News and Events

UK Boardrider Clothing UKB "Live Large" Clothing range designed specificly with boardriders in mind launched this month with the introduction of the Zip Thru Traveller Hoodie. If you are a retailer and would like to be a part of a fresh new UK based boardsports clothing brand then contact us for a sneak preview of our range. Info@ukboardrider.com Get Your Boards Out - UK Snow!! Fancy taking advantage of this week’s decent dump of snow, then head for the best spots for snowboarding in England and Wales. It’s not often we get a decent fall of snow in the south of England, and especially in London, so last night I seized the opportunity to go snowboarding in London and headed to the biggest hill I could think of near my home, the park that runs down from Alexandra Palace. Once we got up the hill it was worth the odd glances on the train there. Through the dark you could make out the city stretching out below and the hill - which stretches across about 500 metres and is about 200 metres long - was still covered in snow. The beauty of urban snowboarding is it works at night, so we spent the next two hours riding down and hiking up, joining a handful of other snowboarders and a bloke on skis. There was also a healthy contingent of night time sledgers with classic modern day makeshift sleds – including recycling bin lids, a lilo and the credit crunch downhill option, stolen estate agents’ boards. Unfortunately, Mount Ally Pally won’t be staying open for long this winter. I suspect conditions will already have deteriorated badly and there are no snow cannons to supplement the dwindling snow. Snowboarding on the hills of England is possible with surprising regularity. Run by enthusiasts and open to the public, there are hills in the Lake District, Northumberland, County Durham and Wales that have simple lifts and runs many times the size of an artificial slope. Some even have small ski lodge buildings. The best guide to these I’ve come across was written by Chris Moran for the Guardian . Here you can find out how to go skiing or snowboarding at Yad Moss, Allenheads, Swinhope and even about the legendary rope tows at Pen Y Fan in Wales. It’s not the Alps, it’s not even Scotland. But if you fancy a day’s snowboarding or skiing for a fraction of the cost of heading to France, Austria or Switzerland, and a great story to tell, then the hills of England are waiting for you. Maybe I’ll see you there. - FT.com: Skiing in County Durham - Hittingkickers.com: Snowboarding at Yad Moss - SkiClub.co.uk: British skiers and boarders hit the snow - Snowboardclub.co.uk: Snowboarding in the UK PS. After more snow at the end of last week, the English ski areas listed above have enjoyed magnificent conditions and for those wanting a money saving ski or snowboard trip Scotland is also looking great. We couldn't make it up north to try out any of the English, or even Scottish, areas, instead we headed to the nearest big hills I could think of - Dunstable Downs. On Saturday the snow and weather was perfect and best of all it was free. UK Pro Surf Tour, AXL/DOH Pro 09 Latest... Venue: Rest bay, Porthcawl Date: 31th Oct -1st Nov 2009 Sponsors: Billabong, Santa Cruz, Realm, Sanuk, Carve SNOWBOARD REVIEW - ENDEAVOR LIVE ENDEAVORLIVE£355 Best for Park monkeys who shred off piste too Why? The Live is a twin-tip with a lively medium flex and a deep sidecut. The latter allows the sharp manoeuvrability required for negotiating icy pipe while retaining a solid and predictable feel. It’s at home in the park and performs admirably on steep powder runs and everywhere in between, making it ideal for progressing freestylers. What’s more, it has a top quality sintered base to keep you ahead of your friends on the flat. Lengths 148, 153, 156, 157 wide, 159, 161 wide, 163 “Felt really solid, reactive and fast. I wanted to keep pushing this board, and it rewarded.” Chris Shannon UKB Now Stocking Ftwo Boards & Bindings F2, Massive in the windsurfing world, are also huge throughout Europe with their sister FTWO Snowboard brand, now available for the first time in the UK. FTWO dominate market for alpine and race snowboards, with thier highest quality championship winning models regularly on the podium. But FTWO also have a fantastic range of more affordable models in all moutain, freestyle and jib specific designs. FTWO has a long history of board design, technology, experience and riding passion. Fronted by riders such as Stephan Gimpl and Mikka Hast, you simply cannot ignore the quality and performance of their boards and bindings. UKBoardrider is now a proud stockist of FTWO Boards and bindings. Check them out! UKB Now Stocking Endeavor Snowboards ukboardrider.com is proud to stock the new 2010 range of Endeavor Snowboards Endeavor is a Top end Canadian based brand that was set up in 2001 by Max Jenke, Scott Serfas, Randy Ross, Chris Martin, and Rob Dow and soon after they set up Paavo Tikkanen came on board to complete the Endeavor Crew. There first boards were produced in 2002 and they haven’t looked back since. After four years, Endeavor continues to be rooted firmly in the snowboard industry, designing and manufacturing superior quality products for the high-end leaders who set the trends. Forward thinking and creative strategies have contributed to Endeavor’s successes to date and will continue to drive the construction and reconstruction of how a snowboard brand operates. Endeavor Snowboards is about people, real people who snowboard, have passions and dreams and live their lives to the fullest and aim to inspire and be inspired. The Boards Endeavors premium boards, such as the BOD (Board of directors – AKA Kale Stephens Pro Model), Pavvo (pro model), Roots (Sjingo Kawano pro Model) and Hi-5 are hand made in Vancouver just around the corner from there office in the Option Snowboards Factory. Quality and performance and materials are top notch as you would expect from a top end Canadian brand all use 4000 sintered bases and aspen wood cores. The cheaper boards are produced in Austria and again using premium materials and production techniques. The graphics are something Endeavor put a lot of work into, each board takes on a theme and they put a lot of time and effort into each theme using