Last weekend saw the Westbeach Snowflex Series 2011 kick off at the spiritual home of snowflex – Halifax. Despite the slightly blustery conditions, there was a massive turnout, with crews coming down from both Aberdeen and Glasgow to join the locals in sessioning the slope. With the likes of Marc McClement riding strongly (and taking the Stepchild Child Support Rail Jam prize in the process) the competition was always gonna be tight. However the locals stepped up their game, with Matt MacWhirter throwing down his trademark frontside rodeo sevens in classic style. Meanwhile Sam Turnbull busied himself developing his own take on Halldor Helgason’s Lobster flip – a back rodeo japan. Si Cudlipp, another local talent, was whipping out double frontflips over the legendary ‘Fax kicker too – a trick matched by Scottish rider (and new Westbeach signing) Jesse Smith.

On the women’s side, Halifax local Katie Ormerod dominated the field, throwing down clean 5s and the occasional seven to take first place. Becky Menday claimed a well-deserved second, while Cerys Allen got third. But although the Yorkshire lads were riding strongly, they couldn’t quite match the girls’ achievement, and by the time the three-man super-finals in each age group were called it was the McCormick brothers Matt and Danny who were looking the best in their respective categories. Not only that, but fellow Scots Finn Bremner, Matt Corry and Jesse Smith had also made the top three in their age groups! Matt stepped up and stomped a steezy back seven to claim the top spot in the U-16s, before his older bro Danny landed a massive 900 to take the top spot overall.

A Scottish whitewash south of the border? Well, not quite, as Si Cudlipp took a deserved third place behind Jesse Smith, but there’s definitely some English avenging to be done when the series travels up to Scotland next month. Aberdeen on October the 8th? It’s on. Oh it is oooooon!