MCR Street Jam 2014

MCR_Street_Jam_LogoIn planning the second of what could become the UK’s primary street skate event, local boy and international rollerblading legend Alex Burston could never have guessed it would be right in the middle of the hottest weather of the year. Which would have been perfect, were it not for the biggest summer thunderstorms the area has seen for a generation landing right at the same time.

Was it a washout though? Did the street skaters pack up and go home? Of course not. Everyone still came and converged on Castlefields Arena as you would expect and when there was a break in the rain long enough to clear some of the puddles, mayhem commenced. The MCR Street Jam was on for another year.

Filmed by Scott Hallows and Tim Darker for The Booted

I however set off late and having nearly been washed off the M6 on my journey North decided to play it safe and went straight to the “after session” organised at Bones Skatepark. Here I got my camera out and took a few shots of the very hot warm-down session that occurred.

Livi Skate Party 2014

It’s back. Having taken a break from the scene since 2007 the Infamous Livi Skate Party has returned. Though I can never imaging it returning to the parties of old, with drinking, camping, skating, barbecues, more drinking a bit of skating and a bit more drinking, it’s definitely back. A much more family friendly form has returned this year, including a full under 16 competition to not only win prizes on the day, but also to qualify for entry to the Slamm Jamm New Blood comp held at Rampworx later in the year.

From my first visit to Livi in 2005 I have always loved the atmosphere at this park. Since the event stopped a couple of years later through lack of support (though no lack of effort from organisers) the park has undergone a rather extensive and controversial expansion. This has however added more variety to the park and helped the event to be a little more rounded in the competition capacity. It has still however managed to retain the relaxed and fun attitude that makes it one of my favourite events in the UK calendar.

Anyway, what you came here for – the photos I got on the day. There’s not a massive number due to the 13 hours of driving needed to get there and back in a day, but you get the idea…

Rampworx Inline Only June 2014

Rampworx-LogoJust some photos I shot at the recent Inline Only session at Rampworx. They run regularly so you should get down to the next one if you can make the journey.

This time I was feeling particularly lazy so not only did I not skate (I skate there most weeks anyway) but I also only took photos of the main driveway section. I hope you enjoy the few shots I got anyway:

SummerClash 2014 Photos

Summerclash LogoSo, it was an adventure, that’s for sure. Driving a 1972 VW camper from the middle of the UK to Berlin for the weekend was always going to be eventful. It didn’t disappoint.

Due to a number of issues, I missed a lot of the event, turning up on the Saturday just as the girls final was starting on the spine. Grabbed the camera, no flashes, took some shots. I managed to cover a lot of the skating that day with limited resources, and returned later to get some pictures from the on-site afterparty. The photos will take a while to get in the gallery due to other adventuring. However, here’s what the event looked like to me.

Noiya Jam 2014 Photos

Noiya LogoSo, I finally got around to sorting through the photos from the Noiya Jam at The House Skatepark a few weeks back. I’m afraid I missed the Open comp almost entirely and arrived just in time for the Experts to start. As a result I don’t have too many shots. I hope you enjoy what I did manage to shoot though.


Continue reading Noiya Jam 2014 Photos

Noiya Jam 2014

20140510-195034.jpgHaving just witnessed the joy that is the Noiya Jam, one of the most friendly yet competitive events of the year, for the first time today, I have decided that I need to come back. Back next year for the 2015 jam. Back to skate and shoot some of the amazing street spots that Sheffield has around every corner and back to session this amazing box.
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Much thanks as always to Tim Darker and the Noiya team, as well as the great staff at The House skate park for putting on this event for us. May it return year on year, and having seen the reception from the skaters from all over the country, the desire for it at least seems assured.
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Now just watching the last of the skaters having a chill session before an evening out at DaDa to finish off the day. Back home tomorrow to work on the photos so keep an eye out for those.

Looking back a decade – Rampworx

Do you remember what you were doing ten years ago? Fortunately I’ve been carrying a camera most places since long before the #selfie became a thing so I can roll back the years quite easily. In this case, on the 8th of May 2004 I was skating Rampworx with a few friends and a camera. If you never saw the park back then, or if you did and feel like getting nostalgic check out the main room image below. The first panoramic stitch I ever did…

Rampworx 2004 Panorama

Also, keep an eye out as I’m uploading all of my old photos to the gallery so these should start appearing over the next few weeks. For now, see what other shots I got on that day:

One City One Shot Episode #7

Well we were back out in Manchester, hitting up a number of completely virgin spots as the weather has started to improve. These were spots that had never been skated before and it will be a while before they are skated like this again. Then at the end of the day, Kyle suggested we just check out a high, steep ledge that he’d seen in the area. And so was born this shot of Stephen Swain, Tru Mizou on this fresh, chest high beveled concrete ledge as the sun goes down over Eccles.

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And though it goes against the general ethos of OCOS, if you want to see the other shots we picked up during the day, there’s a small gallery of the day.

Skate Wallpaper – Stéphanie Richer

I thought it was about time I looked at part two of my wallpaper series and what better source than the shots I got at Winterclash? One of my favourite shots from the weekend has to be this Top Mistral from Bombasse Crew representative Stéphanie Richer. As is standard here, the image has been resized and cropped to be optimised on a 1920×1080 resolution screen but should work on any screen with a little tweaking.

Anyway, enjoy.

Stephanie Wallpaper