Mount Hawke UK Indoor Skatepark – Rooster Jam

Out of the blue in September, Sarah at Mount Hawke asked me if I could put on a contest in their new bowl that had been finished in late summer of 2016.

To be fair I did initially think, ‘as if I haven’t got enough on my plate with work and promoting my skate book up to Christmas’, but I have done this before with five vert contests under my belt at Mount Hawke in recent years so I am getting pretty good at this sort of thing and as such, agreed.

I went home and thought about it and remembered the Hangover Jam at Stockport in 2005-ish, a contest early in the New Year where everyone came out because the holiday period is so cramping and slow and people were keen to stretch their legs and detox with a good roll around.

Josh Rounding – stalefish – photo Leo Sharp

“So what shall I call this contest?” I thought. I looked up which animal was to represent the year of 2017 and Google provided the answer – 2017 was to be the year of the Rooster. OK, so we will go for ‘The Rooster Bowl Jam’ and maybe change it every year to the animal that matches.

I did the usual Facebook event page and hoisted up the flagpole to see who would salute it!

I got Moonshine involved because Chris Hudson is a good guy and they promote the brand so well that it is bound to fly. I always approach Shiner Dist because they are the main men, and after going through a few hoops they came through with prizes from Santa Cruz skateboards. Skinners Ales are a local company and the founder’s son Ben Skinner is a world champion surfer and his son skates too, so Sarah from Mount Hawke got Skinner’s Ale on board: coupled with Skull Candy and the amazing work of Shred Knife who makes knives with handles made from old skateboards – we had a contest with a great haul of amazing prizes on our hands.

Jesse Thomas – wall plant – photo Leo Sharp

Come the day and I didn’t know who would turn up but as they say, ‘if you build it, they will come’.

And come they did – so much so that we had some big groups and so many entrants that it was tough to cope with the numbers.

Alex Hallford slashes off piste – photo Leo Sharp

We started with a Grom’s comp at lunchtime and that was awesome to see.

I love seeing the kids put into a mini competitive-environment and they all seemed to love it too.

Then we went to Under-16s with some great young skaters and some of the Groms signed up again for a second bash.

Next up was Over-40’s that went off well with two groups of eight battling it out. We stupidly gave them 60-second runs though and a fair few nearly had a few heart attacks on the platform because of it! Apologies for that.

The main age group was just billed as Over-16 but there were some heavy hitters in there: Alex Hallford, Jesse Thomas, Jake Hill and Sam Bosworth were in the mix to name but a few.

After the shrapnel had settled, we had an impromptu Best Trick contest on a pair of pool steps that I rescued from an abandoned pool in Newquay. People attacked these steps until they broke with hippy jumps under them a la Lance Mountain, and boneless ones and lein to tails over the structure – it was nuts!

Corey – backside smith grind – photo Leo Sharp

Stef Nurding – frontside slasher – photo Leo Sharp

Overall it was a great day and by the end we had raised £400 off a percentage of the gate receipts for my chosen charity Leukaemia Research. All in all a great event and worthwhile doing. Would I do it again next year? Yes, too right I would.

Maybe sooner than you think actually as we have Woody’s Black Pool being rebuilt at Mount Hawke at the moment and we have to christen it soon.

Keep those eyes peeled.

Trawler.

Shaun – Sean Penn – photo Leo Sharp