Planks Grassroots Tour Final: Telegraph Ski & Snowboard Festival, London

We wrapped up what was arguably the best Planks Grassroots Tour to date on Mt. Battersea in London, which became the epicentre of UK ski bangers for the day. We also later announced the winners of the Planks Grassroots Photo and Video Competition. Planks Clothing took over the Telegraph Ski & Snowboard Festival with some serious stunts, good vibes, rad ski clothing, loose dance-offs and the best pre-season after-party a ski bum could ever dream of. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, if you weren’t there, you’re probably now thinking ‘damn I missed out’…

This year, once again, we dominated the Telegraph Ski & Snowboard Festival, even if you didn’t intend to, you would find yourself gravitating towards the Planks Clothing stand and spending most of your time there. It was the place to be with Jim Adlington, the Planks founder, on the decks all day every day long. People would be on the stand chilling, buying fresh gear and talking skiing to our skiers. Our annual dance-offs went off, with some unforgettable antics, that had us all thinking we were watching an 8 Mile spinoff. People got naked, the most unlikely people turned out to be dancing phenomenons, and our tunes were so loud the rest of the show couldn’t hear themselves think.

So let’s cut to the chase… The UK’s best skiers assembled on Mt. Battersea, for the grand final of the 2019 Planks Grassroots Tour. We had a squad of the UK’s top dogs in the game, then our wild card entries from each stop of the tour, including 9-year-old Deja Parker, AKA Pocket Rocket, from Scotland.

The turnout for the event was hugeeeeee, with the crowds flooding every bit of available space around Mt. Battersea. We had Woodsy on the mic to present the event, hype up the crowd and throw out some Planks swag to the sea of ski. There was talk of crowd surfing, but Woodsy is used to powder under his feet, not people.

After a few warm-up runs, the skiers got down to business. It began to crank up to be one hella heavy session, and it didn’t disappoint. The format, as usual, was a head-to-head knockout, which meant anything could happen, if you’re not on top of your ski flex 110% - it’s game over. As things kicked off we saw some mind-bending airborne trickery. Straight out of the gate, Mason Ferebee went for a serious gamble with a double front-flip and a stomp that had Big Ben wobbling in its boots. Justin Taylor-Tipton was doing backflips with his eyes closed, Tom Greenway was takin a leaf from Woodsy’s book with double tail cork 720s and Kirsty Muir was giving all the guys a run for their money.

For what could be one of the first times in ski history, we had a head-to-head male and female match up. Kirsty Muir went head-to-head with a Mike Rowlands. Both launched huge 720s of Mt. Battersea, that were executed perfectly, which left the judges in one seriously sticky situation. The crowd screamed louder for Kirsty, but in the end, the judges went for Mike.

Young gun Deja Parker was launching stylish superman front-flips and rocking a smile bigger than the jump, making him a real crowd-pleaser throughout. Talking of Scottish talent, Chris McCormick was spinning the most effortless truck driver cork 900s London has ever seen, making it clear that he was on a mission for the top spot. However, towards the final heats, it was anyone’s game who was going to take the win.

After the final heats, we were left with Justin Taylor-Tipton, Tom Greenway and Chris McCormick, but the spectators were left guessing who had claimed the title of Planks Grassroots Tour king for 2019, as everyone was ushered inside for the awards ceremony.

Before we got to see who had won the Planks Grassroots Tour Final on Mt. Battersea, the winners of the Planks Grassroots Photo & Video Competition were announced on the big screen upstairs in the bar.

Planks Grassroots Photo Competition

This year we had an avalanche of sick pics for the photo competition, so we can only imagine it was difficult to pick this year’s winners.

Best Park: Luke Andrews

Best Freeride: Andy Lloyder

Most Stoked: David Gornall

Planks Grassroots Video Competition

The video completion was once again flooded with British talent, proving that for a nation with none or little real skiing, we are certainly becoming a force not to be reckoned with in the sport. We had edits purely filmed in the UK, but we also had the largest volume of mind-melting mountain madness.

Best U16 Edit:

1st - Kirsty Muir

2nd - Tyler Nichols-Stubbington

3rd - Luke Burke

Best Female Edit:

1st - Kirsty Muir

2nd - Maya Gordon

3rd - Olivia Burke

Best Filming & Editing:

1st Lukas Hotcher

2nd Pierre Émile Rochat

3rd Max Rye

Best Trick:

1st - Tyler Nichols-Stubbington (450 pretzel 450)

2nd - Kirsty Muir (switch misty)

3rd - Tom Greenway (triple cork)

Best UK Edit:

1st - Tyler Nichols-Stubbington

2nd - Row Emery

3rd - Max Rye

Best Overall Edit:

1st - Chris McCormick

2nd - Justin Taylor-Tipton

3rd - Tom Greenway

Planks Grassroots Tour Final

1st - Chris McCormick

2nd - Mike Rowlands

3rd - Justin Taylor-Tipton

So that’s a wrap! We will be back next year for another round of Planks Grassroots, we expect it to be bigger and better than ever. We’re gonna be cranking up the dials once again to support grassroots skiing all around the world. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, we’re all skiers here. Peace, love and powder turns. Bring on Planks Grassroots 2020!