Saturday October 14th saw Jason Caines return to Birmingham to host the latest No Comply Networks’ Beyond Skateboarding event at the iconic Fastlands (one of the only places in central Birmingham that’s not manned by security or laden in rumble strips). Armed with countless boxes of product from all manner of donators including Vans, A Third Foot, Birdhouse, Polar, Ideal skate shop, Huf, Almost and Levis to name but a few, the sun was out and things got underway around lunchtime.
The official drink sponsor of the event, Pabst Blue Ribbon, provided a liquid lunch and courage building force for the first jam of the day held on the 7 set. From the moment Jason kicked things off with his temperamental loud hailer, boards and bodies were flying left, right and centre. Avoiding the main flow of traffic through the middle line of the stair set, Luke McManus and Henry Fox tackled the ever-frustrating rail against the wall with a frontside 5-0 and crooked grind respectively.
For the next hour or so hordes of new faces and old made their way through the growing crowds and battled for the massive amount of free product that was waiting to be claimed. At this point a hungover Kris Vile showed up and proceeded to unlock the potential of the wooden wallie obstacle that had been somewhat ignored until this point. With the help of Henry Fox, Kris shook off the night before with a host of tricks including this backside nosegrind.
Around three thirty the focus fell on the A Third Foot high jump challenge; housed by two massive mock cigarettes bridged by a wobbly length of tubing. With the ground at Fastlands being made up of various sloping gradients, it only took a slight tap to send the whole set up flying which lead to some comedy slams. By the end of the session it was between two main players with Brum local Zak Lydiard contouring every muscle in order to get this sizable clearance.
With all the contenders of the High Jump well and truly knackered it was time to start the ‘into the bank’ session. Man of the hour Jason Caines got the ball rolling with a lofty kickflip followed by a trademark Mach 10 crowd-pleasing fakie flip. At this point, things got serious as the challenge to clear the bank to the smudgy tarmac below was set. The 30 minutes that followed were a full carcass toss! Having ripped during the 7-set session (and the rail against the wall) earlier on, Ivan Baldé was first up with a stylish backside 180 which got both the crowds and other participants hyped! Known for his willingness to leap, Jordan Lightowler hoof’d a massive hardflip to flat followed by a session ending backside bigspin from Vile.
With the light fading fast, attention was drawn to the nine set. If you’d been to Fastlands then you’ll know that this set has downhill run up and up hill run out which has been known to have driven people to total despair multiple times! As everyone else was trying to get their heads and legs around uneven situation, Luke McManus dragged the wallie wedge to the top step and sent himself to the ground below for more free proddy.
With the 9-stair session now in full flow, Kris Vile opted to take the Mike Manzoori/Eddie Belvedere line with an ollie over the handrail onto the worryingly narrow wall below. Wolverhampton’s secret weapon Sean Baker set the bar high with a nollie backside flip which set the crowd on fire. Birmingham local Callum Sidlauskas battled the aforementioned uphill run out during his nollie bigspin attempts, cracking his board multiple times before, on a borrowed board, he shut the season down with a perfect roll away.
Massive props to Jason and the No Comply Network for bringing an event of this scale to Birmingham and getting so many people hyped to be under a flyover on a Saturday afternoon. Respect!
Brought to you by the trusty handicam of Jono Coote.
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