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Big Air Boarding in Brighton For the first time ever, the UK’s funkiest extreme sports & music festival moved sticks from The Isle of White to the mainland. What were we to expect in it’s new location, Brighton: bigger, better, brighter? Yes! the cool, bustling seaside town proved to be a great host to what was indeed a great weekend of crossover antics. The event, now in it’s 12th year has gone from strength to strength and the brilliant location right on Brighton beach held demos from over 40 ‘alternative’ sports and more, like World High Diving displays from a 30m tower into a 3m pool, Windsurfing, Thundercats, Jet Skis, Martial Arts, Scuba Diving, as well as Graf Jams, breakdancing and the music stage itself with event headliners Biffy Clyro, The Cribs and Doves. At White Air’s core is an ‘Urban Freesports Park’ with a huge roll-in tower, some pretty huge ramps (painted bright blue) and a quarter to finish, where more than ten sports were showcased including Skate, BMX, Inline, Parkour, Streetboard, Mountainbike and, of course, Mountainboarding… On Friday 18th September, the red arrows kicked off proceedings and the 3 day- 2 night festival had begun. After entering, walking along the promenade proved to be pretty eye-opening with stuff to see literally everywhere. Trade stands peddling all manner of sports related gear, try-out areas, brush-boarding (?!), parkour, climbing, a massive EA truck converted for the gaming enthusiasts, a load of Army bods, and foxy birds giving out Voltz energy drink & masses of randoms to all and sundry. There was of course the obligatory ATBA tent too, and a Ride-the-Hill try-out area on the back of the freesports park which saw people padding up, rolling down a mellow 20ft scaffold ramp, and mostly falling over, but having fun doing it. The action spilled out onto the beach itself, which was peppered with marquees showcasing the water-based sports: windsurf demos, water-skiing over the water-ramp, jetski’s, kitesurfing, and other wetsuit-based stuff. Mountainboard-wise, late friday afternoon saw a freestyle jam whereby the riders (a collection of some of the UK’s most kick-ass air monkeys) got to have some fun and do qualifying for Saturday’s ‘ATBA International freestyle Jam comp’. The boys took the chance to get the drop-in dialled and work up their tricks over the main table and quarter. As they jammed, a graf knock-out comp was also in progress- ‘Secret Wars’, which involved artists competing against each other with only one hour to doodle their craziest shiz in black pen/paint on white. It was pretty cool, except one guy who was majorly shit. The boarding amped up a gear and the growing crowds showed that peeps were starting to be wowed by the crazy wheelie-board antics of Gary Crowhurst, Ollie Morrison, Ben Tweedie, Ben Rye, Myles Hillier and more. As soon as the backflips started the crowds really grew and the qualifying began in earnest. Egged on by the mic skills of Andy Potter followed by the quality pairing of Rhys Crilley with Ryan Slater, the tricks got bigger and more tech. Gather round, gather round! Sam Nicholas and Jamie Johnson laid out some sweet flips, Swiss rider Marco Dahler and Renny Myles rotating good n proper, Tom Kirkman flowing like an ATB ninja and Josh Maddox enjoying the extra cheers from the crowd due to it being his birthday :) Of course there were a few mishaps (most of these riders ain’t used to riding ply) notably Myles who managed to bounce onto his knee/cheek after a massive backflip, leading to us spending the rest of friday evening at A&E instead of watching White Lies & Biffy Clyro! Still, at least I got a unique tourist ride through Brighton in the front of an ambulance and Myles got some cool ergonomic crutches out of it ;) Out of interest, the medics on site were total rubbish, too many cooks with no clue about what spoiling the broth even meant: Thank heavens it wasn't serious. Saturday was busier, with even more people soaking up the atmosphere, having a go at this-n-that, and milling about. Weather was OK, food came from the many stalls, and entertainment & demos carried on. The BMXers & mountainbikers were enjoying the ramp-park, and the