Vintage BMX From 1985

Southsea Skatepark has had a long and strong history with BMX as these clips from the King of The Skatepark competition back in 1985 testify. The footage is of Craig Campbell and Neil Ruffell making the bowl look positively tiny and easy to ride. Which it certainly isn’t.

Always loved Skyway. Iconic logo too.

Tags: Craig Campbell, King of The Skatepark, Neil Ruffell

Mini Ramp Update

Went by the skatepark yesterday, the mini ramp is progressing and is estimated to be finished in a week or two. When it is open the skatepark will be hiring out skateboards and doing lessons in the morning sessions at the weekend, so a perfect opportunity for anyone of any age to try out skating. More news on that nearer the time.

Tags: Mini-ramp, Southsea Skatepark Mini Ramp

Southsea Skatepark Mini Ramp

Well, my informant might have been a little ahead of schedule at the weekend. Which is a real shame, but by no means a downer. This mini is looking sick already. 30 foot wide and 4 foot high. Perfect for beginners and old dogs alike. Would benefit from a goofy and regular tombstone maybe, or even a channel. Hey, I can’t complain though, this is very exciting.

Sorry Borneo, it looks like the session will have to literally take a rain check, but believe me, the back lip to back smith reverts are coming soon. Photo courtesy of Claire Sambrooks early morning dog walk.

Tags: Southsea Skatepark Mini Ramp

Skatepark Mini-Ramp Update

Interesting pub gossip from local transition tweaker Borneo tells me that the mini ramp will quite possibly be finished this Wednesday 24th. If so, this means the first session is officially on and to ice the cake so to speak it’s Borneos birthday as well.

All the money raised over the last year or so has been matched by the Council and the ramp is due to be built and completed by the end of March. The ramp will be about 4 feet high and perfect for beginners and old souls alike.

All involved in getting the mini-ramp offer their thanks to everyone that supported and donated to the fund-raising events. If you think you can offer any help, fund-raising ideas or sponsorship please get in contact with Chris Richards at chris.richards@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.

Tags: Mini-ramp

Snow and Skatepark

I’ve put up some snowy photos of Southsea skatepark over at Forever Circling, they were taken back on Wednesday when the snow was heaviest.

Tags: skatepark, Snow, Southsea Common

Old Southsea Skatepark Footage

This is a great collection of old super8 and film footage of skateboarding from the 70s and 80s. From about 3 minutes in there is a little section filmed at Southsea, amazing how the entrance hasn’t changed in decades.

Skatepark Users Meeting

A meeting for all users of Southsea Skatepark will be held at the skatepark on Monday at 7pm. The meeting will be to decide what to do concerning all of the money raised previously and the subsequent options available for the new mini ramp. If you wish to get involved be sure to attend.

King Kong: More Photos

Just heard that the King Kong event at the skatepark was attended by 350-400 people on Sunday, the busiest it has been in a long while, plus a fair bit of money was raised to help support the park and make some much needed repairs. Here are some photos from the day, you can see more over at Forever Circling.

Tags: King Kong

Southsea Skate Jam – King Kong

The skate session at the park today went off. So much went down it was insane. Jak, Clilverd and Noddys vert session was pretty special. Awesome to see the vert ramp skated. It’s so battered and old. Borneo destroyed not only the park but himself. Backside ollie from the quarter to the vert wall is always a treat to watch. Noddy (I think that was his name) dropped in from the club house vert wall. Seriously sick. Adam’s buttery skills and backside 360 kickflip over the driveway was insane and Jak’s double kickflip took the biscuit. Co-organiser Codys noseslide along the whole driveway ledge and down across the end block was a huge crowd pleaser. Clilverd was robbed trying to cab the driveway and bust himself up pretty bad.

Just a taster of went went down today. I left before the results as I was really hungry but Paul was taking photos as well so expect some more coverage and results later in the week. For now you can check out a few more photos on my Flickr. Oddly, the first skate photos I’ve taken since the early 90’s.

Tags: Southsea Skatepark

King Kong at Southsea Skatepark – This Sunday 4th

The King Kong fundraiser held in Southsea Skatepark between 12midday & 6pm will be going ahead as planned. The weather looks slightly less hot than the last week, but will hopefully shine on the day entertainment.

LIVE & DJED
Ska/Punk, Pop, Indie, Metal, Rock, Hip Hop, Drum’nBass & Dubstep music from, Kids Cant Fly, Little London, Dred, The White Coats, Kizmit, Jack Presto Fotza, Barrie Bun Roi, Grayzee, Ruby Soho, Underbeat, Spikey Mark & Danny Bass hosted by the one and only MC Sidekick.

SKATEBOARD, BMX & IN-LINE COMPS
With prizes kindly being donated from BORED skateshop & TKUK amongst others. Remember, if competing you need to sign up between 12.00 & 12.40.

