Videophone technology, eh. Where'd we be without it. Without this picture of Buckingham Palace by Dan, basically.
London. Capital of England, the UK, and street. Most people will have heard of some of the spots there either through video, photographs or word of mouth. You can pick up pretty much any BMX magazine at the moment and there'll be at least two or three photos from London there, so as you can imagine there's quite a strong draw to it from BMXers. Dan had come down to stay with me at Southbank before after I'd lived there for a week, and that stay coupled with some random cruises around London back when Dan was living in the cultural epicentre of the UK, Slough. Anyway, with these little tasters of what London had to offer, coupled with a desire to film some new stuff for Joel's up-coming mixtape, it was decided that finally, some of the DISSRM crew would head to London. This is where Dan takes up the story...
Joel, railstall to fakie, Wandsworth.
Writing: Mark + Dan where credited.
Photography: Mark
Video: Joel
Get a tripod!
So, we'd been talking about taking a trip up to London for a while- I'd ridden there a few times already so I knew there were at least 1,457,976.3 super-sweet spots that Joel would love to get pro on and as my Bro lives in central LDN too it just made sense…
Another hectic Southbank session, check out the crowd. Poor pic of SB local Mike whipping in. Boost!
Being as Joel and I are incredibly popular and tend to have all kinds of shit going on at weekends and being as Joel can sometimes be a little 'cash exempt' toward the end of a loan period, it took a while from actually deciding we should go to actually going. Anyway one weekend at the end of April the stars aligned, Joel made a withdrawal from the bank of Pijin and I rinsed the mileage on my company car… London ho!
Long exposure + a zoom lens = ______
We got there at about 9pm on the Friday, parked up outside a friends house and made the near-epic 8 mile ride over to where we would actually be staying at Marky's place. We dropped our bags off hit up a generic fast food outlet and then made our way over to Southbank™, a mere 2 minute ride from Marky's front door! It seems like whenever you go to Southbank for the first time, it's not quite what you were expecting- it's a nice little spot, that's fun to ride, is pretty good for meeting up with other riders and is somewhere where you don't tend to get kicked off from.
Joel, toothyhanger on the grind block at Southbank. Don't tell the skaters...
You guessed it...
We rode there for a little while and then made our way over to St Paul's stair sets- a longish 6 followed by a longish 5 followed by a longish 4… Marky busted out a bump 180 up the 5 first go and then proceeded to not quite get it again as soon as the camera came out- it did make for some 'grade A' crashes though! Joel 3'd the 6 and I repeatedly bitched out of a 180, until our session was cut short by the unfortunate combination of a group of police officers and a James Smith…
Ice, ice, baby.
After a nice chat James and the police said their goodbyes and we headed of to ride a pretty steep flatbank set-up down by the Thames. Joel did some pretty high airs and I pulled a Fastplant on the bank to Danplant on the floor…
That's not coming out any time soon...
Joel, air, steep as hell bank, by the Thames
Home-time; making our way back to Marky's whilst crossing the Thames on the Millennium bridge we made acquaintance with one of London's finest constabulary- I won't go into the details here, as it makes me a little bit angry thinking about it, but the simple case of a small group of BMXers crossing an empty bridge at 2 in the morning resulted in the tactical firearms response unit being called out, an arrest, a 'de-arrest' and a butt-load of hassle… Why you might ask? One simple reason: the policeman in question, was a Dick.
Focus check, Wandsworth.
Fully launched table, Miscellaneous Park. To flat.
After finally being let on our way stiff drinks and then beddy-byes were in order- God did not quite see it that way and decided as one last act of annoyance to tear the bag holding said stiff drinks and spill it's contents on the ground, which happened to be on a particularly busy central London road. We went to sleep that night, with the sound of a Merc's low profile tyres crunching over a load of broken glass, ringing in our ears…
Dan, wallride at E&C
On Saturday we woke up bright and not-so-early and rode about half a mile down the road to go and ride the bank to rail set-up of Marv crooks to crash fame. The bank looks rough as hell (and probably is if you're sliding your knee down it…), but is actually really nice to ride, as there is a nice transition into the bottom of it. Joel got rad over the hip I did some wallrides and ate some noodles and Marky took some photos.
Joel, fishy toboggan, pre-knee death.
Elephant and Castle is a pretty weird place, it's kind of a melting pot of different people and cultures and as a result there's some really good, quite obscure eateries and a healthy dose of shade. The next spot we rode has on past trips always been admired from afar rather than ridden, mainly due to the aforementioned shade. However, luck was on our side that day and we actually got to session it for quite a while. It's a really good brick bank/bump affair with lines aplenty that is well worth seeking out, if you are man enough…
Joel, opposite wall carve to pop out to whip to pedals, at Miscellaneous Park.
