momolou, Marley and Adam Dyet to board a metal bird across the pond and attend our little soiree. Canadian ripper Paul Machnau was forced to pull out due to injury and didn’t make it over here, which was a shame for him because he missed out on another amazing turnout for British skateboarding. As well as the Darkstar crew in attendance, we had a visitors from across the country come down and bless us with their presence, including Kris Vile, Vaughan Baker, Craig Smedley, Neil Smith, Ben Grove, Boots, last years’ winner Adam Howe, Ben Raemers, Chris Ault, Danny Brady, and even Thrasher photographer Rhino amongst many many more.

So before we had even pitched up that Saturday morning, we had had a few technical problems in the organisation part of things. Namely, we had no permission to build anything this year which was a shame. The Southbank gets smaller but the crowds still show up.

The Mayor’s celebration along the Thames meant you couldn’t see who was a skater watching and who was a bog-standard member of the public coming down to watch “the kids doing stunts“. Literally thousands of people were wandering passed the hallowed banks and stairs as some ridiculous hammers got dropped.

After the warm-up lemmings got their legs ready to go on the stairs, proceedings started on the banks and cheeseblock, which got cut, crumbled, melted and turned into Welsh rarebit within half an hour. I have never seen so many tricks go down on the awkward haggard setup. Heroin’s Chris Ault went all out and knocked out about 10 tricks in a minute with axle stall 270s and frontside nosepicks. Local lad Robin Lambert blue-legginged his way through blunt 180s and a beautiful blunt bigspin back into the bank, Cramps t-shirt duly noted. But Blind’s own Kris Vile ended it with a kickflip blunt 180 to bag himself a fifty-sheet, and leaving the circus entertainers on stilts in sheer amazement. Props to Vaughan Baker as well as he bluntstall kickflip fakied the block o’fromage, which almost no-one saw. Vaughan (below right) is still one the UK’s sickest skaters.

A few more cans of Jamaican lubricant later, and things got underway with the main attraction. The 7-Set Jam. Anyone can step up to this set and put something down, and these jams have a reputation for kids spending all their time trying to land one trick, determined not to leave until they do it. Also going on at the same time was the ledge jam, which I think is much gnarlier than an old set of stairs. Point proven as no-one touched the ledge until near the end of the day.

Darkstar’s Adam Dyet threw down switch backside 180s, nollie cabs and finally a nollie cab heelflip down the old girl and won himself some cash. Terell Robinson spun his green dreadlocks though a massive backside 360 like the Incredible Hulk at a disco, whilst Marley switch tre flipped all day. Chris Ault and Robin got the crowds going with some double backside grab action at the speed of light, those guys seriously tank it! Craig Smedley quietly got on and did his ultra smooth thing with switch frontside kickflips like buttered icecubes. Whilst many a 360flip and hardflip was smacked into bare concrete by the assembled hammer heroes, Kris Vile blew everyone else away and barely hung onto his backside 360 kickflip to bag yet another 1st place and another cash splurge into his hands.

The ledge comp suddenly went off only after the arrival of Vans’ Ben Grove who rolled his way up, said hello, and put down a backside tailslide, followed by a backtail shuv on a cracked deck! Oh, amidst this, a naked man wearing nothing but a baseball cap took on the spirit of the jams fully and was having a go at tre flipping the stairs, all the time trying to avoid delamming his cock, while Czech schoolgirl sluts looked on and asked if we “had any presents for them”. Looks clean and wholsesome on the outside, but Crossfire jams are seedy, dirty and raw and you know it. Ledge action continued with Smedley using his butter to grease a salad grind to switch crooks, and frontside tail 270 along the ledge.

Blueprint’s Neil Smith rocked up and did switch nosebluntslides into the crowds, who went ballistic until Slayer were silenced on the Crossfire sound system. Smiffy also took a nasty slam that would have made your bollocks retract into your stomach trying to nollieflip crook the pirate’s plank, into a sea of piranha kids. Hobbling off to a round of applause, he’ll be back. But the top spot was nabbed by Adam Dyet who took home the 1st prize cash for his perfect kickflip frontside noseslide, which he got on so far out we all thought he’d overcooked it. But no, the money was pocketed and it was time for the kids to bite each other’s faces off for stickers, t-shirts and decks. All I have to say about the product toss was that the little squealing pig kid needed a punch in the neck, and don’t ever let kids know that there are free posters left in a box by your feet, otherwise you come away with bite marks on your ankles.

