A one day, outdoor skate event in February. We were asking for trouble with this one, and unsuprised when, four days before the event, the severe weather warnings started coming in. But that didn’t stop us, nor did it stop nearly all of the record 100+ signups – this was the biggest event we’ve ever done to date! Bigger than Watlington or St George’s, bigger than Eastbourne, bigger than the Boardfree Charity Skate, – it was almost as big as three Summer Sessions put together.
Words and photos - Rich
Arriving at the campsite after dark, we found a small tent village already set up on the sprinkling of snow that had fallen in the last week and not melted – the ground had been frozen for days. Combine that with a 25mph wind straight from Russia, and we weren’t too motivated to set up camp. Time to go to the pub… which, after an hour or so of driving around a maze of Lincolnshire back roads, we found to be full of skaters from the campsite! Result. Last orders were rang around the time I was telling someone that signup started at 7.30am…
8.30am, alarm clocks don't work. Running across the course to the signup tent, it very quickly became apparent how many people had come to the middle of nowhere for this event. There were soapboxers, gravity bikers, street lugers, slalom skaters, longboarders, downhillers, sliders, even some dirtsurfers in the mix. Talking to people as they signed up it also became very obvious that many had travelled a very long way for a one day event – as far away as Sweden, Germany, even the USA! Some skaters had driven from as far afield as Plymouth or Glasgow – about seven hours away. I found myself thinking: these are some pretty dedicated dudes and dudettes. There was a really good mix of old and new faces – it’s always good to see friends from previous events and sessions, and we’ve definitely got some regulars now! But better yet to see a whole load of folk you’ve never met before, psyched on the same things as you, everyone united by a common purpose – skateboarding!
After we’d got everyone organised (sort of) and taken the obligatory group photo, it was time to hit the hills up! Slalom, soapbox and streetluge had their own separate areas to us longboarders, so we had three hills all to ourselves. The slide hill – short, steep, slidey and longer than last year with a hard left and a hard right at the bottom. The mellow freeride run – about 25mph, a hard right into a mellow right, lots of places for dodgy overtaking manoeuvres, bump drafting, carving and cruising. Then there was the “big hill” – normally pretty fast, but today it had a 25mph tailwind – so a solid 45mph drop round two full-throttle sweeping corners into a huge flat runout. Something for everyone and something for all abilities.
The slide hill took the longest to dry out, which was fine because wet hills slide further. Standup and hands down trickery from some pretty hot UK sliders, including Jay, Bieren, Matt, Sam and Wheely. Nice one boyeez! The general standard of riding improves at every event we do, and this one was no exception – there was a lot more standup this year, and last year’s big tricks like tailblunts, flatspins and anti-threes were going down all over the place. Also good to see a lot of less experienced riders getting stuck in there too, the UK slide scene is definitely gathering momentum right now.
The mellow freeride hill was a lot of fun, mostly dry from the off, and not too fast so lending itself to some close skating at fun speeds. If you got a good push into the first corner, there was a good bit of corner overtaking to be done, and by the end of the day many of the carvers had got their heads down and were figuring out tucks, speed positions and cornering lines of their own! The bottom of the hill and the top were connected by a short path, so a quick walk and skaters were back up to the top again, which meant that you could get an almost limitless number of runs in, and you had time to swap stories about how you “shut the door” on the dude behind you, or drafted someone on the straight and came flying past them round the corner. It was probably the most skated hill of the day, manageable but still fun. The stoke on the freeride hill was high to say the least!
Then there was the “big hill” – which looked do-able and not too scary until you watched Pete, Mike, Ali and AJ skating it in full-tuck race mode. The hill itself was wet to start with, but with infinite grass verges, massive runout and a wide, super smooth road surface, it was just a case of pick a line and hold on for as long as you dare! There were a few injuries on this one as it was deceptively fast, but most people who had a crack at this hill made it to the bottom alive with enormous grins on their faces. There was a lot of learning going on here, too, with several skaters sporting shiney new leathers, speedboards and full-face helmets, getting faster and more confident with each run. We had a truck for uplifts, and sharing the hill with streetlugers and gravity bikes meant that there was a healthy variety of people to talk to on the way up.
The slalom hill was a world apart from the Lush hills. They had a stereo, full timing gear, start ramps, prizes, a PA system – very organised, very professional and, judging by the racers I spoke to, a lot of fun. As it was an ISSA event, racers from all over Europe and even the US made an appearance. One of the really cool things about the event generally was that it was very multi-discipline, and to have world-class slalom going on right there really added to that.
The last runs of the day were fun – suddenly it was now or never! Every hill saw a mass-bomb from everyone at the track as everyone got their last kicks in for the day before the track marshals packed up. That was my favourite run I think – I got AJ with a dirty overtaking manoeuvre and we were neck and neck all the way down, laughing inside our helmets. Everyone I spoke to had similar stories to tell – if you put all those stories together you’d have enough crazy/hilarious/close-to-death skate moments to write a book…
Thanks to all the organisers and sponsors – especially Geoff Burton for getting us the track shut, Mike Stride and co for managing to make a world cup level race work in February in the North-East of England, all the marshals, the AWESOME AND SUPER HELPFUL ladies on the signup desk, all the sponsors for putting up cash and prizes (especially TES), and lastly, everyone who showed up to skate!
