HEMEL SNOW MYSTERY
We had been working on some urban sessions for a number of months. However, these had been small easy pieces utilising dendix we had sourced from Hemel Ski Centre. They were wicked fun and we did start to learn a lot about how to make an effective urban setup.
After Mikey and I had started working at Xscape in Milton Keynes we considered it a possibility to negotiate some real snow for a session. As we spent most of our time jibbing at Milton then to step it up using a street rail did not seem too tough.
We wanted our first rail to be a simple affair but is had to be a down rail with some stairs and some consequences if we messed up. The ideal one was found on our home turf, Hemel Hempstead.
It was out of the way and easy to setup. We had a heap of snow picked up in a van that Mikey managed to acquire from his work. The crew at Milton blasted in a load of snow and we were wallowing our way down the M1.
We parked up at my yard, and got some much needed rest. Then up at about 6.00am and at the rail for 6.30am. We had managed to secure the services of Scott, which was lucky, considering how much of a mission it was to move the snow. As we did not have a drop-in we built a track leading to the rail. So lots of tubs had to be filled up and taken up a small hill.
Our attempts at a straight run-in ended up looking like a bannana. But it didn't matter too much. Once we had that set up we used a speaker with a bit of mdf and some dendix to form a rather vert kicker. Another thing to sort out on a our future missions.
We also prepped a landing zone with some snow and some thin crash mats just in case things got messy. Being new to the game we didn't know what to expect.
Plus on the bank next to the rail was a nice spike sticking out of the ground from a previous hand rail. Scott had found out about this the hard way with his board being speared on a previous urban session when it last snowed in Hemel. A good hammering pushed it flat.
After a series of runs to pack in the snow we were ready, or at least I was. So I dropped in not knowing what to expect. Slam, just connected my heal edge on the rail and flew onto my back over the rail. A nice and hard start to the session. I would not make that mistake again.
I laid there for a bit, and realised I had not really hurt myself, so I was well up for another hit. Scott was quickly on it with some solid 50/50's. Mikey was shooting away trying to get some pics. I carried on trying to get a solid boardslide, but I was still a little shaky and kept sliding out onto my arse. So I had to change what I was doing. A couple more hits and I got it. A nice backside 50/50 to frontside 180 out. Sweet.
Scott was building up for backlips while Mikey got himself pumped up for his first run. I had the camera and kept trying to get some good angles and document the rest of the session.
Mikey blasted out some solid boardslides after a few attempts and Scott was dialling the backlips. Wicked. I was a little beat up after a few falls, so I chilled and we started to relax and scott had to get ready to go to work. So come approx 9.00am we were beat and ready to packup.
A brill session and a great introduction to the world of urban jibbing, and what followed was a real funny bonus.
The session was on a Sunday morning, and by Thursday someone mentioned that we were in the paper and on the web. Not sure what was going on, but we checked it out. Apparently the snow we had left after the session had sparked a local mystery. People could not figure out where it had come from. The local council and film companies were called. Even the national weather centre were asked to check if Hemel Hempstead had a freak snowfall that week but only in that area. We were pissing ourselves. After a few days of speculation on the web and the first article in the paper. I emailed the newspaper to let them know what we did. They were very interested and wanted some pics and an interview as it's not something you hear of round Hemel. Happy to boost the profile of the crew I gave them a few facts and hey presto, next week we were the front page of the local paper. Awesome.