CORE Action Sports - The Boys Connor Fettes and Jack 'HALFBARZ' Ward & Myself (Jay Matthews) took a trip to Northern Ireland Last weekend for the first addition of Rampyards Annual Scooter contest.
Make sure to check out the OFFICIAL EDIT HERE!
We all travelled and made the journey separately but met up at the skatepark. Myself from Liverpool airport, Jack from Gatwick and Connor jumped on the ferry. My flight was super early, about 6am. I got to john Lennon airport, Checked my Scooter in and headed to the lounge. Travelling with my setup has become so much easier now with the CORE Travel Bag. Honestly, Anyone getting on a plane with a scooter needs one of these. You can take your scooter through the airport and onto the plane top put it in the overhead locker and the majority of the time no issues. I ended up putting mine through the hold for ease as i needed to bring a couple of tools with me which they don't allow through security.
When we landed Drydan from the Rampyard was kind enough to come pick us up in the Skateparks Mini Bus. Such a life saver, the worst thing is being stood round a packed airport taxi rank waiting to get an Uber. We were the first ones to arrive. I was on the same flight as Indy Clayson and Mia Catalano so we chilled out, got a Tim Hortons and Had a little session whilst the park was empty.
Rampyard is one of our favourite Parks, its compact and tight but has the funnest ramp set ups. The jump box section is like a snake run through the centre of the building with loads of transfers from box to box, Dodging the pillars in between. The Huge spine ramp at the back is one of the best W ramps we have ever ridden. Connor absolutely dominates this Spine, every time he's there something crazy gets thrown down. And not to mention the Street section, recently they just added the perfect rail across the drive way. That rail got absolutely hammered over the next few days with some of the maddest combos i've ever seen.
As the Friday went on more and more heads turned up and soon the park was Packed. Connor and Jack had arrived and we got straight into filming. This was our first time using the new Company GoPro Which was super fun to play around with. It was pretty tricky to get used to at first but we used it out and were happy with the clips we got. The fish eye is wild and you can get some sick angles. We only really had the Friday to film as the comp would have lasted all day Saturday.
Saturday morning, I cooked up some bacon butties for us all and we headed to the park. When we got there it was already booming. The juniors had just started and were killing it. Further into the day it was the Pro Juniors, Supported Rider and Local hero Logan Dougherty smashed out a perfect run placing him 1st in his category. Well done Logan!
After some practice it was time for the Pro Street Comp, Everyone was killing it. Indy and Jake b Smith pout down some insane first runs and it was close with who was going to take the Win between them. Jake ended up one upping his first run with a flawless 1st placer. The Run was pretty much perfect with a huge variety of tricks. Alex Olds and Ferdie Keeling Took home 2nd and 3rd Place, both of those guys put down amazing runs.
Pro Park was next and the level of riding these guys where putting out there was insane. As the roof isn't the highest in the park it can be hard to put down a solid run but everyone shocked me. Jordan clack Took home the win for another flawless run, with Charley Dyson at 2nd and Harvey Perkins taking 3rd.
The Best part of the weekend for me was best trick. Best trick comps in my opinion always pop off, especially in Rampyard. Everyone just wants to throw down and win some cash. With serious cash on the line come serious tricks. These guys did not disappoint.
Jack Kicked it all of with a worlds first 50/50 to 270 drop on the Vert quarter. For some reason Jack can just pull the craziest tricks out of no where. The amount of worldies this guy has is just f***ed. Charley ended up dominating best trick with 3 first try bangers over the spine. Firstly a 1080, Which is mental anyway but over a spine is even more crazy. He then Backed it up with a 720 Whip to down heel then, Straight away finished off with a 360 Backflip whip to down heel. Everyone went mental!
After that it was time for the awards, It was great to see all the kids hyped on what they'd won and getting the Pros in to present them with their trophies. I think things like that mean a lot to the younger riders coming into the competition scene. The Comp was finished and was pulled off excellently. I really take my hat off to Drydan and Craig, as well as everyone at the Rampyard. They do really care about the skatepark scene and its refreshing to see a comp get run so well an so smoothly. With such a small team of people too, we love to see it.
They had also booked out a booth in a local club in Belfast for all the riders to have a night out afterwards. Its touches like that just make the weekend one to remember. We want to thank the Rampyard for putting this all together and welcoming CORE as much as they do. It goes without saying that we will be back in 2025 for the next one!
Make sure to check out the OFFICIAL EDIT HERE!
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