UK Push Race Series – Margate RESULTS!

Race report from event organiser and Skatefurther forum member Gav.

One fine Sunday in July, a small group of skaters gathered in a beach side car park in Margate to race the first ever UK push race. Members of 3 different longboarding crews were present with the local area well represented by Thanet Dogtown and Canterballs Longboarding (Well some of them!). A rogue element of the Southampton XSS crew was also in attendance and looking like he wanted the win…

At signup, most people were pretending they were “just in it for the cruise man”, oh how this would change! Lined up at the start, most people were pretty relaxed. We had two race marshalls on bikes who could accompany the racers and check nobody died/got injured.

BLAM! A shout of GO and the race was on!

Screaming into an early lead were Tim from the Southampton XSS and Mark of Canterballs Longboarding. We left the racers to it and jumped in the car to head to the half way point (a pub!) to laugh and shout at them as they passed. Upon exiting the pub, pints in hand, we saw the racers heading away from us in the distance! They’d managed to cover more than 4 miles in the time it took us to drive to the pub and get a beer!

Suddenly realising they might beat us to the end, we downed pints and jumped back in the car to go man the finish line! We managed to pass the racers on the way to Broadstairs and shouted a good torrent of support and abuse at them as we passed.

Arriving at the finish line only a few short minutes later we found Tim frantically searching around himself with wild crazed eyes looking for the finish! That was us. He’d only gone and beaten us there even with a car! We jumped out and congratulated our WINNER with lots of chequered flag waving and wild screaming. Shortly afterwards 2nd place finisher Mark crossed the line looking confused as to how Tim had managed to get away from him so fast.

Finally coming in 3rd was Kents OG skateboarder with over 40 years on a board, Mr Paul, who looked absolutely knackered! All the racers then headed to the beach for a delicious and well earned pint…

Thanks to our sponsors: SkateFurther, Dangerous Decks and Longboard-Sessions who hooked us up some sweet prizes!

And a big thank you to all the racers/cruisers/whatever who turned up and skated/biked the course.

Get ready for the next race of the series in autumn…

STOKED!

Official results:

1st place: Tim Peters of Southampton XSS

2nd place: Mark Burch of Canterballs Longboarding
3rd place: Paul Knowles of Thanet Dog Town

From the winner, Tim.

The Thanet push race was wicked; a good 7 miles along the coast but with a bit of a headwind and a few hills to contend with. We raised £30 for Help the Heroes and had a great day of it. Well done to everyone who made it, cheers to Nat, Gav and Paul for the organisational side!