Here’s Andy Howell appealing for skate-artists to submit work for what would have been one of (the?) first books on the subject of skateboard art. I wonder if he ever received anything as a result of this?

WINCHESTER RAMP PARK

The skaters of Winchester now have somewhere new to skate courtesy of a novel arrangement between the city authorities and the local skate club. There’s a mini, a spine-mini, and a tarmac area which could be used for street stuff, in the park beside the leisure centre in the middle of the town. The builder of the ramp was also responsible for the Southsea minis, which should give a lot of you an idea what they’re like. The two sets of coping which make up the spine are a bit far apart, though, which is a shame.
The way the ramps have been financed makes the Winchester set-up very different from anything else. Jill Guppy, from the Winchester and District Skateboard Club explained how, after the usual hassling, the council came up with a deal whereby they provided a space and loaned the club some money. Unfortunately instead of just spending the money on skate stuff, the club had to use a fair bit of it to tarmac the area and fence it. The park also has to be supervised. Which means that in order to pay back the loan and the interest on it (and pay for the supervision), this has to be a “pay to skate facility” — currently £1 a session.

ARTISTS WANTED

Andy Howell is working on a book about the creative minds of skateboarding. “All skateboarders are artists, and many artists also enjoy other forms of creative expression beside (or in combination with) skateboarding itself. As an artist I want to see those people recognized in a book which presents a collective look at the artwork of the skateboarding culture.” The book will include biographies and interviews with the artists “Art in any form will be covered, and all mediums of expression are welcome, including painting, photography, sculpting, cartooning, drawing, poetry, prose, music etc.”
If you’d like to know more, write to us including a stamped addressed envelope and we’ll send you a photo-copy of Andy’s suggestions about how to submit some of your work for possible inclusion in the book.

BOWLRIDING COMP

That’s something we haven’t had much of recently, but yes, there’s a bowl-riding competition taking place at the Rampage skate park in Leigh on Sea on June 1st. The bowl’s 6.5 feet high with 12 foot sides. The competition will be for amateurs only. And there’ll also be a bar-B-que, mental sounds plus the new 3-times-bigger-than-now street course and the all-new 12 foot high, 30 feet wide vert ramp. Prizes from local shops — maybe even cash. Call Guy or Simon on 0702 nnnnn for details.

COMPETITION TIME

Here are some dates to stick in your diary if you want to have a good time skating in (or watching) one of the bigger competitions in Britain this year.
The hottest skate event outside continental Europe isn’t actually happening in the UK at all, so you’ll have to hop on a ferry, but anyone with any skate sense will be in Dublin on May 18th and 19th, in the Point Depo Hall to be precise. That’s where Squeez Drinks are staging their big street and ramp contest. All the top names in European skating will be there and so should you be if you want to see a big Euro comp without travelling to somewhere like Münster.
If you want to stick to the UK, though, here are two we can recommend in July. The annual competition at Swansea will take place at the Morfa Stadium on July 6th and 7th. This year it’ll be backed by Hot Tuna, Dave Friar’s Surf Shop and Swansea City Council. The Morfa ramp is one of the very best in Britain and the atmosphere is cool, so you know a lot of hot skaters will be heading down to Wales for that one. And when they’re done they should move over to Southsea — cause everyone know’s that city is famed for its laid back party-style skate comps and rad park.
This year’s Shut up and Skate will take place on Saturday July 13th and is sponsored by Airbourne Zorlac of course. If all goes according to plan they’ll get the final over on Saturday, leaving the evening free for some serious recreation, but this arrangement leaves the option of running the final on Sunday if the weather’s bad on Saturday afternoon.