monday 12th june
The Reel Life streetboards film competition went off!
 The Flipside Team consisted of riders Paul Nash, Andy Garrett and Josh Newman with Adam Walder and me providing camerawork and editing work. It was a hard day - 10 hours non-stop riding and travelling, covering somewhere over 220 miles and collecting footage from London, Oxford, Milton Keynes and Corby.
Shall I tell you about the chicken hat? Losing all the riders across London? Nearly destroying Andys camera? The afterparty? Perhaps I'll just leave you with some images from the day...
Respect goes out to the French Team "Anti-Ductil" who won with a superb video - rider Vianney Merinville, Chris Bellet, Hadrien Raffaelli, with Theo & Francios editing - check the Reel Life videos.
 Been making the most of the fantastic weather to take the TVR Chimaera out and stretch its legs.
With a notoriously unruly nature in the wet - I have been glad of the long spells of good temperatures, driving the car regularly.
With the Boscombe Surf Reef imminent on Bournemouth's summer calender, the powers that be have stockpiled sand by Boscombe Pier, to be pumped into the geotextile sandbags shortly. It's HUGE - I reckon about 100ft high..!
So obviously we just had to to boarding.
Fellow rider Ross Elliott joined me in an evening of hiking and riding - short runs, picking up speed fairly quickly, with a hard hike back up. Wicked! Will try and get more footage soon...
Various images taken over the last couple of months, while we enjoyed the great weather:
 Flipside riders Paul Nash, Josh Newman and Day One's Colin Horan joined me for a day skating at the new park in Dorchester.
We turned up on a demo day with the sun shining; ripped up the park, threw down big tricks and got a load of footage.
We had an awesome day, got back so late that we wiped ourselves out - spent the next day recovering on the beach - and even Colin and I were too tired to skate the newly-discovered Asda block properly on the BandHoliday Monday. Gonna have to spend a day there soon...
 I joined a TVR show day over at Beaulieu - organised by the TVR Owners Club.
We got there early, and joined about 200 other TVRs right next to the Motor Museum - parked up in a special area so the public could walk around and check them out.
After inspecting the TVRs on show - there were some unbelieveable cars there - CJ and I spent a few hours looking in the Motor Museum and walking throught the fantastics grounds and gardens there. A great day out with superb weather :)
 Lastly, I have been working on CJ's longboard, doing a 2 colour flame design which CJ wanted - using purple and leopard print. Looking really good, it'll almost be a shame to actually use it...
Well - s'pose you can't frame it...
My birthday on the 23rd... Lets see what dumb-ass shit I can get up to...
monday 27th april
 Bransgore skatepark is just what the doctor ordered - the perfect park for streetboard big air.
An outdoor park boasting the best launch ramp for 40 miles, complete with a beautiful roll-in, perfectly angled for fast run-ins.
Bransgore is a rural location between Christchurch and Ringwood, only a couple of miles outside Bournemouth, but with no bus route = no kids!
 Bring on the hot weather - this is the perfect practise location to push the big air moves in time for summer streetboarding comps..!
I have spent the last 2 months riding with the Flipside crew, scoping out parks and filming locations, learning new moves and preparing for upcoming competitions.
Which brings us to Day One Streetboarding's "Reel Life" competition...
 8 teams of 3 riders, given 24 hours in London; to skate, film and edit a streetboard video - the winning video judged not only on the standard riding, but also on the quality and creativity of production. Based on a snowboarding contest format - this is going to be the most unique streetboard competition of 2009...
 On a more personal note, I picked up a car I have had my eye on for quite some time.
I had to wait for the opportunity to purchase it, but it has been worth the wait to pick up an outstanding example with a superb history, and a fastidious previous owner.
Presenting my 1998 Starmist Blue 4.5l TVR Chimaera...
Gonna need to get some proper driving tuition to make sure it doesn't spit me out into a hedge...
 Finally, we said goodbye to my good friend Roger Donald - my manager when I worked at Standard Life in 2007.
Roger has found employment as the Digital Manager at NHS Direct, who will no doubt benefit greatly from his skills.
We wish him the best, and will see him back here soon for beach fun!
Next week - Reel Life streetboard comp!
monday 9th march
 Following the wallriding antics of January - what a great surprise to have some actual, real snow fall in February..!
Made full use of this one-a-decade event with some snowboard action - some more successful than others!
I had hoped to get some extra snow from the BIC - but kept being let down, and in the end, the snow was removed before we could get to it. Bummed - had some serious plans to upscale our game. Next lot in September - be there or be square...
 Matt Griffiths and I drove out into Dorset, having heard that there were epic drifts out towards Yeovil and Exeter.
We found deep snow in Shaftsbury - so we climbed the biggest hill we could find and built a kicker over a ditch. Heaven!
