Thursday, 21 July 2011

Nass

This year team riders, Emma Richardson and Georgie Winter represented the Rogue team at Nass in shepton mallet, bath west showground, the line up of the girls to skate was huge! It was off the chain!

What a weekend!! Let’s ignore the fact that the girls skate comp started almost 3 hours late (!!) which was very frustrating (we’ll have a seperate post on this soon!!) but not only were the number of entries to the UK leg of the World Cup Skate Series held at NASS Festival higher than ever before (24 girls), not only was the cash prize purse bigger than ever before ($1,600), not only was there a bigger mix of nationalities (7 different countries represented) but thequality of skating was truly at an all time high – as you will see soon from soon-to-be-released videos.

Before I share the results, I’d like to do a few quick but important thank you’s: to the Rubicon guys Greg and Geofffor all their hard work in making this comp happen and for helping with travel by putting on a minibus from London and for stumping up the huge cash pot and products, to Danni for her tireless help in the organisation of it all and for the cool poster design, to Ben Powell (Sidewalk Mag) and Marc Churchill (Vans, Creature, Independent, Bones, Gravity Ramps…) for rocking the mic’s as always but especially to all the girlswho competed (and waited for such a long time to do so) – you’re all legends.

The results therefore of the 2011 Rubicon Girlzilla Skate Comp@ Relentless NASS are:

1st (US) – $1,000
2nd Alexis Sablone(US) – $400
3rd Letici Bufoni(Brazil) – $200
4th Jessica Florencio(Brazil) – Product
5th Lucy Adams(UK) – Product
6th Ester Perussi(Brazil) – Product
7th Eliana Sosco (Brazil) – Product
8th Marta Nery(Portugal) – Product

The remaining positions along with official scores will be released soon.

Phenomenal event, an amazing atmopshere and great to see such alot of bonding between all the girls from different countries. At the end of the day these events are all about enjoying yourself and promoting and supporting the girls skate scene for both the veteran competitors and those girls doing it for the first time. Awesome to see it all in action. Lots of pictures and video and longer write-up to come soon I’m sure.

look out for fottage to come

Wednesday, 20 July 2011

Rubicon skate camps

Rubicon skate camps

This year two of our riders will be instructing on the rubicon skate camps found here http://www.rubiconskateboards.co.uk/

The rider’s are Emma Richardson and Georgie Winter also along with the girls Dani Gallagher will also be on the team to help out!

Look out for further details and photos of there antics…

paddle around the pier

Last weekend Lucy Adams helped organise a girls miniramp jam as part of the Paddle Around The Pier festival, down in Hove. With a promise of sun, sand and sea, the day was set to be a corker. Although that was until we hit the M25…for those not in the know this is the motorway that circles London, and was aptly referred to as the ‘Road to Hell’ in a song by Chris Rea. Basically the road is just one long traffic jam! On a good day you can do the journey from London to Brighton in 1 hour and 30 minutes. However because the sun was out, every man and his dog apparently also wanted to make their way down to the south coast to dip their toes in the sea, so the journey ended up taking 3 hours!

Lucy and the ollie

By 2.50pm we were still not at the festival site and the comp was due to start at 3pm. Nerves were getting a little fraught, other riders has got lost and parking availability was abysmal. In the end doing what any other person would do – we gave up on trying to find that elusive free parking space, which admittedly was somewhere 5 miles out from the festival site anyway – got as close as we could (in this case across the road) and paid the extortionate ‘I could have bought a house for that’ parking fees.

By 3.05 Lucy had got all the riders together and the 45-minute ‘girls only’ jam began. Although the focus was to film Lucy’s for STS, there were other good tricks going down from the other riders present – namely Rogue riders Emma Richardson (ollie to crooked grind revert in, frontside 5.0 pop in) and Helen Lovelee (frontside 50.50 frontside lipslide and backside disaster). Lucy was all over the ramp landing a whole host of tricks – tweaked ollie fakies and fakie ollies, 50.50 fakie, boardslide fakie and smith grinds.

Tamsin and Kiki

Part of the focus of the event was for Lucy to encourage younger riders to get involved. Two local young girls – Kiki and Tamsin – initially were a little nervous about riding the ramp especially with such a big crowd looking on.However after watching the older girls throwing down trick after trick they became more than keen to have a go.

Teaching the drop in

With Lucy’s encouragement both learnt to drop on the 4-foot ramp and 6 foot extension.

Check out the video below to catch some of the skating that went on that day and to hear Lucy talking more in depth about how the event came about

GIRLS SKATE JAM 2011

Girl Skate Jam UK 2011

10 Years of the Girl Skate Jam UK

The 10^th Anniversary, it’s a little hard to believe that all that time has passed since the very first Jam at Playstation Skate Park (now Bay Sixty6) in 2002. To mark the special occasion, a selection of photographs from the previous 9 events were put up on display. Michelle, Alan and baby Lennox Rushbrooke hosted the NIKITA BBQ, doing a marvelous job catering to all the differing dietary requirements (sourcing the meat from Lucy Adams’ Dad – nothing like keeping it in the skateboarding family!)

