'You're going to die,' wrote one man. 'My friends and I are taking bets on how many days it'll be before you end up in hospital with dehydration,' said another. Charming.
At the beginning of 2005 the idea of pushing a skateboard across Australia couldn't have been more foreign. It wasn't that travel to far flung lands was a strange concept, I'd done plenty of that, but it had often been so very normal. Oh, and back then, I'd never been on a skateboard, I hadn't even registered the few longboards that occassionally drifted past at Swansea University.
Two years later, I was pushing a carbon fibre longboard along Eastern Australia's Pacific Highway, Sydney behind me and Brisbane in sight. BoardFree had already been the first time the length of Britain had been skated and then, perhaps unsurprisingly, it was the first time anyone had skated across Oz, too. An awful lot can happen in a couple of years, but an awful lot can't happen as well. I suppose it depends what you do. For the first time in my life I'd really pulled my finger out and done something that seemed to be worthwhile, and my goodness, at the very least there were some stories to be had.
So, what started off in my head as the most serious thing I'd ever done - and what was to most people the most ridiculous thing they'd ever heard of - changed my life. No more day job, thank you very much. I'll take blisters over boredom anyday!
See http://www.boardfree.co.uk
