War Of The Roses 2009 Write Up

As I sit here having barely slept a wink for the past 72 hours, I find myself trying to convey through the medium of the written word, just how things went down at this weekend's War of the Roses event.
Where do I start!? Do I begin with the boring stuff? You know - setting the scene, describing the travel mishaps, bumping into old familiar faces & what-not that you probably don't care for. Do I give a "blow by blow" style account of the weekend's numerous highlights? Or do I just go straight into a fawning essay on just how amazing Ben Raemers actually is!?


You see, that's the problem with trying to write up an event like War of the Roses; Looking back now, the whole weekend seems a big blur. Sure, I filmed a whole host of the best tricks (which can be seen here!) but even that doesn't help me trying to distinguish one amazing second from the next. I know we had our team up here, I know Manhead & Lynskey won themselves a few quid, I know the rest of the team had a fantastic time but I also know that they probably couldn't tell you what went on either!


Basically, we had two days & two parks (The works in Leeds & Blackpool's Ramp City), a shed load of prizes & cash and we had 14 best trick jams held on various obstacles around the two parks over the two days.
The unsponsored comps showed just how ridiculous the level of skating has got to in the UK with random kids landing tricks that seasoned pro's would happily put in video parts.


Then there were the sponsored "comps"... Well all I can say is Ben Raemers is an absolute beast! Now, don't get me wrong: Our Route One lads were killing it, Mike Wright was skating on a whole other level, Kill City's Dave Davies will go down in West Yorkshire folklore for his destruction of the Works driveway rail & the legends that are Andy Scott, Stu Graham & Sean Goff, well, you know what they're capable of, but Ben Raemers, nobody could come close to Ben Raemers. He won cash in all but one of the sponsored events, he took home skater of the day and bundles of cash on BOTH days. He somehow stuck a blunt flip in (first go) in the middle of a line in Blackpool's crazy Simparch bowl & he flew high over Stu Graham in an impromptu doubles routine that brought the house down - He did everything!


You see, that's my problem - sooooooo much stuff happened, so many names became etched on our collective tongues, so many new friends were made. I could write for hours but whatever I wrote would not do justice to experiencing first hand the joys of being at War of the Roses. What I'm trying to say is - YOU HAVE TO BE THERE! in 2010. There are no excuses - YOU HAVE TO BE THERE! Then maybe you'll understand why I've had such a hard time trying to write this for you now!

War of the Roses 2009 - F***ing amazing. I'll see you there next year!

Alex Winstanley.