Pro skateboarder cycles from Land’s End to John O’Groats to raise money for Swansea skate park

Richard Youle – Local Democracy Reporter

The future of a Swansea skate park is looking assured after a £75,000 fundraising target was reached with an outstanding contribution from a professional skateboarder and triathlete.

Exist Skatepark, Mount Pleasant, will use the money to refurbish parts of the building and, crucially, it will unlock a £188,000 grant from Swansea Council which should secure a lease for the next 10 years.

The venue was around £7,000 short of the £75,000 target when Mathew Pritchard – known to many as a stunt performer, endurance athlete and more latterly a vegan chef – cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats to help out.

He did the ride in 59.7 hours, over six days, and made up the fundraising shortfall with an extra £2,000 on top.

No stranger to endurance events Mr Pritchard wanted to beat the seven days he had taken to ride from John O’Groats to Land’s End in 2011.

Riding the conventional south-to-north route this time he set off from the western tip of Cornwall at first light arriving in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, at around 10.30pm that night.

It was an astonishing first day in the saddle – 182 miles and 10,500ft of climbs – but it left a mark.

Sore

“My backside had a battering and when I got back on the bike the next day it was really sore,” he said. “It was with me all the way, but apart from that it was all good.”

The weather did take a turn for the worse after he cycled through Kendal in the Lake District and up into the mountains, and he and his support team – Exist Skatepark co-founder Ric Cartwright and photographer Paul Phillips, known to many as Skin Phillips – only booked into hotels for three nights, sleeping rough for the remainder of the trip.

Mr Pritchard said: “One night we got some shelter under an Aldi (store) in Glasgow and some police turned up and moved us on.” But when the officers contacted their sergeant, the sergeant took pity and offered him an upgrade – a night in a police station. “It was just what I wanted!” said the 51-year-old.

He started skateboarding aged 15, secured sponsorship aged 21 and turned pro a year later.

Success

Mr Pritchard became an on-screen personality with the success of MTV stunt show Dirty Sanchez and then embarked on a string of fitness challenges from around 2009 onwards.

The toughest of these, he said, was an extraordinary 10 Ironmans in 10 consecutive days.

Reflecting on his earlier years, he said: “Skateboarding was pretty much my life. Basically skateboarding gave me everything.”

He has been to Exist Skatepark previously and plans to visit again now that he has completed the bike ride. “It was nice to give back to something that has given me so much,” he said.

The indoor skate park was founded in 2011 by Mr Cartwright and his partner Kate Leonard.

The future of the not-for-profit venture beyond 2027 looked in doubt when the fundraising began – starting with a 24-hour skate event which contributed £9,000 to the pot.

Miss Leonard said the success of this opening event led to a £45,000 grant from a charity called the Moondance Foundation. “At that point it felt really do-able,” she said. “Skateboarders we’d never met before from America were giving us £250 as they understood how important skate parks were.”

She said she’d like to improve the entrance of the building and install windows and in due course rooftop solar panels as well as securing a new 10-year lease from its owners, which could in turn open up National Lottery funding opportunities.

Good news

Miss Leonard said the skate park was at its busiest between October and March when up to 400 people came through the doors every week.

She said the outdoor skate park on the promenade near Mumbles and plans by the county council to create more skate parks were all good news for the skateboarding scene. “Swansea should be a surf and skate city,” she said.

Miss Leonard described Mr Pritchard’s bike ride as “an extraordinary feat” which had been closely followed and cheered on by everyone connected with the indoor skate park. “I think it was the most massive effort,” she said.

A Swansea Council spokesman confirmed that its support would be forthcoming. A spokesman said last week: “We have an in-principle agreement that £188,000 will be awarded to Exist Skatepark through a place-making grant funded by the Welsh Government, subject to the skatepark raising its fundraising total.”

Mr Pritchard, meanwhile, said he was about to launch a new work-out, nutrition, and addiction and mental health support venture called Dirty Health. He also has a tattoo and barber shop in Cardiff, where he lives.

He has made programmes about veganism and published cookbooks, and said he had no regrets about ditching meat and dairy. He said: “Many people said to me, ‘Considering what you do, I couldn’t do that (become vegan).’ But it hasn’t made me weaker – if anything it’s made me stronger.”