Ph: Chris Swainston
You can’t stop the Supra team from coming back to these shores, they absolutely love it, especially Manchester where NOTE teamed up for this year’s Go Skate Day celebrations with a plan to skate across the city.
Erik Elington, Lizard King, Boo Johnson, Pat Rumney, Lucien Clarke and Dee Ostrander were all involved. Head here for more pics from what looked like a top day out.
A short film made for the dvd extra’s of “Snakeeyesdie” focusing on some of the most well knownskate spots of Manchester, featuring commentary of each.spot.
Manchester’s skate scene are looking forward to a new indoor skatepark opening this Sunday 5th May. The layout of the new 27,500 sq ft indoor Beast Rampz Skatepark has been designed by the good folk at Four One Four Skateparks and is located inside a warehouse just outside of town in the Eastern quarter, two minutes from Ashbury train station.
The project has been built by a team headed up by long time skater Dave Arnold, whose ongoing commitment to building pools, bowls and parks in the North should be commended. We spoke to him this week to get the lowdown on the new build:
“The guys behind this project have a background in building rollercoasters and worked on the infamous ‘Son of Beast‘ in the USA, that’s where the name comes from. The project has been simmering for the last two years but it all came together this January. The preliminary design was drawn up by Sean Scarfe (Four One Four) and then myself and Tim Stamp from Uniform Skatepark Construction were drafted in to carry out the ramp construction and tweak the design alongside ‘The Beasters’ themselves.”
The Manchester scene seems to be spoiled with options right now. The completion of the new Projekts Plaza from Freestyle has handed locals another fantastic dry spot to skate in the winter months in addition to Black Sheep’s indoor Central Skatepark. Drive out of town though and you are surrounded by other options too. This area of the country is awash with fantastic parks right now including Liverpool’s Rampworx down the M62 who are also looking to develop further to push their park to a whopping 70,000 sq ft.
“Beast skatepark is certainly living up to its name!” says Arnold. “Although there are bigger parks (sq footage) in the UK this place looks huge! the actual structures look like they are on steroids, the sort of place The Thing and The Incredible Hulk would skate.”
Beast Rampz has been designed to cater for everyone. The impressive 60ft wide hipped Midi-Ramp stands at 6.5ft high and rises to 10 ft at one end. There’s also a 24ft wide Mini Ramp and a 20ft wide Micro Mini Ramp alonside a beginners area for the nippers. Add a 16ft high x 24ft wide Vert Wall into the equation, a Taco Wall-Ride plus a huge BMX Rhythm Section (also very skateable) and a lavish split-level street course with bowled corners, hubbas, driveways, steps, gaps, pyramid, ledges, rails and more, you start to get the picture that this place will bring something special on the opening day.
The Beast would not be as beastly without the addition of a vert ramp though. The North have always enjoyed being part of a very strong vert scene so its inclusion in the design seemed like a no-brainer. Heathen Skateboards rider Riess Johnson made a plea for local vert skaters to help in funding this and with great support it became a reality. Nobody is more stoked on this than Arnold himself though due to the legendary history that is involved in the erection of this ramp:
“It’s 36ft in length and 12ft high, made possible via online donations. This ramp has been built by the skaters for the skaters, the way it should be. The funny thing is, that this ramp is a stones throw from the site of the original Ardwick Vert Ramp also built by myself and Tim Stamp back in 1985. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy that we have built yet another skate structure for a ‘minority’ group 28 years later.”
Ph: Tony Alva skates Ardwick back in 1985. Dave’s sister and Mike Pardon in the background.
You can find Beast Rampz at www.beastrampz.com and on Facebook. Address is Montague House, Matthews Street, Ardwick, Manchester, M12 5BB.
The Emerica team have been enjoying the UK’s spots this week with demo’s and signings in Newcastle, Manchester and Stoke. Watch the Manchester demo at the new Freestyle built Projekt’s skatepark from Route One’s coverage here with Andrew Reynolds, Jerry Hsu, Bryan Herman, Tom Knox, Casper Brooker and Rob Maatman.
The team will be at Mile End tomorrow signing at Parlour at 4.30pm before a demo as scheduled at 6.30pm. The good news is that the weather forecast predicts showers well in advance of this so don;t get put off if it’s wet in the afternoon, it will be dry by 6pm.
Sean Lomax has remixed Joe Gavin‘s HD footage from the Snake Eyes Die DVD that takes Skate Edit of the Week hands down. Visit Note to pick up the full production featuring a plethora of Manchester’s finest. “Ecstatic, there it is…”
Wigan ripper Rikk Fields joins the Black Sheep shop team today with a new welcome edit. This was filmed across Manchester and Wigan over a 2 week period, click play to be impressed.
The Black Sheep Store Welcomes Rikk Fields. from blacksheepstore on Vimeo.
Freestyle Skateparks’ latest build at Projekts in Manchester gets the tech treatment from local ripper Lloyd Mcleggon in this recent Birthday bonanza. Press play for 10.
Seen the new Projekts park yet in Manchester? We posted up some fresh pics here last Friday but now you can enjoy some footage of Jake Wainwright, Jack Newman, Josh Glossop, Shaun Currie & Tom Sykes getting some time in on the newly built plaza filmed by Conal Bailey & Tom Sykes.
Those who witnessed the Xmas Jam live back in December will no doubt be reminded that Supertoxic Urethane‘s Lloyd McLeggon‘s skateboarding pops like a Smith & Wesson and ends in bolts. Press play on this best of 2012 clip that has been put together of some of the highlights from Lloyd’s year and look out for much more from him in 2013.
In related Supertoxic news, the new Wasteman Wheel (below) is out now in various sizes. Get on it.
Manchester’s Sonic Boom Six have released the video for their latest single ‘Keep On Believing’, which is due to be released February 11. The track is taken from the bands self-titled album, which expresses political views and around the way our world is ran.
Vocalist Laila K said, “Personally this is my favourite song off the album as it reminds me of when I got into music and bands and how passionate and positive music can make you feel.”
The storyline of the video has something to do with the World Darts Championship 2013, not your average punk rock music video, eh?
The female fronted punk band are currently touring with The Blackout, check out where they’re going below:
22 January – Liquid Room, Edinburgh
23 January – HMV Institute Birmingham, Birmingham
25 January – Electric Ballroom, London
26 January – HMV Ritz, Manchester
Sonic Boom Six’s headline tour dates are below:
8 February – Swindon, The Furnace
9 February – Guildford, The Boileroom
10 February – Brighton, Audio
11 February– Sheerness, The Ivy
12 February– Southend, Chinnery’s
13 February- Milton Keynes, The Craufurd Arms
15 February – Rugby, Vault
16 February– Sheffield, Corporation
17 February – Preston, 53 Degrees
19 February – Carlisle, The Brickyard
20 February – Aberdeen, Tunnels
22 February – Belfast, Stiff Kitten
23 February – ROI, Dublin, Fibber Magees
25 February – York, The Duchess
26 February – Scunthorpe, The Baths Hall
27 February – Stoke-on-Trent, The Sugarmill
Keep on Believing by Sonic Boom Six