Restoring a little faith in the progressive nature of freestyle nights in Manchester the riders were stoked. And Finnish one-time international pro snowboarder, Joni Makinen, even laid down a few slashes for his first indoor voyage, which he reckoned was rather good, ‘kind of like hard winter snow’.

We made our first voyage to Manchester’s Chill Factore on Saturday to check out the 2008 Westbeach Freezer Jam.  Not failing to disappoint the park crew had been digging deep until 6 am on Saturday morning to create a jib and jump spectacle to rival any set-up in the UK.