Look Back: SOTS Baysixty6

The gates opened at 10am at Baysixty6, one of the best street courses in the country, and almost fifty competitors from all over the country fed in and collected goodie bags with Stance socks, stickers and magazines. The Skaters had two hours to warm up before starting the U12 Mixed. The music was going off whilst MC Luke & Course Marshall Joel hyped the competitors ready for the first heat. There were over twenty competitors, skating in 2 minutes of jams with three skateboarders of mixed gender in each heat.

The local boys & girls who were used to the park stood out but only nine qualified for the final, so it was all to play for. The crowd gave every encouragement, and it was exciting to watch and see the results come in on Liveheats, which enabled everyone to have the results in the palm of their hands on their smartphones.

“She had a great time – thanks for organising such a rad event for the younger ones!”

Next up was the U12 ‘Best Trick’ on the hip where all the skaters had 20 minutes to get tech on the hip to claim prizes. Ethan Birch dominated the session with his flip trickery. The U16 Boys were up next; standouts were Gabriel Gorman, Lucas Jackson, Joss Bellamy and Conrad Rowe, all getting high scores and winning their heats decisively. A heated ‘Best Trick’ on the rail session saw Gabe Gorman throwing out all sorts of grinds and slides to come out victorious.

The final round of qualifiers saw the U16 Girls take to the course. With only six progressions to finals, nine girls battled it out with some very respectable scores. Ayva-Mae Whittenbury scored an incredible 40.67 out of 100 to qualify in first place. After the girl’s round one, there was just enough time in the schedule to host the ‘Best Trick’ on the hip solely for the girls. It was amazing to watch and see the standard of girls progress at such a rate, and the bar was set incredibly high, with Miriam Nelson spinning and flipping her way to first place.

“A big thank you for an awesome day. I look forward to the next one; you guys pulled off a fantastic event, I must say.”

Onto the finals for all divisions; in the mixed U12’s boys and girls, there were nine places and three heats. The local boys skated the course like only they could with Eden Conibet and Gabriel Martins-Mendes getting on the Podium and wildcard Rory Buckley from Nottingham putting together a solid run to join them. It was then on to the U16 Girl’s final, and each skater had three 45-second runs with the best run score counting. Despite some great results in round one, Ilka Rogers and Ayva-Mae Whittenbury could not beat the 2022 National Champion, Miriam Nelson, who pulled it out of the bag to win the event.

“The event was awesome, and ##### is now really clear about her skateboarding development needs! Loved seeing the amazing talent.”

In the U16 Boys, Gabriel Gorman took the lead in the first round and put in such a solid final run that no one could touch him with a lead of over 10-points. However, in positions two to six, there were only 4-points in it, so it was anyone’s game, and it came down to the wire with Cornwall contingent Lucas Jackson in second and Joss Bellamy in third.

It was an excellent experience for all, and the next Survival of the Sickest event will be at Flo Skatepark on the 19th of November.