The Brits: Unsung Heroes part two
Meeting the people who make the UK snow festival what it is.
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Now in its 22nd year, The Brits is the main event in the UK snow calendar.
The week-long festival brings together riders young and old in the beautiful, if somewhat slushy, resort of Laax, Switzerland for an array of contests and parties.
Behind the festivities, HUCK meets the different characters that make it all happen...
The Girl Grom
Name: Becky Menday
Age: 12
Riding since: 2007
“The aim of coming out to The Brits is just to have fun, take part and get good scores! The results have been amazing so far. It’s a bit challenging being a young female rider in the UK, but it’s fun to always be pushed and it’s really enjoyable because everyone’s so friendly.”
The Veteran Competitor
Name: Mike Austin
Age: 30
Riding since: 1995
“Generally, The Brits seems to be a showcase of everyone’s tricks that they’ve learnt throughout the season. It’s towards the end of the season so everyone’s warmed up and, if they’re injury free, they can come here and demonstrate what they can do. In the last couple of years the standard just seems to have jumped. The British snowboarding team is definitely rubbing shoulders with the best in the world.”
The Organiser
Name: Spencer Claridge
Age: 38
Riding Since: 1994
"We chose Laax specifically because it's the best freestyle resort and I think that's essential if we're going to try and give a platform for the kids to improve. We want to raise the profile of the sport. It's an interesting one at The Brits as with other national championships the guys get to certain level and they no longer attend their national championships. We're very fortunate in that most of the guys come here even if they're not going to compete."
The Defending Champion
Name: Katie Blundell
Age: 26
Riding Since: 2005
"This is my second Brits. It's a really good week to get everyone together at the end of the season. I feel that there are a lot of the younger generation here and it's really important for them to talk to sponsors and to get spotted. I got spotted at The Brits last year when I won the Big Air!"
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The Brits: Unsung Heroes part two (text) by Liz Seabrook is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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