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This is liable to be a pretty crap story, I've got no photos for a start and it wasn't an amazingly memorable day. That said, it was a nice day out in the sun and some pretty sick skating went down, so here goes: I was awoken early on Saturday morning by my house guest Prawny flatulating like a demon, largely due to our Curry consumption the night before. After taking care of some gangsta shit I started the minibus pick up rounds - todays crew Pete King, and his "Sheila" Megan, Dave Chesson and late surprise addition Stu News. After a brief visit to Danson Park where there was a somewhat sketchy mini ramp at a local fayre, the journey cross town to Stoke Newingtonbegan. Time was passed by listen to Chessons attrocious/embarassing CD collection and some Stu News updates. The best Stu story I can remember was about him being in a Police cell and asking for a light off the Policeman so that he could skin up. Stu never fails to deliver the goods! We got to the park and the place was packed with skaters, freaks and crusties. There was a streetcourse set up in the tennis courts and the mini ramp set up on the grass nearby. There were also various stalls and a stage. The ramp was the same one used at Board X, it's a decent sized ramp and everyone seems to like it. After a quick wander round I found a seat next to the ramp and settle in for the afternoon. The comp basically consisted of all the Meanwhile/Playstation locals relocating to N16 for the day. All the usual suspects were in the house - Saltbeast, Wellermal, D Robinson, Emilio, Fraser, Brewster, T, Diego, Homeslice, Parrothead etc, out-of-towners included Tom Murray and Chris Oliver.
My attention span for skating is not what it used to be and I can't be arsed to write a lot so here's what I remember of the skating: Saltbeast:- b/s revert stupidity, big f/s indys, lovely California t-shirt. D Robinson:- If you've seen Dave skate you'll already know this - the styler. Pulled a lovely b/s ollie tailgrab in the comp. Pete King:- The Technician, went to work on his first run, couldn't put a foot wrong, never even sketched during his run. Fell to pieces on his second, proving that his first run was a fluke! Dave Chesson:- He's shed a few pounds recently which may or may not have helped him with his usual array of flips. Prawny:- After purchasing some "DOPE" new trousers the little man pulled some shit out, including all the usual ollie variations. Weller:- Seems to have discovered mystical skating powers contained in vests. Skated like a demon including evil b/s melon straight into f/s indy combos Emilio:- The smiling spaniard went nuts as usual. Speed, style, f/s blunts and b/s tailslide reverts. Took one of the worst slams I saw all day. Diego:- huge f/s indys, miller flips. Ridiculously good! Chris Oliver:- big f/s flip indy attempts, horrendous vest. Pope:- Visiting Spaniard, the high to low, low to high master. Fraser:- super consistent runs, got out of breath and had to stop during his runs a lot! Tom Murray:- superb b/s smiths, took a lot of tumbles. There was also a young guy whose name I can't remember who skated amazingly, notably b/s kickflip and ollie nose slap fakies.
Someone did a jump so high they left their shadow behind!
The results were as follows, it must have been a nightmare to judge because everyone was pretty much ripping:- 1st - King 2nd - Emilio 3rd - Saltbeast 4th - Diego 5th - Chesson Highest air:- Diego Best trick:- divided between about 5 people.
Homeslice was beyond stoked that 4 of the top 5 rode for Vans.
Everyone collected there money and headed to the beer tent to promptly spend it! After the comp there was a film shown on a large screen, it was called something like "The Truth About Skateboarding". It didn't really contain much skating, just people talking about their injuries. It provided a few cheap laughs though. Next up there was some good live hip hop from TY and DJ Bizzness which was all good. Matt smoked something from a pipe which knocked him for six and made him next to useless. Additional entertainment was provided by the live MCing skills of the Swindon massive who are quite literally "DOPE AS F**K" We dossed the evening away, there was talk of heading to Old Street for a night out, I knew it probably wouldnt happen so I settled for going home as did most of the others. Obviously Chesson went out and probably lost a tooth. All in all a nice mellow day. Thanks to everyone involved particularly the sponsors including the Extreme tv channel and Sidewalk mag. At this point I'd like to add a few words of wisdom from my man Pete King who said words to the effect of: It's all very well that people take the piss out of these extreme events, but they're promoting skateboarding to the masses and doing a lot more than most skate companies do. Couldn't have said it better myself. Pete is also sponsored by Extreme TV, what an ambassador! Finally a big thanks to Elliot Chaffer who came through with the pics I didn't have (apparently they're taken on an olympus digitall 30/40, so now you know ).
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