Skateboarding
What’s up with Denis Lynn?
Belfast's street grafter is a different proposition altogether. We pinned him down for this left-field Checkout.
Denis Lynn Checkout video
Interview edit with Denis Lynn from Belfast
Denis Lynn is a rascal. Being a skateboarder in Belfast can be a risky business, believe that. An undercurrent of casual violence ebbs and flows around the city even now, and so you can’t be a doughnut and skate there – much less so if you hail from one of the city’s hardest quarters, and started skating those streets at the age of six.
As a youngster, Denis also showed a lot of promise in the Irish GAA sporting codes of Gaelic football and hurling, two sports that are part of the cultural fabric of Ireland. Good players are local heroes, but skating was the only game for Denis and so he grew up inside it, under the wing of his older brother Conhuir.
Well, Denis is a grown man now, and his powers have taken him out of Belfast to become one of the most recognisable names in UK skateboarding, as his talent has not just grown but spread.
While he uses the opportunities that skate events give him to get around, at heart Denis is really a street skater who got good at everything else, which is reflected in a schralpy style unusual in these days of secret skatepark training. A couch surfer with an easy, open and honest nature, you have to love him for it. He will never change.
But he is a rascal.
Hello there, Denis. Let’s start with the usuals – how old are you, and what age were you when you first started skating?
I’m 24 now… and when I started I was probably five, or six.
I met you at around age 10, and you were already mixing it with the big boys – how do you feel now? Are you holding up?
Absolutely loving it; the free travel aspect is the best… Meeting people from all over the world is the biggest bit about it, but the body isn’t holding up too well, from the injuries. Got to try to look after yourself, I think that’s the main thing.
What’s good about Belfast?
That’s a tough question. I like to get on the road, but obviously I love to get back home again to see all my homies. It's mad how quickly people are progressing here, too. All the skaters are killing it. Not much recognition comes this way, although you boys have done a good few things with Irish skaters, which is pretty sick.
Denis Lynn – Fakie Walljam Out Forwards
© Reece Leung
Denis Lynn
© Reece Leung
Denis Lynn – Bluntslide Pop Out
© Reece Leung
Denis Lynn – Backside 180 Fakie Nosegrind
© Reece Leung
Staying with the Ireland theme for a minute, do you have any regrets about moving away from GAA sports to focus on skating? Do you still follow GAA?
I still follow it; still have dreams where I play [laughs]. But I wouldn’t have any regrets about it, no. Not at all.
Would you consider going back into it at a coaching level?
I have thought about that before – it would be something that I'm interested in, because I know so much about the game that it would be a good way to get back into it, and give something back.
Flicking it back to skating, then: why do you ride for The National?
They are all my homies. From day one, they were all my friends. From Leeds, from when I first left [Ireland] and was riding for Superdead, those guys helped me so much as well, the Manchester lot – they were the people who I was skating with, who I was hanging out with even when I wasn’t skating. And then it just became a company.
Who's the best skater on The National right now?
Neil Smith.
You're just about to take off travelling again with Carhartt – where to now?
I’m going to Copenhagen, then I’m going to stay with [Irish film-maker] Phil Evans – we’re going to skate Malmö for a bit. Then, Samu Karvonen is bringing me to Finland to skate that [Suvilahti] DIY as part of a music festival. After that, I go to Paris, and then from Paris to Ukraine. After that I’ll come back either to Belfast or London. Got a bit of a jaunt ahead of me.
What does the future hold for Mister Denis Lynn?
Not too sure – just hopefully the same as I've been doing: good times with good friends, travelling, meeting people, ‘absorbing’ culture [laughs]. Bit of a generic answer, but it's true!