This was quite possibly my stupidest idea ever and |’m a man that has a lot of stupid ideas. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to run a race round a skatepark, I can’t remember why.
With MC Bob Sanderson manning the microphone and the starter pistol anything could happen. You want a kid dressed as Santa to boardslide the handrail Bob’s your man “Come on Santa get down that rail you fucking tit!”. Some kind of best trick comp was held Eddie sort of won but Kris Vile threw down some hammers too. Woodley got kicked out and in the end got the bar shut down, so no change there.
Up until it happened I don’t think many people believed the race thing was for real.Rounding up recruits was surprisingly easy, mostly because everyone was well pissed by this stage.
I can’t even begin to put into words how funny this was to watch, I had tears in my eyes and my stomach hurt the next day from laughing so much! In the end Woody won due to some serious tactical skating rather than just pure power barging. I”m sure footage will emerge somewhere in the fullness of time.
The evening rounded it off with a mini jam with prizes being randomly given out and people randomly being shot with the starter pistol!
Respect to Rob Smith who gave himself whiplash by trying to early grab off the vert wall into the mini.
Look out for round 2 soon. Thanks to sponsors: eS shoes, Potato Wheels, Creme Skateboards, XBox, Snickers, Death, Third Foot, Independent, Sidewalk, Eastpak and Big Woodys skateshop.
Powley
So yeah, it was The Harmony DVD premiere and David Dixon’s (aka Dist.One) art show at Cide.
The film itself is a beautiful visual sound – I am not going to talk about who did what and where, why should I when the film documents this so well? What we need to discuss here is the feeling, the vibe of the film. You know when you have been out on a fine day, with your mates, maybe you’ve been to your favourite spot, or on a road trip, at the end of the day you ache a bit, but it is a good ache because you landed some tricks, got some lines down, and saw your buddies do some good shit. Then later that night, just before you go to sleep, you think back at what a good day it was.
It has been a good first year for these persons of intent. Let us hope they have many more good years. Oh yeah! Remember how I wasn’t going to tell you about the tricks? I lied, get over it, but I’ve got to mention Monsieur Gavin’s 360 no comply, like a speed freak and at the end.
“Get the beers in!” were the first words I heard from the Boss’ mouth.
Firstly, I commend the skatepark crew for sorting out some ramps at the far end of the park which less than a month earlier had been reduced to smouldering ash. Like the highest level of Space Invaders, the park was a swarm of speed freaks criss-crossing and popping up all over the place. A collision with any one of them would mean game over, as a couple of less fortunate players later discovered. My legs were shaky to say the least but I still managed to get across, ollie up, ollie down and back again a few times. I felt a little old (not as old as Gus’ dad though who I spotted nursing a beer on the sidelines), but that was because the kids Best Trick Jams were about to begin. Off the course oldie! Make way for the Mispelt Yoof!
It’s amazing what level of skating and sheer madness that the offer of free product can produce! I spotted rewards going out for well executed hardflips on the new driveway, and backside bigspins the hard way over the hip. I did have one kid biting my ear off about a frontside flip being better than a hardflip, but my opinion could not be swayed. Did I forget to mention? I was judging. Complaints can be sent to: 
Once the next generation of rippers had exhausted their energy and went in search of more sugar, the pros took to the terrain. Spotted on the day were the entire 50-50 squad, the Blueprint squad, Death of course (Does Cates miss anything?), the Crème team, Stevie Thompson, Chris Ault, Ben Raemers, Jak Pietryga, blah blah blah… and two yanks: Colt Cannon and Pete Ramondetta. It’s always a pleasure to see so many UK heads under one roof, I mean motorway flyover, enjoying one another’s company and producing some amazing skating to boot.
The competition came in the form of a bobble hated styley geezer named Ben Raemers. Ben fully flared it with some backside crailslides and a miller flip to fakie. The crowd love the miller flip, so when the inverts were going down, they went nuts! “Alan Christensen to filming duty. Christensen to filming duty please!” sang out of the speakers as DJ Sherry played Slayer at 12. Somehow little Ben didn’t count on a counter attack, and fell short of 100 bones due to Flynn Trotman’s amazing 540 ollie. Where did that come from??? Time at the bar- Over to the vert ramp for more!
Pete King was going for a huge kickflip melon over the channel, Mark Munson grabbed 3 inverts over the channel whilst a little ripper called Sam tried it indy and made it. Indian Matt (aka Steak), the new Death flow rider went padless, but the darkman himself, Lee Blackwell took the prize money with two alley-oop cabellariels over the channel in signature hell bent style! More tats Lee?