designers from all around the world. The Hi-5 this year has taken on the ENN (Endeavor news network theme) a rip off of the CNN new channel. The high-5 has always been about fighting for youre rights and standing up for yourself but the ENN theme developes this and re-enforces the fact that you shouldn’t always believe what you see in the media, and it’s you as a consumer who should form youre own view and opinions. Other boards use art work from designers such as Marok and Corey Sheppard both established artists with amazing style. British performing well in the European Championships 2009 British Surfers have put in a strong performance so far at the European Championships 2009 which are being held in Jersey this week, with 6 out of the 12 quarter finalists in the longboard division coming from British soil! Ben Skinner, Elliot Dudley, Michael Lay, Dan Harris, James Parry and Gordon Blake all put in strong performances to guarantee their places in the quarter finals, so it’s looking likely that the European longboard champ will be British – watch this space! The short boarders are also performing well, with Alan Stokes winning his 2nd Round heat with a convincing 16.17 score. Reubyn Ash and Oli Adams are also through to the third round, even though they came up against each other the same heat. Also through to the third round are Johnny Fryer and Andrew Griffin In the ladies division, Jo Dennison won her heat, with Sophie Hellyer, Sarah Beardmore and Beth Mason also progressing to round 2 The Senior division is well under way with a win from Greg Owen in the first round getting him through into round 2. Tyson Greenaway, despite getting knocked in the first round is through to round 2, via the repercharge round Simon Tucker and Lee Bartlett are representing the British in the Masters division and are both through to the 2nd round British Bodyboarders are showing the Europeans how it’s done, with Danny Catten and Mark Griffiths though to the 2nd round, and Clemy Hardy and Gemma Harris though to the 2nd round in the girls division For more info and a live results feed – check out www.eurosurfing.org Movember The UK can look forward to a rash of moustaches returning to the face of British men for the month of November again this year as ‘Movember’, the charity initiative that aims to change the face of men’s health, gears up for its return. The phenomenon that is Movember involves men, or ‘Mo Bros’, with support from ‘Mo Sistas’, growing a ‘Mo’ (Australian slang for a moustache) throughout the month formerly known as November, to raise money for The Prostate Cancer Charity. Last year, its second in the UK, more than 16,000 Mo Bros took part across the country, from lawyers and doctors to fire fighters, teachers, sports teams, bars and media to your local butcher – raising £2.4 million in just one month. UKB is proud to support Movember and help raise awarness for the chartiy and mens health issues throughout the UK. check out the add from Quicksliver for the Australian campaign. For More info www.movember.com Eightball Skateboards, the perfect Xmas present!! Eightball wireless electric skateboards have an average top speed of over 36km/h. The board is powered by a either a 24V or 36V electric motor using lead acid sealed batteries as the energy source. The boards are controlled by a handheld wireless controller that offers a variable throttle and regenerative braking Me and Matt had a great afternoon with a pair of Big Foots and put our orders in stright away!! check them out on www.ukboardrider.com and watch the video in the Riders Zone forum! UKB Team Riders Wanted! As part of our ongoing campaign to promote board sports across the UK we are looking for riders in all categories to join team UKB! If you are interested in becoming a part of the UKBoardrider movement then send all your details including any pics, vids, and comp finishing places to matt@ukboardrider.com now! The successful riders will receive loads of free UKB gear, and all events where team riders are entered will be closely followed on this site. Pics & Tricks Pics and tricks is a space dedicated to all you UK Boardriders. Please send in your images of what you have been up to and see if it makes the home page. Pics can include your best tricks, favouite spots to ride or just you and your crew on a mad one! The best pic each month will receive a 10% discount voucher! Live Large! Matt & Sach info@ukboardrider.com Movember Smash through £9.6million The Team at UKB want to congratulate Movember and all the Mo-bro's & Mo-Sisters out there that helped raise over £9.6Million for Men's Health and Prostate Cancer. The Movember crew took it to a new level this year throwing huge Gala Partie's all over the world and the success is there for all to see. UKB hooked up with Movember at Mo-Session in Newquey for a great weekend. Check out what we all got up to in our Pics & Trick Gallery. Well done guys..! For more information on the work that Movember do and how to get involved check out www.Movember.com Indoor surfing centre for London An huge indoor surf park boasting machine-generated waves is being planned for London. The Surfdome, the first of its kind in Europe, will feature a 75m long pool recreating perfect surfing waves. The centre will cater for all standards from beginners to professionals, the concept owners said. Discussions have been taking place with developers in Stratford, Greenwich in east London and Wembley, north London, for a suitable site in the city. Non-stop waves The wave machine, developed by New Zealand-based firm ASR, can create breaking waves up to 8ft high. Surfers will be able to ride a single wave for 60 metres without stopping, according to the centre's designers. Like the UK's popular indoor ski slopes, the Surfdome will feature a huge retail space, including bars, restaurants and a climbing wall. Surfdome founder Justin Stone said he believes his concept will make surfing as popular and as accessible as snowboarding. "We see the future as Stadium Surfing with multi-national sponsors and broadcasters helping to push the sport in a similar fashion to snowboarding," he said. The Surfdome will be similar to the Rons Jons Surf Park in Orlando, US, which is nearing completion.