South East Weekend

South East Coast

I got a call mid week from Sim Warren telling me to pack my camera gear and head out to his area for the weekend because the weather was going to be hot and they were all keen to skate some big shit. The area in question is on the South East Coast of the UK with places such as Ramsgate, Herne Bay, Folkstone and they had planned a trip to Hastings. It’s only an hour and half train ride from London and we started the weekend at Whitstable train station were I met up with Sim, Andrew Halls, Ian and a surprise visitor Mike Welland. Sim was keen on a bank to grind right in the station car park so we ended up getting this shot.

Bank to ally-oop makio
Next spot to meet everyone was at Swalecliff skate park, right near the beach. The bowl was amazing and small street course was planned out really well packing a lot of grind blocks. Sorry, no photo’s I was skating a lot.

Lunch- Fish and Chips
After a short stop off in Herne bay for some fish and chips we headed to Ramsgate for a few spots. Ellington park has a rail that curves, its square and is on both sides. The infamous Farzad joined our crew at the skatepark and was keen to hit these rails starting the session off with a bunch of warm up tricks, topside and ally-oop tricks,

Farzad, Sweaty on Ellington Park square rail
Hallsy also joining the session with loads of topside tricks including christgrinds, topsouls and fishbrains.
Welland was eyeing off the other one with a nice backslide and Farzad also lacing sweatstance and topsmistrials.

Mike Welland, Backslide
The sea front has a ledge that is waxed really nice and was long enough for some lines.
 
Sim Warren, Truespin Topside Soul with steeze
The sun was dropping behind the huge seafront wall so a nice chill ledge session ensued for the next hr or so. Here are some tricks that went down.

Sim Warren, Ally-oop Fish to Soul
Nandos was calling for dinner so a feast went down then off to Westgate-on-sea to check out some old school spots that Ian suggested. A wall ride over a 10 set was sick but too dark to skate so the natural launch sounded sick just down the road. Sim Warren stepped up for the last trick of the day boosting this dodgy launch for a nice 180 that grab to finish the day around 11pm.
 Sunday, Hasting’s was calling but not before we checked out the wall ride from the night before. The Sun was blazing around midday so this was the warm-up spot. Hallsy really wanted the wall ride 180 out but not really feeling it as he’s never tried anything like it before. He took a few falls and some skin off his back but he landed it sweet and really happy with his efforts, unfortunately bruising his heal and taking him out for the rest of the day. This was really what Sim liked doing so he stepped cabbing into the wall ride and 180’ing out to finish the trick so nice with smooth style.

Farzad really wanted to hit a kink next to a Viking ship so we headed there after a sweet breakfast at Moe’s Diner. The nicest guy on the planet with huge burgers. The Kink is steep and fast and Farzad wanted to warm up but having not skated in a while he ended up taking a hard fall on his already damaged hip putting him out for the rest of the day. Off to Hastings

Breakfast at Moe’s
With huge industrial estates in the mountains around hasting, it offered a lot of rails, kinks and gaps and had been skated a lot before. Farzad just picking up new skates off Sim’s floor hit the rail with speed and trying all the tricks that wouldn’t smash his damaged hip. Hallsy trying to skate around but couldn’t, Sim was the only one left hitting a really nice Savannah with style.

Farzad showing me how big the fish is he caught while back mistrialing the rail
One last spot was a sweet rail and Sim wanted one trick on it before headed off. Back, backslide first try for a bet with Hallsy and winning 5 pounds.