I thought I could squeeze a lovely warm cup of tea in between two jams, but being a judge is no joke, so the steaming hotbox of culinary delights would have to wait a little longer for my dosh… I know this might seem like lazy journalism, but so much crazy skating was going down over the next half an hour, that for your benefit and mine I shall simple state the obstacle and a few of the things that were put down on them. Trust me, its better this way!
The Rail (a.k.a. the paparazzi prize): This is where Pete Ramondetta suddenly came alive because in the space of five minutes he put down a frontside nosebluntslide, a kickflip 50-50, a frontside 5-0 frontside 180 out, a nollie frontside 50-50 and a nollie frontside lipslide to fakie. Woah! Despite this amazing bag of tricks, some skaters still tried to comp him for his £100 (Approx.$175)- Wileman got oh-so close to a 360 flip lipslide, which in my honest opinion would have taken it, Daryl looked like Bastien with his attempts at a kickflip frontside boardslide, Korahn Gayle landed a smooth frontside boardlide shove-it, and unknown ripper David Davies put down a flash and roll attack of Backside smiths, feebles and a tailgrab feeble! Honourable mention must go to Chris Ault who looked like he was taking a stance against the current handrail trends by ollieing over it to manual down the bank.
The only reason I hate Harrow is that I always get lost there. Every time I go to visit the Death lot, I’m always phoning a few times to Aneka Rice me in, next time though I will rent a stretched hearse and do it in style, theme it, it would be worth the money as I’m sure we could get use out of it after the event, even if it was hotwired and smashed into a parked police car or something, as that is the usual outcome of these Trinity visits.
the sheet was attacked with bottles from the off and by midway, once Zorlac’s part kicked in with Nazi Punks Fuck Off by the Dead Kennedy’s (that screamed through the JBL’s) the place erupted into chaos and a mosh pit spawned the dancefloor and met the bar within seconds knocking people everywhere! Ben Cundall has a full part which rocks, new flow rider India Matt aka Steak has a rocking section, Cates gets tech everywhere and kills it, Zorlac has 1 minute 45 secs of gnarly shit, Munson and Potter star as Oregon concrete slaves and rip the arse out of it, Wag, Horsey, Snoopy and Nicolson have bangers and some fuck off slams in this film, the Aussies put themselves on the map with bowl madness, Richie Jackson hammertime and plenty more. It was quite hard to actually watch the film but who cares anyway when it will be in the shops in a few weeks and probably for a fiver or something so you can see it then.
All I remember is that Cates head gets blown clean off, there’s some shit hot skating all the way through and raw as a badgers ass which is the best way to be, the music is punk as fuck featuring all sorts of classics, some 80’s pop and special appearances by Billy Idol and a few other borrowed clips, plus Death mascot Dibble does not star in it….Yep, sorry Dibble fans but Death Skateboards and The Death Squad are 2 completely different entities, so sorry to disappoint, but I hear he does have a star role in the new Motel 6 DVD that if all goes to plan should be an extra DVD with this release before xmas, so you will definitely be wanting a copy.
One of the first skateboard videos I ever saw was Powell Peralta’s “Public Domain“, and during the intro the viewer is taken on a guided tour throught P&P’s manufacturing plant. The scene is dusty and noisy as hordes of little underpaid immigrants sand away at the next hottest shape. I was too young to know for sure that I would one day work within the skate industry, but I knew for certain that I didn’t want to be one of those poor sods!
Please state your name, age and what you do for a living?
Do you know of other European companies that make their own boards?
So, the world’s largest event finally hit the UK and landed in Manchester. It seemed to come out of the blue without much notice but it did not stop people from taking their kids and filling the place out to witness some of the best skating you will see anywhere.
The street course was built for rollerbladers, BMX riders and skaters mixing large trannies with ledges, banks, rails and roll ins. UK rider Ross McGouran managed a 3rd place spot for $10,000 with Daniel Viera in 2nd and Wagner Ramos taking the main prize. Greg Lutzka could have rinsed it if he had used the entire course but managed 5th behind Chris Dobstaff on the night. Lutzka’s skills on the ledges are incredible…one by one he laid hammers down in the warm ups…it was a treat to watch.
