It’s been one hell of an adventure the past few days and I’m so worn out from all of the walking about, crazy alcohol-infused nights out with rowdy BMXers and the complete and utter lack of sleep but if I was able to do it all again, I’d do it in a heartbeat for sure.

The night before the finals the Ride UK staff took a trip over to The House of Vans LDN to watch Brighton Ain’t Ready at the premier.

We walked through a LEGAL graffiti area near the venue and came across 3 pro’s doing graff there, not gonna mention any names for legal reasons but you WILL know who they are! haha

It was such a sick night with plenty of great human beings one roof who all had one thing in common – BMX. It’s always good catching up with old friends, meeting new people, getting smashed and I definitely experienced all three!

After the premier I remember going to a random house party with Ryan, we basically decided that we weren’t drunk enough and had to continue onto another party. He knew some guys who own a house which is apparently very well-known in the punk scene and was pretty close to his place. He told me that they always had parties on and even bands would play in the living room! The door opened and music was blasting, people jam packed in this mental house which was covered in posters, writing on the walls and there was an actual bar downstairs where you could buy bottles and definitely full of people I’d never mixed with before, was an interesting end to the night for sure! 

I woke up well-late the next day and even slept through my alarm (FFS!) – Woke up in a right panic but managed to make it to Rebel Jam before the finals kicked off somehow and cracked on with work as soon as I got there! Now, York Hall was once a MASSIVE venue for boxing back in the day and it’s fair to say that many punches were thrown in that building and epic battles won & lost. In terms of epic battles, there were definitely some haymakers getting swung on the day of the finals and everyone was definitely on form…

The course was incredible and it was evident from when I walked into the building that it was pretty much 100% street obstacles in an amazing purpose-built park. BK and the guys at Artramp Parks had done a cracking job and the pictures really don’t do the place justice, you really had to be there to truly understand the work that has went into this event! All of the riders were well stoked and seemed to enjoy the course, there were bangers left right and centre as I saw in practise and on the day of the finals everything got REAL!

Garrett was going off doing runs you could only dream of, the UK lads were throwin’ it down! Alex Donnachie, Paley, AK, Lacey, were all slaying the rails Mike Taylor was droppin some oldschool NSF moves on the back rail, the USA guys were reppin’ and I remember Brian Kachinsky took a huge crash picked himself up, then did it again! (Link to the video HERE!)

The euro lads were showin’ off their style and Bruno Hoffman was definitely on top form that day, I did miss a lot of it due to updating on the lappy but overall I had one of the best days of my life and it was great to see everyone enjoying the competition. Darryl Nau & Catfish were bossing the Mcing and were dispatching prizes to the fans, everyone seemed to really love it!

I also managed to shoot a couple of ‘Nice Set Up’ photos with a couple of my favourite pro’s and you’ll see ’em on the site in the near future!

Here’s one of the bikes, guess if you can guess who’s it is…

Just a bit gutted I had to leave a little early, but this is for sure one of the best competitions I’ve been to in my time and the after parties were WILD. Still buzzing from it all, such a surreal experience say the least. See you all next time!