Rollersnakes Day Trip 1: The Silver Birch Ramp

Ben Plumb - frontside ollie.

Text and photography - Michael Wright.

When you get that call to go to the middle of nowhere to skate and film at one of the best private ramps in the country, what do you do? You line it up as soon as possible and get the best crew together you can. Sunny day - CHECK Nick Roberts - CHECK James Threlfall - CHECK Ben Plumb - CHECK Shaun Hancock - CHECK Camera guys - CHECK Camera guy’s dog - CHECK

After leaving the post-industrial wastelands of Derby the beautiful pastoral countryside of Lincolnshire is a breath of literal and metaphorical fresh air. The welcome at the Silver Birch Ramp was equally refreshing - some of the Rollersnakes crew already knew Jesse Thomas and his family from jams and comps all over the country, but Toby and I had never met them before. As we rocked up to their house at the end of a long, winding no-through road, we were greeted with high fives and hugs all round. Beautiful place, beautiful people. The ramp nestles the garden of Jesse Thomas’ family home; built by Chris Hudson (total vert ripper in his own right) and Trev Johnson’s boys, this is a backyard dream situation. A five foot hipped mini with vert extension, platform quarters and a fruity free-standing lip that’s straight out of Burnquist’s playbook.

Jesse Thomas floats frontside over the hip.

Soon enough, after the ‘how’s it beens’ and the introductions, the session started heating up. Considering Jesse was just getting over a snowboard-induced collarbone injury he was still skating like a beast - grinds for days, massive alley-oop methods, nosebones and switch biznizz all over the place. ‘Snakes local riders Ben Plumb and Shaun Hancock got in on the jam with huge frontside ollies, nosepick fakies, and Grayslides & Russian boneless respectively. Having ATV beast Nick Roberts come out of semi-retirement is one of the best things that’s happened over the last few months; the guy is a pleasure to watch. After handling serious BBC work Zoom meetings, Threlfall brought his perfect 360 flips into the mix with Warlord Forde sneaking off the camera to scrape in a few layback smiths for good measure.

Ben Plumb - backside smith.

What an ace day. Full clip of footage, stills, new friends, dogs, sunburn and a new team rider. Welcome to Rollersnakes Jesse Thomas, we couldn’t be more stoked to have you on the team!