Eastbourne 2003, a contest in evolution?

Over the last few years, one of the biggest events in the British roller-skating calendar has taken place at every summer in Eastbourne. It brings together various disciplines, including hockey, aggressive skating and racing. This year, in order to help develop certain areas -- including both speed and artistic slalom, and the high jump -- the organisers decided to invite a number of French skaters to participate.

Aware of Vincent Vu Van Kha's commitment to building bridges and to the creation of a European circuit, they contacted him. Their particular aim was to consider the integration of the event into any future European slalom circuit. In response, he made up a team composed of Soraya, Hakim and himself. They were invited as both judges and demonstrators. They were joined by several other French skaters keen to attend: Olivier, Lionel, Dragon, Xavier, Tigrou and Peg.

So it's 6am at the Gare du Nord. There are nine of us here -- most of us have been up since 4:30! Amazingly, everyone is on time. First setback, before we even get to the contest: Hakim realises that he's forgotten his ticket -- a brilliant start to the weekend! He hurtles off like a maniac. He gets back with his ticket at 6.15 and we clamber aboard.

Pretty well everyone sleeps on the train -- except, as usual, Vinz with his big mouth. Out of the window, the weather seems to be holding. We'll just have to see how it turns out -- a constant concern over the next two days. High point of the journey: at 8:38, in the Channel Tunnel, Hakim gets Lionel with a piece of funk. Awesome!

At 9:10 (local time) we finally reach Waterloo. We hack our way through to the underground. Tigrou is setting the pace, obviously keen to get down to business! What can you say about the London underground, except "Mind the gap"? We get to Victoria to catch our connection. There, luckily, we meet a group of London skaters, some of whom we've met before in Paris.

Reaching Eastbourne, we leave the station and skate down to the distinctly dubious-looking area of tarmac where the contest is being held. There, we bump into Naomi, thanks to whom we're here in the first place. The event is organised around a circular central arena, where various contests, demonstrations and presentations take place. Nearby, there are pitches for roller hockey and basketball. And, at either end, the skate park and a wide pathway for the speed and long-skate slalom events. What's great -- and unusual -- is that it's right beside the sea!

There's no time to rest before the start of the long-jump competition, using a "federal"-type ramp. Vinz, Hakim and I decide to participate alongside the Brits. Great fun: right from the word "go", we are made very welcome. We meet loads of skaters from all sorts of different disciplines. Including, to our delight and surprise, Chloé -- Mademoiselle "splits" -- who’s down here on holiday. Our friends the judges set up for the speed slalom. The qualifying rounds begin: 15 skaters, of all nationalities and different styles. Eight qualify, two of them from London. Meanwhile, the very entertaining limbo contest takes place. There has been sporadic rain since the beginning of the afternoon, so the high jump has been delayed several times.

The artistic slalom event takes place beneath a grey sky with ten contestants, six of them French. There are problems: the ground slopes, the surface isn't great, and the run-up to the 1.2-metre course is very short. Each competitor is allowed a single one-and-a-half minute run. The cone distances are 1.2 metres, 80cm and 50cm. The judges are Hakim, Saraya and Vinz. The British participants put in a fine performance, all things considered, and the crowd is right behind them. The French competitors follow, each in their own style.

Final result: 1, Sébastien L.; 2, Chloé; 3, Tigrou.

High points: Chloé performs two superb “blocks” (a move whereby you stop by going up on both toe or heel wheels and spreading your feet) and does the splits twice, once on each side. A great performance from Tigrou, culminating in his famous, perfectly-timed routine to the music from Aladdin. At 4pm the rain has finally become too heavy. The high jump is cancelled and the competition is over for the day. We spend the evening with the locals.

Next morning, the sun is shining and we have to hurry down to the contest area for the speed slalom finals. Sébastien L beats Philip (UK) in his quarter-final. Xavier takes on Tigrou and wins his quarter-final over four closely-fought runs, one of which is ruled out. Since Chloé hasn't shown up, Michael (UK) goes straight through to the next round. Olivier beats Lionel in a hotly-contested match to win his place in the semi-final.

The final is between Sébastian (who beat Xavier) and Olivier (who beat Michael). In the play-off, Xavier secures third place on the podium, although Michael was ahead when he unfortunately struck out at the end.

Final result: 1, Sébastien L.; 2, Olivier B.; 3, Xavier S.

As far as we are concerned, that's the end of the competition. Other events, like the hockey, continue. We turn up for the 2pm demonstrations. Vincent, in his improvised English, explains the subtleties of artistic slalom. Five minutes later, the crowd are staring in astonishment, first at the performances of Vincent and Soraya, especially as a pair; then at the whole French slalom team, with Tigrou, Olivier and Lionel. The slalom ends and we bring out the ramp for the high jump demo. We have only 5 minutes to make 4 attempts at the bar. Xavier takes two jumps, then gives way to our record-holder, Hakim, who, on his last leap, produces a superb “back-pack” (head and shoulders back, knees bent so that the heels touch the backside).

The demonstration ends, and with it our time in Eastbourne. We pack up and head for the station. We have a few minutes to spare, so we do some shopping in Marks and Spencer. Then on to the train. In London, Tanja suggests that we skate the short distance between stations. We take a quick look at London, and at Waterloo we treat ourselves to a final Whopper before heading back to France.

Assessment:

Good points: fabulous local welcome -- the novelty of attending a contest in England -- a sense of something worth doing

Bad points: the surface where the contest was staged -- the 30-minute slots for each event, which were too short

Conclusion:

The Eastbourne skating festival has been going on for a long time, but it really isn't in the same league as the championships in France or at Lausanne. The obvious commitment of the organisers should allow them to raise the event's profile. But shouldn't any flagship English event be held in Hyde Park? What about it, Naomi?

Author: Xavier Sémont, with contributions from Walid Nouh and Joachim El Amrani.

(C) Copyright 2003 Xavier Sémont

Translation by Donald Hounam, with technical advice from Naomi.

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Skate 2003 website

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