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Dig for Victory! Apologies for the delay but here is the official report from Round 1, held at The Edge on 1st & 2nd May... Saturday morning dawned with brilliant blue skies, glorious sunshine, the hope that the weather of previous weeks had returned, and the promise of the track drying quickly and a good comp ahead. Final registration was completed, riders meeting conducted, but as practice began the clouds began to gather over head. not really expecting the comp to actually happen, to seriously checking out alternative lines and getting to grips (if I can use that word in those conditions) with some pretty challenging riding conditions. As the weather got worse a few riders gave up and dropped out, no-show-no-going themselves, but the majority of the riders pushed on, determined to make the comp happen... Big thanks to Pete Tatham, Oliver Weaver and Andy Brind for really getting in there and getting their hands dirty. And thanks to Ben Wanklyn for being official ATBA test pilot. Without all their hard work the track would have remained unrideable, but as three o'clock struck we were beginning to see that, once again, this comp was going to happen against the odds. The sheer determination and persistence of the riders to make the comp happen regardless of the conditions almost made me break out in a bad karaoke version of Starships' "Nothing's gonna stop us now", but I managed to restrain myself. Juniors like Peirs Sutton and Ed Richardson impressed everyone by riding so well in their first ever ATBA-UK Comp, and bringing out the freeride skills had Rich Sykes from Team Surfingdirt.com and Zak Campbell from Team BAD nailing the track, getting to the bottom and saying with a smile and a shrug, "I've ridden worse". The rain got worse and the riding got better, with riders using all their skills to get down a mudsliding competition on all four wheels. But they did it. They went up against all the rain a Mayday bank holiday could throw at them and they won. Some of the riders won races and some didn't, but everyone of them won a victory for mountainboarding! The freestyling got going with the Juniors first, stepping up their riding level with Leo Gorman going big and stylish as usual, and Mark Adams putting down some enviably nice threes for such a little lad. The ladies couldn't let that go, and Lisa McLernon put down some solid threes of her own. Seniors and Masters were a little light on numbers but with Tylar Harvey getting threes, Nial Potter-Farrant going for corked fives, and Josh attempting back and front flips, it was still a pleasure to watch. Then came the Pro's. Even with soggy run-ins, and soft landings the Pro riders still lived up to it with Pete Hills on frontflip duty, Gary Crowhurst doing a sweet backflip/frontflip run along with his corked fives, Joel Treliving pulling new stuff out the bag like he'd been doing it for years, including corked fives and frontflips, and Kynan going into orbit with his smooth and stylish sevens. We also saw the welcome return of Jack Herriott from OTG back in the good old days, and about time too. I used to think A.T.B.A. stood for All Terrain Boarding Association. Now I know it stands for always determined, persistent, and tenacious. Any rider who turns up to an ATBA Comp knows for sure they are going to get some racing and some jumping. The determined few, the faithful, won out in the end. All the results from Round 1 are up on the ATBA Website. For loads more photos head to project doc here Next up, round 2 at Ironsides! Report by Roger Swannell Photos courtesy of Theo Acworth |
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