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Busted In Barca

Skaters go to Barcelona to skateboard on a crossfire trip.

What do you do when you’re not working, got no money and the weather in London keeps teasing you with one sunny day per month? You round up as many heads as possible and embark on a skate trip of course!!! What else???

BCN aeroport was the destination on the front of our Easy Jet Airbus as we departed a grey Luton airport. Once up and away, the sun gave us a nod and our trip was officially in full swing. Arrived BCN and settled into a hostel which sleeps half the world. With rooms sleeping up to 8 people, broken lockers and drunk Scottish bachelors, I knew this was gonna be an interesting one! We crashed for one night and left first thing in the morning to find a decent hostel whilst my head was ringing with booze from the night before.It was a question of checking in, having a wash and off to the supermarket for a cheap continental breakfast. The meeting place for most of the trip was the infamous Macba. After hooking up with everyone, I was amped on a skate and Fondo was on today’s menu. It was just a good as I remember it! It was a relaxing skate until everyone got hit by the Ben Jobe affect. He surprised all with some unusual skill and his random conversation. We was having a great time til some undercover agents ran the spot down and confiscated a few skateboards. Most of us got away, but a handful got caught and fined. “Oh well, back to Macba it is then!!!”

Las Ramblas was heaving with some of Spain’s most amazing Export material and this meant getting your party shoes on. After a crazy evening of hooch and spading, it was time to head back to my room before I get arrested. It had suddenly occurred to me that I had over done it with the hooch, because I was sporting the shoeless look in search of a kebab at 4am?!? Yep, retard!!!… The morning after was a bad one, but I made it down to Macba with the alcohol pumping through my veins and bloodshot eyes. Got a little lost on the trains as we set off to meet at a spot outside of the City.The urge to get a T-shirt printed with ‘Special Needs’ on the chest was getting stronger by the second as we spent 3 hours traveling in all sorts of directions. It ended up being a good session and the teenage mutant ninja kids, killed this spot. Ross, Rory, James and Josh were on it and it was great to watch them skate this place.

This time it was quite easy to say no to a night out as I was still feeling rough from night before, so we ended up at Manola’s for a drink and a chill. Up early the following morning with no sign of a headache for today, YET… Off to do a bit of bowl riding and have a look around for some secret spots. This bowl is really gnarly and Josh raped it. The tranny is so hard to skate, but not for them bowl riders yo! After an afternoon of fun, we set off to find the hidden beauty of Spain.

Stopping of at a handrail on the way there turned out to be a bad idea in the end. We were setting up to shoot some rail madness when sharks on scooters circled their prey. The Old Bill arrived on the scene and started asking some serious questions! I was thrown into a cop car immediately and soon after that, the rest of our crew got nicked too. Downtown these boys were asking all sorts of questions and my understanding of Spanish is dangerous! There were about 12 of us and we all got arrested.

“No Passport in your possession meant a night in Barcelona’s finest Establishment…..Jail”

We spent 8 hours in custody and after some serious begging, we eventually got some food and doggy biscuits at 01:00am. I don’t think the food was really what everyone had hoped for and no-one actually ate it. Aqua was also not an option, these people don’t bottle their water for the folk in prison, no sir, all them folk in prison receive is a semi cavity search and paper thin mattress. By 06:30am my cell door was open and I was once again set free to terrorize society with my skateboard and VX1000. It was heavy to take all of this in, but once back on the streets I was more amped on skating than ever before. James, myself and Tom got a cute little breakfast once we got back to our hostels, followed by a short power napp. We made the most of our last day in Barca and went mad on filming. We covered all the well known spots, where you are allowed to skate and sneaked in two lines down by the Port. It was a good day and I was enjoying my freedom. We had spent about a week in Barca and it was one trip that I’ll remember for as long as I shall live, not cause I got locked away, but because I was given my life back. So if you fancy a trip to skateboarding’s most rinsed out city, head down to LLukemajor Metro Station and hit up them rails outside on a nice little quiet Sunday afternoon… It’s worth it….

pce out yo…Alan