Words by James Box
When you watch a freestyle event where the organisers are focussed on getting riders to shred out of their comfort zone and mix it with an indoor slope with the reputation of Castleford Xscape, the result is going to exceed all expectations. When ‘For Boarders By Boarders’ took over Castleford on Friday this is exactly what happened.

The fourth stop on FBBBs Progression Series saw a number of the UK’s most technical riders, tanked up on Monster energy drinks, destroy a park set up that only the Cas-Vegas crew could have produced. With the usual array of rails – from rookie bench presses to small boxes down the left hand side, to the Standing Sideways down bar and a down-flat-down challenging the riders on the right – the riding ranged from super technical to down right ridiculous!

The relaxed jam session format resulted in almost all the riders pushing the boundaries, but it was the big hitters like Andy Nudds, Tom Guilmard, Simon Cudlip and Carl Howden who really stood out, proving why Castleford is getting a reputation for being the best indoor slope around. The standard was so high at times that even some of the riders didn’t know what they were stomping. The rails trickery was in a league of its own, with Andy Nudds setting the standard early on with a front boardslide to pretzel out- on the down-flat-down(!) only for Castleford local Carl Howden to raise the bar by busting out a front blunt to switch 50-50 cab 3 out. The skills weren’t just exclusive to the rails either. The kicker was shaped to perfection and had its fair share of action, with Rowan Coultas and Jordan Gee landing more back 5’s and 7’s than physically possible in 4 hours. Even a crowd pleasing backflip was whipped out by Simon Cudlip.

With the riders nicely warmed up and throwing down consistently, it was time for the Whitelines Jib Jam. A 45-minute intensive rail jam on the Standing Sideways down rail and the down-flat-down bar. With tricks being shouted out by FBBB’s Mikee it was down to the riders to ride away with the swag.

Things got off to a relatively easy start with the first trick; a frontboard tail tap to back one out, and proceeded to get more difficult until almost every rail trick had been stomped. With a riders’ list whose talent makes the Dream Team look amateur, it wasn’t going to take long until all the spot prizes had been earned. All the riders were impressive but it was the locals who stood out. Bronx-inspired Simon Foster showed off his signature style, Andy Nudds landed nearly every trick that was shouted out and Carl Howden constantly pushed the standards higher resulting in another epic session at Castleford!

After a full on 4 hours of riding it was Carl Howden and Oliver Waters who walked away with a full 12 month subscription to Whitelines for their efforts in embracing FBBBs ethos, as they definitely pushed the boundaries, went out of their comfort zone and tried new tricks.

Watch the video highlights of the event here