No way Wayne will be board on loop the loop fundraiser

Síofra Grant

Wayne Gallagher is a prominent figure in the world of Irish skateboarding. He has skated professionally, owned a skate park and ran in the same crew as U2.

Next month Wayne is embarking on a 24-hour, 200km skate on the greenways of Westmeath.

It’s not the first long distance journey he has undertaken – last year Wayne skated from Mullingar to Galway over two days. But this journey is different. Earlier in the year Wayne lost two friends in close succession, Johno Whelan, and Clive Rowan.

“Johno was sick for the last few years,” said. Wayne, “We knew he was probably not going to make it, but Clive was a complete shock.”

These two men were pillars of the Irish Skateboarding world, Johno a talented skater, and Clive often coined the Godfather of Irish Skating.

“Clive owned the first skate shop in the country, there’s a documentary on YouTube called the Hill Street Documentary. It’s all about skateboarding in the ‘80s and ‘90s. I’ve got interviews in it, Johno’s got interviews in it.”

Tony Hawk also features in the documentary.

It is the loss of these two great friends that is fueling Wayne’s journey.

Wayne remains a prominent figure in Irish skateboarding as well. He owned an indoor skatepark at just 21, where he worked with Johno and created a haven for skaters to hone their skills.

Now, older and wiser, he does long distance skates, some stretching hundreds of kilometres, across Ireland.

This time around he will be doing a loop of Westmeath through the green ways for 24 hours

“The greenways seem like the best option,” said Wayne. “There’s no traffic, you’re not on a hard shoulder, it’s quite scary being on a hard shoulder with trucks going past you at 100 kilometres an hour.

“So that was my main goal, to give myself a test run to see if I could actually skate for 24 hours and then maybe go away to Dublin this summer.”

Wayne is using his 24-hour challenge to raise funds for the Irish Skateboarding Association and the Galway Skateboard Association.

That is a common theme for Wayne’s skates. Last September he organised a group skate, also on the local greenway.

“I was trying to raise funds for a skateboarder who was in a wheelchair. He was trying to get a wheelchair accessible car, and we did that to help promote his GoFundMe.

“We had wanted to bring him out with us but it was going to cost €300-400 to get him from Leitrim to Mullingar and back again.

“We did the skate, and it took about eight hours. Luckily enough, over the last couple of months he did actually manage to get the car, so now he has the freedom to at least go out.”

The skates are a way for Wayne to continue pursuing his passion. Now in his 40s, the hardcore tricks aren’t as feasible for him. “At my age I don’t really feel like jumping down handrails. I’ve been there, done that, I broke a lot of bones when I was younger, I’ve used to skate professionally.

“When you’re 47 you don’t really feel like jumping down 10 steps of stairs. Your bones shatter more than they would break,” joked Wayne.

“It keeps me fit,” he says of his current skating.

One of the factors that Wayne does have to worry about before is the weather, which so far this year hasn’t been accommodating for skating.

In order to prepare he’s got a new board with bigger wheels. “I’m looking forward to it, but I’m not looking forward to seeing what the weather is going to be like.Even pushing in the rain, the board is quite a lot slower when it’s wet than it would be when it’s dry.

“Especially on the greenway, there’s lots of leaves and moss and twigs on the greenway.”

Wayne still has a huge love for the world of skating and is happy to see there’s still a demand for it in Ireland.

“The guy I had started a skate park with opened one about five or six years ago and he had a gym upstairs and a little cafe.That helped pay the bills because once the kids go back to school, the skate park is empty.”

It’s also clear that Wayne is happy to see how much more inclusive the Irish skating community has become, especially for women. “There are a lot of girl skateboarders now. Back when I grew up, there probably weren’t many, but now it seems to be quite popular with the girls.”

Help Wayne reach his fundraising goal and support him as he, “skates the loop the loop” via his GoFundMe, ‘Fundraiser by Wayne Gallagher: 200km loop the loop skate’.