This last Friday saw the start of the fifth annual Lords Of The Swords competition.
Basically a three day road trip across Essex visiting as many skateparks as possible winning points by completing challenges. Some skateboarding and some not! Each team must film all completed challenges resulting in a video edit. These videos will be available for public viewing online and you will be able to vote for your favourite edit. The best video, combined with total points scored will determine the winner.
Having attended the Thrasher Magazine party at House of Vans on Thursday night and encountering a Tube strike I arrived home on Friday morning at around 4.30am and after a couple of hours sleep, headed out to the meeting place chosen for the start of the comp.
Arriving at Wharf Road car park in Chelmsford I was met by a grand sight. Over 20 cars (around 20 teams), all surrounded by skateboarders, mingling and larking around in exited anticipation of the coming weekend.
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| Challenge books and wax for all teams |
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| This was the last I saw of the Empire Skatepark crew... |
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| Zombie Brand's team(s). I count 23 members... This crew knows how to party hard! |
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| Obligatory group photo |
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| GO! |
Tyres screeched as 20+ cars full of skaters began to slowly disperse in many directions across the county.
I was under no illusion that we were in with any chance of winning on points so I was up for some skateboarding and some good times. I took the camera out a couple of times over the weekend but mainly concentrated on the skating so these photos represent a couple of stops we made and a few people we cross paths with on the trip.
Day one sent us south east to South Woodham Ferrers and Rayleigh, then west to Harold Hill after finding a very wet Brentwood.
These next photos were taken at Delside, a DIY construction near Rayleigh. Much fun was had skating this spot. We even got to skate with the creator, Paul. A RAD skater and a very talented builder.
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| Jake - f/s grind |
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| Paul - 5-0 fakie |
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| Stefan - feeble fakie |
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| Tom - f/s ollie |
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| Vince - f/s lipslide |
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| Joe - b/s boardslide |
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| Tom - f/s smith |
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| Vince - rock & roll slide |
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| Paul - b/s lipslide. Yeah, we got those points! |
Day two started one team member light as Tom had remembered that he had a day ticket for the Reading Festival. We met at Saffron Walden where various challenges were completed and we moved on to Thaxted mini ramp.
Five minutes behind us were the Zombie Brand crew. Three cars full of people in various l
states of intoxication. This crew knows how to have a good time!
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| Vince - b/s rocking the vert extension |
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| Challenge: Try and work out who's high on what.... I take Jay, he's high on skateboarding! |
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| Zombie getting the job done |
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| 1st time I've seen Luke completely inept of any skating ability |
As Zombie left and Bradley Howe's crew arrived we moved on to Urbside where Vince failed to cross the river using the rope swing. Next was Dunmow before hitting Silver End for dusk. With no lights at the park, this was a short, but successful stop.
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| Jake - ollie over the spine, done. |
For day three we started at Colchester bowl where Vince took in a stray dog for an hour before the owner finally claimed it, then headed out to Mersea Island where after skating the small park we all ate chips & ice cream before Jake got fully submerged for the points before we headed to Tiptree.
This is where Stefan completed one of the non-skating challenges - to raise the team flag on the local lake's island.
Finishing at Empire Skatepark in Colchester where we met the four or so remaining members of the Zombie Brand crew, reduced in number but still skating hard and getting the job done.
Our youngest member, Norbert competed the task of drinking a pint of milk followed by a pint of cola. This turned out to pretty messy due to first shaking himself up and then having the two liquids mixed thoroughly by Zombie Jay. This led, as expected to Norbert involuntarily expelling the curdled mess from his stomach quite abruptly.
Stefan then undertook the drink 8 pints of milk in under an hour. This challenge, although completed successfully also resulted to quite a lot of vomiting! On completion of this task, I left for home.
This is where Stefan completed one of the non-skating challenges - to raise the team flag on the local lake's island.
Finishing at Empire Skatepark in Colchester where we met the four or so remaining members of the Zombie Brand crew, reduced in number but still skating hard and getting the job done.
Our youngest member, Norbert competed the task of drinking a pint of milk followed by a pint of cola. This turned out to pretty messy due to first shaking himself up and then having the two liquids mixed thoroughly by Zombie Jay. This led, as expected to Norbert involuntarily expelling the curdled mess from his stomach quite abruptly.
Stefan then undertook the drink 8 pints of milk in under an hour. This challenge, although completed successfully also resulted to quite a lot of vomiting! On completion of this task, I left for home.
This was my first L.O.T.S. and won't be my last. Some of the most challenging skating that I've done and fun I've had in years. Loved it!
#LOTS #lordsoftheswords #skateboarding #skating #skate #uk #essex #photography
