This year there will be a huge mini ramp supplied by King Ramps with a pro/sponsored prize purse and MC abuse from Churchell. Band line ups will be announced shortly but Serious Sam Barrett is already confirmed, and expect some interesting guest DJ slots too!

Don’t forget about the epic soapbox race carnage – everyone is invited to get building. Be warned though, you’ll need motorbike leathers and a crash helmet to race!

To keep up to date sign up to the mailing list at wheelsandfinsfestival.com – check the clip from last years madness below and get stoked!

UK Champs from The XC featuring Tom Harrison, Manny Lopez and a bungled interview with Lucy Adams that nearly didn’t happen. Also a review of SWS193 and a reminder of the Big Push voting process:

Jenna Selby telling us all about the “Rogue goes Riding” all girls skate tour:

Joel Chapman telling us about HR6 Limited Gene Pool, which is a Herefordshire scene video, and Nic Powley telling us about the UKSA Mini Ramp Champs:

The Skateboarding Show, 4 April 2012: Parlour Skate Store by theskateboardingshow

The Works,Leeds:

As I expected The Works turned out to be the busiest stop of the series, all the local faces were in attendance plus a few guys from further afield like James Coyle down from Newcaastle.  The Works has nurtured it’s fair share of pro/sponsored skaters over the years including the like of Tom Harrison, Manhead and of course Mike Wright so you know the standard of the locals is high!  In the under 16′s local big mouth John Sykes dominated with his ankle swinging trousers and good mix of tricks, both old and new, including plenty of boneless’s and a slick noseblunt slide on the 1/4.  Manchester young gun Jake Potts took second and travelling scouser Charlie Birch took 3rd.

The over 16′s was also of a high standard and a total battle of the locals, a bunch of friends skating against each other.  Cainan was ripping with loads of shove it out variations on the small rail and Mike Arnold impressed everyone with a smooth style.  In the end Dale “The Starkster” Starkie and his beautiful fringe took the win with the ever successful combination of speed, power and just pretty much staying on everything!

As predicted the sponsored comp was hectic, it was popular belief that this would be a tough call between Manhead and Mike and that’s exactly how it played out.  Props to Tom Harrison for keeping it fun and entertaining the crowd, judges and MC Marc Churchill with fake stressing, nollie heel flip indy attempts over the driveway and, of course, a benihana.  Jirka Bulin, Grove and Nev all made it through to the final repping Manchester and skating hard, Jirka got tech, Nev stayed on and Grove pleased the crowd by pretty much trying to kill himself as usual.  Like I said before the top two were almost pre-determined – the current UK champ Manhead is on full flow these days, the guy just doesn’t have a bad day, consistent, casual and stylish:  then you have Mike Wright, the guy that skates The Works most days and knows every little lump and bump in the place, he has it dialled.  Manhead was cruising, he was claiming it was his day off!  Nethertheless he pulled stuff that most of us will never do included a perfectly floaty backside 360 over the driveway.  Mike entered late from the Cafe with a face full of Mars bar and preceded to attack every obstacle with vigour.  There could be only one winner and it was Mike.

Under 16′s:
1: John Sykes
2: Jake Potts
3: Charlie Birch
4: Rooney
5: Matthew Kelly

16 and over:
1: Dale Starkie
2: Mike Arnold
3: Cainan McEwan
4: Rowan Murray
5: Harry Squires
6: Sandom

Pro/Sponsored:
1: Mike Wright
2: Josh Young
3: Ben Grove
4: Nev
5: Jirka

Best Trick – Mike Wright and Mike Arnold

Adrenaline Alley, Corby:

Sunday was a little quieter but there was still a healthy turn out, especially for the pro-sponsored category.  In the under 16′s Jacob Church surprised us all with a man sized bag of tricks and in the over 16′s man bag toting forum lurker Jerome took top spot narrowly above John Howlett who smashes it and himself every time I see him skate.  The slams he took nearly landing a feeble grind to backlip along and down the big rail were truly cringe worthy and i’m sure he won’t be able to sit down properly for a week!

The pro/sponsored qualifiers were so close we had to put 7 guys into the final as the judges just couldn’t agree on the top 6.  This is a fairly unusual scenario!  However the finals played out in almost the order in which they qualified with the exception of Chris Oliver who just kept getting robbed on landings, he later cruised to victory with ease in the best trick comp though.  Manny Lopez and Kyron Davies are both relatively new faces on the scene but as the saying goes “You’ll be seeing more of this kid” – both have well polished styles and tricks beyond their years.  Alex Barton skates with the consistency and huge trick bag of someone who spends a huge amount of time down at the Pioneer (much like the great Rodney Clarke before him) and is a real force when it comes to skating a comp.  Like I said before though, there’s not many people in the UK who can touch Josh ‘Manhead’ Young for skateboarding skills at the moment and he took a well deserved win racking up £850 for a weekends winnings and even treating me to dinner on the way home, what a guy!

Under 16:
1: Jacob Church
2: James Wilkinson
3: James Winstanley
4: Mike Coe

16 and over:
1: Jerome Caple
2: John Howlett
3: Ben Rafferty
4: Luke Jarvis
5: Ant Smith

Pro/Sponsored:
1: Josh Young
2: Alex Barton
3: Manny Lopez
4: Kyron Davies
5: Ewen Bower
6: Radman
7: Chris Oliver

Best Trick: Chris Oliver

As ever, there will be coaching each day from members of the Vans UK team, plenty of activities to fill your Easter holiday and freebies for everyone. See the poster below for all the details, then scroll below that for a taste of what’s in store via an edit of the Vans Christmas Camp 2009.

More Skate Videos >>

See below for four parts of southern shredding, with Jake Collins, Josh “Manhead” Young, George Gough, Nick Remon, Dave Watson, Jason Cloete, Dan Cates, Steak and plenty more, plus interviews with Ride With Us OG’s and organisers Nic Powley and Phil Clutton.

Part 1:

MPORA Action Sports >>

Part 2:

More Skate Videos >>

Part 3:

Relentless Ride With Us 2010 – Episode 3 >>

Part 4:

Relentless Ride With Us 2010 – Episode 4 >>

Follow Manhead as he has breakfast and shoot BB shotguns with Nic Powley, hits up a couple of spots and parks across West Yorkshire, spends an evening at The Works with a variety of team-mates and friends, then winds up at A Nation Of Shopkeepers for the first look at his pro board.

Footage from the event should be appearing very soon…