Tuesday 25 October 2011

London Trip (Vans UK Skateboard Champs)

Always being the keen ambassador of my sport I decided to check out the UK Skateboarding Champs this weekend. It involved travelling to London on the Friday, The Comp on Saturday and then Skating in London on the Sunday back on Monday afternoon. If you're looking for any kind of write up on the actual comp then I'm afraid you're going to be sorely disappointed.

I called Adam Moss whilst I was on the train who told me he wasn't arriving until later on that evening, Oh No, I thought, It was just turning 1pm and I was almost at London, Adam let on that Troy (West) Roberts was in town and after a couple of calls I was in possession of Troys number.

Troy is the funniest guy ever, he's Australian, super hyped and wants to do everything so I was stoked, I got in touch and he told me he was on his way to visit a graveyard in Archway and we should meet at 2 outside the tube station. We started walking towards the place and, on the way there he told me that we would have to pay to go check it out but he was thinking of boosting the wall as he was on a budget. As we got to the Cemetary we noticed the wall was around 7ft high with spikes on the top. This was no problem for us seasoned skateboarders and our cat-like abilities. We quickly negotiated the walls and set about taking photos, this was the biggest most eiree place I have ever seen.

Only 5 minutes in we noticed a group of people walking towards us, we thought nothing of it but a Lady quickly shouted, how have you got in here? who are you? (She was talking people on a guided tour) Troy quickly responded with down there, and pointing the way we came from, she got on the walky-talky, 'Security', 'Security'. She kept asking 'how we got in'. I kept looking at Troy and his face was saying run, I kept shaking my head when the guide wasn't looking. She kept us there, waiting for security. After a couple of minutes, her tour were obviously getting restless. She asked us to walk down a path, turn right and someone would be waiting for us. We walked down the path but ran left, hearing this poor girl shouting in the background - excuse me, excuse me, we hopped the wall and ran away high-fiving and giggling like little boys. It turns out the graveyard is Highgate Cemetary and its super famous, Karl Marx is buried there and all kinds. Troy and his bright ideas. (If the tour guide is reading this - we're sorry, we must have looked like some serious grave-robbers).

Troy


After this episode we decided to do something a little more conventional and, with Troy being Australian we opted for: Ping-pong, Beers, Street Beers, Smoke, Bagels, Shop opening, Edson, Street Beers, Bird-cage, Smoke, More Bagels, John Cattle and then back to Harrow with Zorlac. The perfect warm-up to the UK Skateboard Champs.

The next morning I was well hungover (teaches me for drinking with an Aussie) but Troy cooked up a breakfast only his had a fried banana on it - I wasn't down, he really looks after his friends, top 'Bruce'.



We made our way to Hemel and I did a whole lot of networking and took no photos what-so-ever. I'm sure there are plenty online somewhere. Bumping into all the regular comp heads, Manchester was out in full force and I bumped into John Bell who was on crutches but still the same smiley John as ever. Get well soon bro.

After the comp we went to the after party, it was in a snow-dome not too far away from the comp. If I angled my phone it looked like we were on piste somewhere. I also schooled them at pool. NB: Troy did destroy me at ping-pong the day earlier mind.

Steak
Jerome, chilling, literally
Troy's never seen snow before
Radman, Troy, Adam Moss, Steak & Porno Paul, chilling in a fridge

The next day I went and met Pat, I was hyped on the skate and Pat always is, we arranged to meet some people in Stockwell had a couple of hours there. I love the place, just a bit busy.

Showing Pat the delights of instagram on the tube.



Elephant and Castle for some comedy slams


We also waved goodbye to Nico (Left) who moves back to Italy in the next few weeks, good look buddy pictured with Matt King.

Back to Pat's for Bangers and Mash and an early night, Sheffield was calling me home.


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