This week, Four Wheel Fools will be releasing photos from time spent with the Triple Sword Skate Store boys on this years Lords Of The Swords road trip competition. A spot each day until the awards night at Empire Skatepark on Saturday 1st October. Scroll down to see previous posts.
Each competing team is required to produce a short film of their weekend. This edit should document the tasks completed and have now been submitted for voting online at www.lordsoftheswords.com so get voting Triple Sword!
Here's our edit. Filmed by Wazza Munson and some of the crew and pieced together by Wazza.
VOTE TRIPLE SWORD HERE
As I said before, we returned to the park a little behind the others and the sight that met us made me well up and I stood at the gate watching a bunch of skateboarders taking turns to fly around the virgin concrete of Empire Skatepark's latest and most eagerly anticipated redesign to date. The Out Back DIY. Three years in the making, this cozy back yard concrete bowl is testament to the continuing colossal enthusiasm and energy the owners and locals of the park have in ensuring it's longevity and at the same time build and skate something really RAD.
I am proud to say that I took a small part in mixing concrete and shifting sand when I had the time to give to it, but the bulk of the work has been done by Jack, Harry and Wazza with help from a number of others including some vital skills and advice from Delside's Paul Carroll and some of the people behind The Spot in Tottenham Hale during the final push. Enough gushing over it.
All Lords 2016 teams were invited to the lock-in party. Some of the usual suspects turned up too. The temptation of a freshy too much to resist.
Both Potter & Munson joined Jordan in an assault of the biggest 1/4 and few others took up the challenge.
The sun set and the makeshift floodlights came to life, so the skating continued into the early hours of Sunday morning with sporadic shouting of the name "DAN!" from Toby in homage to Alan Partridge cutting through the night.... all night. I managed to sink a few tinnies as I shot the action around the bowl so I did worry about the quality of some of my photos!
Oh, and Jarvis was out cold on the platform by the time we arrived. His position didn't change until the lights went out around 4am.
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| Carl Wilson - f/s lein tail |
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| Carl Wilson - f/s air |
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| Carl Wilson - f/s ollie |
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| Jordan Thackeray - f/s feeble |
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| Jordan Thackeray - f/s ollie |
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| Jordan Thackeray - one foot transfer |
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| Mark Munson - egg plant |
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| Carl Wilson - f/s crail air |
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| Carl Wilson - f/s invert |
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| Jordan Thackeray - stale (1) |
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| Jordan Thackeray - stale (2) |
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| Jake Bolt - b/s disaster |
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| Jake Bolt |
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Jordan Thackeray - f/s 5-0 transfer
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| Fin MacBrayne - f/s smith |
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| Lewis Fitzpatrick - f/s nosepick |
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| Luke Pearce - up to f/s 5-0 |
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| Philippe Da Rosa - f/s 5-0 transfer |
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| Philippe Da Rosa - f/s 50-50 all the way round |
Quite a sizeable group stayed at the park overnight. And as I assumed this wouldn't be a conducive atmosphere for sleep, I chose to relax in my car for a few hours not expecting to sleep.
Surprised to find myself waking up around 8, I chilled out in the sun for a couple of hours and took some photos until I was able to complete my morning ritual at Tesco.
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| Jason Goodwin - Boneless |
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| Jason Goodwin - hip to f/s 5-0 grab |
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| Lewis Fitzpatrick - f/s ollie |
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| Lewis Fitzpatrick - f/s stale |
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| Mark Radden - Boneless |
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| Chief Filmer and Editor Warren Munson |
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| Mark Munson - b/s carve round the jacuzzi |
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| Mark Munson - b/s tail slide revert |
On exiting the supermarket's customer toilet, I found that it had rained very hard and stopped again in the five minutes I was inside. I drove back to the park hoping the clouds would clear and skating outside would be possible on the final day.
A very dejected crew were sitting out back contemplating their next move when I crept through the back gate. Talk of staying put and skating the indoor park or Better Extreme in Barking was being banded about but seeing as no rain had fallen since I returned and the sky seemed safe enough I had a go at convincing everyone that it would be a good idea to dry the Out Back section as best we could and see what happened before making the choice to leave Colchester and chance running into further rain. The reaction was positive enough for me to pick up a broom and sweep as much of the standing water towards the drain or the gate. whichever was closest and with help from some others
, the bowl was dry enough to skate within an hour including a short shower midway through drying and another round of sweeping. We got a strong couple of hours in before the night before started catching up proper.
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| Jack Keyword - hip to f/s tail slide |
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| Jay Sable - f/s rock |
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| Mark Radden - Clunk-Click R&R |
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| Mark Radden tucking up over the hip and bump |
And so by 4pm Lords Of The Swords 2016 was at a physical end for me but the work had only just begun for me. Not really work, I love going back through cards packed with photos reliving the weekend over and over. I packed my gear up and helped tidy up the Out Back before sinking into my seat and closing my door on the world.
Lords had, once again been a very entertaining and productive three days spent with a great bunch of friends.
#fourwheelfools #lordsoftheswords2016 #empireskatepark #uk #skateboarding #competition #roadtrip #vote #blog #new
