Tuesday, 29 November 2011 09:14

Watch the film of the riders around Hastings ...here

Subway and The Source - A winning combination

Students and staff from Sussex Coast College arrived at Station Plaza on 24 November to find a huge BMX ramp had appeared in the atrium overnight.

The structure had been designed and built by local companies, Source BMX and Woodstock Carpentry, in preparation for a live BMX display from some of Hastings' and the UK’s finest riders, several of whom flew down from Scotland to perform.
The ramp used 75 sheets of ply, 2000 screws and 500m of 2’’x4’’. It took ten carpenters ten hours to build, starting at 6pm on Wednesday and finishing at 4am on Thursday. Ben Newbold, from Woodstock Carpentry, said ‘The ramps were built a few days before the show and flat-packed for assembly. It was an all-nighter putting them together on Wednesday, but it looked awesome!’
An audience of around 500 enjoyed a live display from eight world-class riders, including Scottish rider, Kriss Kyle, who flew in for the event. Kriss said ‘I do around thirty shows a year and this ramp is the perfect set-up.’ Also riding were Ben Bishop, Marc Goodwin and Jamie Lusted from Hastings, Phil Martin from Bexhill and Chaz Mailey, Alex Donnachie and Harry Walker from elsewhere in the UK. The show lasted two hours and included tricks such as barspins, double tailwhips and flairs and, inevitably, a few spectacular wipe-outs.
Students from the College helped to put up an exhibition of BMX pictures and videos to accompany the display.
The show was commissioned to celebrate the official launch of the College’s new Subway franchise, which opened six weeks ago, creating jobs for fourteen staff, eight of whom are students and four of whom study at SCC. ‘To say it was a busy day would be an understatement’, said Debbie Gibbs, Subway Manager. ‘We had the full team working flat-out for fifteen hours and we gave away nearly 800 free sandwiches to visitors throughout the day: At some points we were making over 100 subs an hour!’
Janak Patel, Principal at SCC, said ‘The skate ramp created a real buzz around college and it was an honour to have such outstanding sports professionals riding in the atrium. The Source and Woodstock are both fantastic local businesess, who are passionate about what they do. The ramp and the show were very impressive.’