February 18th, 2010 by Nic

I’ve just got involved with the Rom Jam for the first time. The date is confirmed as Saturday 3rd July. There will be live music, barbecue, giveaways and all the usual good times! More details to follow.

“According to most skateboarders, you haven’t lived until you’ve tried out this park in Romford. Built in the late seventies, Rom is one of the few original concrete skateparks in the UK, and like Livingstone Skatepark in Scotland, is a world-renowned spot. You’ll never find another park like it. It’s part of the heritage of British skateboarding, This first rate facility includes ramps, moguls, a bowl, pool and half pipe.” – Fazed.com

February 18th, 2010 by Nic

February 17th, 2010 by Nic

February 17th, 2010 by Nic

Long time Vans team rider Marc Churchill suffered a near fatal car crash, it was touch and go as to whether he would ever skate again. After nearly a year off Marc celebrated his 29th Birthday at a jam I organised which was attended by all his friends from the UK Skate scene.

February 17th, 2010 by Nic

I never thought I’d go to India let alone organise the first ever skate comp there! A life changing experience. I can’t find the flyer as it was at the beginning of 2007. Here’s some bits I found on the net:

Caught in the Crossfire coverage, click here.

I even made it into the local paper somehow!

February 17th, 2010 by Nic

In 2009 The Carnival relocated to my local park (which I helped design) which is one of the best in the country. Plans are afoot to run there again in 2010

February 17th, 2010 by Nic

The original venue for Concrete Carnival was Penzance skatepark in 2005 and the event ran over two days. When the nearby skatepark opened in Hayle the event was split over the two venues. In 2008 we ran and extra leg at the newly opened Bridlington Gasworx skatepark titled ‘Concrete Carnival Reloaded’. The Concrete Carnival ‘brand’ is not fixed to any specific skatepark enabling us to move it to the newest/best parks each year.

Some of the highlights of past Concrete Carnivals:

Highlights from the Storyboards TV show aired on Setanta sport:

February 17th, 2010 by Nic

Click here for an interesting article on BBC world service about the role of skateboarding in modern society.

February 17th, 2010 by Nic

2009 was another great UK Champs, changes to the course made it a lot more exciting for the competitors and spectators. It also played host to one of the funniest after parties I can remember!

February 17th, 2010 by Nic

As unbelievable as it seems there had been no UK skateboard championships since the 90’s. Whilst it seemed like companies constantly blew their marketing budget on trying to come up with some stupid gimmicky format for events no one had actually got their act together and just run a standard competition properly! The first year of the Championships played host to the top 150+ UK pro/sponsored skaters in the UK under one roof for the first time ever. Everyone who is anyone in UK skating was there and it was an amazing event proving that the time for an event of this level was long overdue.

Whilst the UK produces some of the top skaters in Europe we still lag behind most other countries in terms of high level events. For example Estonia hosts an international pro skate and BMX comp while we don’t! A large part of this is down to potential sponsors attitudes in this country – sorry to point the finger. In America, Australia and many other countries being a sponsored skateboarder is respected in the UK skateboarders still have the ASBO teen image wrongfuly portrayed by the media. I know thousands of skateboarders and not one has an ASBO. One of the many reasons I run events is that it is slowly helping to break this inaccurate stereotype.

Sidewalk Mag coverage, Mag ad/flyer, Vans ad, Mpora video edits: