Words & Photos by Ed

It’s been a while coming because we’ve been frantically getting the first issue of the season off to print (wahoo!) but did you think we’d forgotten our own event? Hell no! Here’s the lowdown on the final leg of the Whitelines Rail Jam Tour, which took place at the Castleford SNO!zone on 26th August.

The guys at Cas put on a great park as always. We were especially stoked with the spotlights on all the obstacles, which added to the atmosphere and made shooting a whole lot easier. The set-up consisted of a down-bar, the famous Nike 6.0 Stairset, a three-way DC feature and, to finish off, a miniature version of the raised funbox which in 2009 won Castleford the WL Indoor Park Battle shaping contest.

Despite the bank holiday traffic (it took us an unbelievable 9 hours to make the journey North – big thanks to Luke Fitzgerald for holding the music down) there was a solid turnout of riders from all parts of the UK. Special mention goes out to Jamie Trinder, Finn Bremner, Angus Malloch and his undercover female friend (don’t ask!) who came all the way down from Scotland.

For the Castleford Jam we decided to introduce a new format, doing away with a pressured final in favour of a relaxed, continuous jam with fun spot prizes and some end-of-the-night awards from the likes of Lib Tech, Quiksilver, Dragon and… well… whatever we could find in the cupboards at WL HQ! With the slope open until midnight, the riders got stuck into an epic session while the judges shifted their focus from obstacle to obstacle.

The Stairset saw some of the likes of Stu Edwards, Si Cudlip and local ripper Matt Macwhirter throw down some insane variations – Macwhirter was especially impressive, displaying a supremely steezy style which he’s been honing to perfection over in Tahoe. Meanwhile the DC feature pretty much belonged to the Scottish boys Malloch and Trinder – with Jamie’s frontflip to handplants over the lollipop sign a highlight of the evening.

With DJ Tristan on the wheels of steel and Scott Penman providing some amusing commentary (“Si Cudlip is currently signing autographs of the new Whitelines Basics Mag at the bottom…”) things progressed smoothly enough – at least until the final prize had been handed out and we tossed all the remaining goodies over the heads of the assembled crowd of groms (and grown men-and-women who should know better). The Hackney looters ain’t got nothing on this, trust.

All that was left was to beat a retreat past the Xscape pubs and clubs, out of which were pouring a steady stream of muscled blokes in shirts and northern girls in not-very-much, and into the Yorkshire rain. Job done. Scroll down to view the full photo gallery.

Massive shout-out to our partners on the Rail Jam Tour: Mikee and the For Boarders By Boarders crew (FBBB), who helped organise everything; Lib Tech, Gnu, Quiksilver, Union and Dragon for providing demo boards and prizes; and of course the Castelford SNO!zone and Hemel Hempstead Snow Centre for hosting the events.

Results

Best Overall Male – Matt Macwhirter
£100 + Union Binding + Dragon Goggles + WL Subscription
Best Overall Female – Emilia Vanni
£50 + Union Binding + Dragon Goggles + WL Subscription
Best Overall Grom – Rowan Coultas
£50 + Union Binding + Dragon Goggles + WL Subscription
Best Overall Trick – Jamie Trinder (Frontflip Handplant)
Union Binding + Lib Tech Skate Deck + WL Subscription

Most Dedicated – Johnny Fountain
Union Binding + Dragon Goggles
Best Slam – Angus Malloch
Union Binding + Dragon Goggles
Best Unsponsored – Mystery Girl
Union Binding + Quiksilver Outerwear + WL Subscription
Nike Stairset Trick – Si Cudlip
Union Binding
DC Feature Trick – Calum Paton
Union Binding