It should come as no surprise that we're huge fans of the Vans Shop riot event.

The Black Sheep Family have won it many times in the past and we never miss one. Vans are to be applauded for funding this most grass roots of all UK events year after year and by doing so, shining a light on the glue that holds our skate scene together, namely - skate stores. You don't need a lecture from us about the importance of your local skater-owned - it's clear and evident from the brilliant scene we have that in this country that our SOS's are involved and vibrant.

Think about where you spend your money and who benefits from your purchases. Know what I mean?

Anyhow, this year's event took place at the fantastic skater-owned and operated Spit and Sawdust skatepark in the Welsh capital. With Christian Hart in charge and a top notch kitchen and bar on-site - this was always going to be a cut above.

Proceedings kicked off on the Friday night with a session at Bute Square on a custom built skateable dragon (what else?) which saw a heavy kicking before Stevie Thompson's grimmer-than-it-looked-thank-God injury put a cap in the night's ass. (Happily, Stevie was back in the park the next day, arm in a sling and with a smile on his face - hurrah!).

Saturday saw the full Vans Shop Riot 2023 event with 19 shops battling it out for honour, booze tokens, over-sized comedy cheques and a chance to skate in the finals later this year. Some extremely heavy sessions ensued (and some more grim slams) until it was left to teams from We are Super Eight, R1 and ourselves to battle it out for the top 3. In the end we were pipped to the post by the insane consistency of the Super Eight Crew but second is fine.

Check the excellent Skateboarder's Companion clip at the top for all the action and then head over to the Skateboarder's Companion website to see all of Rob Whiston's brilliant photos. Big up Cardiff, big up Vans, big up skateboarding.