On my arrival at the park, I was greeted by good friends and a couple of people picking up their orders from the last open photo shoot conveying their thanks. A nice way to start the evening. It proceeded with a good session on the mini, before the night kicked off proper and I enjoyed a good skate with some good people.
Out came Harry with the megaphone and so started the first session on the new driveway. Lots of swag including free session vouchers, t shirts from Milk, Hell Yeah Son & others (thanks for mine Alex), hats, stickers and cash prizes were up for grabs for the best tricks. Even a HUGE box of iced donuts, which was gradually devoured by the hammer throwers!
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| Packed platforms lead to a great session |
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| VX with orange mic muff for a good reminder |
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| David Davies ollieing the rail with ease |
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| David Davies b/s flipping back the other way |
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| Jason Goodwin showing the next generation how to negotiate a waist high rail with style |
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| Becky Jacques - Kickflip |
The second session went down much like the first with a good load of rewards given.
And towards the end Luke and Jordan gave flight on the vert wall. As you can see, Luke slid out of a few, leading to a large rip in his trousers revealing a little more than required!
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| Diss receiving airborne gifts from Jordan Thackeray |
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| Luke Jarvis - frontside air (with extra backside) |
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| You can't expect to get a perfect frame every time. JThax - ollie |
At the end of the second session, Andy pointed out Luke, climbing up the mezzanine to the top of the stair rail.
After a bunch of scary washouts and some head/board contact, Luke climbed back up, was passed his board and jumped the eight foot drop into the five foot quarter below to an explosion of noise from the entire crowd. All credit to him, it's a massive drop and the size of his knee later in the evening gave some idea of the repeated impact force of dropping onto concrete from thirteen feet.
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| Luke Jarvis - tail drop. |
Late in the evening, Lee & Mark got down a massive b/s nose grind / f/s air double up over the door gap. I'm sure you won't have to wait too long for a Hell Yeah Son/Empire edit of the night to see it. I'm keeping the photo back for a bit.
I left the core Empire crew at near 2am as they walked into town to party. I only had to look at Instagram this morning to confirm good times carried on into the night back at the park.
The crew have all worked hard this year to make Empire Skatepark the smart, safe and loved park it is. With the recently redecorated reception & well stocked shop and the enthusiasm to improve and expand the park layout continually this community driven park should be very proud of what has been achieved in 2014.
2015 is promising to be an exciting time for Empire with the addition of a skate only DIY concrete park out back it's hoped that this will be completed in time for summer. Potential for this new area is huge and the ideas already being realised are very encouraging, I can't wait to skate it and see it skated in the sun!
I wish a Happy Christmas to all the people I've met at Empire this year. It's been a pleasure skating with you all. And a massive thank you to Lewis & Harry for giving me the freedom to shoot in the park.
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