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HIGH 5 TAMWORTH |
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 Posted by sneakerfreaker on Friday 30th September, 2011 @ 14:31 GMT |
News Category: UK Indoor | Visited 485 times |
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| Tamworth. Where the UK indoor scene was born so naturally a great place to begin this year’s Burton High 5 Tour. Some competitions don’t exceed the hype that comes before hand. This couldn’t be less true as the UK’s finest gathered at Tamworth with all new never ridden before features there was bound to be excitement and bangers! We couldn’t of even to begin or hope for the level of riding that was laid out on the slope of the Snowdome. It was immense! |
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With only 2 hours to prepare the park crew built one of the strongest flowing parks the UK has seen. With 3 great lines, a new feature in each and chance to mix up hits there was a huge hive of excitement from locals and visitors alike to get on the slope and ride the High 5 set up. The ‘Big Butters’ butter box was set up top left offset to the natural lay of the slope with the infamous gas pipe laid behind making a butter to gas pipe hit combo with a bite. Next to this sat pride of place the Burton bench with a second side hit box to attack its shot gun rail at all angles. Top right was a Transco pipe set-up that even Scott Stevens would have been proud off! In the middle sat the old Burton down flat down single bar, with the new 6 inch round bar and the mighty wedge, sat perfectly on Tamworth’s middle lip this proved a real launch ramp for some riders. The bottom section compromised of the old 7 meter Burton Rail and the new dual down flat down and an offset ribby. This simple layout created great flow making this a real slopestyle contest. Hitting top, middle and bottom section became a key factor when judging this catching a few big names out when qualifying. If you digged it, remember to vote for your favourite park on the 2nd of December at Gonzilla.tv.
With so many stand out moments, its hard to even scratch the surface of what went down when 83 registered freestyle crazed kids and adults where let loose to rip this sweet set-up, so crazed the rope tow over heated within 5 minutes, leaving the competitors to hike lines. You would of thought this would of maybe slowed up or down toned the level of riding, it in-fact did the opposite now more determined than ever to stomp that trick because in failure they would have to battle the hike up to try again, with out that adrenaline kick of yet another trick in the bag. Huge respect for every rider on the hill for doing so.
With that said Jon Weatherly owned the Wedge all evening, his sheer steeze made some insane tricks look effortless and went so big of the top easily catching 10ft of air before landing to a flat street style landing. Ross Needam’s gap backside 270 to the flat of the down flat down where delivered with sheer precision a trick tried by others costing one unlucky rider his board. Gazza Andrews then came out of nowhere to gap the same section with a hardway frontside 360 literally setting the place alight. Ollie Dutton and Will Smith set to on the old single bar kink, Dutton getting a solid front board through the kink and Will getting insanely tech with a back one switch 50-50 through the kink switch 360 out both cab and backside. The dedication to the middle feature unfortunately cost the two guys a place in the final’s but if this was a best trick contest these guys would have been right up there. Female riders Chloe Palmer, Orla Doon and Katie Blundell also showed a higher level of riding, Chloe using every angle of the wedge, Orla riding solid on every feature and Katie trying front blunts on the 6inch round bar fresh of a plane from Australia was awesome to see. With the judges looking for top to bottom runs and not rewarding repetition it was a serious battle for final spots. Variety paid off.
Those who made the finals where, Ross Needam, Gazza Andrews, Calum Paton, Conner Carey, Jon Weatherly, Matt Macwhitter, local rider Matty Jay, Andy Nudds, Cody Heroins who was just on fire all evening, as well as Sam Turnbull who had been riding Castleford all day. They had used all the features and got some amazing stuff stomped, others missed out by one or two points, easily there could have been easily a 15 men senior final. For the girls the top 5 where Katie Blundell, Chloe Palmer, Orla Doon, Isobel Jones and Becky Menday proving that she can not only win her own category but impressed the judges and rightly so that she deserved a place in the Senior final.
The men’s final was pushed late into the evening with two final hikes a few of the guys legs just couldn’t take the heat any more and gave out on some of the landings. Check out the edit to see these final runs. Natalie Silkstone took home best unsponsored female rider and Matty Jay took home best unsponsored, this guy worked ski hire all day, built the park, slogged it out with some of the uk’s best and was still there when the rails where being packed up for the next stop at 1.30am! Well deserved.
Burton High 5 2011: Tamworth from gonzilla.tv on Vimeo.
The next stop is Brahead on 1st October, which leaves us with a final thought…
This was just the beginning.
The Results
Girls Kids Junior Girls Female Senior
1st Becky Menday 1st Natalie Silkstone 1st Orla Doon
2nd Cerys Allun 2nd Chloe Izzard 2nd Becky Menday
3rd Skyla Bailey
Boys Kids Junior Boys Men’s Senior
1st Tomski Robinson 1st Josh Ogden 1st Gazza Andrews
2nd Jake Binnie 2nd Jake Perks 2nd Andy Nudds
3rd Leo Fordham 3rd Jake Terry 3rd Ross Needham |
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