Girl Skate Jam UK 2010 >>

Between 1-3pm there was a free skate for all the girls but although the rain had held off until this point, reports were coming in from Kent of a downpour on its way – so the decision was made to put the miniramp comp on first. From the off the standard was evidently high; Melbourne’s Hilary Pearce was awarded first place after two faultless runs, her fast and aggressive style is amazing to watch – frontside Smiths, frontside 5-0’s, frontside tails – the list kept going! Danielle Mellor was on a no holds barred mission to pull off the most technical tricks of the day, placing her second – frontside-half cab-rock and rolls, backside disaster-revert out and switch front rocks. Third went to New Zealand’s Georgina Matthews AKA Hori who was all about the hand plants and Indy Grabs.

Next up was a pretty fierce Under 18’s comp. Placing 1st, Laura Johnson was on flip-tastic form, with a kickflip to fakie and a frontside flip over the driveway, 2nd placed Charlotte Brennon pulled out a nice early grab transfer out of the 6ft quatre to flat bank and Pioneer local prodigy 13 year old Caitlyn a good ollie from the driveway to flat to award her third.

In the Over 18’s, first went to Georgina Matthews after a solid run including a 5-0 180 out across and down the driveway, a boardslide on the rail and bs and fs 50-50 on the box. It was really good to see Emma the Brum Richardson back on top form – fs 5-0 revert on the quatre and a nollie bigspin on the bank, which gave her 2nd. Resident SkaterGirl writer Danielle Gallagher placed third after her run of front rocks and feeble fakies on the big quarters.

The Over 18’s were over by 4.30pm, at which point Evelien Bouilliart rolled in, just off a train from Brussels – much to the delight of the younger girls. She had little time to warm up before the sponsored comp started, although it was apparent that as soon as she set foot in the park everyone upped their game just a little. There were four groups in the Sponsored Section, each had 2 runs of 2 minutes, A – Georgina Winter (UK) and Lottie Borra (Italy), B- Helena Long (UK) and Lois Pendlebury (UK), C – Klara Kasparova (Czech) and Caroline Dynybil (Czech), D – Evelien Bouilliart (Belgium) and Lucy Adams (UK)

Caroline was straight into noseslides on the Koston, Lottie who had looked incredible in the warm up with front boards down the rail and 5-0’s on the block got a small attack of the nerves, Lois had some good lines on the go – flip on the driveway – kickflip to fakie on the quatre. Evelien went into full feeble and lipslide assault on the rail – just after her run ended she also landed a flip front board. Lucy Adams landed a host of tricks – fakie 360 flip, fakie shuv-it flip and a switch heel on the bank. Bs 50-50 on the Koston and a backside tail on the block. The judges admitted it was incredibly tight and difficult to decide a winner. However due to Lucy’s use of the whole park and the consistency of all the tricks she threw in between her main ones, she was awarded first place, with Evelien 2nd and Caroline 3rd.

A big thank you has to go out to all the volunteers – Leigh Burton, Carmela Fleury, Alex Barton, Geoff from Rubicon, Ben Cundall, Joff Talbot, Ian Harris, John Glanville, Michael McInally, Mark Sinfield, Leigh Burton, Sophie Allen, Michelle and Alan Rushbrooke, Sarah Glenny, Di Headley, Kat Bedding The Selby Family and to Arron Selby for soldering together new wires for the mics late on the Friday night whilst ever so slightly inebriated!

Thank you to all the sponsors – Rogue, Lovenskate, Death, Rubicon, Les Ettes, Nikita, Misticon, Vans and Cooler Magazine.

From its beginnings at Playstation Skatepark (Bay 66) back in 2002 and Epic (Creation) in 2003, Pioneer has now become the established home to the Girl Skate Jam UK. Plans for a big 10-year party next year at the park are already underway.