skaters showed off in the huge half-pipe, while music (and the odd beatboxer) blasted out the speakers. A military helicopter dropped off some gun-toting types on the beach, letting off plumes of coloured smoke. Some high-divers did synchronized displays into what appeared to be a small puddle. People queued to be strapped into a blow-up ball and get rolled about. Funky stoners cruised past on motorized longboards, sporty types on bionic pogo kangaroo stilts (powerbocking, apparently) boinged by, and the Mountainboard try-out area saw loads of kids giving wheelieboarding a go. Tom and Renny had some fun skating in the freestyle park showing their versatility, while the other riders went for a swim, eat pizza and scoffed more Randoms. There was a mountainbike world record attempt, some parkour and a bit of a mountainboard high jump comp (that no riders appeared to be into that much), time flew by, and at 6 o’clock the crowds gathered as the main mountainboard jam/comp got underway… Riders were to be judged on style, tech, amplitude ( height ), and landing. The usual floaty grabs to start had the paparazzi foaming at the camera, and the atmosphere was great as the riders finally got their teeth into showing off for the masses. Tom’s laid out backflip to 540 in the quarter quickly shut-up any doubters and encouraged the spectators to start wooping like deranged children. Ben Tweedie hit huge fs 3’s before twanging his ankle. Gary Crowhurst smoothly corked his numerous rotations, Tuai Lovejoy clearly loved the set-up switching about all over the shop. Ollie Morrison stoked himself stupid stomping a sweet bs 5 after his signature 3’s, Renny styled it up with a fs 5 before sliding into the wall to check out the Secret Wars artwork, 17 yr old Jamie Johnston pulled out a bs 5, and the first train hyped the crowd into a polite frenzy. Marco was styling it up (despite having a camera stuck on his lid) before hitting a parking meter, and the remaining riders upped the game… ooohhhhh aaarrgh Sickness ensued: TK bs corked 5, Joe Dixon fs 720, Gary fs 7,Tuai corked 7: wicked freestylin' on display.. Rhys n Ryan encouraged the audience to do a Mexican wave for Josh Maddox and with 15 minutes to go the paps (I counted 20!) crowded the tabletop. Everyone was lovin’ it as several crowd-pleasing runs entertained them ( shaky shaky 3’s, stone-cold rigor mortis’, corked 7 train ). Suddenly it was down to Gary, Tom, Ollie, Tuai and Joe. The awesomeness came to a head and the crowd went properly mental for the last triple train. What a demo! Post back-slappin’, chillin' and teasing, the results were announced…. Ladies & Gentlemen… 11. Sam Nicholas 10. Marco Dahler 9. Renny Myles 8. Ben Tweedie 7. Josh Maddox 6. Jamie Johnston 5. Gary Crowhurst 4. Tuai Lovejoy 3. Joe Dixon 2. Ollie Morrison 1. Tom Kirkman With the well-deserved top 3 taking home various prizes, a bit of cash and a deck chair each (!), all that was left was for the sun to set, do some foddering, Right Guard showers, watch some bands, and finally on to beachfront nightclub Concorde2 to get the drinks in and get the boogie sticks a-movin’… And move they did, but that's another story LOL ;) Sunday was a way more relaxed affair, the weather was still ok and everyone had that post-party feeling. White Air 09 was coming to a mellow close. In summary, it was a great weekend of crossover fun. The public had witnessed some pretty mental action from everyone involved, from over 40 sports, but the mountainboarding stood out as the obvious highlight, as proved by the local newspaper ‘The Argus’ which ran massive pictures of Ben Rye, Gary Crowhurst & Tom Kirkman (as well as some Brighton babes) in their centre-spread feature. Respek! We’ll all look forward to next years event; 2010 is no doubt gonna be even more mental. Bring it on... Nice one Brighton! Find more sick photos from Rick Davy in our Exhibitions section... Check out our friends ATC Productions video from the riders perspective on Vimeo here And here's a YouTube vid of the final: White Air 09 Freestyle Mountainboard Final Report & Pics by Dan/Wilz/Decreate for Remolition Thanks to the Rebecca & all of the team at White Air :)
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