Skateboard Scotland agreed to take the top 3 winners from the Scottish Mini Ramp champs for a weekends camping in Joss Bay near Broadstairs so that they could attend the UK Mini Ramp Championships and represent Scotland. As we reported the other week the winners from the Scottish event were Chris Baillie, Needle (Neil Kellas) and Aaron Wilmot/Saul Crumlish. Unfortunately Chris and Saul could not make the trip so Ali signed up current London resident Kieran Menzies to step into the fold. Due to Aaron’s work commitments the wagon could not leave from Glasgow until midday on the Friday. Unusually for a skate trip we did leave bang on time but were then flummoxed by the M6 being fully closed both ways due to a couple of over turned lorries. Not ideal for what was already meant to be a 9 hour drive if we hit no traffic. After an almost 3 hour traffic jam through the countryside between one junction and the next we were back on track and heading towards London to pick up Kieran. We eventually arrived at the Wheel and Fins festival just before midnight and proceeded to try and set up ‘The Palace’ two bedroom tent that would be our home for the weekend. The “Athletes” camping area was as fun as it always is at any “Extreme” festival and we all enjoyed catching up with old friends and meeting some new ones too.

By some miracle the weather over the second weekend in September ended up being completely opposite to the forecast and we pretty much had sunshine for the whole weekend. This was exactly what was required when you are camping and meant to be competing in an outdoor skate competition. Nic Powley from Skate Pharmacy was in charge of the event and Marc Churchill and Ben Powell were on the MC duties for the weekend. Judges for the event were Ali Menzies and Dan Cates and it all kicked off at about 1pm on the Saturday afternoon. There were five 5 man heats for the qualifiers and the crowd were provided with some very high quality skateboarding to watch. Kieran managed to qualify in fifth place while Aaron and Needle just missed the cut placing in 11th and 13th respectively. Watching Jordan Thackeray, Alex Halford and Jordan Sharky (2 current and 1 past WOTT sword winners!!) destroy the ramp was certainly worth the 13 hour drive that I made from Edinburgh. The Saturday finished off with the Nixon Best trick comp for a fancy new watch. Jordan Sharky stepped up to the plate and managed to make a blunt triple flip out look good to earn himself a very bling watch!

Thankfully the small Wheel and Fins festival finished up at 11pm each night so no one felt the urge to stay up too late and feel worse for wear the next day. The Sunday weather started off good but certainly looked like it was going to change. The plan was for 2 semi-finals and then a final if the rain stayed off. As expected Alex Halford and Jordan Thackeray both placed in the top 3. Trying to judge their semi-final heat which also included Trevor Johnson, Sam Pulley and Kieran Menzies was a complete nightmare as they just kept making tricks and could quite happily skate the ramp 2 or 3 at a time. That didn’t help Kieran much either has he was trying to fit in a line or two across the whole ramp. Their semi-final came to an abrupt finish with a crunching/bouncing slam from Jordan T. Unfortunate but he still managed to place in second place! The semi-finals ended up being the marker for the final results due to a badly timed rain deluge so we didn’t get to watch a final and had to make do with watching the soap box racing instead. Thankfully the “The Palace” had been safely and dryly packed away in the car before the rain. So team Scotland managed to start their mission back up the road before it go too late in the day. Fortunately the drive home was a lot less eventful then the way down, apart from needing a push start out of the camp site and an evil speed camera, everyone was home and in bed by 2.30am the following day. Just in time for work the next morning!

Final results were:

1st Alex Halford – £1000
2nd Jordan Thackeray – £700
3rd Trevor Johnson – £300
4th Sam Pulley
5th Carl Wilson
6th Jordan Sharkey
7th Ryan Hurt
8th Dave Morgan
9th Kieran Menzies
10th Chester Pegg

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