Manny Mania

The Red Bull Manny Mania UK Final took place in London on Saturday 25th October 2008. The setting, York Hall, the renowned East London Boxing venue.

Prior to this date, three UK qualifiers had enthused and excited the British Skate Scene. The quality of Skateboarding was mind numbingly high, and in this, the following 12 (in no particular order) had shone through as worthy finalists:

Mike Wright
Shaun Witherup
Chris Atherton
Joe Moore
Adam Howe
Will Greenfield
Sean Smith
James Gardner
Chris Gibbons
Phil Shore
Craig Smedley
Ryan Evans

Load in and setup was set for the morning of the event which was not ideal, but nothing that couldn’t be solved with a early start. By 11.30am setup was complete, ready for doors opening at midday. Again, skaters lined the streets to be the first ones to skate the course, with a number of the finalists amongst this crew.

The day’s schedule included a London qualifier, which saw 5 heats of 5 skaters take to the uber smooth wooden floor. By 3pm we had identified the final four to join the above 12 as:

Kris Vile
Chris Oliver
Chris Thomas
Joshua Cox

None other than Red Bull Athlete Kris Vile was 1st place qualifier, having chosen some very new lines, and skating them with real speed and conviction.

The format for the 16 man final was to be four, ten minute heats, each heat consisting of 4 skaters. The three Manny judges would then take the top four from all four heats, creating a 15 minute super final.

The atmosphere was electric as the lights were dimmed, and the Manual features lit up by spotlight, set for the commencement of the finals. We were now watching the crème of the crop in the UK ‘manual’ skate scene battle it out for some sturdy prize money, and the standard did not disappoint. The two tier balcony gave everyone a great vantage point to catch all the incredible action.

Dylan Hughes took best trick winning £250 on the spot, with Mike Wright taking a close second, which earnt him a signed Devine Calloway skate deck.

Chris Atherton, Mike Wright, Chris Thomas and Adam Howe were announced as the Super Finalists, and so the final 15 minutes of supreme Manualling ensued. Mike Wright was utterly solid, showcasing his mix of new school tricks with old school footwork while Chris ‘Avi’ Atherton flew around the comp area nailing a number of transitions to manual including the gravity defying Hang 10 trick - balancing on the back of the board with both feet.~

The results were in, and they looked like this:

1st Mike Wright £1000
2nd Chris Atherton £750
3rd Adam Howe £500

With the competition complete, there was only one thing to do, wave goodbye to Red Bull Mann Mania 2008 in style with Rum and RB Cola in hand. Good times!