Red Bull Access All Areas Meets Sealand

It scarcely measures the size of a football pitch and the only way to get to the apocalyptic island is by boat 6 miles from the port of Harwich in Essex. The helipad was not in a state for use. It contains a series of rooms, a kitchen, bathroom and even a prison. Until now no outsiders had been granted free access. It was occupied in 1967 by Sir Roy Paddy Bates and became a constitutional principality. The platform is a micro state of records and peculiarities: the smallest nation in the world now boasting its own flag, national anthem, stamps and currency under the rule of Prince Roy and now his son Prince Michael as they named themselves. Its history has been dotted with stories of piracy. In 1978, for example Dutch brigands took Sealand by force. Soon after, Roy recaptured the island with a group of his own men and held the attackers as prisoners of war.

It also proved a course in survival for the skaters. They had to endure a ride on the rough seas and a precarious winch up to the platform attached to the small dingy they were still clinging to inside. They had to sign a waiver, bring visas and passports and run the gauntlet past a large woman with a sword. They then slept on the base over night, with gases seemingly leaking up from below, and had to spend two days avoiding falling into the sea before they could think about skating.
At least two people in the crew had to leave Sealand because it was getting to them. I knew what they felt and I was only a there a few hours. As you walked round the crumbling rusting frame you could see large pot holes very roughly covered and you could hear creaking as you walked on the weak joints.
This place had been carefully researched by the organisation team for this event, in fact the team in Germany had been scanning the net and making enquiries worldwide for the last two years to find a great venue out to sea where they could host the most challenging skate session ever, until they finally stumbled across Sealand.
The project was riddled with difficulty and painstaking weather prediction and the whole event was called off last minute three times during the summer before it finally took place. Then the wood for the skate ramps was stolen on Harwich pier two nights before the event started. The organisation crew had to run around and find wood in a shipbuilders to ensure it could take place and then the fisherman turned up two hours late to escort the skaters to Sealand after a big night in Harwich.
Then there were the eccentric habitants who were so welcoming to the whole escapade. Prince Michael was not on board but one of the caretakers, Chris Harrington said, "When they came to us with this crazy idea, we were immediately enthusiastic and set about making it all possible to host here." This may also have been because the inhabitants are a little 'out there' themselves. They live on the platform for weeks at a time as if they leave it vacant for 24 hours anyone can come and claim it as their own according to the law of international waters.

Mad Mike, for example got stranded in the sea 20 years ago when his pirate radio ship ran out of fuel, and has remained here ever since as the engineer. He drives you there on a speed boat at over 30 knots to be greeted by the ebullient Tina, who greets you with her sabre and checks your passport And they didn't appear to stick too rigidly to the policy of no alcohol in the principality. As skater Mack McKelton so eloquently put it, "It's two sets of freaks meeting for a large freak party." Then they had to skate. Timmi Schultze, the German skater and ramp builder in charge of transporting and fitting the ramps on Sealand after building them in Dortmund said: "This is the hardest place in the world you could find to build ramps. Nothing on Sealand was ready to skate on - it is a death trap. I had to erect the ramps and then smooth them out so they could be skated on. This is the strangest set up I have seen - it's so gnarly."
The skaters were trying to pull off jumps on both sides of the base. At the back there was a short run up to a quarterpipe and a pole jump, precariously balanced with the air and sea beyond but this paled compared to the rail on the old helipad leading to a 3 metre jump down onto a kicker and a bang jump up the side at the front. The wind was swirling and a 20 meter fall into the sea awaited anyone who misjudged their jump. The skate journalist on site looked at me and said: "God they have to really nail it every time here. It's like giving the ball to a striker in football and expecting him to score a goal every time."

In such an extreme challenge the skaters were quickly decimated by the combination of challenging ramps and almost impossible conditions. Kris Vile landed badly on his bad ankle and took himself out for the second day and the German Lennie Burmeister damaged his shoulder after a hard slam. Meanwhile Mack McKelton lost his board into the sea after doing an Ollie off the helipad and firing up the bang jump. "I went up too high on the jump and whoosh it was gone while I tumbled down," he said.

However the rest of them continued until dusk riding a session for photographic shots been taken by the helicopter of skateboard tricks silhouetted against Sealand and the ocean beyond. Kris Vile, still only 19, was at least able to execute a few jumps before his ankle forced him to sit out. He had been competing only a few days earlier at the UK champs in which he came third. He has never broken a bone in all his time skating but said, "This is the most dangerous place to skate I have ever seen. I couldn't forget this even if I tried to. This was absolutely unique. We were the first skaters allowed to come and we will certainly be the last."
Even European champion Philipp Schuster, who said the conditions were not the worst he had skated in, conceded that with the ramps it was the hardest challenge he had faced. Despite his fluid style he found it almost impossible to land a jump on the second day when the wind was at it's strongest
"We have all already skated in countless places in the world," McKelton added, "but Sealand is certainly the most incredible spot on which we have ever been on. It was an indescribable feeling skating here. High in the air with nothing but water around you as far as the eye can see, I will simply never forget it."

FOR EXTRA PHOTO - CHECK IT OUT!