Wales… wakeskating? You know it. This year Alliance UK hosted the 2nd annual Harbour Project in their home town of Abersoch, in northwest Wales. The best wakeskaters in the UK gather here every year to take part in this project. It’s not a competition of any sort, but more of a get together for all the skaters in the country to ride together and push the sport.

Last year we wanted to ride in the actual harbour but the council wouldn’t let us use the Jetski in it due to pollution and all that, so we ran it just outside in the bay. Luckily this year, Alliance UK had just purchased two Grinch winches a few weeks before, so that gave us the opportunity to skate in the small Abersoch Harbour. We built 4 rails — one flat bar, two inclines and a gapped A-frame.

With riders like Rob Grainger, Terry and Ben Hannam, Craig McCullogh, Nick Hine, Mark Shurville, and Sim Bradley all riding together, the local level of skating was pushed right up. Saturday morning rocked up and it was pouring. Surpris.! But by the time we had all the sliders in and the winches ready to roll the weather had cleared up great. But we didnt have a good look at the tide chart. We knew it was gonna’ be high tide at 2 p.m., but didn’t realize that it was a neap tide that particular day and the tide wasn’t gonna’ come as high as we measured the day before. So we put the sliders in and waited. Waited some more …. and more… but no tide. So now the sliders had an ollie on that only Keith Lyman could get onto with a wakeboard. No problem though, we pulled them out and shortened those puppies up in no time. All was good again.

With the harbour being very sheltered we had no worries about the wind messing the water up at least. All in all, it was a fun weekend, good company, good skating, good pub sessions and some good weather which is hard to find around these parts. Keep an eye on the UK wakeskating scene. You’ll be surprised.