Once upon a time, the British freestyle scene had a series of regular freestyle jams and get-togethers across the country, often organised by Alex Foster of Late Tricks. Folks would gather in some truly awful spaces, verbally abuse each other in the British tradition, and do all manner of hilarious and unusual freestyle tricks before heading back home and continuing to skate in isolation for a month or two until the next jam popped up.
(For those who are curious, Alex did put together a bunch of great videos after some of these jams; I’m a big fan of the one from the Bristol jam in 2014, but there’s a good selection on the Late Tricks YouTube channel to flick through.)
However, with the ever-continuing expansion of the international event calendar ensuring that the main participants in the British freestyle scene found themselves bouncing across the planet for a seemingly endless slew of contests from 2016 onwards, the British jam scene basically died off. After all, who was going to organise one if no one was even in England to sort it out? And even if we did have the time, where would we hold one?
Thankfully, Denham Hill has both dialled down his contest participation a bit this year and happens to work in an indoor skatepark in Leeds – and an indoor skatepark that is perfectly happy with closing off access to all the ramps and giving the whole space to freestyle, no less. We couldn’t ask for more.
That being said, I don’t think any of us – including Denham – expected the enthusiasm and attendance levels that this event generated. I’ve written elsewhere about how the long running joke in British freestyle of “there used to be five of us. Now there’s six!” was rapidly becoming outdated, but to get 30+ people to go to Leeds (of all places) just to hang out for eight hours, do some silly tricks, and then eat free pizza while watching a Scotsman get beat up? That’s unheard of. I mean, one person actually came all the way from New York just to see how British freestyle differed from the scene back home (and you know what? I think he liked it, the madman).
I had a much easier time of it: I got a train to an undisclosed location, was picked up by Alex Foster, and collected a John Hanson from a random lay-by before finishing the journey to Leeds. All three of us are “old hands” in the scene now – we were the only three at the jam who were actively part of the first era of the British freestyle revival, back in the early-to-mid 2000s, and things have changed a lot. British freestyle is still scrappy and prone to light-hearted mockery, but it’s a lot more supportive and wholesome than it was when I first started back in 2001. This event is a good example of that; the “other room”, usually home to BMXers and scooter kids flying over jump boxes before careering up a vert wall, was cordened off for beginner’s workshops until 4pm, with one block of time being dedicated to female-led coaching sessions run by the WFSA’s Women’s Representative, Monica Tusinean. Later on, some of these kids were presented with brand-new freestyle completes that had been donated to the cause, hopefully helping to start their freestyle “career” on the right foot.
Meanwhile, in the main room, you had familiar faces mingling with total newcomers and Instagram “friends” as if they’d known each other their whole lives. Some folks were happy to just watch; some sat on the off-limits ledges and ramps to catch up; and others got fully stuck in, bouncing trick ideas off each other, chasing personal goals, or excitedly showing new tricks to old friends.
Denham didn’t leave everyone completely to their own devices, though; he set up four mini-competitions later in the day to create a bit of focus. The first two, a best trick jam and a best combo jam, were run the way best trick events should be: fifteen minutes on the clock, and people can have a go whenever the floor is empty if they have an idea for something to try. Harry Fisher won the best trick jam with a typically Harry combo of some sort (I can’t remember exactly what it was, but I’m pretty sure it involved a stationary fingerflip), and John Hanson won the best combo with something that began with a big 360 flip to rail. I should have taken better notes, but to be honest, it really wasn’t that sort of event, and we’re all the better for it.
After this, Denham pulled out a beautifully janky high jump bar, and we all took it in turns to clear the bar until only one man could make it any higher. The highlight here wasn’t Logan Riley’s 52″-minus-a-bit-of-sag winning leap, but Alan Hiom’s “I’ve never done a high jump before” back-to-back deck-snaps half way up the apparatus. Yep, he straight-leg-stomped the landing somewhere around the 26″ mark, snapped his deck clean in two, then ran off to steal his son’s setup only to immediately snap that the exact same way on his next attempt. (Alan, if you’re reading this, I’m running a tad low on the Carmen decks at the mo, so you might want to get a replacement for the lad sooner rather than later.)
Last “event” of the day was a 360 spin off on truly the worst board in existence – a 1970s plastic nightmare with super-mushy uncored soft wheels. Someone managed four 360s. I can’t remember who, but that’s not relevant. Ultimately, every one engaged in a 360 spin off has already lost by default.
Eventually, 8pm was reached, everyone had survived (apart from Alan’s boards), and we decamped to a large chill-out room above the skatepark for free pizza and beer, courtesy of the absent-and-missed Matthew Smithies. Denham set up a PS2 with a copy of THPS3, and Alex Foster and I found ourselves in the weird situation of having to explain how to play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater to a bunch of freestylers who are old enough for beer but young enough to have never played Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater in any form. I am very uncomfortable with this development; time is cruel.
Anyway. All in all, a successful day, and evidence of a couple of points I’ve been making in the WFSA group chats for a while:
- Firstly, not every event needs to be a competition. A few people have claimed that competitions are the only way to find funding and sponsorship for an event, or that people will only bother travelling if there’s a competition involved. Turns out that if you do things right, neither of these points are true.
- Secondly, there’s a lot of people who want to come to an event and skate with people, but are hugely intimidated by actual contests. And I get it: while a core part of the WFSA’s mission from day one has been “to promote contest activity and participation” – and, by extension, preserve the artform of the two-minute choreographed run and prevent freestyle from just being “weird tricks” done without context – contests are only one way to interact with freestyle as an activity, and they don’t suit everyone. And, importantly, if we over-fixate on contests and provide nothing else, we risk alienating people who have absolutely no interest in the stress, pressure, and weird ego-filled sphere of competitive skateboarding. That’s very much Not A Good Thing.
- Finally, jams are the best way to build scenes. Contests give them something to focus on, but jams? Jams give people time to learn, time to socialise, time to share ideas… and time to laugh, smile, and joke around in a way that contests – especially the rigourously-scheduled over-stuffed unnecessary-qualifier-filled contests of the modern age – just can’t.
So maybe next time you’re sitting around and picking a weekend on the calendar at random to organise an event… maybe put the judge’s scoresheets, bulky trophies, and tables full of random tat prizes away and hold a jam instead. Who knows… you might just enjoy it.
Big thanks have to go to Denham Hill for organising the jam, Live Like Ralph for funding it, LS-TEN for hosting us, Matt Smithies for funding the after-party, Alex Foster for making my attendance possible, and Craig Lees for being so eager to be thrown around like a rag doll. See you all at the next one, folks!
About Live Like Ralph
Live Like Ralph is a charitable organisation set up in honour of Ralph Roberts, who sadly passed away on the 3rd of January 2021.
Ralph, amongst many other things, was a keen skater and creative. It is our mission to help support and maintain both of those communities so that they can continue to grow. We believe, as Ralph did, that by nurturing these communities, and all of the potential talent that lies within them, the positive impact they can have is extraordinary.
