Tom and Pume do europe (some of it)
at about 11 on Thursday morning Pume picked me up in the trusty MBS berlingo all excited and full of coca cola as usual, we hadn’t booked a ferry yet because we weren’t sure how long the drive was going to take, after about seven hours driving and a quick stop at pumes for pizza and tea, we made it to Dover, where the lovely lady in the petrol station directed us to the local skatepark full of tab smoking, glue sniffing chaves, class!
Neither of us had ever driven abroad before and the combination of that, the torrential rain, the lightning and the crazy ass French drivers made it pretty exciting, but we soon got used to it and cruised the whole way to le saises with no sleep and only a few stops, one being for a sunrise skate in a lay-by, We found what looked like a boarderx track but couldn’t be sure through our sleep filled eyes and some chap directed us to Dieago Anderson (mr French Mountainboarding) who showed us where to put our pop up tent, Ollie then proceeded to drink half the contents of my lucky dip box of beers and some how stay awake till the evening, fair play, I was well done and everyone thought I looked like my dad so I smacked the bag.
Downhill races always make me think of rocks power slides and more rocks, but the track for the world downhill champs was sweet, about three k’s long it started with a service track, went into a long grassy meadow and finished in the woods. We were to lazy to get the camera out and by the time we did it started raining, shame because the silver speed suite at 40 down a mountain would have looked class but hey.
The evening started off with prize giving and champagne most of which ended up on the riders and in Pumes eyes then some grub and down to business, Ryan Slater was on top form, last I saw of him he was riding up the mountain on a motorbike with a lady on the back. Me Sam and Leister had a right laugh at the bars expense, buckets of beer and glasses of wine. Sorry to the man with the fire, I just wanted a go.
Boarderx looked well fun, I say looked because it started at two and I was still passed out near the giant plastic bear unable to move, but I made my way over just in time to cheer on Pume with the other 20 engligh riders who were also to hung over to ride.
We decided to leave for Wanyi park in Belgium that evening and stoped in a f1 hotel about half way for the night for a well needed shower and bed (Scottish you still owe me for that).
got to Wanyi at about 2 the next day, in time to have a ride and a skate, ill never get tired of that place, the lift, the park and the fun layed back attitude of the crew, its just like being at home and true to that it started to rain, and kept raining on and off for the next few days, but we got some class riding in and everyone was ripping Pume an Sam aving the big hip, Slater sessioning the one eightie to one eight to one eighties, Joel being Joel and Me and Scotland on the rails, it was a pleasure to ride with those guys, good times. On the second day we had mega game of slopestyle skate which lasted for a good few hours and involved all sorts of sickness from 50 50s to frontboard to syncronised powerslides, this was one of the funnest days riding ive ever had.
After three days of chatting partying and genral merryness it was time to move on, next stop Winterberg Germany, one of my favourite places in the whole world.
tom and pume do europ 2 from tom kikman on Vimeo.
finally we arrived in not so sunny Winterberg, we had left Ted and his crew about 200 miles away after having followed them around the same set of roundabouts three times, we drove round town a few times trying to find them, Ollie doing gears and me on steering, pedals and horn, no joy though, turns out they were sat in macky d’s just down the road waiting for the rain to stop.
Neither of us could handle getting out of the van to set up the tent so we chucked all our stuff into the front and made a bed in the back, it started off being well comfy but when I woke with Pumes feet up my nose and mine wedged in between my board the seat and his head I punched myself for being such a lazy bastard.
We woke up to find floren and his lot already out shaping the jumps with their trademark sand that makes the place work so well even when it’s really wet. After setting up our tent and hitting the super market for cheese meat and bread we went for a ride, and what a ride it was. The jumps were running perfect, three nice tables in a row that you could trick and still have the speed for the next, they were the first good jumps we had hit on the trip which made it even sweeter, we rode for a few hour then the others joined us. It went off, Garry the wild was going wild and landed some sick shit, Sam was laying down his trademark super smooth super tweaked backflips, Front flip didn’t do a front flip but was busting some epic bs 180’s, Joel did three bad ass rigor mortises in a row aaaaaah yeah, Slater was slashing the wall ride like some sort of slashing god and bomber, oooow bomber after landing a perfect corked bs 540 (that we didn’t get on camera, laziness on my part again) stacked it hard which put him out with a yellow shoulder for the rest of the trip.
Night fell and we all made our way the whole 20 meters from our tents to moppies bar at the bottom of the slope where it all got a bit messy and I somehow won a pack of cards and some dice for drinking 9 litres of beer, which I must stress isn’t big and defiantly isn’t clever. The night ended with a frantic search for the van keys that I had put in my pocket without realising that there wasn’t a pocket in my trousers, I got up at six the next morning and to my relief found them just outside the bar, o yeah ive got to mention Ollie licking some guys shiny bald head. Great night, as ever in Winterberg.
Race day, I woke up and puked, twice, and then went back to bed.
I arrived at the park to some wild little chap shouting to front flip over an over at me so I did, it was exactly what I needed to sort me out, a few runs later we all made our way over to the boarderX and sat at the top waiting for our go. One hour later I was in the final going round the last corner with Joel tanking it up behind me shouting im gona win, an he nearly did, it was almost a photo finish moment, I got to the bottom with a flat tyre, glad that that was over because I felt sick again and it had started raining.
We all put our best shirts on and wandered down to the bar for some food and prize giving, Joel was in real need of some shoes as his toes were sticking out of the end of his, and that’s exactly what he won and a sausage, and for me there was a bottle of apple liquor, the last thing I wanted to see, smell of drink so I poured it all into shots and gave everyone in the bar one.
We set off to Tener the cheesiest club in Winterberg for a bit of dancing and to try and find a wife, I wasn’t drinking so the whole experience was a bit weird for me, all my mates going wild and smashing shit up didn’t seem quite as cool when I was sober, Slater has to get the man of the night award, that guy is some sort of partying monster.
Ted and the bays left early, and now it was Ollie’s turn to feel like shit, he didn’t move till about 3 and he only did because I smoked him out of the tent by having a barbeque just outside. I spent most of the day driving round beeping the horn at people as it was raining and I couldn’t think of anything better to do.
href="http://vimeo.com/user2218223">tom kikman on Vimeo.
The next day the weather cleared up no one had a hangover and we had the park to ourselves, this was one of the funnest sessions ive ever had, shame ollie was still to hurt to ride me so I wont go on about it to much because I know he was gutted, we left early the next morning after a coffie and some breakfast at moppies, and made it to the ferry in record time, they wouldn’t let us on though so we had to wait till 10.
Driving on the correct side of the road felt well weird even though I wasnt even driving, we had the delights of londons best pirate radio station to help us through it though and after that little bost the rest was easy. All in all I had one of the best trips of my life just a shame there wernt a few more of us to enjoy it with, bring on next time.
Many many thanks to mbs Europe for supplying the veicle and helping us get around, none of it could have happened without them so buy an mbs and then we can go off to play again soon, che baaaaaa
o yeah sorry this is so long but i had to put it all in, and the amount of classic times i missed out like slater running down the road with a 7ft tall stone woman while i was draging pume behind me, just an example.
August 31st, 2009 at 3:08 pm
I say chaps what a thoroughly splendid old shindig, you can’t beat a bit of the old open road and never-ending why.. top times! sounds n looks like the riding went off and the stories and japes- pure hilarity, jolly well done what what!