Skateboarding

Alternative Ulster: 40 Shades Tour in photos

Bobby Worrest, Keith Walsh, Simon Stricker and Brian Lotti hit town with a circus.

By Niall Neeson

1 min readPublished on 12/08/2014 · 9:00 AM UTC

The idea behind this first all-Ireland pro skate tour was inspired by Jay Doherty’s Van City wagon-train a few years back. Brian Lotti and I had worked on a few projects prior to this and with his vision and enthusiasm we had soon roped in Krooked Skateboards' very own Bobby Worrest, Swiss maestro Simon Stricker and Dublin’s finest maniac Keith Walsh.

Rather than do the obvious thing and hack between the cities, we instead set off on a circuitous route out of Belfast to Portrush, where we put on a low-key demo with the locals in support of the Causeway Association of Urban Sport’s skatepark campaign, before crossing into Donegal by boat.

Awaiting us was Irish skateboarding royalty Jay Doherty who swept us to a DIY backyard bowl the likes of which we will never see again, right on the westernmost point of Europe.

This, indeed, was no ordinary skate trip. The first leg of this unique mission lands here December 11, but in the interim, Irish scene documentarian and head-the-ball Niall O’Byrne was on hand to capture all the moments from the Emerald Isle for us.

This is what he shot. Enjoy! #40shades