Planks Grassroots Tour Stop 5: The Snow Centre

We were at The Snow Centre for the final stop of Planks Grassroots Tour, London’s closest indoor ski slope. As we arrived on-site, we were blown away by a killer setup from the park team. All we had to do was wait for all the shredders to come flooding in.

Last year this event was one of the busiest and this year it was no different. The lifts were filling up, the stoke was high and the event was set to be another banger. The park crew had built a huge snow jump, alongside a collection of creative rails.

Once again, we had a solid bunch of skiers shredding with us. Alongside Lupe Hagearty, Will Wesson, Kevin Salonius and Mike Rowlands, we had young guns, university students, seasonaires, locals and everything in-between. There was a constant flow of skiers, with plenty of train action up and down the park all night long.

Out of all the stops, The Snow Centre, had by far the most UK legends rock up to get down. There was a great sense of community, with skiers from the south of England coming far and wide to get involved with a slice of the Planks Grassroots action. Even though we were in a giant fridge, things started to heat up as we got into the full swing of the session.

We saw the like of Monty Wright busting some huge rodeo 540s, missing the entire landing, so steezy it almost looked like he’d fallen asleep at the wheel. Max Rye was winding up like a yoyo ’n’ spinnin’ some front 630s that’d make you dizzy just watching. Young gun Palmer Parish was leading the way for the mini shredders, sending misty 540s and sliding rails taller than him. We also saw Amy Clayton laying out backflips and lacing rails. The list goes on, but everyone was killing it.

For the first of the spot prizes, we kicked things off on the jump. We were lucky enough to have a juicy jump built by the park crew, so we saw some serious send. There was also a huge yellow PVC tube standing up vertically on the knuckle, so on the jump we saw some tip-top tappy action from Monty Wright and Andy Collin. Then afterward we took it to the rails, where we saw some wild wizardry, like a fast-plant 270 on from Josh Johnstone.

We then rolled into the final wrap up session of the evening to determine who was going to be taking home the titles and some fresh Planks swag. As we tried to round everyone up for prize giving, we struggled to get everyone to stop skiing, which is certainly a good thing.

So here are the winners for the 5th stop of the #PlanksGrassroots Tour:

Best Bail: Gabriel Tidswell & Fergis Ward

Most Stoked: Josh Hook

Best Trick: Max Rye

Best Style: Monty Wright

U16 Ski 3rd: Palmer Parish

U16 Ski 2nd: Eddie Levesly

U16 Ski 1st: David Gornall

Women’s SB 3rd: Amaya Connelly

Women’s SB 2nd: Evie Smith

Women’s SB 1st: Charlie Dean

Men’s SB 3rd: Charlie Waters

Men’s SB 2nd: Duncan Wright

Men’s SB 1st: Sasha Needham

Women’s Ski 3rd: Rosie Oliver

Women’s Ski 2nd: Maya Gordan

Women’s Ski 1st: Amy Clayton

Men’s Ski 3rd: Ali Dibden

Men’s Ski 2nd: Max Rye

Men’s Ski 1st: Josh Johnstone

Telegraph Ski & Snowboard Festival Invite: Josh Johnstone

Next up we headed over to Mt. Battersea for the Planks Grassroots Final at the Telegraph Ski & Snowboard Festival in London…

📸: Sam Ingles