We were there – where the fuck were you? You missed some of the best bowl skating that there’s been in this country. The weather was off the hook, the beer was flowing and fun was had by all who were there. Saturday morning was the turn of the unsponsored crew and it certainly wasn’t boring. Complete gnarl with James emerging winner after a serious assault on the bowl. Their followed a best trick comp in the afternoon with Nicky Cornell Frontside blunting the vert wall and F-S 5-0 to fakie round the bowl corner as well as Ben Raemers, Carl Wilson and Mattias Nylen all going ballistic. Saturday nights partying was predictably riotous and a Skinny man gig provided the venue for our misbehavior. Woody was probably the worst for wear but that’s a big claim considering the state of the whole crew! The next morning it was the turn of the old boys aka ‘masters’ and they rose to the occasion entertaining the crowds with some ‘back to the old school’ routines. Names such as Dave Davies, Gary Lee, Trawler and Barry Abrook were all in attendance and were encouraged by their mate MC Sean Goff on the mic (often whilst skating too.) Not that it matters but Pete Dosset was a clear winner making almost everything he tried first go including a stupidly good invert to fakie on the vert. Sunday afternoon was hotting up, both in terms of weather and skating as the event neared its grand finale. It was pure carnage but if you weren’t there you’ll never know, neither pictures nor video could show the pure mentalness and frenzy that went down in the final jam of the day. Trick lists just aren’t appropriate here, needless to say Mattias did a ridiculous transfer, Raemers learnt about 3 new tricks in his runs and Cornell skated faster than anyone else. After this Goffy pulled together one of the most ridiculous best trick comps I’ve ever seen while the judges totalled scores. When the dust settled it looked like this:
1: Mattias Nylen
Competitions kicked off at 2.30pm with the Amateur Street section. This was a jam format with girls skating in groups of four and the level of skating was pleasingly high. Third place was taken by 14 year old Kim Lewis who showed great promise with 180 ollie nose grabs and kickflips to fakie on the driveway. Becky Wood impressed the judges, Andy Willis and Phil Proctor, with her run that included a 180 ollie, boardslide down the kinked rail and kickflip to fakie on the flatbank. But she was piped to the post by her friend Kerri Dennis who bagged herself first place with a floaty ollie to fakie on the quarter pipe, 180 ollie over the driveway and smoothly caught kickflip to fakie on the flatbank. Both girls had travelled down from Derbyshire the same day, yet still managed to throw themselves around the park with enthusiasm.
Next up, the comp moved outdoors to the miniramp, where MC Jack Wiggins from the Oxford Wheels Project amused the crowd and skaters – especially Lucy who was all most crying – alike with his unique brand of MC-ing. “In her spare time Faith is a Racing Driver and Demolishes buildings” he announced of the 10 year old “But she also throws the best parties that go on for days if not weeks”. In fact the skaters were so amused they began making requests for topics for him to comment on them. Third placed Lucy Adams “is into cloning, and has cloned herself seven times and today we have the Sunday version which is much better than the Saturday version”. She flowed effortlessly, apart from trying not to fall off due to laughing too much, with front and backside 50-50s, boardslides and lipslides and even attempted tasty looking Indys out of the coping.
It was then back to the Street course for the sponsored riders street comp. Once again it was jam format with one group of three, followed by a pair. Essex girl and Rogue rider, Sadie Hollins deservedly took third prize with her impressive tech tricks on the banks of nollie flip shuvs, switch flips, nose manuals and k grinds. She also took best trick with a brilliant boardslide shuv out down the kinked rail.
Refusing to start her run until the right Queen track was played by the DJ – Don’t Stop Me Now, her run included a perfectly caught fakie flip on the steep bank, back-to-back boardslide and switch boardslide, 50-50 on the top ledge of the Koston Block and finishing with noseslide down the driveway ledge. Not intent on just winning the comp she also decided to have a hand in the DJing whilst the best trick comp was underway. The girls skated to the sounds of Madonna and Van Halen, Lucy would like to make it known that she is available for hire for comps or even weddings.
So here it is, another skate trip, another visit to France for the gnarliest event on the European calendar, another pickled liver and another bruised body! Some people say “why do you do that for your holidays?” and the reply is simple. Because there is no comparison! Every year Crossfire recruits as many bodies as possible for this event. This year we met up with 24 of the UK’s finest explorers in the South of France for this mission and it was a total success. Every comes to this country to skate like a bastard and to rock and fucking roll for an entire weekend, not caring about sleep deprivation, hangovers or bruised heels. THIS IS GNAR and by the time you finish reading this feature, you should be ready to book your ticket for 2006 in advance. No shitting you, 2005 was off the hook and this is what went down….
