Ok, so its all been pretty busy lately on the boarding front; I've had the world freestyle championships at Bugz Boarding nr Gloucester, Round 2 of the ATBAUK series at Hales Superbole in Cheshire and this weekend just gone i was at the Whiteair Extreme sports and music festival on brighton beach doing demos and competing throughout the weekend.
So, the worlds seems like a logical place to start... Bugz boarding probably have some of the biggest, knarliest jumps in the world which made for a pretty insane competition. It was essentially a line of three huge table tops, with gradually increasing size and speed as you go further down the hill, they really separated the men from the mice! Along with the main jumps, there was a huge flat grind box and massive 12' north shore drop which you could incorporate into your runs. All together, it made for a sick looking competition setup!
We kicked it off with 5 qualification runs each to see who would make it into the final's later that afternoon. Even though it was the qualifications everyone was busting out huge tricks all over the shop, frontflips, backflips, 360's, 540's even an odd 720 here and there. I managed two lame runs at first, but pulled it back for the last three and qualified into the pro jam.
After a short break for lunch the finals commenced. Right from the start, everyone was pulling out all the stops pulling even more crazy moves than in the qualifiers. I managed a few solid runs but had a couple of pretty heavy falls so thought it would be a wise move to call it a day. Tom Kirkman and Tom Read were clearly way ahead the rest of the field throughout and un-surprisingly they came out in first and second with Joe Dickson coming a close third.
Round 2 of the ATBAUK series at Hales Superbole was the next competition the following weekend. I headed up on late on friday evening so couldn't look at the track/jumps until the morning. I got up bright and early ready to catch up on some practice runs ready for the racing later on. The track was pretty similar to last year so it didn't take long to dial and then i just left it there and waited for the qualifications to start.
Everyone had 2 qualification runs, so the first to get a good solid run and the second to push it a bit to see how fast you could go. After the first run i was 5th in the Open/Elite category, room for improvement there i thought. Then, because i was one of the last to ride i had been pushed down to 8th before my last run so gave it my all and managed to improve quite considerable and plae 3rd overall, but the racing is a completely different ball game!
I was in the 4th heat of 4 in the elite, but had the fastest time so had lane choice over the rest. From the start of the race i had a poor start and was in second place the whole way down but i was gradually gaining on 1st and tried a reckless, too tight, line round the last corner and lost it and had to watch 3rd and 4th sale straight past me, its not a good feeling trust me!! So that was my racing over for the day, i was pretty annoyed with myself so decided i would to the freestyle and get in some practice ready for the next day. We had a sweet session that afternoon and into the evening practicing my stunts ready for the competition.
Everyone was up bright and early the next morning to dial in their runs ready for the competition. Again first it was the qualifications and all the usual suspects i.e. Matt Brind, Joe Dickson etc were there throwing it down and easily getting into the Open/Elite division. Then, after watching the rest of the competition, a short lunch break it was time to ride! From the start i was not riding my best and knew today was not going to bee the day i was hoping for! But i had a good session pulling off my first 1-footers in competition and generally having a good time. But it really was a two man race between Joe and Matt, each pushing the other to the limit. We had back to back 720's, cab 720 to cab 540 into a 360 in the QP and the odd switch front flip thrown in for good measure. Matt came out on top with Joe then Josh Maddocks following in second and third.
It was a great weekend again, but again a bit annoying for me having not riden as well as i could have done. But oh well, life goes on.
My last, and probably best weekend of the year was at White air on 18th, 19th and 20th September. Not only was it the best demo setup for mountainboarding ever, but it was a wicked weekend of seeing bands, getting free samples and trying out a bunch of new sports whilst being out on Brighton sea front in the lush September sun!
We had demos to do every day and qualification on Friday for the competition on Saturday evening. The setup was pretty similar to a standard one, but it worked really well. It was a 25ft rollin ramp, into a 6ft wooden kicker/tabletop with a slight step-up landing into a 12ft quarter pipe with a 4ft vert extension on the left side. So together it made for a wicked set-up!
All the demos started relatively tame, but always built up to a full on session with all the huge tricks being pulled out the bag by riders like Tom K, Marco Daehler of Switzerland, Ollie Morrison, Gary Crowhurst and pretty much all the riders there.
On friday the field of 15 riders had to be cut down to 10 for the ATBA International Freestyle Challenge on the Saturday night. During the day there were some wicked bands on and i strongly recommend Flood Of Red from Scotland, they are such a unique band and deserve all the success the get!
After the qualification everyone called it a day and headed off to go and watch the bands over on the White Air main stage and a great night was had by all!!
Come saturday everyone gradually assembled during the morning after a heavy night. But there were a few demos during the day which were good fun, but everyone was really saving themselves for the epic competition that was to commence in the evening. At about 5:45 everyone padded up a started a bit of practice ready for the comp at 6:00. Right from the word go it was crazy. Every spin from 180 to 720 was done in every fashion possible, fs and bs. It was tough to call who would be on top due to the level of riding by everyone involved. I managed to sprain my ankle quite well doing backflip backside 180's so had to sit out of the last 15 mins, but that was no bad thing at all!! But it gradually wound down from there and the huge crowd that had assembled for the display gradually dispersed off towards the main stage to watch the Cribs and The Doves for a great night of live music!
The sunday was a real relaxed day compared to Saturday with everyone doing a spot of riding, watching some bands and heading off home.
What a great weekend and massive thanks the White Air, Andy Potter and Co and the ATBA UK for setting up such a killer event!!
So that been my last month competing wise but i have plenty more events, fun weekends and general riding to follow and i'll keep you posted!
Ride on!!! \m/
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