10 o’clock meet at the park and quickly cut a stencil for the makeshift steward tees after assembling the tonne of fencing, and the faces start to appear, among them, eothen from eothen skateboards, poch from somewhere, the Bucks Boarding Crew, some Kent boys, the cock skateboards lot, and Jed and James from simple…
Everyone gets right to it with the Cock skate crew busting out some wild and wacky tricks on the mini while froggy and I session the channel gap, me succeeding, then failing miserably for the cameras!
Just as the call for entries goes out, the heavens open and the crowd disperses while others rush to desperately throw the tarp over the mini. After half an hour of torrential downpour, we decided to fuck the park comp off, grab the beer and prizes, and hit up bottle alley (a local landmark built in the early 40’s, 400m long alley with banks one side, and coloured glass shards in the walls the other, all situated under Hastings seafront).
After waiting for a call to see if the park was dry, and a session on the ledges, we decide to make the most of another day of typical British weather and have the comp down there.
First up was best trick on the ledges, Asher hit a f/s 50 50 to ride in, BBC Alex tried some shuv wall rides, (at 9yrs old!), Jono (cock) tried some layback 5-0’s but local Rob wins with a perfect wall ride 50/50 all the way along and in.
Next up craziest drop in, seeing Asher (cock) win with a blindfolded nollie out of nose blunt into the tight incline, well deserved! Then a mass game of skate won by local ripper Toby. Next up longest Ollie. At one end a crutch, at the other, some fresh death wood. Gradually the distance gets larger, and the contenders start falling, until Andy from Kent steals the glory from Aaron Derman (cock) at about 9feet!
Next, longest manual won by Giles from BBC, followed by Badger and Rob. Cool John took a harsh slam slipping out on his hard pink wheels, nasty! Next up highest Ollie, won my Joe Sandland, and Aaron Derman, at 6 decks before highest hippy jump, won by Murren at about nipple height.
Next, my highlight, the tic-tac racing from one end to the other. Now that was a sight, 30+ skaters Tic-Tacking into the lead in a 10ft wide alley! After 3 heats (to nacker them out), Dylan Ewing came out on top, after Joe fucked up trying to show off over the finish line! Then power slides through the puddle comp, where the winner (max) was the only one not to fall into this mix of cider, rain and tramps piss! After a few more prizes are given out, we decide to call it a day. A true underground (literally) skate comp, just what was needed, where all had fun and prizes!
The after party was also a huge success, with the WADA pirate video from Sk8-Goa, a Witness the Shitness Cock Skateboard advert (can’t wait!) and the cock skate euro flick. Then some rock and roll from Gorilla, a huge disco by the jukebox to So Solid Crew & Queen, more rawk from regular John, then into the 7seaters to Cool Johns where more drink was to be had alongside best trick comp on his indoor vert wall! Everyone passed out about 5AM on an awesome day! That’s what Hastings is about, who needs flashy skate comps when you’ve got alleyways full of amped skaters?!?!
Thanks go to Death, Duffs, The Source, Eothen, Simple, SK8-GOA, Bucks Boarding Centre, and Sidewalk for all the prizes, Document & Crossfire for coverage, Heroes for the after party, the bands, JP, Asher and Tom for the vids, me for MCing the day, Matt Davey for council bullshit, everyone who helped with fencing, rufus + deano for the PA and Joe for all his hard work…See you next year!!!!
SR
