Battle of Hastings 2023 - A Wrap
Building on the article posted on The Journal in anticipation of the 2023 Battle of Hastings (BOH), the weekend has now laid waste to the event with the dust having settled and the aftermath now before us.
Starting in 2015, the BOH now exists as the pinnacle event of the BMX calendar as the best riders from around the globe descend on Hastings, UK for a weekend of insane riding, partying and celebrating the best that BMX has to offer. The 2023 version was planned to include the same old park event as well as the more recently established rail jam and for this year, an additional event being a high air jam. Closing on Sunday evening is the Number One Rider Awards (NORA Cup).
Kicking things off with heat was the high air jam, held on the beachfront of Hastings with a purpose built setup. Amongst the bikers looking to reach the sky was LUXBMX pro Josh Dove, who once again found himself wowing those who witness his riding. Unsurprisingly, Dovey went the highest, did it with a comical casualness, a smile and took out the win. Look at this photo, seriously.
Dovey on his way to the stratosphere with a glorious one foot table and a well populated foreground. Photo by Wes McGrath
The rail jam was equally insane, with LUXBMX pro Jake Norris making his presence on the international scene very much known. Finding himself apart of a session featuring the biggest names in BMX street, the dude did not look out of place one bit. Blink and you'll miss it, but focus in at 5.04 in the below video and you will see Norris slay a nollie to smith. Dude also does a beautiful nollie to crook at 1.34 and just as significantly, cops some love from BMX legend Van Homan (who was commentating the event).
Taking out the win was welsh biker Jordan Godwin who did a tonne of crazy things with suspicous ease, including cranks to pegs to hardway, crooks to hardway and other insane stuff. Well done!
Norris and Van Homan, what a moment for the dude. Screenshot taken from the below DIGBMX video
The culmination of the weekends biking takes place underground in The Source park, a masterfully crafted timber skatepark which features a rectangular shaped facility with 3 x main sections being a bowl with wallride, a smaller square bowl with a sub-box and ending with a street based section rounded out with a bunch of rails, banks and various other elements. The park is really well put together given the space available, meaning lines and a continous flow are on offer.
The skatepark hosts the park session and subsequent finals, whereby the 8 x teams (each with 4 x riders) battle for glory. For 2023, 2 of the team captains were LUXBMX pro's, being Josh Dove and Boyd Hilder with another one of our dudes, Jake Norris, finding himself part of Boyd's team. After all the bikers went to town on the park, putting their best runs down for the panel of judges, the dynamic, lethal combination of Garrett Reynolds, Lewis Mills, Tom Justice and Josh Dove came out on top, holding up the trophy and taking home a solid $7,000.
After the park finals wrapped up, the tone shifted from crazy biking energy in a pit of beer fuelled passion to crazy biker energy in a theatre of beer fuelled excitement. The White Rock Theatre was the chosen venue to host the 2023 NORA Cup, to which the best of the best receive recognition for their efforts over the year.
For more context to the NORA Cup, check out the recently published article.
Out of the 8 x categories up for glory, LUXBMX had nominees in 3. Although there was high hopes, unfortunately the crew missed out on the trophy. Nonetheless, the boys basked in the glory of celebratory spirit, with the sickest riders around, both contemporarily and of the past, as well as industry titans. It would have been an amazing time! Check out some photos from the event below (taken from Our BMX) and head to the following page to get a complete rundown of the evening.
Glorious, soon to be crawling with creatures of the biking world
The LUXBMX crew with Jason Watts, what a sorry sight. Remarkable to see everyone in the one photo
Boyd, Jason & Murray Loubser
Dove man
That'll do. What a remarkable event and one seemingly dominated by LUXBMX boys. It's pretty wild to see the dudes kicking it overseas on the biggest stage, can't imagine what it would have been like to be there in person. While Dovey has now made it home, know that Norris and Boyd are still overseas working on different projects. Cannot wait to see what they come up with!