Spent a couple of hours hitting the kicker, over a Shaftesbury backdrop - before leaving in a (fruiless) search for more wallriding spots...
Needles to say - the snow didn't last long, and we were soon back to usual February temperatures. We have actually had some early spring weather, meaning more outside action than normal for this time of year...
Met up with streetboard posse members Colin Horan, Paul Nash, Josh Newman and Adam Walder in Oxford and everyone was throwing down some tech tricks - got some good footage down and everyone enjoyed a long-overdue skate outside on a sunny day. Mint. More like that please...
In an unprecedented move, Matt and I went over to Baiter Park in Poole, and rigged up his foil for some kiting practise. The wind has some serious power behind it, akin to the wave-power you can experience surfing.
While it was quite easy to get the basic principle of, the sheer power meant that it was wuite difficult to control - and more than once I was pulled off my feet, running for my life to stop being dragged across the park on my face..!
And there's a new skatepark in Bransgore near Bournemouth - so more skate action coming soon..!
friday 31st january
A very happy new year to everybody!
Apologies for the gap in publishing this article - I have had no internet for 2 months, boo hiss...
 Beginning of 2009, fellow Flipside riders Paul Nash and Josh Newman joined me for a streetboarding trip up to Corby Skatepark, to get back onto the rails and use the resi-ramp launch box... We had a great day - I worked on my misty flips, Josh rode the 20ft handrail and Paul set the mini on fire with his crook grinds...
I'm gutted that the weather prevents us from getting outside and streetboarding at the moment - as every time I do, its great to be back "on board". Oh, its good to be back in the UK ;o)
So I thought it was time to hit up some street jibs in Bournemouth again, so I grabbed some mates and built a wallride under the Wessex Way.
Rosco, Sonia Shaw, Colin Horan, Paul Nash, Jez and Dan helped me shovel 6 truckloads of snow from the BIC, and we spent about 6 hours building a run-in, kicker and landing patch - then spent about 3 hours wallriding until the police came...
Funnily enough they looked at it, told us that we weren't strictly allowed to do this etc - but carry on for another half hour, and then make sure you clear the footpath of snow..! Sound...
I have been looking out for more snow, but unfortunately the BIC has not managed to stockpile any more... With the change in the weather and the recent snows, we should be able to build some more jibs - watch this space!
So I'll leave you with the wintery snows until next time..!
wednesday 31st december
The most important event on the UK streetboarding calender, the UK streetboard championships, have come and gone - and it was not good news for Flipside this year....
The location for the contest was named as Revolution skatepark - in Broadstairs, Kent, of all places - so Paul, Colin (Horan, of Day One Streetboarding) and I decided to go up to Revolution - get some practise in and check out the lie of the land before the comp.
 On arrival I was slightly disheartened to find that the launch ramp was small, as I was hoping to bust out some big tricks from it...
A few large 360s and 540s later, my board was offered at the sacrificial alter - if the bar hadn't broke, it would have been my leg :oO
Moving back to my trusty backup unbreakable "Magnum" bar I carried on for the day, determined that the big quarter-to-flat could be used to boost some big hangtime - and was probably a better choice than the launchbox...
 There was an unusual super-tight quarter that I used to set-up some old-skool handplants - while Paul was wallriding it.
Colin was FS and BS boardsliding the driveway kink and a superstylish 5-0 up the loooong kink rail - tricks were set...
We left Revolution unsure that it was the best choice of venue - but at least each prepared to pull something out the bag come competition day.
Adam and I spent the next 2 weeks putting in vast amounts of effort behind the scenes at Flipside to ensure that our streetboard team were going to represent with every aid possible - and were looking forward to the big day...
We set out early on the Saturday morning, to find the weather the worst I have seen it in quite some time - the rain was torrential, with floodwater everywhere, and showing no signs of abaiting.
We got as far as Basingstoke before my car died.
2.5 hours later, having tried everything the AA man eventually got it going - the HT leads were totally shot, and the rain meant they were shorting out, so they had to be replaced. By the time we were ready, we were far too late and far too far away to even contemplate making it (although I did, many times). To say we were both gutted is the understatement of 2008...
Suffice to say that Flipside team riders Andy Garrett and Paul Nash did well - you can check the UK streetboard championship results here - thats all I 'm gonna say about that :(
So heres looking forward to a better and more successful year in 2009 - I for one am going to be skating at every opportunity, and am going to devote all my time to going bigger and further than we ever have before - both in terms of streetboarding performance and the projects Flipside undertake...
So heres to you guys - happy new year, and see you in 2009!
newsflash!
The contact dom! button (under menu) is finally working again!
Hurrah! At last! ;o)
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