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Morgan Web

At the end of August I decided to go on a road trip around Ireland. After a bit of ringing round it was on, meet Cheba in Porthcawl, and gradually head to Ireland, where Elroy was already travelling. Decided to stop of at West Wales on the way, for a party and some skating. The new(ish) park in Cardigan is rad, well worth a skate, best bowl in Wales. Also had a street skate at an old spot in Haverfordwest, used to have three of the sickest ledges ever, but now one is so rounded it's untrue. Still a great spot with friendly locals - definitely worth the trip down (by car anyway, would be well annoying to get there any other way). From here headed to the ferry.

Upon landing we headed for Dublin where would be meeting Elroy. Got about half way the first night, and after some drama and dodgy map reading, found a decent campsite with a pub full of local pikeys so the visit was brief!

Dublin traffic is a nightmare, and after a few hours of traffic jams, road rage and many a traffic law broken, some more stressed map reading found where we would be staying, mission accomplished, time for a skate! I was under the impression that street skating would be almost impossible as a result of overpaid, under educated security, but we found some amazing spots although tiredness put pay to any real skating ambition we may have had. Found Ramp n' Rail skatepark which is pretty sick, for an indoor park. Some decent skaters, but got overun with the traditional wannabe gangsta bladers.

Met up with Elroy later that night and tried some more skating, found the best ledge ever, but were unable to take advantage cos it was a struggle to even push. This was in the financial district, but its a proper bust by day, and next to a full sketchy housing estate which I proceeded to get lost in, car doors remaining firmly locked. Next day was more of the same, but went out in the night instead of skating, and found probably the only pub in Dublin not to serve Guiness! At the end of the night, Cheba wanted to get his posters around Dublin, and we found some good places. At this one spot, he'd just finished, and taken a photo, when Elroy sneaks off to take a slash in a bush. Next thing, 2 of Dublins finest are knocking on my window asking why we were there and what the flash was. Fortunately they didn't spot Elroy's stupidity. They ended up warning us that the place we were in was a bad place to go, and that we should get out of there. We left them looking puzzled at the posters that had suddeny appeared on the doors.

Next day it was decided to head across country to county Sligo, and a town called Strandhill where lots of people were staying. Skating was not really an option cos of a serious lack of spots, and one of the worst skate parks ever, but fair play to the kid for actually doing something, better luck next time. A few days of chilling, lighting fires and other nonsense while here. We had the best fire, so big and it stayed alight for 2 whole days, even with kids mucking around and rain, it just kept coming back. It was so good that one night we tried to sleep by it, then got woken up by torrential rain at about 3 A.M. and found out that the drivers seat of a Renault Clio is not the nicest place to try and sleep. Left here and decided on heading down to Galway, but Elroy decided to wuss out and stay put.

On the way to Galway I learnt a valuable lesson about driving in Ireland, navy ford mondeos can be unmarked police cars, so overtaking them while well over the speed limit is not the best idea! So an unplanned stop and €80 fine later, we got to Galway. Headed to a house where we knew some people, and they found us a place to stay, with the coolest family ever, after meeting them for 10 minutes we had a house key! Went for a freezing swim in some harbour thing before heading into a town to watch a band ruin some famous songs, actually thats unfair, the band were pretty good, just in desperate need of a new singer! Had a couple of days of skating here. The council have provided a park which is terrible, but is placed in a community park thing which has some pretty decent spots dotted around so it wasnt all bad. Including some nice ledges, a few benches and a high ledge down a small three stair. After another quick skate we were off to Cork.

Cork is a dump, that may sound harsh but I challenge you to prove me wrong. Had been told about a really good indoor park, but it had been closed down by the council weeks earlier, nice one. A strange place where every skater seems to head to a really bad spot with nothing to skate, while an amazing spot around the corner goes almost unnoticed, but not by us. After we had warmed up a few other skaters rolled round and a decent session was underway. This was the last skating of the trip as the weather turned bad, and it was time to head home.

If you ever go to Ireland using a ferry to Rosslaire, be aware that there is nothing there apart from the harbour. We had nothing left to do so we headed to the town a few hours before our ferry home to look round, and found that there was absolutely nothing to do, other than sit in the car bored.

Big thanks to everyone who put us up or showed us pubs/ skate spots. Special thanks to everyone in Strandhill for putting us up and making us food, Prince and family in Galway for being really cool to us, and Tom "Barry White" Scoble for letting us kip on his floor when we got off the ferry home, even though he had to wake up at 2 A.M . just to let us in. No thanks to the gardai, security gaurds, cork council and the gay bladers in Dublin park.