Gerald Roche and I were first on the scene on the Tuesday morning. We checked in, chilled out, got some beer and headed down to the bowls. The local riders who we know well now after 4 years of visiting this amazing skate park had reached an entirely new level. You can talk about Julien Benoleil, Alex Geraud, Mehdi Salah and Alex Cocciniuntil you are blue in the teeth as these guys own this bowl, but if you look deeper to the youth uprising that study the comp every year and emulate their heroes, you can see a new class of skateboarder popping through the ranks. I’m talking about Mini Tony T. A kid we saw imitate Tony Trujillo’s skate style and fashion sense last year, who is now a clone of the Anti-Hero bowl wizard…it’s crazy to watch. If our local park at Meanwhile had big transitions that flow for miles, then we would have a similar batch of new skaters killing it, but we don’t, so the kids here will never be as good, it’s just a fact. Build great parks, breed great skaters. No myth I tell you, it’s straight up.
Our friends Jaydog and Claire from SF turned up with Richie Hopson and Anna, plus the addition of Wingy and Emma, Seth and Ryan from Meanwhile, Lucy Adams, Lek and Matty, Rees and Matt, Andy Scott, Lois, Pete King, Crossfire film crew Alan Christensen and Jamie O’Brien, Howard Cooke, Ross McGouran, Roe, Mattias and the addition of the Irish Crew with Jay, Rich and Bruce The Ox (who skates the gnarliest i have seen yet!) all in the hood caused us to turn up the heat. The Thursday night was full of beer, hash and night skating, just what the doctor ordered! But was this gonna get out of hand? YEAH OF COURSE IT WAS! The Red Lion was rinsed once we left that joint!
So, the Friday was hungover and the event had only just started….Christ! It set the precedent for the entire weekend! The heat baked down on sore heads as the skaters managed to huck out some of the most amazing lines all day long. Our UK entrants included Andy Scott, Howard Cooke, Ross McGauran and Pete King but Pete and Ross were injured after the Brixlegg battle in Austria the weekend before so Scotty took the mantle as he always does here and got through with Howard for the quarter finals. Howard was put up against Tony Miorana, TNT, Emilio Arnanz, Mehdi Salah and Roman Hackl whilst Scotty faced last years winner Omar Hassan, Daniel Cardone, Chad Bartie, Julien Benoliel and Kyle Berard. 
That night, we started to rage again. A night session brought out the likes of Brazilain World Industries rider Carlos De Andrade who hucked massive frontside ollies over the hip and crazy tech shit in the reservoir. It was a pleasure to watch. Rees managed large airs over the foot of the spine (pic opposite), whilst Seth ollied the hip at large and Matty crail slid his heart out. We had met up with Rhino from Thrasher during the day and shared a few beers together. This dude is one of the nicest fellas you will meet on your travels, so if you know he is on town, make sure your beer is cold and your arms are open. He took this pic of Matty whilst he taught me how to take photo’s. Dude, if you are reading this thanks for the tips…next time I will make sure I’m not wasted for 3 days and take on board what you told me! Haha! This guy is the Dingo’s bollocks! Yeah, did you click that link? It’s 100% true. The night went on. Tony’s pentagon shrine was made out of beer bottles accompanied by 2 upside down crosses whilst Slayer boomed out of the i-pod. We were so drunk it was a joke and managed to crawl back home to the hotel rooms after annihilating anyone we saw down at the Red Lion! 
But it was all about to be moved into another level. A quick swim in the pool revitalized the bones whilst the head was still in total pieces. Kirby picked us up in the vehicle, we headed for the holy place, our deadly secret, the cure for all hangovers. Yes folks, step right up, you are about to learn a serious secret from the depths of the Crossfire vaults, for this is the time when we share the Wisdom of the Ocean. If you have the hangover of hell and have no idea how to quell it, then get your arse down to a seafood restaurant that serves up raw shellfish and indulge in King Prawns, live Oysters, Mussels, Clams, and Sea Urchins! Wash them down with a carafe of white or rose wine accompanied with mayo and French bread and you will be laughing! Put it this way, Gerald ran a mile when we mentioned where we were going! The thought of seafood made his stomach curdle so Jaydog took his place. 10 mins in and Jay is freaking out a bit after myself and Neil had parted with 2 Sea Urchins each. These slimy bastards look like they could rape your old lady! We forced Jay to join our gang and he dribble puked all over the table! I was sat opposite and luckily he held on to that one for dear life, so much so his eyes watered like rapids! Good lad!
