A quick round of Snolf.

Published on: 23rd December, 2009

After spending three hours sat in the car watching taxis skid about on the fresh snow, we were thinking; is the trip to Tamworth going to be feasible for this years Snolf on Saturday night?

We hoped so. We have been looking forward to the event this year, last years had shown off some bad-ass riding, so we’re hoping for another event that pushed the tempo.

Last years event was the first of it’s kind in the UK, and gave a great new twist on the usual competition format.

The idea of Snolf is to let the riders show off some moves and attempt to get selected for the final round, in which they can select the tricks that fellow finalist have to throw down. The rider with the best score at the end of the final of 9 tricks is declared the champion.

The word had got about, the weather held and riders came from around the UK to session the giant gaspipe with an aim of making their tricks stick for the Snolf title.

Shredders from Halifax, Tam, MK, Cas and Manchester had braved the wild weather for the late night session and the last big event of the decade.

It wasn’t a busy night with perhaps only 30-40 riders on the hill, but this didn’t hinder the flow of the competition, in fact, less of a queue plus such a high standard of riding may have made it even more frantic. Lapping the park on the faithful rope tow was quick and easy and ensured a rapid flow through the features.

As the nights attention was all about the gaspipe, riders didn’t pay much attention to the rest of the park, but they didn’t really need to as stunts were coming thick and fast, Gazza Andrews and Tom Guilmard throwing down a serious challenge to a high class field: Front lip, 270 to 50-50, front 3 out was thrown down with casual arrogance by Mr Andrews, prompting locals such as Dan Oughton and George Wooley to respond with equally sick tricks.

After the break, riders had a brief discussion of  the final tricks, and then preceded to throw down the hammers. John Weatherly was the first up on the trick selection with BS nose tap, BS tail, 270 out. We couldn’t even work that out with out a board…but the finalists had to step up.

Lyndsey Ashdown was the only female representing in the final selection, and did well to put down her tricks, Jack Oughton, John Weatherly, Matt McWhirter and Luke Lightwood all made 4 of the 9 selected bangers to claim a shared 4th place, but the real skills at this years Snolf came from the top three.

While Wayne Taylor frantically tried to keep up with the action on the mic, George Wooley missed only four of the nine tricks to bag third, Tom Guilmard put down six for second but the biggest props had to go out to eventual winner, Gazza Andrews and a thoroughly deserved the number one spot.

Front 50-50, FS one, switch back 3 out was the only trick he missed in a final where each rider only had one attempt to get the points. This included his own call of front 1 on, switch 5-0, to switch back 3 out.

That is some tricked out rail riding at the Tamworth Snowdome and a fitting final event to a rad year of UK shred.  What more can we say?

Bring on 2010! Check the gallery below and look out for the final scoreboard!

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