Categories
Features

Crossfire Third Birthday Tour!

……..in assocation with Tony Hawks Underground 2, X-Box and Hiding Place

Birmingham Epic Skatepark 26th September 04

Well, Sunday morning’s are hardly on the weekly menu in this part of the woods, but we just about made it up to Victoria in time to pick up DJ Sami, his bird, and Crossfire filmers Guido and Alan.

The car although it had been serviced decided to drag its lonely existence to Epic Skatepark but it did get us there so we were all thankful anyway, bonus! Bacon sandwiches and a cup of tea kick started the jam at 2pm and off we went!

Now Epic is the one of the largest skate parks in the country and even with 350 people in the house, people seem to just disappear! So a mini ramp jam was thrown and Mark (Frontside Rocker) showed us why he is so called with an array of Frontside trickery. Little Andy who had the hair of a lion made sure he was noticed by throwing in 270 mutes, and miller flips, and made his dad proud, but Dan Wileman and Chris Oliverwere on fire and wreaked havoc in there with kick flip tailslides, frontside floaters and much more. In fact Wileman’s arse must have been bruised the day after as he fell on it loads! All part of the fun though pain, isn’t it? James Woodley and Chris Vile came down to represent the A Third Foot Team on the day, and Woodley had one of those days when nothing really comes together but he had a laugh anyways.

Jim the Skin from Ride in Coventry warmed up the bowl with his son Joe who looks a spitting image of the man best known for being the best lien to tail merchant in the country. Joe rips for his age and won a bunch of stuff on the mini ramp too.

I managed to burn all my skin off my elbow after realising that there was a hole in that bowl, thanks for that Epic! Hiding Placeplayed whilst kids moshed and as it was the first time I had seen this band live, they do rock, it was a good show and they were mobbed afterwards for free t-shirts and stickers. I guess having free goodie bags is just not enough these days, but that is why we had a raffle for a board, and as one lucky winner managed to claim a free deck, there were 2 losers who were caked!

Gateaux was thrown everywhere and we all got covered! Luckily the Xbox consoles were at the other side of the park so they stayed clean but got used! 2 people went home with Xboxes and games, in fact, one guy scored so high on the new Tony Hawk’s 2 game that no one could touch him! After throwing out a box full of more free stuff we headed back on the road for the lazy journey home. See ya Birmingham! Hello car smell! Alan won the award for most smelly person so far….he reeked!

Broadstairs – Revolution Skatepark – Sat 2nd October 2004

I was really looking forward to this jam more than the other purely because we knew so many of the pro riders who were gonna be here personally, and the OG team are always up for the crack! It pissed it down when we got there, so we hit a local teapot filled café and got our dose of cholesterol damage for the day. Powley was hungover, the team were all still in bed and apparently he was dancing in a club last night and suddenly realised that his trousers were on fire! Spinning on his back again to “Wham” probably!

When we got back to the park, there was a queue of about 200 kids going mental! By 2 o’clock they charged the park and 100 of them got in courtesy of Snickers and 200 got goodie bags, so all was on course. Both Alan and I managed to kill ourselves on the mini ramp as soon as we got there! The ramp was covered in dust and it nailed us! My ass was bruised and his pelvis almost cracked! The skating was set to be high today with or without hangovers and it kicked off big style.

Little Ross McGouran supplied nollie backside 270 heelflips that were back to back with tre-flips and nollie heelflips, and nollie kick flips to boot. He even yanked in a 270 backside transfer into bowl that made the locals scream! He was on fire. Ortega’s main rider Brendan Ryall who has just had his first pro board released this month chucked in backside suski grinds, bs salad, bs smith, fs bluntslide, on the picnic table plus kickflip over the rail, feeble to 50:50 grind on rail and plenty more. He is an animal when he gets going. No wonder Blueprint were looking at him a while back.

Once the rain passed, it cleared up allowing Ged Cullen and Greg Nowik to rip the mini ramp outside whilst the other South Coast brothers Marc and Paul Churchill serviced the street course. Marc nailed a 540 flip on a snapped board, huge fs grabs over the ski jump, and smith grinds and front and bs slides on the rail. His brother Paul managed to annihilate a young local as they clashed in the heat of it all and he hucked out a fat kickflip indy over the ski jump and also a sturdy frontside rock on the vert wall.

Ben Cundall supplied feebles and crooks whilst Dave Chesson nailed switch fs flips over the funbox, alongside his power packed tre flips, and nollie bs flips. But the skater of the day award if we could be arsed to award one would have gone to Chris Oliver who walked away with £140 for best tricks on the picnic table. He was rabid and threw down pop shuvit front nose grinds, kickflip bs nose grinds, bs nosegrind reverts, kick flip back tail slides, flip backside 5-0’s, fs tailslide 270 out, and switch krooks! It was pretty full on and the crowd loved it. All he had to say afterwards is that he “needed the money!” Class.

