It’s a hard life for the freestylers in the north of England. The last contest held in the north was back in the eighties and the closest contest in recent years was the World Championships in 2006 – and even then they were down in Birmingham! So, for the fourth year running, I would be making the long drive down to the 2014 NASS festival in Bath with a car load of the finest freestyle skateboarders the North of England has to offer.

Joining me this year were John Hanson and newcomer Denham Hill from Yorkshire, along with Scaife Gooch from Penrith; three incredible freestylers with very unique styles. On the agenda this year; crazy no-holds-barred games of skate and a series of demonstrations with a world class team of freestyle skateboarders.
On Friday 11th July, the first day of our adventure got off to an auspicious start. Thanks to a mix of typically dreadful British traffic and inexplicably inconvenient illnessness, by the time we arrived at the festival we had been on the road for over eight hours and had already lost Scaife somewhere around Warrington.
We headed straight for the spot where our demo would be held in the morning, only to find the surface was uneven and littered with pot holes. It was difficult to walk on, let alone skate on, so we continued to wander until we found a well-lit and much smoother spot a short distance away.
With people constantly coming and going, over 400 people witnessed our little session over the course of the night. For me highlights included the massive roar following Denham Hill’s railflip to rail and Tony “Demo machine” Gale’s back to back 540 shoves and kickflip variations.
It was a little after 2AM when the session finally came to an end. Thankfully, Chris and Laker had booked a family-sized hotel room which came with a settee for me to crash on, so I headed back with them to get a little rest in before the real demos began!
Were you at the festival? Let us know if you had any highlights from our Friday night demo and make sure to check out the LateTricks Facebook page for extra videos and pictures!