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The dearth of skateboarding facilities in Newry once again is back in the public eye with Marcus Square, virtually the last place available for them to use in the city in the absence of proper facilities, 'upgraded' with new seating a couple of weeks ago making skateboarding impossible.
Twenty year old Isaac Lane-Davies describes it as something akin to structures that are put in place to deter homeless people from staying in a certain area.
It's only when a non skater is shown the clever ways authorities use to deter skateboarding with metal stops and uneven surfaces that you see the difficulties faced. Perhaps skateboarders could accept this if there was a facility local for them to go, but there isn't, and like the Albert Basin Park story there is no sign of this changing any time soon!
Skateboarding is a subculture and as Lane-Davies explains there is no support whatsoever from the local council despite its popularity. That in itself is probably an understatement of the year. A Skate Park was promised for Newry ever since the one in Kilkeel closed, thirty years ago, to make way for a car park. "I feel really let down to be honest. There was a park in Kilkeel that that was used for skateboarding and as soon as it was torn down we were promised, as it was being torn down there would be one in Newry, and this was 30 years ago! I'm not even 30 so this has been going on for longer than I've been alive! There's guys campaigning for this for years. I just think it's insane how the likes of Carrickfergus and Banbridge and Bangor, places that are smaller places than Newry, smaller towns at least - Newry's a city and it doesn't even have a skate park, it's crazy."
Lane-Davies was around six or seven when his mum bought him a skateboard and although it took a few years before he embraced it and it became the life changing passion it is now.
In first year in secondary school when pupils from his class were asked what hobbies they had, he was too scared to mention it. Lane-Davies explains "I was so petrified because everyone was getting their name called out. 'Where are you from' - 'I'm Matthew from Bessbrook and I like football' or whatever and then the next guy - 'I'm James from Camlough, I play football.' All the guys said the same thing and therefore when it came right to me I was so petrified that I said football, even though I really wanted to say skateboarding, until one of the last guys, one of my friends Jamie came around - 'What's your name? My name's Jamie I'm from Newry, I'm such and such and I like skateboarding.' My head turned and from then I was like, right I don't have to quit this I don't have to feel strange or left out as if I was some freak that doesn't comply with social norms or whatever."
It was the start of them and a few others regularly skating in Newry, ultimately leading him to be involved with Newry Urban Sports, the skateboard group started by Michael Deen who Lane-Davies calls the 'Godfather of Skateboarding.'
Lane Davies explains "We've got a great scene here now, we've got all sorts of ethnicities and ages skating with us. We've got Brazilian guys. Polish guys it's amazing
"The weird thing with skateboarding is you kinda, no matter what your interests are outside of skateboarding and what type of person you are, everyone seems to click. In fairness, the other thing is you haven't really got much of a choice in this town for that, your kind of just matched with each other, you all have similar interests and you just get together, have a good time, you make art, you go out, you skate and you film clips. It's just so good for your mental well being and physical well being as well."
Explaining how the new seating structures have made things really difficult Lane-Davies says "In fairness, the one thing that really pushed me over the edge was these skate stoppers or benches being added
"This has been our place of worship or practice for years and this is where we grew up as people and as skaters as well, and they've taken this away from us and it's really tough to see. Without trying to make a big deal of it, It really is a big deal to us!"
In the absence of higher structures for them to skateboard along they are left with very little "Without these benches there's no grounds for creativity really just flat ground skateboarding - iI's crazy." adds Lane-Davies
"It's too much of an inconvenience to be putting these massive heavy ramps into vans or cars to bring them down every other night, It's just not on, we need something. I wasn't really expecting the Skate Park anytime soon, so we make do with what we've got and we don't complain but this isn't really a safe place for skaters. Last year we had a guy, a drunk driver fly up the street, hit his brakes stopped where we were skating there must have been about 20 of us down this evening. This was during the summer. He got out of his car, went to the boot grabbed an angle grinder and started chasing us around. Thankfully, when he went to get back into his car, he couldn't start it up so we called the cops and the cops came down and arrested him."
What do the group want? For a start they would like their benches back to the way they were about two weeks ago when they didn't have these horrible skate stoppers on them. Lane-Davies concludes "That will be a start, I'm not expecting to turn around and have a skatepark here before summer it will not happen. Yeah, a Skate Park that's the bigger picture really - Give us a skate park"
