Seriously????

How did I get myself into this? When a friend of mine suggested why not skate from ocean to ocean across the USA, my first reaction was, "That's insane. I can think of loads of reasons why not!" Over the following months I decided to do a bit of research and it started to look feasible.....though still not sensible. He pulled out of the idea but I've kept it alive ever since. I am now almost 100% committed to doing it and am looking forward to doing probably the hardest thing I will ever attempt in my life.


The first problem was getting enough time off work to be able to do it. I didn't really want to leave my job and have nothing to come back to. Fortunately, I work for a charity for whom I would be raising money by doing this and having been there for more than 3 years I can ask for a 3 month sabbatical. So I have 3 months from when I leave the office to get to the start, buy a van, skate to the other side of the continent and recover before returning to work which gives a maximum time for the skate of about 75 days. I hope to do it a lot faster than that but we'll have to wait and see.

The second problem was money. I won't be getting paid while on a sabbatical so I will need to budget carefully for the journey in order to not run out before I finish. That might be a little difficult as I have no idea how much it is going to cost. The faster I skate the less it will cost. The more problems I encounter the longer it will take and so funding the trip will cost more. The sensible approach seems to be budget for the maximum amount of time and hope to have plenty left at the end. I will be attempting to get some sponsorship to reduce my overheads to help with things like accommodation but no financial assistance.Any money that is raised will be going to charity. With a bit of luck I will find some skaters on or near the intended route that might put me and my support team (my parents) up for the odd night to help keep the costs down.

Since deciding that I was going to try and make this happen I have received a fair bit of help in the way of advice and support from a number of other skaters both where I live in London, UK and from US skaters on various skating websites. Most helpful so far has been Doug from Seattle posting a link to the blog of Danny Daniels. Danny is a skater from Texas who has done this before a few years ago. His experiences almost made me decide that I wasn't going to attempt it but at the same time inspired me even more into making it happen. Coincidentally, Danny took a route that starts about 5 miles where where I was intending to kick off and finished in exactly the same spot. He took a little over 62 days to achieve the feat which was incredibly impressive considering the problems he encountered. He also did it with no drafting in order establish a solo record. I haven't decided to attempt the record yet but I am keeping my options open at this point. However, I have adapted my intended route to try and avoid some of his problem areas but I have concluded that the best way to prepare for the skate is to include a route check in a car and make a note of all the hazards on the way and any surfaces that are likely to cause problems.

Route check planning: It's a little far to do it all in one go so I have booked time off work and split the route check into two parts. The first check will be the latter half of the route, from El Paso, TX to Jacksonville, FL. This will be done in October this year with Doron, a skater friend from London. We will be setting off the days after the Athens to Atlanta skate. The A2A is a magnificent event for anyone else thinking of having a go. They need all the support you can give them to help ensure it happens every year. I did it in 2008 and it is the most friendly skate event I have ever taken part in and am looking forward to supporting it again this year. The second route check is pencilled in for the weeks either side of Easter 2011. I will be doing that with Angee, another skater friend from London. That check will take us from San Diego, CA to El Paso, TX and we will be combining it with a little late season snowboarding.

I will be posting more about the intended route and timings over the coming months and when the event finally comes I will try and maintain this blog on a daily basis, so you can plot my progess and perhaps come along and join me for a section. I will welcome the company of other skaters.