+ GRAFFITI ARTISTS, FREE RUNNING SHOWCASES, BBQS & STALLS SELLING NICE STUFF.

All for just £4 and don’t forget the after party @ LJRs, with Gentle Bren on the decks and free entry you can’t go wrong!

› Continue reading

Tags: King Kong, Southsea Skatepark

Support Southsea Skatepark T-Shirt Sale

On Sunday Bored will be selling the Spitfire Wheels collaboration Support Southsea Skatepark t-shirts for only £5 in the continuing effort to raise money for improvements at the skatepark. All in all it looks like Bored and the Skatepark User Group will have raised over £1000 with these t-shirts, awesome work all involved!

Tags: Bored, Spitfire Wheels

The Abrooks

The infamous 1980s Southsea locals Mark & Barry Abrook, doubles on the halfpipe at the skatepark from 1990.

Tags: Barry Abrook, Mark Abrook

Jak Tonge – 2007

Tom from Bored was clearing out an old harddrive and found this clip of Jak from a couple of years ago, awesome stuff:

Tags: Bored, Jak Tonge

PCM Free Art Giveaway – Video & Photos

Sunday’s Portsmouth Creative Movement Free Art Giveaway at the skatepark went down really well, lots of art was picked up and the skatepark had a huge facelift from all of the graffiti and stencil art. On top of that the event raised money for the Skatepark fund. Awesome work by Lex, Elmo and everyone at PCM plus all of the artists and Southsea Skatepark.

Check for loads of photos on the PCM Flickr group plus the ones below taken by Elmo. Also check the video too.

› Continue reading

Tags: Free Art Giveaway, Portsmouth Creative Movement

King Kong Southsea Skatepark Jam

This event isn’t till the 4th of October but we’ve put this post up to make sure it goes in your diaries. We’ll put another more concise post up closer to the time. Plus I’m a bit busy. Here’s what Nick Stokes has to say.

S.N. Events & the Skate Park User Group presents KING KONG your chance to watch & take part in extreme sports, listen to some fantastc live music, eat slighty burnt bbq food, catch some handy grafftit artists at work and help raise some money for the South Coast’s premier skatepark all at the same time! Well if your any good at multi-tasking anyway. Join the Facebook thing HERE.

Tags: King Kong, skatepark, Southsea Skatepark Users Group

Southsea Skatepark Reunion 2009

This years Southsea Skatepark reunion is to be held on Saturday 28th of August (the bank holiday weekend) at, obviously, the skatepark. Expect many old faces to come out of the woodwork for a skate. The skatepark will be open from 10am to 6pm with the main meeting beginning at around 2pm. Will see you there!

For more information see www.southseaskatepark.com and www.southseaskatepark.co.uk.

Tags: Reunion

eS Game of Skate

eS Footwear in association with Bored will be hosting one of the qualifying legs of the national 2009 UK Game of Skate at the Red Flat (the area of red tarmac between the pier and the Pyramids) on Sunday 16th August. The winner will go through to the UK finals in Manchester and the winner there will be flown out to the European final in Paris. Tech out that flatland in preparation. For more information hit up Bored and check esgameofskate.com.

Tags: Bored, eS Game of Skate

Ollie the Gap

The first UK skate video Ollie The Gap is being remastered ready to be released on DVD in August. Originally filmed back in 87 and 88 the video features loads of skating from the tours and demos of the time, in particular the Powell tour with Cab and a young Mike Vallely and the Holeshot visit with Jason Jessee, Hosoi, etc. As well as that though is a wealth of vintage footage of some of the UKs early innovators such as Sean Goff, Wurzel, Lucian Hendrix, Crispin, Rob Dukes, Ged Wells, etc, etc – of particular interest is the first modern street skating footage filmed around London and the south coast, in particular lots of footage from Southsea.

For more info check www.nangskateboards.com.

Check in the titles footage of the Isle of Wight’s Ged Wells rock ‘n’ rolling the Law Courts over 20 years ago, that would be legit now. Also keep an eye out for the famous old Southsea snake flat bar.

Tags: Ollie the Gap

Southsea Skatepark Funkraiser

The next fundraiser evening to raise money for the continued support and improvement of Southsea Skatepark will be on 22nd May at Little Johnny Russells and will feature a load of DJs playing on the night. It’ll be a minimum donation of £2 to get in and hopefully this’ll be a huge step closer to meeting the target for the miniramp!

For more information hit up the Facebook event.

Tags: Little Johnny Russells, SPUG

Mark Webb – Full English

Effraim has sent us through some more BMX footage, this time of Southsea very own Mark Webb. We did a post on Mark before, a short film entitled Mark by video students from Portsmouth University.

I’m not sure what the background for this footage is, but it’s off the hook. This guy kills it. Check out the slow motion 900 on the quarter pipe. Nuts.

Tags: BMX, Mark Webb, Southsea Skatepark