A 50 tonne snowfall transformed Old Street’s graffiti clad Red Market into an iconic London street scene providing the ultimate backdrop for showcasing the crème de la crème of UK rail riding.The crisp November evening saw our home-grown lads turn up in force and impress spectators with an incredible show that has well and truly raised the benchmark of British street riding. 

The 24 man open jam that included best tricks on the bus stop, rails, post box and telephone kiosk culminated in an epic head to head final. Impressing the judges it was Sparrow Knox for snowboard and Taylor J Harding for freeski.

With a clean frontside 270 to switch boardslide on the rail styled out with a tap on the red post box, Knox was pretty humble about his win; “I just like to ride, we were all here as mates, I totally didn’t expect to win. It was a great format and a mad set-up.” Meanwhile for freeski 17 year old TJ Harding killed it all night long culminating with a 270 on revert 270 off the rail. Stoked win his win Harding said “It’s something special to win in a place like this, completely unexpected. A great way to set up for the winter.”

For the five judges keeping a watch from above, their stand out tricks included Team GB snowboarder Jamie Trinder’s 50:50 frontflip off the London bus shelter and 3^rd place skier George Walton impress with a bolts 360 nose tap on the red phone box.

A stand-put performance from O’Neill team rider Andy Nudds saw him win a £100 on the spot cash prize; “This is by far one of the best events I’ve been to, everyone has been killing it and the crowd were sick. The standard of British riding has been phenomenal tonight.”

Designed to inspire creativity and innovation, it’s safe to say the O’Neill Shoreditch Showdown exceeded all expectations. Thanks to The Snow Centre’s elite crew of park shapers, the event was meticulously sculpted and received an overwhelming amount of positive rider feedback. Honoured to be part of such a unique event MC Christian Stevenson AKA DJ BBQ said “this was the best inner city rail jam I’ve ever had the chance to MC and certainly the first time I’ve ever seen a snowboarder jib a post box.”

The insane level of riding was accompanied by a live VJ set that integrated some of the most memorable Brit pop culture events of the last 50 years. Accompanying the ‘trip down memory lane’ show reel, a live graffiti installation took prime position next to the post box, adding the artistic authenticity that Shoreditch is famous for.

As the floodlights slowly dimmed it was evident that this East London event had delivered on its promise to create a truly memorable night, celebrating the world class ski & snowboard talent that is coming out of the UK. With events like this happening in the country’s capital who needs a mountain?! #ridemore. 

Results:

Snowboard                                                            Ski          

1^st – Sparrow Knox                                             1^st – Tyler J Harding                                            

2^nd – John Weatherly                                          2^nd – Ross Welch

3^rd – Ollie Dutton                                                 3^rd – George Walton

4^th – Andy Nudds                                                 4^th – Michael Rowlands

www.oneillshoreditchshowdown.com #oneilluk #ridemore