A word from Wingy on the UK Vert Series...
Well what a start to the Vert series this weekend down at Mount Hawke skatepark Cornwall. It was kind of what we expected and then some. We all knew this was going to be the year that the new young blood came of age but we didn't quite expect such speed and fierce determination Within minutes of the skating starting on the Sunday anybody over the age of 15 felt like a complete beginner. As we all looked at each other with absolute confusion about what to do, the young guns opened fire!!
Kick flip this, 540 that, heel flips the height of most normal airs, we all knew the book was passed on and we had to fight hard to stay with them. Just one skater aged over 15 made it to the final (Sean Goff) everyone else in the final was still at School! That is the first time I have witnessed anything like that in nearly 20 years of Skateboarding.
Every one of those guys deserved their place in that final, no kiddy points for having ago, the real deal.
As we got to the final Sam Beckett was firing hard with lots of high consistent runs with flips all over the place, this took him to 1st place without any doubt. The 2nd place finisher was Alex Halford from Nottingham who played out with long runs and a Massive backside 540, you would have thought he had been doing this stuff for years.
Jacob Anderson took the 3rd spot, only 13 years old but he’s still progressed well in the last 2 years with more flip tricks and some varials and even something from back in the day - a Saran wrap blast from the past trick - showing that these kids can learn old and new style tricks.
The rest of them all deserve a mention as this was one tuff final with even a International rider Chris O'Reilly from Georgia USA, another ripper Paul Luc Ronchetti who struggled along with a Broken Collar bone. But a true crowd favorite was Jim Langham from Brum who with his own individual style of skating had every body on edge every time he dropped in. Well done all you guys on that the first of many battle this summer.
Mount Hawke was a blast and we owe it to Trawler and all the sponsors (Relentless, Vans and Shiner) for making this happen, hope to see you all for Round 2 at Blackpool in May