Skate park plan is subject to funds as boarding enjoys revival
A new skateboard club has been formed ahead of the anticipated construction of a new skating facility in Min Ryan Park, two decades after the idea was first proposed for Wexford town.
Wexford SK8TR Kids has been set up by Kevin Weaver and his daughter, Lily Elizabeth, who learned to skateboard in closed car parks around the town during the Covid-19 crisis.
‘Lily and I started skating together about eight weeks ago during the lockdown. The problem was there wasn’t a lot of people to skate with and there didn’t seem to be many girl skateboarders’, said Kevin, a native of Baltimore who became a skaterboy in the US in 1982 at the age of 12 and continued skateboarding for about seven years.
Now 50 years old, he has developed a new-found love of the activity through Lily whose initial interest was sparked by watching the 1980’s retro show ‘Stranger Things’.
‘We bought her a board a few years ago but she wasn’t really interested. Then, during Covid, she wanted to learn how to skate so we dug it out’, said Kevin.
‘When she got up on the board, I was helping her and showing her what to do and I realised how much fun it was, so I built my own board and we started skating together’.
‘We skated in the Talbot car park and at the Arc Cinema, moving to the spill-over car park in the Omniplex cinema in Drinagh when the other places opened up again.’
‘We shared a few messages on Facebook, inviting anyone who was interested to join us for meet-ups and we thought if people show up, they show up.’
‘We were thinking if we had a few boards we could encourage other people to try out the activity. We did a call-out for any old boards that people had lying in their sheds and got about five or six at first which I repaired and rebuilt to make them usable and safe. I begged and borrowed the parts.
‘It has really taken off and over the past four weeks we’ve given out 12 boards to kids who expressed an interest.’
‘We got so much interest that we thought “why don’t we start a club?” We had our first meet-up in Min Ryan Park on a Friday evening and 15 kids and their parents turned up. The second week, we had 60 kids’, said Kevin.
‘We decided to meet in Min Ryan because that’s where the town’s new skateboard park is going. Two guys who used to skate in Wexford in the ‘90’s are helping us.’
Kevin said a lot of people are keen to try out the activity to see if they like it and with that in mind, a number of friends and supporters have helped the club out, by providing 10 new skateboards which new members can use during try-out sessions.
Assistance and support is also being provided by Noel at the Cut Throat Club Barber’s, Sharon Messitt of the Little Geek Shack in Wexford and and Alex in Reckless Skate Shop in Gorey.
The club is using a ‘safe and clean’ closed-off section of Min Ryan Park beside the car park as a temporary skating area.
‘We’ve been skating there. I don’t know how long we are going to be able to use it. We have the support of the Mayor, Cllr Leonard Kelly, and Cllrs Tom Forde and George Lawlor who are very enthusiastic about it’, he said.
Kevin and Lily are excited about the prospect of a proper skateboard park in the town and Kevin had a photograph taken of himself on the hilly area where it is to be built. ‘I can say that I was officially the first skateboarder on it’.
‘This has all happened because Lily got the bug and I got the bug again. We just wanted to skate’, said Kevin.
‘Skating is not a sport. It’s a lifestyle, a culture, it’s similar to surfing.’
Lily has turned into ‘quite the street skater’, according to her dad.
‘At the beginning of Covid, she had to hold onto me or to a wall, now she’s teaching other kids the fundamentals.’
There is no entry fee for Wexford SK8TR Kids. ‘We don’t charge for anything. Everything Lily and I do is all free’, said Kevin.
‘It’s turned into a little organisation. Lily handles Instagram and Tik Tok and I do Facebook. Our friend Ruth O’ Connell is helping with emails and admin.’
Of his own renewed interest in the activity, he said: ‘I gave up for a while, now I’m young again.’
A council spokesman said a skateboard park is included in future plans for Min Ryan Park, subject to Government funding, and a finance application will be made. This has always been the council’s intention and a portion of the park has been set aside for that purpose. Bearing in mind that the new playground is for under 12’s, the local authority is keen to provide facilities suitable for older children and young teenagers.