Hiding Place were so loud that shoes in the shop next door were falling off the shelves but as kids who were moshing bled from the ear, the more technical kids won Xboxes and THUG 2 Games in the chill out room. We then got going on the freebie chuck out which was massive! Kids went crazy here and loved every minute of it as Nailbomb played on the stereo at mach 10! It was nuts! We signed loads of autographs on t-shirts and were harassed for more free stuff for ages! Kids were even asking us for our own shirts! Afterwards, we headed for the boozer where Powley had pre-organised a chilli and chips meal and pitchers of beer. The chilli was so damn hot that steam exited from Ross McGauran’s ears but no one puked! Local M.I.L.F entertained our video cameras and Marc Churchill ended up getting a slap in the street once the pub closed!

I managed to win £18 quid on the fruity and with that bounty we hit the road and zombied our car all the way to Ipswich for a wonderful few hours kip in a travel lodge. The bloke on reception was chuffed to see us. I think he may have died on the desk if we had not have turned up! As we got the keys from him to the rooms we left him to face his lonely self once agin and kipped hard! We are all bruised and battered by now!

Great Yarmouth – Sunday 3rd October

The Little Chef supplied us with the heart attack food we requested and we hit the road once again. The Park Warehouse is supposed to be the cleanest skate park in the UK by reputation and it was! In fact it also has the best mini ramp I have skated in a while, endless fun!

The Calow Brothers and Lee Blackwell were already there sessioning when we arrived which was a result. Ronnie was nailing massive backside 180’s over the driveway whilst brother Danny added a flip to fakie over the vert wall gap to his bag of tricks. The band and the full Death team were both late due to traffic so we got a best trick comp going on the driveway and witnessed locals chucking down all sorted of stuff for about 30 minutes and then we threw a highest ollie comp wher one local rider raised the stakes to take on Danny Wainright for the record and won a full Birdhouse set up donated kindly by a local skateshop in Skegness.

The arrival of Carl “Potter” Wilson made for good viewing as this boy can fly as we have seen all summer, but there were no broom sticks needed, just thunderbolts, as he delivered bs flips, tre flips, and kick flip over the driveway, backside flip on the vert wall, kickflip back tail slides, back tailslide shuvit out, huge 1 foot ollies to fakie and more.

The dark forces that lead Lee Blackwell to skate like a man possessed were evident. He threw in a nollie fs 180, a fakie indy grab caballerial and an ollie to tail on top of vert wall. Have you seen the size of this wall?He also made blunt fs 180 on that beast. It was sick. Dan Leech turned up to the park as well. He has the smoothest style and completed a fs board slide 270 out, switch back lips, bs 180 fakie nose grind 180 out, and kickflip front board slides on flat bar, nollie bs nose grinds on ledge, and bigspin flips on quarter pipe!

The rest of the Death Team turned up in 3 car loads. How funny is Dibble? Too bloody funny! Snoopy turned the rail upside down, The Calows skated all day, Zorlac left his mark on the mini, Horsey ripped, Wag threw in some shuvits and much more went down on the day and we met loads of cool people who came out for it. The band played hard, freebies were chucked out and 2 more people went home with Xbox consoles and Tony Hawk Underground 2 Games! We hit the road for sunny London, apart from it took forever and it was indeed pissing down!

Alan once again got the car smell award but he did keep me interested in the journey by at least talking non stop for 3 hours…cheers Alan, it was needed as that journey on the darkest of “A” roads is not a dream ride!

London – Bay Sixty6 Skatepark 9th October 2004

It was an excellent way to finish these dates, and in true style London came out to party! Over 500 people came theough the doors to wreck the place with us. The jams for kids took place and people won boards, shoes, and one gnarler took an xbox for switch trickery.

The Pro jams were once again dominated by Danny Wainwright and the 50:50 team from Bristol. Wainwright himself took the street jam to edge with front board slides, kickflips, late shuvits and more. Dan Wileman finally got his nollieflip nose slide down the hubba, a trick that had plagued him in this park the last time the team came up for one of our jams. In fact he broke his ankle and his elbow on the last visit and still left empty handed on the day! The mini ramp jam was won by Greg Nowik who is probably the best mini ramp skater in the country.

Wainwright gave him stick on the day but he could not match double flip fakies 3 feet out. Dave Chesson killed it with a large frontside flip, Ross McGouran had a wonderful fakie flip on show for everyone and Brendan Ryall took his unique style to the midi with feeble grinds and loads more.

It went off in style and after 300 moshing kids sang happy Birthday to Crossfire and launched fights to get a barrage of free boards and clothing amongst the glitter of 3000 free stickers, we left for the after party and got it on until the early hours! We had a great time and would do it again for sure. Big thanks to everyone who came out to enjoy all of the dates with us.

Check out the video footage and let people know that they may well be in it!

Zac