It was the day before we were due to embark on what was to be my first mountainboard event. The shop was stacked with boxes of stock ready to be loaded into the trailer alongside the marquee. All the stories and all the tales I had heard over the years of what was a small yet thriving community of people who liked nothing more than to ride hard, party hard and crash even harder. Undoubtably exciting times where ahead as I was about to witness not only my first mountainboard event but some of the best and craziest and best mountain boarders in the world! To sum it all up we managed to keep the camera rolling and capture some pretty sweet footage! View the video and read on for more info, explanations and results.
Arrival to Hale’s Board and Bike Park during Friday evening we found we were far from the last to arrive. Already witnessing what was to be the start of the largest mountainboard gathering in a few years in front of what can only be described as “the super bowl”. Situated in the Cheshire countryside and proclaimed to be one of the top board and bike parks in the UK, Hale’s most noticeable feature begins with huge BoarderX track running down the centre of the hill. To the left of this track we have the single lane downhill speed run track which has been carefully shaped around the natural terrain.
The bottom of both tracks form into the end of a gully to which holds two table tops with a third wooden kicker followed by a quarter pipe next to a huge out door stage over taken by nature. The venue it self holds a lot of character and character is driven by history. Only an inkling of what I was to learn in the days ahead.
After getting the trade stand tent up and as the last of the sun light descended into the horizon leaving us with orange skies and foreseen sunshine for an early start and day of borderX, camp fires arose from the darkness and faces begun to reunite in what seemed to be a strong riding community once again.
Day one begun with an early morning riders meeting followed by qualifiers and elimination rounds. The competitive nature of the event was not undermined by the serious competition, but rather everyone was riding hard and going for gold by powering through the course, pumping every section to produce as much speed as possible to make it to the bottom first. Never before had I thought mountainboarding could carry so much speed and crash so hard which would explained why the the full pads, wrist guards and helmet rule was so well enforced. Everyone from the older generation to the age of ten to fifteen years was tackling the course with the same goal in mind; get to the bottom and fast.
The overall winners of the BoarderX pro competition starts with Andy Brind coming in third place scoring 77 points, Matt Brind in second scoring 86 points and first place taken by James Wanklyn with a nice round 100 points.
Day two kicked off with the Downhill electronic timed runs on the single person track featuring multiple berms carving down the side of the hill. The rules for this competition uses more of a “jam session” approach to which everyone can hit the track as many times as they want and submit their results at the end of their run. The pro category downhill top three results are as follows:
- 1st- Matt Brind: 00:33.78
- 2nd- Tom Reese: 00:33:81
- 3rd- James Wanklyn 00:33:86
As day twos racing and awards came to a close the night saw an appearance of Raphael La Roche’s band; Terminal Rage that kept the night moshing on. We saw skating on the mini ramp amongst the madness alongside fire staffs, one guy breathing fire and some brutal tag team sumo wrestling tournament. The night was pretty damn alive. Until just past midnight when the soothing sound of drums singing and chanting chattered throughout the early hours of the morning, whisking away any demons and unwanted spirits from the area.
Morning dawned and the first of the sunlight had breached the trees and on to the freestyle jumps. Despite being deprived of evil spirits and sleep, it was a good feeling to see that riders had already made their way to the drop in and the outdoor foam pit in preparation for the Freestyle competition that was to take place that afternoon. A 12 O’clock start saw everything the UK’s best had to offer form the gnarliest spins and flips to the hardest grabs and crashes.
The awards them came in to play with the finishing result for this being:
1st Place: Matt Brind
2nd Place: Antoine Gambier
3rd Place: Mark Adams
it marked the finale of what was one awesome weekend! It was amazing to have a stand back at an awesome mountainboard event and we can’t wait for next season!
Check out the slideshow below showing loads of pics from over the weekend! 🙂
