Articles
by Pat McGucken
18 / 08 / 2008
Sometimes I wish wakeskating was bigger, like when I
need a new skate and there isn’t one available or when my shoes fall to
bits and I can’t find replacements in the UK or when most of the cable
parks in the country have rails that look like the Loch Ness monster
and give very little consideration to smaller more technical rails and
boxes that skaters can session, but it isn’t. Wakeskating is very
small, tiny even. Added to which all the skaters are in opposite
corners of the country so rarely meet up to show the strength of their
ever-increasing numbers. However there is an upside to the small
community, a shiny silver lining to our cloud - within 20 minutes of
having an idea like “mmm should we have a party?” you can have
contacted nearly the whole scene and found out that they are in the car
on their way to your house.
by Sim Bradley
13 / 08 / 2008
There is no easy way to break news like this, so I am just going to say
it. This week one of our greatest friends, Ian Beattie, passed away
unexpectedly after suffering from a heart attack. Ian was on holiday in
Cornwall with his family at the time, taking a rare break for such a
dedicated photographer.
by Sim Bradley
12 / 08 / 2008
The latest issue of Alliance hits the shelves today, and it is crammed
full of home-grown content. We start out with an interview with one of
the most under-rated and unknown riders to come from the UK, mainly as
he lives in Spain where it’s a little bit sunnier. Jamie Oliver tells
us more about himself, how he got into riding and what it’s like to be
a Brit abroad. We have the Coming Up Special in this issue where we
feature three guys who we predict will be big names next season. I
won’t spoil it for you now, you’ll have to pick up a copy to find out
who they are.
by Sim Bradley
09 / 08 / 2008
All good things must come to an end, and today marked
the finals of this year’s Vans Rococo Rail Tour. The day started out
with a lot of sore heads and unwillingness to get out of bed, something
that wasn’t helped by the continuous rain that had been going all
night. I arrived at the backstage car park at midday and spent 10
minutes sliding around the muddy field and down a hill trying to park
my car knowing that trying to get out later on would be a nightmare.
After eventually parking, it was over to the Vans tent to shelter from
the rain and watch as literally tens of people came through the gate
onto the festival site. The first band onstage came out and shouted
‘Hello Newquay’ to the four onlookers of which one lonesome guy
screamed back. It wasn’t a promising outlook for the day.
by Sim Bradley
08 / 08 / 2008
Continuing the second year of the Rococo Rail Tour, a bunch of
wakeboarders have once again descended on the not so quaint seaside
town of Newquay, for the third stop and to decide the overall tour
winner. The thing with doing rail jams like this is it’s difficult to
keep things different, and this years trip to the south west has
definitely had a feeling of déjà vu. I rolled into town early yesterday
morning and headed to the site where I was greeted by the same security
guard as last year, wearing the same cowboy hat and oakley’s, there’s
the same food stands and bars, the MotoX and mountain bike guys are
next door, the music acts playing Boardmasters were reminiscent of a
certain welsh festival not so long ago and there are Vans beachballs
all over the place. That said, the only thing that does seem to be
different is the two rails for the pool gap.
by Tim Woodhead
07 / 08 / 2008
Well my friends it’s the end of the day on Thursday and as I
write this we have moved out of our crazily poor, nasty, cheap hotel and moved
into a posh 4 star beauty, complete with swimming pool, bar, breakfast options,
nice comfy beds, carpet, toilet roll, kettle and proof that you get what you
pay for in life! We are here for the weekend then its back to the sh*t hole
for the pool gap take down. We are about to take an adventure to the SUSO party
in town and meet up with Matty C and a few others so it could turn messy. The
office staff have arrived (hence the posh hotel), the pool gap is 98% complete
and the water level has eliminated the little question mark that was floating
around my head.
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