Late afternoonish we decided to head back to Southbank to see if we could muster up a few people to join us on a trip to 'Miscellaneous Park'; no dice unfortunately, but we had an 'A to Z' and a will to ride one of the weirdest set-ups north of the Thames. Miscellaneous Park is not a skate park, it's just a park, but it has a kid's playground somewhere in it that has on one side some massive slides and loads of hipped and spined flatbanks and on the other side there's a pretty weird dried out fountain thing that can only really be understood by going there- both sides are really fun and quite different to ride.
Joel, toboggan, E&C
It was quite dark by the time we left, it was a bit past my bedtime, I was quite tired and was pretty much done for the day. Or so I thought… So we rode the few miles back to Marky's place and stopped for some pizza on the way and it was goood pizza. The pizza place happened to be just around the corner from another fairly well known London riding spot, the Shell Centre - Joel and Marky fancied hitting it up and I was quite happy to cruise over and chill a bit while the other guys rode. It's a six backed onto another six with a wide three set running along the top. Joel did a pretty pro hop to manual on top of the three dropped down to hangfive along a lower section and threw a 3 down the six set. Nice. Marky was bump-hopping up the six and 180ing down them. I fancied the look of the 180 and proceeded to thoroughly annoy myself by bitching out again and again and again. This went on for some time until I was so pissed off with myself that I threw the 180 half hoping I would crash to serve as a punishment to myself.
Dan, E&C, reverse angle.
We couldn't really leave it at that and as Southbank was on the way back to Marky's, we decided to hit it up as a wind-down. Again, it didn't quite work out like that and at 2 in the morning mildly inebriated Marky and I were sending our selves 180 degrees down Southbank seven set.
Dan, 180 down Southbank 7-set, with the help of furious anger (and cider).
On Sunday we had planned to ride the London's calling route backwards the idea was that we would end up at Wandsworth roundabout, which happens to be pretty close to where we parked the car...
Dan, 180table. I won't come up with a smarmy caption for it...
...So, I guess this is where I take over the story. With Dan being pretty much totalled after a day of riding around with a haggard body, he remained pretty chillaxed throughout the day, stopping to push us all into doing stuff we were unsure of (apart from a 180 over a bench off that red-brick wall-bank-wall setup you'll see in the video, needs to be pulled!).
After a brief breakfast at a coffee place near the Thames, we headed over to Southbank to recruit for the day. To our surprise, there was only one rider there, so we duly asked him if he wanted to hit up some street with us. Ash said yes, and so off we went, with a fresh rider in tow.
I know what you're thinking - how can he get that close, without getting hit? Well, tyre-buzz on my hand 0.5seconds later should give you an idea...
Cruising down the river, passing without riding the Guys & St. Thomas 4-set, onwards to Vauxhall bridge. This is where some local knowledge came into play, and we headed off to Vauxhall wallrides. In the Vauxhall/Lambeth bridge area, there's some amazing street hidden down various back alleys that could easily keep you happy for a whole day, so picking a couple of spots was a tricky one. In the end, Dan and Joel flowed around the curved wallrides there, with Joel fancying some tricks out of them. After a while though, we decided to head out and try and make up some ground.
Joel, Vauxhall wallride. Full art-fag in effect...
That was all well and good until we hit the next spot, the aforementioned wall-bank-wall setup. Out came the videocamera and a couple of lines got filmed, and off we headed. For about another 10m. A tight little 5-set with less than a bike-lengths run-out (you had to kink it like hell...) was crying out for a 180 up, so I obliged it. A few goes later to get the perfect roll-back and we were off. For again, about 10m. With a mini version of the earlier wall-bank-wall setup which acted as a scary (if you over-cooked a stall, it was a 20ft drop to stones and water) bank-to-sub. Joel manned up and threw down some toothy chinks, and with that successfuly captured on digital film we headed off. To the other side of the road.
Dan, same place.
This tight little setup was basically no more than an elongated U-shape made out of bricks, which was given the drop-in-to-feeble treatment by Ash, the ride-along to 180 out to half-cab onto the road treatment by me, and the ride-along to bars and whip out by Joel. Dan threw a table (I think?) and called it a day at that spot. Ash killed his tube, and without a patchkit, spare tube, socket set or indeed pump, we were in a fully 'no dice' situation as far as fixing it went. Fortunately, in that we'd only ended up travelling about 5ft from Southbank in 24hrs of riding, it meant he didn't have far to walk back...
