Stories: SESR
We are generally not one for throwbacks on Juicebox but I decided to dig deep. Deep in the archives and go way back to a time before Juicebox, back to pre-recession times when the country was awash with Japanese road cars.
Waterford was and still is a hot spot for automotive shenanigans. Right before the shit hit the fan, I started documenting the stuff that was going down around me.
I’ve always been very fortunate to have a lot of activity right on my door step to feature. All of our viral videos have featured close friends and their machines of choice at the time.
Back in the day the cruise scene was in full swing, to be really honest I came into it right as it was starting to wind down, friends were finally out on the road and I was slowly making my way into different groups and getting to know faces in the scene.
I wanted to capture the madness that was happening in the “Sunny South East” and felt we needed to build a website and start shooting pics and videos of car scene and weekend shenanigans.
Two good friends had a similar idea. Dayo Maher and Flip Morrisey who still help out with the site today were toying with the same idea.. We felt it was right to start getting a website going to show what was happening. The guys came up with SESR, I designed the logo and began putting together some videos and photos and a first draft for a website.
The name spread like wildfire; cars were sporting the sticker all over the south. The hype was rapidly increasing with Monthly SESR cruises generating insane crowds and no end in sight. This video and selection of photos is from that time. Looking back I really wish we had better cameras, you have to remember in 2007/8 HD and all that comes with it was a new thing and super expensive, 10/10 times the situation was in a non light area.
I was bringing my Handheld camera which I used for filming skateboarding down to the likes of the port road, and B & Q where a sea of Civics, AE86’s, Silvias and more would line up to race the strip from roundabout to roundabout or do a spot of skidding.
It looked like there was no end in sight. Every child hood friend had an EVO, Integra or something special. My only real regret is not documenting more of it. I still have vivid memories hanging out the window looking at the sea of about 200 cars driving down to the port.
A hundred people lining up on either side of the road with a line of cars ready to race… It was crazy, all over the city stuff would be going down, cops would hunt everyone and we would regroup somewhere else. My few shots and clips are nothing compared to some of the legendary stories that have been told.
The scene was booming with rivalry and racing and general craic. People were coming down every weekend to race, briefly halted by drift trains. The Port road is infamous because of activity from the past and is still famous to this day, regarded as one of the best places for activity in Ireland.
These were truly the tail end of the good old days. Cars were plentiful, but the recession rolled in and everything was stripped, broke or sold off foreign, we all know that story. Luckily things have been on the up and I’ve been fortunate to have a great set of friends who are still as active as they were before the Dark times.
Those days seem like a distant memory. Asides from the few shabby images I have, accompanied with this small video. I really nothing else I have that showcases how crazy things were, possibly some raw footage on a hard drive. We didn’t really expect things to pan out the way they did.
Usual nightly banter from a few key characters from them, good friend Micheal known by many as “Magoo” was always down to cause a good old fashioned stir. Many a good night were had because of shit talk through texts or online in forums bringing cars down from all over the country to battle each other.
SESR never came to fruition. It was too specific to the southeast and I had plans to go much bigger and create a site that would cater to the entire country.
Check out the video for a little gilmpse into a common place scene back then. At the end it says video coming soon but soon after I made this the SESR fling was over and all new video projects were made for Juicebox. This project grew to be much larger than I could have anticipated and well, I guess the rest is history!