Vans Shop Riot UK 2019 - Graystones Action Sports Manchester This has been said many times previously but it absolutely deserves reiterating: Vans Shop Riot is hands down the best event in the UK skateboard calendar. There is a lot of talk from a lot of brands about the cultural value and necessity of supporting core skate stores but there is only one brand who actually put their money where their mouth is and that brand is Vans. We can argue all day about the relative 'legitness' of the myriad skate shoe brands in our universe if you like and, judging on Instagram battling, people love to, but one, simple, undeniable fact remains. Only Vans are prepared to put their hands in their pockets and back up the rhetoric year after year with an event that brings the sadly dwindling number of UK skateboard shops together to create a space for localism to be celebrated, skaters both known and unknown to shine and, more importantly, still manage to keep things 100% skate in the process.     For those of you not clued up as to what Vans Shop Riot is, here's a very brief summary. Vans invite skate stores from across our country (and our European counterparts) to come together for a shop team event every year. The idea is simple: without skate stores, skateboarding culture is screwed, so why not create an event that allows all the major stores responsible for nourishing their local skate communities to gravitate towards one place for a weekend? Vans fork out for hotels, food, booze and the venue and the crews come to rip purely based on the love and respect that they have for the skate shops that support them. In the simplest terms - it's on some Robin Hood shit. You get me?     If my slowly disintegrating memory is correct, the recent Vans UK Shop Riot 2019 Graystone Action Sports Manchester event marked the 11th anniversary of Van's commitment to celebrating the lifeblood of our skateboard scene and what a weekend it was. Vans UK masterminds Olly Wright, Manhead, Matt Lloyd, Amanda Destroyed Brains, Ralph Knackered Hip and various others held the reigns and curated a banger of a weekend. Free booze from Northern Monk (who doesn't love their 2% IPA?), free BBQ chomp, Blast skates pinatas, a warm up sesh at the Pump Cage and a Saturday at Graystone watching the best humans from the best shops in the country go in - I mean, you'd have to be an utter bellend not to enjoy that, wouldn't you? The answer to that question is a resounding 'yes' just in case you were wondering. As defending champions, the Black Sheep Family came out swinging, qualifying in first coming into the semi finals but you know us, as the Kersal Massive said "we dont fuck about". With that said, when the final was finally finalised, nobody was going to argue with Flatspot's position as Vans Shop Riot 2019 winners - the Devon cream tea heads went in - fair play.     I could ramble on all day about this but really, you might as well just watch the excellent Ryan Gray crafted video at the top of this guff and decide for yourself. As a completist of the highest order, I'd be remiss if I didn't give you the full list of attendees as you're very probably not going to see them anywhere else so... If we work on the proviso that the eventual winners were in reverse order: 1st Flatspot 2nd Black Sheep 3rd Slick Willies 4th Lost Art 4th 5050 That then means that the full results are as follows (according to the score sheets). 6th The House 6th Freestyle 8th Sessions 9th Forty Two 10th Skate Warehouse 11th TR7 12th Kultivation 13th Flavour 14th Big Wooodys 15th Lariatt 16th Ideal 17th Welcome 18th Decimal 19th Exist 20th Brixton's Baddest 21st Cardiff Skate Club     So there you have it. Absolute banger of a weekend for all involved. Never ending big ups to all the Vans heads for making this happen year after year. Even heavier big ups to all the shop crews that came and repped hard for the love and a special donation of knucks to our very own Rikk Fields who managed to break his ankle in the finals, carry on skating till the final whistle and then still drink a brace of booze before returning to grafter land. If you want more, head over to the Vague Mag site for a full photo overview by skateboarding's own Man Mountain Marko, the very venerable Leo Sharp and the equally venerable Rafski.     And then, seeing as how we didn't win this year, scroll down and drink deeply from our victory in 2018. We'll be back in 2020 and this time we're going to DESTROY you. Vans Shop Riot UK 2019 - Graystone Action Sports Manchester