Jasmine Gordan - frontside air.
Words: Neil Ellis
Photos: Garry Jones
The last month has seen the return of the SkateboardGB National Championships, with the first stop taking place at The XC in Hemel Hempstead for the Skateboard Park competition. The bowl, which was built back in 2011, is one of only three indoor concrete bowls in the whole of the U.K., and has been the venue for many of competition back in its infancy.
Once again, the finals was to be broadcast live on the BBC iPlayer, Red Button and BBC Website, the only British skateboard event to hold this accolade, but with a crowd of around 200 people and multiple cameras lined around the bowl, it felt pretty exciting to say the least.
Katie Pike - invert.
In slight tweak in schedule the men were up first in the final and it was a real mix bag of amazing skating. The top three places were fought out to the very-end, with very little in-between for Sam Beckett, George O’Neill and Tay Cunningham. Sam’s powerhouse run was nothing short of spectacular; boosting big airs, long smith grinds and the best nosepick of the competition on the extension. At 13 years of age, George O’Neill is already a competition veteran, possibly due to his insane consistency landing 540s time-after-time and pulling through mind-boggling runs. However, he was pipped to the post this year, by another young gun, Tay Cunningham, who put down the biggest kickflip of the competition over the big hip and followed up with a backside 540 and a sterling blunt on the extension.
Tay Cunningham - stalefish.
The female final didn’t disappoint either, and it is the young skaters who are now taking the podium places, with a combined age of 34 taking the top three spots. Miriam Nelson generally known for her transitions skills, last year ditched the park competition in favour of skating the street event (which she then went on to win). But this year she’ll compete in both, and her skating last weekend showed that she is a force to be reckoned with, pulling off long backside grinds and finishing with a bigspin backside disaster. Katie Pike is a name which is recognised more on the circuit, and she pulled off frontside airs over every hip in the bowl and solid hand plants to take the second place spot. But there was only one winner of the competition and this went to Lilly Strachan, straight off the back of her podium place at Vert Attack last month, she skated with consistent style and power, finishing with the only kickflip over the hip in the female category
Marc Churchill as ever kept the energy and tempo high on the mic, while Lucy Adams and James Threlfall provided superb commentary, leading to an altogether awesome event.
WINNERS - MALE:
Tay Cunningham
George O’Neill
Sam Beckett
Louis Newman
Jack Wallbridge
Kayo Martin
Rio Obyrne
Alex Griffiths
WINNERS - FEMALE
Lilly Strachan
Katie Pike
Miriam Nelson
Caitlin Cox
Olive Newman
Molly Seed
Ruby Dolan
Jasmine Gordan
The second stop was in London the following week for the Street competition at BaySixty6 Skatepark, which sold-out in under two weeks of being announced!
Joe Hinson - frontside blunt.
STREET MALE WINNERS
Joe Hinson
Etienne Turnbull
Alex Decunha
Karim Keita
Diggs English
Harry While
Rio O'Byrne
Lewis Blower
STREET FEMALE WINNERS
Miriam Nelson
Ayva-Mae Whittenbury
Ilka Rogers
Lona Gordon
Daisy Buchanan
Miriam Corlett
Carys Connolly
Matilda Thomas