VANS presents MEANWHILE...BACK AT THE PARK
In association with Slam City Skates, Clown Skateboards & Olympus Digital Cameras
SUNDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER Meanwhile Gardens Elkstone Road Westbourne Park, W10 12pm onwards
witness the meanwhile resurrection skate jam
Enjoy - skateboarding/soundsystem/BBQ/refreshments
Skill & commitment will be rewarded with prizes: BEER, MONEY, PRODUCTS
Sounds provided by Second Skin (King Kooba, Lexi Love) and Scenario (Unsung Heroes)
That was the spiel but did it live up to expectations?
God/Jah/Krishna/Buddha (or whoever else you place your belief in) loves skateboarding, it's official, he gave us his Sun to prove it. The night before this event I'd been out to see Mattimal spin some vinyl over Old Street way, and me, him and Chesson had been discussing how much we we're looking forward to the next day, providing that the weather was good. On opening my eyes I was greeted with a blast of sunlight which nearly melted my corneas, this meant only one thing, get up, put on your rolled up trousers and get your bitch ass to Meanwhile. I sat in the car across London with only my Bob Marley tape to keep me cool and arrived at Meanwhile about 12.30pm. The place was jammed, I wondered round greeting friends and new acquaintances alike before arriving at the epicentre of the activity the Red Bull Land Rover (avec in house DJ mixing suite) and the Third Planet Wagon. Mattimal and Chesson arrived soon after, and Mattimal set about the decks with some old school hip hop. The session was raging, Mark Munson, Big Ron, Fraser Cambell,Gordon, Joe, Martin Herrick, Emilio "El Torro" and Matteus "The German" as well as quite a few people I didn't know were all there skating hard.
Bad publicity is better than no publicity at all?
Next came the first incident of the day: The night before the comp, the park had been daubed with anti-Vans slogans and the "C" word by a certain American who I believe was unhappy that Vans had refused to sponsor the "Smell of Death" comp at the same venue a few months earlier, headline reads "Gay Looking Old Roller-skating Man Tries to Repaint Skatepark During Comp" apparently he took offence to the bad language used in the freshly painted graffiti. He set about tipping paint all over the small bowl. Now while I sympathize with the man, who was a local resident, there is a way of doing things, and barging into the middle of a session and tipping paint everywhere isn't going to get you any sympathy or make you any friends. He took some serious verbal abuse before trying to make a move for the middle bowl. It looked like it was going to get ugly as he was forcefully disarmed of paint brush and can, but once he had no paint he soon f**ked off. The hypocrisy behind this incident was that the graffiti had already been covered to a reasonable extent by Weller and his crew, and that this man was shouting and swearing the whole time as well as inciting the crowd and skaters to swear at him, so what did it actually achieve, well nothing, but it gave me something to write about and it was pretty funny.
For a while it looked like Manimal and Minimal might be a no show, but they arrived traditionally late followed by the rest of the Essex contingent of Dan Tubbs and Stu "The Monkey" as well as Harrows Matt Anderson. It was noted that the main contenders for the title (excluding foreigners) had all mastered their trade at Leigh on Sea and that this was obviously going to be a hip based comp. It was going to come down to who was the biggest and baddest, the smart money was on Manimal or Emilio. The comp was to be held in a jam format with groups of skaters sessioning together then individual runs in the final. Two people from each jam would make the cut. This would have been a good way of doing things, had all the groups been divided up better. However, most of the hipmasters were put in one group meaning that Manimal and Fraser didn't even make the cut. Brewster and Weller rocked the mic, meaning that the cry of "You fag/gay" was heard everytime someone bailed.
Here's what I can remember people doing:
Emilio (above): b/s and f/s indy 270's over the hips, ridiculous 540 attempts, let down by final run
John Robinson: super tweaked method and Lein transfers, switch roll ins, 5-0 fakie round the big bowl, cab pivot backside revert on the biggest bit
Dave Robinson: f/s ollie to nose wheelie up the big extension into the middle bowl, mute transfers, massive f/s ollie from middle to big (one of which resorted in a no pad knee slide),super styler, the hardest head on collision of the day with Matteus
Gordon: amazing mute and slob back foot one footer transfers
Munson: f/s 270 transfer, tail grab varial transfer, inverts on the big bit, wicked massive silver belt buckle with "Munson" on it
Big Bad Ron: transfers, elbow blood, verbal abuse/encouragement from Munson.
