The hero of the weekend himself
Saturday was given over to the dual slalom competition, DH freeride and various workshops for people new to DH and for completely new skaters. Grant Du Plessis returned to Hog Hill and ran a workshop for DH inline and it was really fantastic to see everyone skating the hill and having a great time…no politics here! The girls workshop I ran went really well with 7/8 girls showing up and wanting to skate, due to various skill levels we split the group by ability and Mary "The Destroyer" Crossland took charge of those wanting to skate the main hill and I took our new skater girls, Shana and Lotta, under my wing and taught them the basics. It was great fun watching them both take things on board and to see them visibly improve over the course of the day.
Eventually though they were both feeling confident enough to practice on there own and I headed off to the main hill to ride some gravity. I have to admit to some slight trepidation on my first run, I did fall off a number of times in the august event in my quest to defeat the chicken (or chicane if you're not Kami) and I had new wheels with some rather quick bearings in them. I had nothing to worry about as I breezed through the chicane without any trouble and a huge grin on my face. I then proceeded to run back up the hill so I could do an even faster run down. Eventually as the shadows lengthened the first day of skating drew to a close and various weary skaters either headed back to beds in London or to the campsite where by all accounts much alcohol was drunk and the bench spinning competition was in full flow (I had a nice comfy bed to sleep on at Shana's and managed to avoid the October chill and the horror of refrigerated tents on the Sunday morning).
Lotta practicing her carving on the mini moto hill
Eventually though they were both feeling confident enough to practice on there own and I headed off to the main hill to ride some gravity. I have to admit to some slight trepidation on my first run, I did fall off a number of times in the august event in my quest to defeat the chicken (or chicane if you're not Kami) and I had new wheels with some rather quick bearings in them. I had nothing to worry about as I breezed through the chicane without any trouble and a huge grin on my face. I then proceeded to run back up the hill so I could do an even faster run down. Eventually as the shadows lengthened the first day of skating drew to a close and various weary skaters either headed back to beds in London or to the campsite where by all accounts much alcohol was drunk and the bench spinning competition was in full flow (I had a nice comfy bed to sleep on at Shana's and managed to avoid the October chill and the horror of refrigerated tents on the Sunday morning).
Skaters on the main Hill
The view across London saturday evening.
Sunday dawned clear and bright, and we set off via Costa for the epic tube journey to Fairlop station. Unfortunately the coffee had an unfortunate effect on me and I had to dive off the tube at one point to find a toilet. Damn you Caffeine!!!! Eventually we arrived at Hog Hill via a taxi ride with the eventual winner of the open DH race (his brother took second place as well…I think we must have been a charm as we shared a lift with the eventual 1st and 2nd place skaters in the DH inline race!). Sunday was mainly given over to racing, the slalomers doing giant slalom on the back hill, the mini-moto challenge and the DH races, which due to the huge number of skaters included a women's race and a groms race. I think the open race had 7/8 races per qualifying heat with 5 racers per race! While the GS was running and the chicane was closed the mini moto challenge was run. Sign up was huge, I even raced my first heat in a corset! Things were going well until an unfortunate accident which resulted in a broken ankle put and end to things, but despite that much fun was had with people having sword fights on the way down the course! Best wishes to Wil and I hope the ankle heals quickly.
Due to Wil's tumble, people went back to freeriding while waiting for the DH races to start, unfortunately the chicane was closed due to the GS being on, but as soon as that was finished the open heats kicked off and despite there initially being four girls signed up to race, the men dominated (it's the pie advantage). Racing was tight and furious, unless you were up against one of the Fourie brothers in your heat, then all you could do was watch while they disappeared into the distance. In my first heat I had a near miss with Mary The Destroyer, when we both did the classic English thing and both left each other room to take the tighter inside line, unfortunately Mary was kicked off her board and ended up taking Jess (who was competing in her first ever DH race) out. Unfortunately Jess was left a bit rattled from the crash and decided to sit the rest out, but still huge respect for taking part in the first place. After the first lot of open heats we had the groms race, then the inliners and finally onto the womens race. My first heat was with Kim and Mary, we were all stoked and pushed off hard, I've seen a photo of us coming into the chicane and you can see how close together we were. With our lighter weights, Kim and I were quicker through the chicane, but Mary had the momentum advantage and took a well deserved first place! The finish was literally fingertip close!
Round two of heats started with the open again being dominated by the men in general and the Fourie brothers in particular…I managed a lucky second in my heat after having the racer ahead of me crash out. The second round of womens heats kicked off and I found myself pitted against Mary again. We both wanted the win and pushed off hard. Mary passed me just after the first corner but was kicked off her board in the chicane and in trying to avoid her I came off too. After a frantic scrabble to get back on our boards Mary managed to pass me, but we were both passed by Nadia, who was taking things slowly as she was competing in her first ever DH race! After the next group of girls came down, there was a group hug of massively stoked girls all with huge grins on their faces!