Words by Jenna Selby

A recent activity day at Southdown School in Bath was incredibly popular. Hear what the organiser had to say:

“Many thanks for the sessions. Again it was a brilliant day, well organised, resourced and coached. The children absolutely loved it. It was great to see children with no experience learn so much in a short time. Some were terrified at first but soon they had huge smiles on their faces, they were so pleased with their achievements. Thanks again from Southdown and hope to see you again next year”

Or what about the work we did last month at Parton Manor Junior School in Gloucester regarding the activity day we recently ran for them:

“The skateboarding was excellent, the tutor was superb with our children, very positive parent feedback.”

Or finally how about how Rubicon recently helped out at a Community Day organised by Batheaston Leisure Association to help open a new mini ramp in the town. There were loads of children of all ages, and it was a brilliant day and a great success with the children and town. The BLA were kind enough to send us some feedback:

“We were really pleased to see so many skateboarders and had many postivie comments about the tuition you provided, one keen skater described it as the best day of his life.”

This is just a small amount of the wonderful feedback our team of experienced instructors receive after giving lessons or demos at schools or community events.

Rubicon will continue to be the number one provider of skateboard lessons in the UK thanks to our passion for skateboarding, our enjoyment of teaching and our awareness of safety. Get in touch if we can help you – or visit www.skateboardschool.co.uk

The Summer is upon us and so is the 3rd Annual Girls Skate Comp “Girlzilla” at Relentless NASS Festival. There’s already some serious buzz building about the comp as there will be 40 riders including top UK girls like Lucy Adams and Lois Pendlebury being joined by a strong European contingent like Evelien Bouilliart (European Skateboard Championships Winner) and Emma Lindgren (Swedish Skateboard Awards Winner), who are in turn joined by some international talent like Leticia Bufoni (Maloof Money Cup Winner) and Vanessa Torres (tbc) (X Games Gold). There’s tonnes of other great riders on the list with some exciting new talent to watch out for, and with the mens World Cup Skateboarding event also going on at NASS, there will be loads of coverage and the organisers are already saying “Boys, Bring It On!“.

The festival runs from the 9th to 11th July with the girls skate comp on Saturday 10th at 8:30pm. There’s over 40 music acts including the likes of Bowling For Soup, Chase & Status and Tinie Tempah (click the image to the right for full list) – and there’s more action sports than you can shake a stick at with BMX, Skate, Inline, Freestyle MotorX, Parkour and more!!

It’s going to be an amazing event and the girls skate comp will play a great part of that – seriously raising the bar. All the girls who have entered the comp will receive free riders passes to the entire weekend which is a great way to support the scene – and there’s a great host of sponsors putting up a bunch of cash and product for the comp to make it something to remember.

Here’s a few quotes from the media build-up:

“Relentless NASS 2010 is super excited about what will be the strongest athlete list to date. They are literally coming from around the world!”

“Relentless NASS has a lot on it’s hands as the Girls Skate competition athlete’s are flooding in and opening up the gates to a battle of the sexes.”

“We aim to deliver the best of both worlds in skate and have a grand selection of female riders for 2010″

Spread the word – and come along and support.

Full riders list coming very soon.
Full competition format details coming very soon.
Full skatepark design coming very soon. It’s going to be sweet!!

Full story and info coming over at SkaterGirl

FBBB (For Boarders By Boarders) A travelling community event that was born in early 2006. It all began indoors on machine/man made snow, founded by 3 friends that had a desire and vision to create a unique event that was based purely on the priority of having fun. Focused around a well designed freestyle park, catered to riders of all abilities and to be enjoyed by people from all walks of life.
FBBB Voyages to wherever they can frolic (snowdomes, dry slopes, skate parks, art galleries etc) to host events that feature live music, art, and just about anything that has to do with snowboarding and skating.

Part of the concept is to promote the UK scene and push progression. To raise awareness for snowboarding and everything related to it. Creating a platform for the community of snowboard lovers, riders, brands, artists, bands, photographers and filmmakers.

http://www.myspace.com/forboardersbyboarders

http://www.facebook.com/pages/For-Boarders-by-Boarders/31786867968

http://www.fbbb.co.uk/