Although the advertised kick off time was 1pm, as happened in previous years, entrants started arriving from 11am. First through the doors was Italian rider Anita Almonte, AKA ‘powerhouse of the park’, she was followed by Bristolian rider Villa Kula, reigning champ Lucy Adams, Skatergirl writer Dani Gallacher, New Zealander Sophie Allen and a first from Japan – Ayumi Watanabe with many more then following. All members of the Rogue team managed to make an appearance including Emily Russell who’d flown down from Scotland early that morning – she deserved a medal just for the 4am start!

The Judging Beauties

The order of events followed the same pattern as previous years – a 2-hour jam for all, followed by Under 18’s, Over 18’s, Mini and Sponsored competitions. Under the guise of ‘10 years of celebrations’, riders were also invited to dress up for an extra two categories; 90’s girl skater and cross dresser.

N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton kicked off the Under 18’s comp. A classic on any DJ’s set list but it wasn’t until half way through the song that anyone realised the lyrics that were actually blaring out to those young innocent ears! Skate musical education – that’s what it’s called if any parent asks…

Caitlin takes on the rail

The youngest rider in the Under 18’s category was 11-year-old Rom local Ruby Easterling who did a good job of riding all the ramps in the park. Charlotte Thatcher did a nice ollie down the driveway. Claire Thompson, 14, impressed with her mad tech skills most notably a big spin and fakie big flip. Pioneer local ripper, 14 year old Caitlin Robinson Mawhood has progressed so much since last years comp – this time hitting up the big rail, transferring from quarter to quarter and clearing the driveway all at some speed. She also managed a pretty sweet face plant on the concrete but got straight up and continued with her run. The girl has balls of steel and is definitely one to watch in the future.

Watanabe's version of the leap of faith

In the Over 18’s category, northerner Laura Johnson returned for her second year to compete pulling off a sweet backside 5050 shuv out on the block into the bank. Dani Gallacher nailed a front feeble 270 out, crook on the quarter and a flip down the Wembley. Anita Almonte basically went full pelt at everything, making the transfer from quarter to quarter, frontside ollie on the big quarter and a boardslide on the rail. Though it was Ayumi Watanabe who got the crowd going with her attempt at a boneless off the 7 foot ramp – even after slamming on each attempt she got up with a huge grin on her face every time.

After the heavy showers in the morning, the weather proceeded to get better and better and sunshine was in full swing by the time the miniramp comp began.

Minirampers

Helen Lovelee’s bag of tricks included a backside 5.0, long 5050’s and frontside lipslide. Emily Russell pulled off front and back tailslides, blunt to pivot and a back disaster to smith. Helena Long had a whole host of crazy drop-ins up her sleeve – some looking suspiciously similar to star jumps. She also got blunt fakie, back smiths and halfcab boardslides. Unfortunately work beckoned and Helena had to leave before the Sponsored section began.

20 minutes was then given to the oldies and suspect looking ladies with hairy legs. This was their chance to show off their costumes. It is sometimes incredible to think what skaters wore back in the 90’s and the fact it was the norm not to be able to see ones feet whilst skating, whilst ones trouser crotch swung around ones knees. Best Cross Dresser was awarded to Ewen ‘garters’ Bower and 90’s Girl Skater to Jenna ‘what were you thinking’ Selby.

Emily tames the ramp - Scottish style

The day was rounded off with the sponsored comp and yet again Lucy Adamsretained her crown as Queen of the Girl Skate Jam. Tricks included a switch boardslide and a halfcab boardslide on the rail, fakie flip on the steep bank and a backside 5.0 and bs tail on the block. Second went to Emma Richardson who has found her feet on her board again producing a solid run with tricks including a frontside 5.0 on the bloack, kickflip, back and front 180 up the Wembley and a backside smith revert on the big quarter. Georgina Winter was awarded third place after landing a kickflip and pop shuv tail grab up the gap.

Lucy and her trademark trick

A big THANK YOU has to go out to all the volunteers who gave up their time to help out before and on the day: MC – Joff Talbot, DJ’s – Ian Harris, John Glanville and Lou Symington, door – Di Hedley, filmers – Leigh Burton, Michael McInally and Mark Sinfield, judges – Stu Smith and Ewen Bower, canteen – Salv Insalaco, trophy Man – Andrew Selby, the Selby Family, late night park sweeper/BBQ scrubber and other fun jobs – Matt Talbot and finally the staff and management committee at Pioneer Skate Park.

Thank you Pioneer Staff

Also a big thank you to the sponsors for your support: NIKITA, ROGUE, EASTPAK, COOLER, DC, DEATH, GIRL, MATIX, HEROIN, LOVENSKATE, LES ETTES and DVS GIRL

Read Cooler’s ‘Pro Chat’ interview with Lucy Adams before the event here

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Results:

UNDER 18’s

1^st – Caitlin Robinson Mawhood, 2^nd – Claire Thompson, 3^rd – Ruby Easterline