Sim Warren, 5 Pound Back Backslide first go. So smooth. Hastings Rail
Getting pumped up by Hallsy and Farzad, Sim wanted to step up for a photo so then he laced a True-topside soyal to finish a really sick weekend of skating from all the boys. A long drive back then a long train back for me to London getting home around 11:30pm followed. The guys stepped up and skated hard for 2 days. It was an awesome weekend with good mates. Well worth traveling down there.. For more sick photo’s, make sure you get a copy of Kingdom Magazine Issue 7 and check them out here www.kingdom-mag.co.uk

The Beach

Rampworx Video

Here’s the Podcast of the whole week i spent in Liverpool at the Clinic

Rampworx Clinic / Liverpool

As most of my adventures start, i received an email from Be-mag asking me if id like to head to Liverpool to shoot for a week with Brian Aragon, Chaz Sands, Jenna Downing and Steve Swain during the annual Rampworx Summer Teaching Clinic. I met most of the guys from Rampworx in the first month of moving to the UK as it was a must stop on my skating tour last year. Ian from Rampworx was organizing everything including hotels and travel so there was no way i was going to miss this.
Starting on Wednesday, i caught the train from London to Liverpool (2hrs 30) and made it to the park. Already on the first day, Brian just got off a 10hr flight and was skating to beat his jet lag, Chaz, Steve and Jenna were sessioning everything and already get used to the huge skatepark. Brian informed me he just got home from another trip long enough to wash his clothes and pack and get to the airport to catch his flight. Chaz was in Spain and had to change his flight to make it and Jenna just got in from Cali were she competed in an all girl street comp. A 2 hr train ride seemed like nothing compared to their busy schedule and i didn’t even have to skate.

Getting all the Kids together

Jenna, Topacid true mizou
The teaching began with everyone getting broken up into groups then rotating around the park and with different pro’s. Soo many kids had signed up but almost everyday turning up late. The Rampworx team consisting of Matt D, Ian and Tony all put in allot of hard work to make this clinic happen. Ian was telling me about he had to pitch the idea of the clinic to the council so they would help fly Brian over for the clinic. Matt and I were in the office on our laptops when we weren’t filming and shooting out in the park. Si was on filming for a podcast, Tony was on nice healthy lunches for the kids and Ian was overall trying to work things out. We spent 3 days filming, teaching and shooting, the skaters skated hard, i mean they were sweating after about 10 mins and kept this going all day. Most days just ended up with a session with the kids and even some them would start pushing themselves and try new tricks and progress. Here’s a few of the best photos from around the park.

Brian Aragon boosting a Parallel 540

Steve Swain, Backslide
I’m not sure if it was the big night out in Liverpool we had on Friday night or that these guys were really stuffed and injured from the 3 days before, but the Sat session didn’t quite go to plan as Brian was not feeling well at all. The same was for Jenna and Chaz but they powered through it and had a good session. Both killing the bowl with long grinds and amazing switch-ups. Steve Swain was a power house all weekend, this kid had his skates on the whole time, even through lunch we had to tell him to stop and eat. Here’s some photos.

Steve Swain, Huge Flat spin 360

Chaz Sands,360 topacid to truetopacid

Andy Gilbert, full cab topacid, 540 out

Jenna Styling out a topacid on the new Sub-box

One of my favourite shots of the week, Brian Aragon, Fakie Wallride over the channel into the mini ramp
Sat night, Ian was amazing setting up dinner for all of us in the city and pre-drinks at the bar. Everyone was really greatful for his hospitality by drinking the night away before we all heading back to respected homes on Sunday.

Somehow i ended up with the biggest hotel room in the place, Chaz, Me,Jenna, Matt D, Si and Brian

Dinner

This is the line-up at the Tequila Bar in Liverpool. Just about any flavour shot,1 pound

From the Left, Chaz, Brian, Jenna Me and Krisztina at the Tequila Bar. Brian got a coffee shot which tasted shit..

I really have allot of respect and gratitude for Ian and Matt for hooking me up with a sweet hotel room and lifts in cars all week. I’d suggest to anyone, if they get a chance, get to Liverpool and experience Rampworx. The night life in Liverpool is just as wicked. Slamm Jamm 10 is coming in 2 months promising pro’s from all over the world for the skating and one awesome party as well. Get there anyway you can. The skatepark is huge and they are working on building new things for the comp.

This is Tony, One of the organizes of the clinic. Nice Guy
Here’s all the details for Rampworx.
http://rampworx.com
We did live updates for Be-mag each day so everyone could see what was happening, Check em out here. I thought I’d put up quality pics rather than quantity on the updates
http://be-mag.com/articles/show/1240