Articles
by Matt Crowhurst
14 / 06 / 2010
On the 12th June the very first Relentless Wakestock
Qualifying event took place at JBSki in Surrey, in association with LDB
Wakeschool, Malibu Boats and Mystic Boarding. Riders from across the UK
and Republic of Ireland descended on this world famous wakeboarding
venue to fight it out for the remaining spaces set aside for the first
day of boarding action at this year’s Relentless Wakestock in just under
three weeks time.
Six spaces for the guys and 3 spaces for the girls were up for grabs. It
is a true testament to the growth and attraction of Wakestock in the
wakeboarding world over the past decade. Not just from becoming a WWA
World Series event, and from having more riders than can fit into the
main 3 day event, but also for the insane level of riding required just
to get a foot in the door.
by Sim Bradley
04 / 06 / 2010
Last Tuesday I met up with some members of the Liquid
Force and O'Brien UK wake teams to shoot for their upcoming adverts to
feature in Alliance. We convened at Princes Club in Ashford as I was
still onsite taking down from ThinkTank, but unfortunately the weather
wasn't the best. In actual fact it was horrible, with rain and very dark
skies making it a challenge to photograph, but I do like a challenge!
So after setting up some lights and dressing up in my waterproofs I was
joined on Cable 1 by Conner Jones and Matty Crowhurst from O'Brien, and
Ollie Moore, Zander Jones and Charlotte Bryant from Liquid Force to get
some snaps.
Even in the bad light, it's always good shooting with riders from Ultra
Sport, they are an incredibly professional team and understand the work
that goes into a photo shoot. I had them in waiting around shivering in
cold wetsuits for a couple hours while I moved around the cable setting
up in different locations and not one of them complained or moaned about
a thing.
by Sim Bradley
31 / 05 / 2010
Day 2 of the wakeskate circus was even better, with
sunshine throughout and the bar being raised again and again. There was a
pretty strong headwind that made some tricks down the gap hard as
skates we're blowing away, but on the rails it was going off. After
getting over the fear or high, long ledges and concrete steps on the
first day, the guys all new what they wanted to do and set about doing
it.
Once again we're gonna keep the finer details secret until the 10-page
feature comes out at the end of June in issue 2010.3, but if you want to
see the hammers that will most definitely be thrown today in the final
jam sessions and who will walk away with sponsorship from Kustom Shoes
for being the best overall rider, then come over to Princes Club in
Middlesex today, it kicks off at 11am and goes through until 5pm. We
have a load of free goodies from Relentless and O'Neill, and you can
check out the brand new 2010 wakeskates from Goodwood too, including the
new all-wood Deliquesce pro model from Dieter Humpsch. Whatever you're
into, it's worth coming down.
by Sim Bradley
29 / 05 / 2010
Today marked the start of the 2010 event at the new venue
of Princes Club, and although we had some setbacks with the
construction and some completely random and unpredictable problems such
as having to build a double wide fence to stop horses running into the
System 2.0 tower, things got underway with one hell of a bang. One of
the reason's ThinkTank is a 3-day jam is to give the riders the first
day to warm up and get to grips with the obstacles, but today the place
was slayed. Never before have so many banger's been stuck in the first
few hours, backside nose grinds, shuv's out the pool, locked noseslides,
bigspins onto rails, people we're sticking tricks in a few attempts
that they didn't land last year after trying all weekend. Our plan of
pushing the rate of progression is definitely working.
by Sim Bradley
26 / 05 / 2010
It's been a heavy few days this week, but things are
really coming together for this year's ThinkTank.
The new location of Princes Club in Middlesex has allowed us to really
expand on the setup, most notably on the pool and stair set. We have
taken over a previously unused island and transformed it into a great
pool setup. for the last two weeks, digger-driver Joe has been hard at
work clearing a huge area of overgrown land and digging down 20 feet in
some places to make the home for ThinkTank.
Once Joe had done his stuff, we moved in on Monday morning to put some
legitimate concrete steps into the bank, something we're stoked about as
they look amazing. Myself, Ben Hannam and our intern for the week, Toby
Oliver, got the steps finished and some other groundworks done in
scorching heat then headed home for some pizza and aftersun application.
by Sim Bradley
20 / 05 / 2010
This week we were invited to FlowHouse in Bedford to
be some of the first people in the country to try out their new
FlowRider standing wave ahead of the opening next weekend. So to make a
day of it i assembled Dec Clifford, Matt Crowhurst, Taylor Dell, 'Solid'
Jim Sedgwick and Will Manns for a nice day out in Bedfordshire.
We met at FlowHouse in the afternoon for an exclusive session and
photoshoot on the FlowRider, and while Matty and Solid had been on it
before, the rest of us were complete beginners and ready to get worked
by the powering jets of water just begging to send us face-first into
the mat. This thing was so much fun I can't begin to sum it up, there
will be a full article in Alliance 2010.3 with all the details on just
how badly or well we did on the FlowRider.
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