From left: Helena Long, Rianne Evans, Taeko Akimoto, Ayumi Wantanabe, Becky Jaques, myself, Dannielle Gallacher and lil ripper, Tamsin Bunce
After some persuasion via text message from Becky Jaques, I decided to mission it from Peckham to deepest darkest Hertfordshire, and I'm not kidding either, black and icy it were! Stepping off the train at Hemel Hempstead, I was greeted by freezing temperatures and had to walk up to the XC over slippery paths and iced up puddles.
On arrival, I was greeted by Emma Richardson and Dannielle Gallacher, who sat cotching in the warm cafe/chill out area. The 'indoor' skatepark actually is kinda outside as it has one wall missing, so December temperatures easily reached us when skating. I then bumped into Helena who'd got there 15minutes earlier (I failed to meet her at Euston, being 4mins late for the train). She informed me that the bowls were slippery, which I later found out when I dropped in the pool an immediately slid out and ate shit!
Anyway, on entering the indoor park (which is overwelmingly, scarily, RAD!) I headed to the mini ramp whereby was met with shrieks and hugs from Becky. She immediately told me to get in there (the mini ramp) which despite it being a manic, snaking, free for all session, I did. Unfortunately, a sneeky guy named 'Socks' dropped in on me and made me roll my ankle! Gahh! I was well bummed out to say the least, and started to wich I hadn't come.
However, after some positive vibes from Becky, I stretched my foot a little bit and had a roll round the park. I came back to the mini a few minutes later, after realising I could forget about my ankle injury for a few hours and got stuck in with practicing some tricks (just 50-50s, axels stall, rock fakie). In the midst of that, I also did some filming, Ewen Bower, Lucy Adams and Helena all looking hot on the coping!
Ewen. Sequence
Lucy
Helena
Anyway, the Jam got under way and I just got so fucking hyped! I was so excited, I just wanted to skate as much as possible, I hope I didn't snake anyone, if I did, sorry! 'Cos I was so hyped and shredding without a care in the world, I managed to get some good 50-50s and then... I learnt slash grinds... just like that! So stoked!
Ok that's enough about me. In between skating the Jam, I managed to do some filming, I tried my best to film everyone, some screenshots of which, you can see in the previous post. I will make an edit soon and post it up :)
Such a rad sesh on Sunday night, I'm sooo glad Becky made me came. Cheers for the interview, Becky (Brash 4 stuff!) and thanks Felix for helping me with the interview! It was raaad seeing everyone too, and meeting some of the girls I hadn't met before. Nice one!
Here's a lovely write up of the event by Janna Selby, nice one! http://cooler.mpora.com/news/events/santa-cruz-christmas-pool-party.html