This Crossfire birthday was fucking mental, and we could not have done it without you lot turning up and supporting not only us, but skateboarding in Britain and yourselves.

A big thankyou to our friends and sponsors Stuart Kolokavic for a sick flyer design, Rich Holland for flyer layout love, Ben Norton for photography, Alan Christensen, Niall Kenny and Tim Mogridge for filming duties, Abjekt, Globe Shoes, Darkstar Skateboards, The Harmony, Heroin, Blueprint, Death, Independent, Creature, Karma, Creme, 50:50, Plan B, Landscape, Heathen, Casual, Document Skateboard Magazine and Sidewalk Skateboard Magazine and Kevin Parrott from the UKSA.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for your skateboarding life, you’ll have heard of Fifty Fifty, Bristols premiere skateboarding supplies store. Ran with military precision by the legendary duo Danny Wainwright & Justin Sydenham, Fifty has been supporting the UK skate community for many a year.

So many years infact, it’s a cause for celebration. A bloody BIG celebration because Fifty Fifty have been going 10 years strong and It’s this occasion that saw hundreds of people descend on the CentreSpace gallery in the heart of Bristol for an all-out show / party / knee’s up.

The gallery played host to a 10 year timeline of photographs, covers and articles, taking up an entire wall spanning from 1997 right up to 2007. As if that wasn’t enough for your eyeballs, on the opposite wall was the launch of the new ’10 Year Strong’ product pack which featured the most awesome 5050 x Vans Half Cab shoe, 5050 x New Era hat, 4 new boards, new wheels and a big bunch of limited clothing to polish it all off!

Packed in between all that was Danny’s Ollie world record board, Halfcabs and article, board graphics past & present and a GIANT hand-painted Vans custom shoe from local artist Richt!

Mix all the above together with 600 bottles of (free!) beer, 24 litres of wine, Jon Kennedy on the decks and a tonne of peanuts, you get a damn good time!

After all the booze was consumed and eyeballs worn out from looking at things, everyone formed into an orderly mob and hit up the Red Rooms by the harbourside for the after party, where the alcohol flowed quickly and the people swayed unsteadily.

All in all, THE best night. Ever.

Massive props to Danny, Syd and all the people involved with the show, HAPPY BIRTHDAY FIFTY, here’s to the next 10 years!!

Gavin Strange
Photos courtesy of Gav and Lil’ Pete

1st August 2007

The Nueu “Ride with Us” trip was a bit of an experiment to see what would happen if you opened up a road trip to whoever fancied coming along.

Predictably at the ‘Start Point‘ it was pissing down with rain and no one except the crew I’d rounded up for the Vans bus had turned up!

With everything except our spirits dampened we headed down to Bristol and left the rain behind (as it happened for the rest of the week) and en route the phone started ringing. My old friend ‘G’ aka the Baron had decided to tag along for a few days, Phil from Nueu had brought the Essex contingent and the Casual/Curb Surfers crew from Kent also joined in. So there we had it, our own little four vehicle convoy, a few days later G headed home but he was replaced by Hastings Joe who appeared as if by magic in Exeter.

I could go into real details about the week but you’re better off waiting to see the footage as it will do it much more justice. We slept where we could – car boot sales fields, a beautiful beach and outside a nightclub but even the hardest of us succumbed to a hotel for a couple of nights (it did have a mini ramp and bar in it too). Incidents included multiple arrests, Tyreman getting a hiding, Rob Smith buying a gas mask and Aaron Sweeney setting a new Cornish hill climbing record. For a crew that didn’t really know each other things went really well, destinations were chosen with simple group votes as were camp sites and restaurants. No one complained all week, even when it started raining on Saturday, we knew we’d done well to avoid it whilst the rest of the country was suffering from floods. We’d all had a good time and made the decision to call an end to it one day early and come home on a high.

At the end of the day I’d have to say it was a huge success and we’re all hoping to do it all again next year on a different route. New friends were made and there’s plenty of tales to be told from our adventure. Hopefully you’ll join us next time too.

Written by Nic Powley
Footage by Niall Kenny

26th July 2007

To celebrate the launch of the Nike SB/Blueprint Abington shoe, Go Skateboarding Day rolled through The Old Trueman Gallery on East Londons onetime beatnik hangout Brick Lane this year and played host to an ambitious gallery/celebration of skating.

The show was fuelled by Nike SB to showcase Blueprint Skateboards, Made for Skate and The Side Effects of Urethane.

Blueprint had a strong showing of artwork both past and present taking it back to their original team boards and the classic Rattray decks too. Also the Side Effects of Urethane chaps stole back a block from SouthBank and dropped all 11/2 Tonnes of it in the middle of the gallery!

