Sunshine at last - and the Steel Wheel - greet Big Spin crowds

Crowds lined the rails 0n the De La Warr Pavilion terrace to watch young local BMXers and skateboarders trying their skills over professionally-supplied ramps on Saturday afternoon.

Sun-seekers enjoying their refreshment on the balconies above became engrossed as, with total disregard for gravity and grazes, youngsters queued eagerly for a chance to show their stuff.

Local BMX and skateboard suppliers The Source put spice into the competitions with generous prizes.

The opening live music was provided by local band Rumiko Junior with colleagues Gorilla following.

Ramis Tribe supplied this year's ramps.

But if the big feature of the afternoon was the appearance of US company Monster Energy with their motorcycle stunt-riding act it was local builder Hugh Allen who was the hero of the day.

When Monster Energy arrived with their 14ft steel mesh ball on a trailer hitched to an equally monster 6x4 they found that the articulated rig would not fit in the narrow, winding access path from the promenade to the pavilion's west lawn.

The boss of Bexhill company Bruce and Co. off-laded the steel elements - looking like sections of a giant Satsuma - onto his lorry with its hi-ab crane and deftly negotiated the path before helping lift the sections into position for assembly.

Pavilion head of education Polly Gifford: "A huge thank you goes to Hugh

Allen whose loaned his hi-ab free of charge. We called him up and he has given his time to do this."

Monster Energy went on to wow the crowds.

The mini-moto bikes zoomed in tight formation inside the confines as the steel ball became a see-through wall of death.

For Polly the sunshine - or rather the absence of the rain and high winds which have dogged Big Spin in the past - made her happiness complete.

"This is the first time in four years that we have had good weather for Big Spin.

"In previous years we have been nearly blown off the seafront.

"That's why there's so many people here."