But this is where it all goes wrong, because after this meal, we were seriously up for it. We ran to the supermarche and bought champagne, rose wine, beers, coolers and ice and raced to the hill! People are just waking up, others are watching the comp that had only just started, Alan and Jamie were fighting other photographers for the space and we were about to let rip a whole new day of chaos! The Hills Are Now Alive With The Sound Of Music! Tony T and the entire Anti-Hero crew are with us on the top of the hill, playing grindcore and strumming an electric guitar covered in Thrasher stickers. Champagne flutes were passed around, doobies were rolled and the rest is history! I managed to interview TNT in the middle of this chaos; it’s on this site here somewhere if you wanna find it. It has to be the most piss drunk interview ever performed! In fact a football was kicked at us by Matt Moffet’s girlfriend Janine at 100mph and it stuck Tony right on the forehead and then did the same for me, leaving us feeling like we were pissed up pin ball heads! 
At about 6pm, the days event skating had finished and we head for a drunken swim in the Mediterranean ocean. As we walked down the hill, Gerald was rugby tackled at mach 10 by Kirby and he flipped onto his head and did a scorpion on his face! He was knocked for 6 so we revived him then watched him puke up in the sea whilst the entire beach looked at us as if we were pikeys or something! I had to rescue Gerald in the recovery position…kids, take note, this is not fun! Well, only for 5 mins, then we all laughed our pants down. The party session was on fire, it felt like 4am but it was 7pm and most people had only just started. A fire was born from Jake Phelps hands and boards were chucked on top, then crates, then a security guard went ape shit and it calmed down a bit. By this time a session was going off in the bowls. Benji Galloway was skating this place padless at 10pm and raging like a bull in there. Not many pro skaters would join the night sessions fearing for their safety and the possibility of losing the cash up for grabs but Benji is about mingling and getting amongst it and the crowd loved it hailing his every backsides disaster, invert and indy transfer in the deep. This is what skateboarding is all about, just letting go and having fun. Train loads of people cruised round the reservoir throwing massive ollies over the hips, carving low and high and slashing at the coping, this is the best place on earth for that and I dare anyone to prove me wrong.
We partied hard with the likes of Blair Alley, Pat Duffy, Kyle Berard, and others. The Red Lion had some crazy shit going on tonight. The bar staff were all moshing, beer was being sprayed everywhere and people were loose! Once we were all kicked out of there at 4am, we took to the car park opposite where we had back up beer crates in the boot. 3 skaters, one with a broken leg were asleep on the grass under jackets. All of a sudden the sprinklers came on and all hell broke loose! They were soaked and we could not help but laugh ourselves into the tarmac! Cruel really but we had to all run for cover. I just remember diving through the window headfirst into a part rolled doobie on someone’s lap! We all got soaked whilst David Martelleur found refuge on top of the phone box! We staggered in zig zags back home. Alan found Gerald asleep at a bus stop on the way home and rescued him! It was total carnage!
Sunday morning was unlike any other spent in London. We all surfaced at midday ready for the finals in ribbons! Not even the pool could save bones today. The seafood place was shut so there was nothing but OJ and vitamin C on offer before the big guns fought it out in 35′ heat in that bowl. 
It was whittled down to Omar, Alex Giraud, Chris Senn (who was a wildcard) Benji Galloway, Alex Coccini, TNT and Julien Benoliel (pic opposite) and it was on fire! Everyone gave all and the place was electric for 30 minutes! The rock reigned from the speakers courtesy of Ed Lee and Christian Stevenson who played so many classics and eventually after watching the gnarliest skating ever, the results came in and it was all over for another year.
Benji ripped with transfers off the wall into the 8ft, a barrage of 360 shit over the spine, switch transfer chaos and much more, but got ahead of last years runner up Alex Geraud whose transfer from the reservoir into the Heddings Gap is still one to cry for. Add his stylish kick flip backside lipslides over the hip to that and you have your man alive. Julien Benoliel was beaten to 6th place by Chris Senn whose style and different approach is still a pleasure to watch anywhere but the Marseille local is killing it and when he skates he does not flinch an inch and is tough as nails.
Crossfire has come a long way since the days of little B&W fanzine pamphlets and blagging the odd handshake with a pro. Today it’s worldwide recognition and Champagne dinners. Well, almost… DVS were in town for the premiere of their first ever video, ‘Skate More’, and Crossfire had been invited to rub shoulders with the pros and sip on complimentary drinks. To tell you the truth, the usual roll call with a video premiere is that we end up scrambling for tickets until the last minute, get squashed with the rest of the sweaty fans as we queue up anxiously awaiting the curtain-rise, spot a pro in the distance and then head off to the off-license for a couple of cold ones and an over-the-top trick by trick analysis of what we just saw. Yeah! We are the media, promise!