First thing you see through the door is a section glossing over the start of skating, and the start of rubber plimsoles in the 1800’s and evolving (slightly) to the “Randys 720” from the Randolf Rubber Co. in 1965, followed by the Vans explosion from there on. The show has several classics from the first pro skate shoe from Etnies (Natas Kaupas) closely followed by Vans own “Cabs” in its high, mid and low variety which pretty much follows the trend/evolution of skating. Some of the fallen giants had a good representation with pretty much a full set of Vision boots notably the DV8s and also Airwalk showed out with some shoe-goo’d up 540 Pyros and 720s. For the Vegans there was a blast back to Zero 2’s velcro skate shoe with stick on ollie pad!

Shoes were out in full force, Nike Thrasher Edition Nike hightops surprised a few, one of the highlights for me (other than the Pacer Hogs!) was the adverts from magazines that accompanied the shoes. Duffs adverts (Cobnobblers) and an exceptional photo of Sal Barbier in front of an NBA crowd doing a japan air out of a kicker in”23″ shoe from Etnies. It’s one of the long running sneakers in skating, and pretty much every company has a version of it on their roster. They have a full museum in Stuttgart, and judging off this display, its definitely worth hitting up.

The Side Effects Of Urethane‘s contribution was more than just showing up with a block….they produced 6 more skateabale sculptures and placed them at official locations around London. 12 Nike SB skaters teamed up with 6 photographers and spent a couple of days shooting to get the photos beamed on the gallery walls.

A whole wall of the gallery had some stunning shots and sequences of the Nike/Blueprint team hitting up these blocks all round the capital under the watchful eye of police on horseback!

The Blueprint side of things had some great art, their display would outshine most of the galleries displaying end of year uni shows on Brick Lane this month. Their space was pretty much the opposite of the crisp and clean presentations from the other chaps. With two walls of montage from different kinds of media it would take half an hour to take in all the hidden gems.

These ranged from and some sharp photography and portrait shots of Mike Wright and Danny Brady as well as random picking from adverts from Blueprint over the last decade. Some of the boards were amazing, I think Vaughan Baker did some of the more noticeable work, some of his boards were framed in a golden frame and were the pick of the bunch for me, right up there with the work Andy Howell has been putting out. A great varied display, they have the right to be proud of their history.

Nike’s lowkey contribution apart from the Jordans from ’88 and aforementioned Thrasher sneaks was to show off the “next thing” in skate shoe technology with P.Rods latest sneak and the Blueprint collaboration sneaker (The Abington) too. Both sneaks all happily deconstructed to show you where you what sixty five of the Queen’s finest pounds can furbish your feet with..

The Launch party was London’s usual crowd. All the good fellows who put the show together were on fine form and proud of their achievement, and so they should be, it was a great collaboration that hopefully will be repeated in years to come. With the wealth of talent skateboarding keeps locked away it’s a wonder we don’t see more of this happening, im sure there are enough photographers and artist out there…

Blueprint, NikeSB, TSEOU and Made for Skate – we salute you and your efforts!

Phil Procter

Photo’s and words by David Tura

This year Heroin Skateboards released Magic Sticky Hand – not a porno, a quirky skate video featuring many hidden talents that have joined Fos’ army from across the globe.

A french dude called John Monié had a part in this sticky experience causing many questions across the interweb so our French correspondent Claire Alleaume decided to get it all out in the open and asked David Tura to spill the beans on Monié for your pleasure…

1) Jon started skating 13 years ago when skateboarding was at its baddest times, big pants small wheels.

2) Jon owns a blue 1966 50cm3 Vespa with no speed or kilometer counter and 3 speeds.

3) Jon lives in Paris, right across the street from where I live, 4th floor like me. I can actually see him taking a pee through the window (only his head, though).

4) Jon was wearing baggy pants until 2001, when he decided he would now only wear tight clothing “to be able to see my feet!”

5) Jon made the cover of Tricks magazine in 2002 doing a boneless over some junk and the cover of Sugar in 2006 doing a rooftop drop in.

6) Jon is 27 years old.

7) Jon has the name of a girl he loves in his back and a “dad” tattoo on his arm.

8) Everybody loves Jon.

9) But Jon doesn’t love everybody. He hates his neighbours. A few weeks ago, one of them did a hole in his wall just above his bed with a drill and made a big piece fall off. Now he can see what’s going through it.