Obviously there was more racing to be done in the open competition and I did race in another heat, but all I really cared about was the womens final. Even though I didn't makeinto the final it was amazing to watch Fiona power down the hill after Kim and Mary, she hadn't done any DH before this weekend and the bug has now bitten hard. Even Nadia, who was taking things at her own pace has the hunger for DH now. There had been much speculation at the top of the hill as to who would win, but Kim's experience and her phenomenal push start saw her take first place, with Mary second and Fiona taking third. There were finals for the other categories of races but I was really just stoked to see more girls getting bitten by the DH bug…two of them live fairly close to me and we want to go skate a nice little hill I found.
After the racing finished things started to wind up and it was time for prize giving, unfortunately uber organiser Timmy had high sided his board during a heat and was suffering from concussion and looking rather dazed and nauseous, so prize giving was handle by Dan and Jon from XSS. After much clapping and photos and Bruno collecting three seperate prize mugs, everyone started packing up and heading back home to various parts of the country.
There has been a lot said this summer about the politics in the Euro scene and that 2011 was the day the down hill familly died There have even been mutterings about politics in the UK scene, but this weekend all I saw was skaters of many different disciplines coming together at Hog Hill for the last big event of the season and everyone was loving it. It was also great to see how much the scene has progressed in the last year and it was amazing to infect a few more girls with the DH bug.
I'll see you on a hill somewhere soon!
Thanks to Shana Synne for the use of her photos :D
Mini-Moto heat
Due to Wil's tumble, people went back to freeriding while waiting for the DH races to start, unfortunately the chicane was closed due to the GS being on, but as soon as that was finished the open heats kicked off and despite there initially being four girls signed up to race, the men dominated (it's the pie advantage). Racing was tight and furious, unless you were up against one of the Fourie brothers in your heat, then all you could do was watch while they disappeared into the distance. In my first heat I had a near miss with Mary The Destroyer, when we both did the classic English thing and both left each other room to take the tighter inside line, unfortunately Mary was kicked off her board and ended up taking Jess (who was competing in her first ever DH race) out. Unfortunately Jess was left a bit rattled from the crash and decided to sit the rest out, but still huge respect for taking part in the first place. After the first lot of open heats we had the groms race, then the inliners and finally onto the womens race. My first heat was with Kim and Mary, we were all stoked and pushed off hard, I've seen a photo of us coming into the chicane and you can see how close together we were. With our lighter weights, Kim and I were quicker through the chicane, but Mary had the momentum advantage and took a well deserved first place! The finish was literally fingertip close!
First heat in the womens DH
Mary "The Destroyer" Crossland just moments away from claiming her vist victim!
Round two of heats started with the open again being dominated by the men in general and the Fourie brothers in particular…I managed a lucky second in my heat after having the racer ahead of me crash out. The second round of womens heats kicked off and I found myself pitted against Mary again. We both wanted the win and pushed off hard. Mary passed me just after the first corner but was kicked off her board in the chicane and in trying to avoid her I came off too. After a frantic scrabble to get back on our boards Mary managed to pass me, but we were both passed by Nadia, who was taking things slowly as she was competing in her first ever DH race! After the next group of girls came down, there was a group hug of massively stoked girls all with huge grins on their faces!
Obviously there was more racing to be done in the open competition and I did race in another heat, but all I really cared about was the womens final. Even though I didn't makeinto the final it was amazing to watch Fiona power down the hill after Kim and Mary, she hadn't done any DH before this weekend and the bug has now bitten hard. Even Nadia, who was taking things at her own pace has the hunger for DH now. There had been much speculation at the top of the hill as to who would win, but Kim's experience and her phenomenal push start saw her take first place, with Mary second and Fiona taking third. There were finals for the other categories of races but I was really just stoked to see more girls getting bitten by the DH bug…two of them live fairly close to me and we want to go skate a nice little hill I found.
The grins say all you need!
After the racing finished things started to wind up and it was time for prize giving, unfortunately uber organiser Timmy had high sided his board during a heat and was suffering from concussion and looking rather dazed and nauseous, so prize giving was handle by Dan and Jon from XSS. After much clapping and photos and Bruno collecting three seperate prize mugs, everyone started packing up and heading back home to various parts of the country.
There has been a lot said this summer about the politics in the Euro scene and that 2011 was the day the down hill familly died There have even been mutterings about politics in the UK scene, but this weekend all I saw was skaters of many different disciplines coming together at Hog Hill for the last big event of the season and everyone was loving it. It was also great to see how much the scene has progressed in the last year and it was amazing to infect a few more girls with the DH bug.
I'll see you on a hill somewhere soon!
Thanks to Shana Synne for the use of her photos :D
