Words and Photos – Jenna Selby

Results are in from the UK Skate Championships! With title sponsors Vans put up prize money for the top 5 in the women’s category – 1st – £400, 2nd – £250, 3rd – £150, 4th – £50 and 5th £20 it was set to be a banger!

Taking place at the newly built XC centre in Hemel Hempstead the comp (which had been doubled up as the second leg of the Ladies Skateboard Series), was split into qualifiers with the top 5 overall riders through to the final. Qualifiers lasted a duration of 7 minutes per group whilst the final was 10 minutes. The heats saw a lot of good riding with Fran Stroud throwing down some huge flips over the hip and Caitlin Robinson Mawhood a transfer from a flat bank to quarter. It is also good to see Sam Bruce showing her face on the comp circuit again more recently. Her solid style is always a pleasure to watch and the one-foot manual pretty much covering the entire length of the park didn’t disappoint!

The five who qualified were Lucy Adams, Helena Long, Emma Richardson, Lois Pendlebury and Stef Nurding. First place went to Lucy, who kicked off her run with an obligatory flip to fakie – on landing it though she almost looked like she was going to burst out laughing (there used to be a joke that the only trick a female skater to do was flip to fakie…) She also just about nailed a Sal flip on the jump box on the last attempt, landed a noseslide on the block and a backside flip up the gap. Helena was on top form. Her trade mark star drop-in opened her run followed by a nollie heel flip sex change on the bank, a nollie heel and tre over the hip and a big flip on the bank.

The night before the Comp, there had been a late lock-in for some of the ladies at nearby Pioneer Skate Park – ending at some unearthly hour Sunday morning. Whilst everyone else returned to a nice warm bed, Emma had then camped with her friends in a tent in the freezing cold adjacent park…grim! How she actually managed to set foot on her board the next day, let alone make it to the finals is somewhat of a mystery! However she proved she could still shred in style on minimal sleep landing amongst others 180 up the gap, nollie lip on the rail and an alleyoop bs flip. Lois again produced her transfer to boardslide and tailslide and also a clean flip up the gap whilst Stef Nurding who also turned in a good run landed a front rock, blunt to 5.0 and a backside flip on the quarter.

Last stop for the Ladies Skateboard Series is Aberdeen’s Transition Extreme on Saturday 19th November – see you there!

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RESULTS:

1^st Lucy Adams

2^nd Helena Long

3^rd Lois Pendlebury

4^th Emma Richardson

5^th Stef Nurding