Skateboard Scotland once again organised a mission down to the War of the Roses this year. It was only meant to be one minibus but ended up being two. Big props out to the commander for voluntering to drive the second bus. Good man.
Anyway, even though I managed to leave my house half an hour later than I intended to we still managed to rock up bang on time at Focus at 9.00 on the dot. The next most amazing thing that happened was that everyone that was meant to be coming down was actually at the shop and ready to go (this never happens). As usual we managed to be overbooked by one and this year Matty Fenton picked up the number 18 seat on the second 17 seater, aka the floor. He was happy enough though, which is more than I could say for Greame who had got up early to come and open the shop up for us and rocked up just as we drove off (sorry Graeme!!).
We were heading for Leeds this year instead of the Burnley mission that we had over the last couple of years. I had the sat nav, Paul Silvester (ex Leeds local) so there was no chance of getting lost! Anyway according to Paul ‘eveything had changed’ and ‘we came in from a different side to the one that he was used to’ or some other rubbish. Anyway despite the failing sat nav the Menzies Bus still managed to beat Commander’s by a guid half hour. Think that was because there was less beer on my bus.
Leeds was a lot busier than it had been the last few years. Not sure whether that was due to more folk turning up for the event or if it was because park is just smaller now after they built a climbing frame/wall. We were all a bit gutted to see the loss of the wee mini ramp section at the back. The skating was going off as usual. Kerr was repping Scotland well in the newly kitted out miniramp area and won himself a board and such. The Scottish contingent was most at home in the pool session with Stu and Benson destroying it. Unfortunately Colin knackered his foot well and truely in the pool before the cash started to get handed out.
After the 1st day’s activities had finished up we headed off to try and find the travel lodge. Sat Nav had left so we were on our own with a google map. So obviously we got lost straight away. Fortunately we bumped into the local friendly drug dealer at the garage who after offering us his wares (which we politely declined), offered to show us the way to the travel lodge.
Issue resolved and I had even managed to book into the same travel lodge as the Welsh Killcity boys. Destination Carnage assured. Going out on the town with quite a few skaters is usually a good laugh anyway. And when one is Raberdeen and another one Porno Paul you know that it is going to be a funny night. We decided to go to the worst pub in Leeds (I hope that it was anyway). Cheesey music and dodgy birds everywhere. Dickson almost managed to pull a girl with her own postcode and Porno’s erotic dancing was out of this world. I just about cried my contact lenses out on a number of occasions.
Fortunately we managd to survive the night and get some shut eye. Colin Adams had to be taken to A&E in the morning by Beki as his foot was still looking in a bad way. Meanwhile I kind of misjudged the number of folk that I said could meet me back at the travelodge the next day for the drive back to the park to meet up with the other bus and the rest of the guys.
The next part of the journey was quite amusing as 25 folk tried to fit into a 17 seater bus. Fortunately they fitted in and I had a seat. Only thing that I forgot, was all my bags at the side of the road as I drove off. Luckily I remembered these whilst only being a block away and they were still there when we got back.
Next stop Blackpool. After going around every roundabout twice on the way into the skatepark we settled down to an afternoon of skating and watching the event unfold. Check out the usual sidewlk footage for what went down for both days as Ryan always manages to catch the best bits. As usual the bowl/pool comp was the highlight of the event for me and Watching Stu chase Reamers around the bowl was sick. Finally Andy Scott showed Ben Reamers how to do a Kickflip mellie which was pretty funny as Reamers had quite a few attempts and Andy nailed it third try.
The Journey home was un-eventful and we succeeded in delivering the minibuses back with no issues apart from Kieran getting bog rolls chucked at him for skating outside the van hire shop at 1 in the morning.
Another Sick event passes. Big thanks go out to Skateboard Scotland for organising the mission down and the Focus for pulling together the cash from the various heads going down. Obviously props out to Powley/ben/Tez at the UKSA for organising WOTR again. And finally to Ali and John who did Sterling work driving down.
See you all at the Thistles.
Peace
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