Dan, 180table, pre-hand and rib death.
After the U-wall setup, we actually had a decent ride to hit up the next spot. We took a quick tour of some skate-stoppered marble ledges, saw the massive 14-set that Marty W 3'd down in the London's Calling jam, and then cruised through Battersea park. It was then that my up-until-then lovely KMC 710SL decided to break, as we crossed a busy road. Fortunately, and I have no idea how, it was the most relaxed chain-break ever. With nothing more than a savage *ting* as my chain whipped the right stay on my new frame (thanks...), it flew across the road leaving me to wonder how I hadn't a) gone over the bars, b) kneed my stem really hard, or c) been mown down by on-coming traffic.
Joel, chilling at Wandsworth. 72hrs in London. 36hrs spent riding.
Similarly to Ash's earlier situation, we were left several miles from home, with me sans chain. Fortunately, the car wasn't parked too far away, so with a quite bar and stem swap, I was left to lead Joel the rest of the way while Dan scooted back to the car, and his friend's house.
..
Probably some sort of OCD thing going on while we watched Left-Right and the footage from that day.
The next spot we hit up featured the load of red-brick steps and banks that you'll see Joel shut down in the video. After a few goes at the 'easy' line, Joel sent the line with the 360 and whip ender. All good.
Fancy pizza, ultimate session restarter?
With that sessioned, we made our way further down the river past another couple of London land-marks (the heli-port, Battersea Powerstation + Dogs Home), and hit up the set of a scene from "A Clockwork Orange" and many BMX videos. Wandsworth roundabout is a weird one.
To get into the actual riding area of Wandsworth roundabout, you have to cross a super busy road to get into the under-pass to get into the centre of it. When you ride down the narrow alley towards the entrance to the tunnel that'll transport you from dreary London suburbia to street paradise, you're filled with a sort of "I hope this doesn't end up on Crimewatch" moment as you turn the corner, not sure if you're going to get mugged or not. Fortunately, Wandsworth is actually pretty sketch-free, and as soon as you get into the tunnel, you can ride the little bank to wallrides that line the tunnel walls. This little apperitif serves only to break you into the awesomeness of Wandsworth.
Late night? Early start? Long ride ahead? Coffee? Plan.
You know sometimes you think "Why did they design that like that?" when you see monuments, buildings and so on? Wandsworth is really one of those. Massive concrete banks lead to perfectly sized wallrides and sub boxes, and quick-creted in transitions at the bottom and on the lips of the banks means you can flow around this place like it's one gigantic skatepark (a la Joe Fox, which you'll all see all too soon in the Shook video "Over The Pond"). It really is too good.
However, 2 14-hr riding days had kinda taken it's toll on us, and after rinsing the McDonalds Employee Discount card at the Golden Arches above Wandsworth, we decided to call it a day, after Joel finished his last challenge, the Wandsworth rail. Remember I said Dan visited me after the first week I'd lived in London? Well, we ended up at Wandsworth then, and met up with some other riders. One of them did the rail to fakie, and I'd always wanted to be there again when someone did it when I had a better camera setup so I could get 'that' photo on it. Fortunately, Joel was there, and my setup allowed me to almost realise the angle I wanted. It's close enough, anyway...
Joel, second angle rail stall.
After that, Joel and I packed up our things and began the mission back to Southbank. With a near flat-out 20minute ride to get back to Southbank, off we pedalled.
Joel, whip again, reverse angle.
Time flew past and we reached the welcoming harsh banks of Southbank, and also met London rider Taliban Tom. Taliban had been out filming for the new video by Marv (of Voices fame), 'Nang', and let us check out some of the footage. The main talking point was the ridiculously long wallride Taliban had tried, down a long, long 14-set. With not quite enough speed, Taliban had to gap off it early, and ended up clipping the last step with the front wheel. We watched the actual slam frame-by-frame, simply because as he goes over the front, his hands don't actually leave the bars until the knuckles of his right hand hit the floor.
Brutal.
Fortunately, Taliban's made of rock and iron, so he was relatively unscathed, and lived to fight another day.
Double-tyre to whip.
It was about this time that Dan called to say he'd driven back to my place, so off we went for the last time to go pick up Dan and Joel's things from my flat.
With the car packed and their weary bodies folded into position in what little space was left, Dan and Joel cruised off, thus ending their London session.
Tourists!
They say a picture says a thousand words, so a 3:30 long video at about 24fps would give you about 5, 040, 000 words, which is approx. the length of this blog. A nice, round way to end it off, don't you think?
Enjoy...