The official Thirteen review and photos

All photos by Gary Martin for Fear of the Park / Thirteen (click on the heading to go to the Thirteen site and check out more)



Pre-Event Nerves?

No not really. The two months of planning and organising ‘Thirteen’ over the internet, at work and at home, looked like it was going to pay off.

The website was accumulating hits nicely, the interest level was high – the park was ready to rock and roll, and slowly but surely, the sponsors donations were received.

Approximately two weeks before the competition, we had ordered the tees, pimped out as many places as possible with flyers and posters and generally made a nuisance of ourselves with all this talk of an event not to be missed…and as the 11th of May loomed, all was looking good for a sweet night of freestyle shredding.

Building the park was quite an effort – but getting back to the hotel at 4am on the Saturday morning, the job was done, and we looked forward to the next day and the arrival of ‘Thirteen’.

Busy Busy Busy!

So Saturday was here – registration opened at 4 and the atmosphere at MK was one of anticipation. The park looked great after a further 4 hours of shaping and grooming – all was set to go. It was a bit surreal seeing so many riders queuing at reception and gathering around in the café.

This is when it hit us that a real comp atmosphere had risen….

After the slight inconvenience of the national ski time trials being held on the same day – at it being a very busy Saturday for recreational skiers and boarders, everything was becoming a little rushed as the entrants started to arrive around 4pm.

At this point, we realised that ‘Thirteen’ had outdone us! With 130+ riders eagerly registering for the hotly anticipated comp and park setup, we were caught off guard. We only estimated that 60 riders would enter, with perhaps up to 80 maximum – but how stoked were we to find out at 5:30pm that over 120 riders had entered!



This was great, as not only had we surpassed all expectations, but also the entrance fees which allowed us to offer more cash as prizes for the first and second place winners.

So the comp was underway – 132 Skiers and Snowboarders jibbed up the park a treat in the 2 hour jam – while the judges selected the best of the bunch for the final jam – the park didn’t hold up as well as we hoped due to the sheer number of riders in such a short space of time – however, the riders adapted quickly and rode as if it was their last ever shred!



The tricks on show were pretty awesome and it was inspiring as well as impressing to see them approach the gnarly ice patches so intensely. Big respect goes out to all those riders that rode hard, went big and stuck those technical tricks down! Most importantly they all rode with a smile on their face and looked like they were having fun!



The final jam was so difficult for the judges to separate the winners that they had to keep the snowboarders riding for an extra 20 minutes and boy did they up their game!

Solid styles from many riders – some of whom had travelled quite a distance saw a hotly contested final 30 minutes, and with Joe Driscoll pumping out the tunes to a packed bar, the evening was going very well.

The final jam session came to an end, trophy & prize presentation followed and then there was the long anticipated after party – Ch!co on the decks – had been pumping out the tunes all night, keeping the party rocking, and the pace in which the riders took to the sessions was astounding.



Massive props and big big thanks to:

- All our sponsors that believed and supported us - Blueskin, Jail clothing, Love Snowboard Wear, Sputnik Snowboard Shop, Entity Boardsports, Printed Solutions, Arcus, NZ Summer Snow, SCUK, MonthRag and Thrilly, Rehall, Tourparty, Skiclub UK, Natives, Momentum Chalet, Stumpy, Head, Magic Toast, Stepchild Snowboards, Billabong, Eleven Outerwear, True snowboards and Alpine Coaching.

- To those of you that came to jam and made it shredtastical! Some really promising young talent and positive gathering of freestyle boarders and skiers 2 put on a good show for the photographers, film crew and judges! The skiers holding their own with some impressive inverts and spins and Rtechnical rail trickey!

- Respect to those of you that got on with it and represented regardless of some of the sheet ice patches! It was very difficult judging as you were all winners on the night!

- Ali, Iain, Mark, Hammond and all the MK SNO!zone massive (you know who you are!) for all the support and help! Much appreciated! Our judges Lyndon, Loic, Martin and Andy – we hope you enjoyed the night !

- Finally on the music front - Joe Driscoll for providing the live 'seen to be believed', amazing 1 man show!* a thousand thanks from us at FOTP and FBBB.



Will it happen again?

Who knows – it’s now time to sit back and contemplate what was achieved. From what started out as an idea to hold a fun evening of freestyle and music – it turned in to a major event and possibly one of the biggest this year. The Music was great, the Vibe was sweet and the riding was from beyond.

If we do do it again – it will no doubt be bigger and better! Keep it locked!