Matteus: big ollies, about 10 head on collisions, kickflip indy attempts over the hip
Martin Herrick: f/s ollie to tailslide over the middle to big hip, scary looking 50-50 to drop over the hip.
Wellermal: Drunken slams, melon over the hip
Naylor: lots of ollies, sweet kickflip fakie, snapped board in half in final.
Deacon (?): blunt kickflip in on the middle bowl extension.
Matt Anderson: huge b/s melons from middle to big, ridiculously large melon out of the middle bowl over the extension platform and stairs and onto the big bowl platform (a distance of about 12 - 15 feet)
Some guy from Homage whose name I don't know: crazy kickflip attempts into the big bowl
Little Ross: Lein hip transfers, various flips out of the bump between the big and middle bowls, sick, especially considering he's barely bigger than his board
Fos: layback f/s rock'n'roll slide, rock'n'roll on the side of the big extension.
Seth Curtis: f/s ollie to truck up the big extension
Brent "The dirty hippy" (as christened by Brewster): 5-0 to tail shove-it in.
The Mullett (above): The worst hairstyle on earth combined with Adidas 70's tracksuit top, rolled through the bowls to cries of "Mullet" started by Naylor, still managed to win a prize
Joe Crack: Ollie off the platform to the flat of the big bowl, backside bigspin disaster backside revert , textbook f/s flips
Fraser Campbell: b/s airs in the big bowl, smooth transfers, f/s rocks on the biggest bit.
Tubbs: b/s lipslide over the big to middle hip
The skating was amazing all day and everyone was going off, however collisions were a major problem. At some point in the day there were about 8 or more people skating at once, which at the speed they were going is f**cking dangerous. Dave R and Matteus as well as many others paid the price. In one amusing incident Manimal, who was on foot, was sent reeling head over heels by Matt Anderson. Manimal and Fraser were sneaked into the finals, however due to an administrative cock up Fraser didn't get any runs.
Show me the f**king money
Manimal was declared winner (£150), with Matt Anderson second (£100) and Emilio third (£50). The best trick comp was won by Emilio for his b/s indy 540 which made him smile even more than usual especially as the prize was a case of Stella and a camera! Fraser also got £50 because of the mess up and everyone who entered got product of some description. Other placings and prizes: 4th Mark Munsen Vans shoes, Slam clobber, Clown Clobber 5th Martin Herrick Vans shoes, Slam clobber, Clown Clobber 6th Dave Robinson Vans shoes, Slam clobber, Clown Clobber 7th Gordon Disappeared? 8th Ross & Ronaldo Chapman board, Vans and Slam clobber 9th Matt Nailor, Foz, Joe (joint) Whatever was left in the product box
Weller dishes out prizes, while Brewster dishes out abuse.
Classic Brewster quotes of the day:
to a girl in sequin top: "Will all girls wearing shiny tops please report to the Red Bull Land Rover"
to the girl swinging ribbons about: (as pictured in the new Sidewalk) "That is so shit, if you want to get some attention get your f**king tits out"
to everyone who fell off a trick: "You've got to make that now, you faggot"
to all girls "we'll be having a tits out competition later and the winner gets to go out to dinner with me"
to Matt Anderson who got cramp during his run: "This isn't a f**cking Jane Fonda work out video you know"
As the sun dropped people drifted off, some in the direction of the local pub. I had a little skate and then headed that way myself. All in all it was a great day, good weather, good music, good skating and good vibes. Respect to all the sponsors (listed above), Third Planet who organised the whole deal, Weller and Brewster our mc's for the day, everyone who skated and half killed themselves, the Meanwhile Gardens marshalls, and last but definitely not least the DJ's.
This joins Urban Games as the best/most enjoyable events of the summer by far, this is how skateboarding should be, you can shove UBI up your ass!
Pictures on here by the end of the week
See you all in Hell!