Happy Skate is the work of Dan Joyce fuelled by his love of the skate community, writes Joe Bill

Imbedded into 2000s UK skate culture… at the forefront of the candid camera prank era… a long-time staple of the notorious late-night MTV schedule… and he’s even addressed the Oxford University Union - to a 30-something like me, Dan Joyce was part of a messy melting pot of popular culture of a time before YouTube and social media had really taken hold.

He was Joycey, part of the legendary Dirty Sanchez TV show. But in Folkestone he is just Dan, and I don’t think he could be any happier with that.

“Every now and again, I get recognised,” he says. “But kids now, they haven’t got a clue about it. No one really watches TV now.”

Standing in Happy Skate (@happy_skate_), his shop which has the enviable position opposite the new multi-tiered skate park F51, we got a clear picture of how much Dan has embedded himself into the community since his move to the seaside town two years ago.

“I would recommend it to anyone,” he says. “I’ve never lived anywhere with so many like-minded people. If you’ve got an idea here, there are people who are up for helping out. Most places I’ve lived there are people telling you ‘Nah, that’s never gonna work’.”

Within five minutes of arriving at Happy Skate, a local dad popped in to hand Dan a vintage, presumably rare but very well-kept skateboard with eight wheels, explaining that he was on his way to the tip but thought he would donate it to the shop instead.

Downstairs, there is a mini skate ramp area that is used for training beginners as well as hosting the odd party. Of course, there is skate fashion and equipment on sale, not to mention the DJ decks, old box TVs, rare skate mags and artwork making it a proper haven for those into the culture.

But there are also building works on a green screen and bespoke swimming pool-style backdrop and an analogue photography dark room, which will be used as part of Happy Skate’s plans to offer skills development opportunities to the community.

“I set it up as a Community Interest Company,” says Dan. “I’ve been doing a lot of film-making workshops with young people at Camp Hillcrest [a skatepark in Gloucestershire], teaching young kids the process of making old skate videos. It’s using old DV tapes and VHS, so they have a bit more respect for what they’ve got in their pocket really - to show the process you used to have to go through to make a skate video.”

Dan’s other business, Joyce Division, makes films with the likes of Sports Banger, Vans, Nike, Adidas and anyone that Dan ‘likes working with’, including a number of Kent street artists.

“And it’s not about being the best, it’s about having fun with your friends. It’s about all the creative side that goes with it…”

— Dan Joyce

But Happy Skate, his new baby, started life as a market stall on Folkestone Harbour Arm and was inspired by the changing nature of the skateboard community.

“My theory on it is that, skateboarding being in the Olympics, there’s going to be a lot of kids going into skateboarding thinking it’s about winning and competition,” he explains. “And it’s not about being the best, it’s about having fun with your friends. It’s about all the creative side that goes with it - the art, the analogue photography, the craft of it all, spending time learning something, just for the fun of it, with your friends.”

In 2019, Dan attended the funeral of pro skater Ben Raemers (there’s a picture of him high on the wall in the shop), who has been described as one of the best British skaters ever. Raemers committed suicide at the age of 28, shocking the skate community.

“There was a massive turnout for his funeral. And I was like ‘He didn’t need to do this’ - there should have been some sort of support network,” says Dan. “He had an injury and his career was cut short and didn’t have anything else to fall back on.

“So it’s important to develop something else alongside skateboarding, like filming, photography, art or music, so that if you’re injured you can still be a part of skateboarding and still earn money from it.

“It [Happy Skate] is about showing kids that it’s not just the act of skateboarding, it’s all the other stuff that goes with it. Take an interest in it, learn how to make a video, learn how to design your own board graphics, so that if you can’t skate and you lose your sponsorship, there’s something else there.”

Walking up to the arches to take some photos and chat (with Max the dog in tow) you get the feeling that Dan is a man who tells it as it is. I guess being open and honest is the best way forward for someone who has left very little to the imagination in the past.

How is the skateboard community in Folkestone? I asked.

“I’m a bit upset with it,” he responds. “There’s lots of different separate groups who don’t hang out together and don’t like each other, talk sh*t about each other and aren’t always inclusive.

“I’ve never fallen out with any other skateboarder. We’ve always been in the minority and as soon as you become a skater, that’s it, you’re in the gang.

“The Ashford skaters have got a different approach to it. If there’s an event on, they’re all involved. The BMX community, the skate community, even the scooter kids, are involved and they include everyone. And that is the business model I’m trying to use. For everyone, not putting it as ‘us’ and ‘them’.”

While he is still skating weekly with a group of ‘rad dads’, Dan is married and a father and is pretty far away from the man who took a crap off the side of a building and ate a pubic-hair-covered pizza and a million other things, all for our amusement. And for good reason.

“When I was doing Dirty Sanchez, we were on the road all the time with the drink and drugs and stuff, but I ended up having a heart attack when my wife was pregnant with my daughter [seven years ago],” he says. “That was a bit of a wake-up call, really. My whole lifestyle totally changed after that.”

At its height, between 2002 and 2007, Dirty Sanchez were touring the world, making shows for MTV and eventually a feature film. It was effectively the UK’s answer to Jackass - but in my opinion it was better.

The foursome, which included Lee Dainton, Mathew Pritchard and Michael ‘Pancho’ Locke, would take turns doing stunts, half of which would not be allowed on TV for fear of getting cancelled these days.

From filming Nike commercials with Wayne Rooney to Dan’s appearance in the SHY FX Raver video, the crew were celebrities in their own right and a big part of the beginnings of the reality TV movement - though it sounds somewhat sacrilegious to call it reality TV.

“It was good fun, but it was of the time,” says Dan. “It was before the internet, really, there wasn’t YouTube back then (seriously, YouTube didn’t start until 2005). No one had seen people do that sort of thing. But now it’s old hat.”

While occasional Sanchez reunions do happen, for example on the Matt Stocks podcast last year, I get the feeling Dan is keen not to dwell on the past and the questions he has probably been asked a million times. Instead, he is helping the next swathe of pranksters make it to the top.

“I’ve just directed another show called Lazy Generation,” he says. “They’re young lads, YouTubers, who have grown up watching Dirty Sanchez and Jackass. They’ve been going for about 12 years and Viacom wanted to do a series with them, so they got me to direct it. They are webisodes, so it lives on the Comedy Central YouTube channel.”

With Happy Skate open and nearing completion, I kind of hope that people reading this feature will perhaps Google Dan Joyce and understand his role in a very successful, though very ‘moment in time’, pop culture phenomenon. Either way, just go in and say ‘Hi’. In fact, he’d probably prefer that.

INFO: happyskate.co.uk