What can I say? The Summer Jam is now officially over, and it was awesome. Thanks to all of you who turned up to support Cov Skateboarding – cheers to the BMXers and inliners who represented their own scenes (there weren’t as many of you as I was hoping, but those who showed up had a good time). The inline street comps were cancelled because no bladers turned up for it. Adam and Kafka from Culture Skatepark (who happen to be bladers) were a little bit let down. Having said that, Adam got involved with the skateboarding mini ramp comp to support Cov skateboarders, and almost got a rock n roll down!

The comp day, other than the lack of bladers, was a big success. Big tricks, awesome vibe, fun day. Here are the winners;

Transition Titan (mini ramp);

Skate – Finley Kirkby (from Leicester), Inline – Elliot

Long Jump (BMX jump ramp comp) – Ricky

Chief of the Streets (street comp);

Skateboard best run; Martins Neimanis

What else needs to be said but “consistency”. Martins didn’t do the BEST trick of the comp, but the tricks he did do were sick and very consistent. Switch heels, 360 flips, 180 switch manuals, back tails, pretty much all on-lock. You could time your watch by him.

Skateboard best trick; Tony Lui

Tony Lui didn’t do just one best trick. He did about 3. He did a nosegrind and a bluntslide along the blue adidas wallie block, and he took to the pyramid manny pad, with a quick ollie up then an bs 180 over the second part of the pyramid to flat. Quick footed is an understatement.

Honourable mention; Joe Morris. He did the most well-balanced nosegrind over the Gonz funbox. Until Tony got the Bluntslide and the BS 180, Joe was the pick for best trick.

BMX best run; Ben Covill

Rugby massive came along and shut down the comp. Tony Lui walked away with skateboard best trick, whilst Ben Covill got on the park and really showed the BMXers how to ride a street course. Consistent tailwhips off the curb high manny pad (how he managed that I’ll never know), and not to mention thowing a FLAIR into his run in the final round (on a 3.5 high, 2 foot wide quarter?????) showed his skill and consistency.

Honourable mention; Greenman, and Ricky – both of these guys have 360’s on lock, and Greenman was throwing out 360 barspins like hotcakes.

BMX best trick; Jake Thrip

The theme of the BMX street comp seemed to be “going upside down”. Jake Thrip backflipped off of a 3 foot high kicker ramp (to flat), not once… but THREE times. His best attempt was definitely the first one, as he rolled away sitting down with his feet off the pedals… BACKFLIP TO NO FOOTED LANDING??? Give that kid a prize. Tom McKay agreed.

If you didn’t at least make a small appearance or support this event in some way, then what else can I say? You missed out. This was our chance to really show the council how big our scene is, and how providing an interesting and unique skatepark facility can attract big numbers. If anything was going to get the council to go ahead with a new skatepark, it was this. With about 300 individual users, and almost 500 sign-ins (that means that most of the 300 users came back to skate the park at least once), they appear to be on our side. Culture Skatepark are now moving with full force to push for their indoor skatepark plan – despite some people questioning whether this event would do any good, or whether it was worth the cash spent on it, I can honestly say I feel it was totally worth the effort. If we end up with a decent skatepark in the next year (or if one is on the way in the next year), then I will definitely say it was worth it.