10) Last time I saw Jon (last night), he was just coming back from New York where he spent 4 weeks with Billy Rohan.

11) Jon is sponsored by Nozbone skateshop, Fallen shoes, All Star Gum, Eastpak backpacks and Heroin skateboards.

12) Jon likes to play poker until 6AM. Never bets more than 5 euros but ends up wining 30 quite often.

13) Jon would probably like to thank Manou, Fos, Alexis, Hedi, Jean-Marc and Alan, but you’d better check his whole list in the very last Heroin video “Magic Sticky Hand”.

14) Jon had once a sequence in Sugar in which he was switch hardfliping 3 stairs with a banana board.

15) Jon is a Bastille local skater.

16) Last year, Jon went snowboarding in Dubai with Julien Bachelier and Bertrand Trichet.

17) Jon Monie is the presenter of “Time Tourists” (Meridian TV) but the one we’re talking about has his last name spelled Monié, with an accent on the E.

18) Jon ended up 30th at the Paris Slalom World Cup in 2005 with his own old plastic board, without ever entering this kind of contest before.

This footage of Jon is from the Battle of Normandy found in the extras of Magic Sticky Hand

Feature by Gorm
Sequence: Chris Lanaway

Buses, they are like concrete skateparks especially if you live south of the the M25 in and around he green and leafy county of Surrey. Those lucky folk have got 2 new parks either just dropped or in construction, after years of jack shit on the concrete front.

Holmeswood (Near Dorking – the place not the attitude):
Recently Dorking locals have got a brand spanking new park from Gravity. The park consists of a Milton Keynes style step up block, a long steep bank, a hip, jersey barier, and one of the weirdest bowl configurations I have seen. The bowl is only bowled on 2 sides, with the other two sides leading to a mellow bank with a Wembley gap and ledge leading out. The Third side goes in to a very steep bank so you can’t get speed.

Still must not grumble eh? (Yes you can. Z-Ed).

The park is well constructed and seems to be in a pleasant area, if only a few things had been tweaked at design stage, it would be perfect.

The Park is here

Crawley

Since the destruction of the wooden park near the leisure center, Crawley locals have been with out a park – now figures crossed they are on the verge of getting some ‘crete.

Designed by Freestyle, but being built by Blakedown (so fingers crossed for kink free ride). The Council are claiming it will be completed by the school holidays, but that is a little Claims Direct!

The park will consist of a bowl complex with capsule and hips/spine. A large Street area, and a smaller street area.
The park is situated here (in park next to train line and Southgate Ave): click

It is within 2 mins wood push of Crawley Station.

All Photos by the one the only gorminator.com

Girl Skate Jam UK returned for its sixth outing but fourth birthday at the Pioneer Skatepark, St Albans on Saturday 9th June.

Female skaters from around Britain and various countries in Europe travelled to sunny Hertfordshire to skate with their fellow lady skaters. The girls-only jam and comp, organised by Jenna Selby and Jenny England, is believed to be the only all female skate comp in the UK, although the Boardroom in Leicester are holding a girl’s jam later in the summer.

Now I know some guys don’t appreciate girl skaters and I’m not here to try and change anyone’s mind but there is no denying the fact that every year the girls are stepping up and ripping like never before. A fact demonstrated by a St Albans regular coming out of the park for a cig to be overheard saying “Jeez…some chick was just trying blunt finger flip out on the big quarter, never thought I’d see that!”

Girl Skate Jam UK has become an annual fixture in the summer skate event calendar, following on from the previous three years events, which have grown steadily bigger and better each year. The latest Jam was no exception. Competitors travelled from as far afield as Italy, Belgium and Spain to take part and girls living in the UK travelling from places including Cornwall, Bognor Regis, Wales, Derbyshire, Crawley and London, to name a few.
The day started with a jam, for girls of all ages and abilities, followed by competitions for those who wished to take part. The competitions kicked off at 2pm with the under 18 street comp.

Winner Georgie Winter impressed the crowd and judges with her two runs, pulling off a kickflip to fakie, huge heelflips on the driveway and frontside air on the flatbank and then went back to her freestyle roots in the second run with a backside heel and all manner of finger flipped pogo malarkey!

Due to a technical error Katie Hayden, who’s tricks included a melon, fakie flip and backside air, competed in the under 18s despite being over the age limit! (sorry everyone, but accidents happen, right?!) In the interests of keeping folks happy she got to keep her prizes but was later demoted to third place by skate-over-rulers Jen and Jen. Second placed Kim Lewis pulled out a fakie bigspin, nose grab and some freestyle trickery I can’t name, despite her having had to run outside to be sick between her first and second runs!

In the over 18 section pirate Laura Schwormstedt from Wales/Cornwall picked up first place with tricks including a frontside Indy, fakie bigspin on the flatbank and fakie shuv on the steep flatbank.

Second spot was nabbed by Kerri Dennis who landed a backside nollie, ollie, frontside ollie and frontside 180, whilst third was won by Becky Wood who got up and pulled an ollie and some other bits despite taking a few body hammers attempting a boardslide on the big rail, but winning worst slam to console herself on the trip home to Derbyshire.

This year the skating gods smiled on the day, and the brilliant sunshine and baking conditions couldn’t have been more in contrast with last year’s event when the miniramp comp was rained off. Now it could have been the weather or the newly resurfaced ramp, but the level of the girl’s miniramp skating has really improved and everyone gave their all despite the heat and blinding sun.

Everyone who entered displayed a pretty impressive bag of tricks but three skaters stood out and battled it out for the honours. Third placed Evelien Bouillart showed off fakie smiths, frontside rocks, reverts and a frontside Indy.

Vert skater Silvia Serret March had a proper burly style, with every grind locked as though she could grind her way back to her native Barcelona, if only the ramp were long enough. Her tricks included long 50;50s, boardslides, feebles, ally oops galore and a 180 disaster.

Rogue Skateboards and Vans rider Helena Long was rocking Maria’s white jeans due to an earlier unfortunate tear in her own pantaloons and a single ghetto kneepad, grabbed first place and the miniramp tramp trophy. Her two runs included backside 50:50, a handplant, backside 5:0, blunt and some old school trickery.

When the miniramp comp ended everyone piled back indoors for the sponsored skaters street comp, which once again found the crowd in full voice. Third placed Sam Bruce‘s run included a smooth as buttery silk boardslide on the rail, backside ollie and lots more besides. She was pipped to second place by Lucy Adams, who covered the whole skatepark and pulled out bigspins, bigflips, fakie kickflips, 50:50 and was attempting a feeble on the rail
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But it was Element sponsored Evelien Bouillart from Belgium who bagged first place and left everyone scraping their chins off the floor after spanking the big rail with a frontside lipslide, two perfect feebles, back and frontside 50:50s and a 5:0, impressing judges Rod Clark, Pip Procter,Andy Willis and the crowd alike!

Other notable events of the day were Evelien winning best trick with a front bluntslide to fakie on the big rail and the fact we had to give prizes in Sainsbury’s and Homebase carrier bags for lack of anything less supermarket like to put the prizes in!

The crowds and skaters were entertained by MC Joff Talbot who decided to spend the entire day wearing a long blond wig and balloons stuff down his tee…a task made easier by the fact his boobies were continually groped by the nearest lady skater (bribery photos are being kept on file!)

The crowd were kept happy with some amazing DJing by Louise AKA DJ Lupee and her other half Emit’s Rob and Pip Procter.

All in all, a great day was had by all. Once again the level of girl’s skating went up by more than a few notches and a people got to see some of the sickest girl skaters in Europe.
Jenna and Jenny would like to thank the following sponsors for supporting the Jam: Rogue Skateboards, Datuga, Architect Skateboards, Etnies, Rockstar Bearings, Riot Squad, Death Skateboards, Blest Lifestyle, Sixxa, Conspiracy Skateshop and Learic 3.

Also a big thank you to Pioneer Skatepark for help with the event and everyone who volunteered on the day, as we couldn’t have done it without help from a lot of people.

Cheers to Enter Shikari and Andy for the sorting us out some amazing raffle prizes and helping us raise money to keep the Pioneer Skatepark going for at least a while longer. Big thanks to Jenna’s Dad, Andrew Selby for his technical brilliance again, producing the highly coveted Skate Trophies.

Lastly thanks to everyone who turned up either to skate or to spectate, we really do appreciate you all coming to St Albans!

Full Results

Under 18

1st – Georgie Winter
2nd – Kimberley Lewis
3rd – Katie Hayden

Over 18

1st – Laura Schwormstedt
2nd – Kerri Dennis
3rd – Becky Wood

Sponsored Section

1st – Evelien Bouillart
2nd – Lucy Adams
3rd – Samantha Bruce

Miniramp

1st – Helena Long
2nd – Silvia Serret March
3rd – Evelien Bouillart

Best trick

Evelien Bouillart

Worst Slam

Becky Wood

Words by Jenny England – photos by Jenna Selby.