I skateboarded 85km from Sydney to Wollongong. It took me 12 hours

Hardly comparable, but one of my fondest memories in Japan was a sudden trip to climb Mt Fuji with 2 other crazy gaijin.. Totally unprepared, massive storm, absolutely no knowledge of how cold it would be (about 20 degrees Centigrade difference bottom and top..). We weathered it out outside with rain in our face all night, wearing only 500 yen convinience store rain jackets, ate a massively overpriced cup noodle once the small mountain huts opened up. Was it terrible? Pretty. Was it worth it? <a href="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/144/320147593_cc5c8e82ed_z.jpg?zz=1" rel="nofollow">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/144/320147593_cc5c8e82ed_z.jp...</a> yes.

That's awesome, and I'm seriously impressed that you did it on that board and those wheels.<p>Something I loved, and still love, about the fixed gear crowd was how they'd do crazy rides with little or no prep. Just a child-like fearlessness. To head out, still in jeans, and to ride 200km just because.<p>The not taking it too seriously, and doing it because you can is great.

Last summer, my extended family and I chartered a bus for a few days of touring in Washington DC. I'd never been before and I was dying to check out all the monuments up-close, but the crowds and the heat conspired to confine us to museums for the entirety of the trip. By the final night I had yet to get a good look at the national mall.<p>At 8:00 PM on Saturday, I decide that I will <i>not</i> be leaving without visiting those damn monuments. Cue Google Maps: aha, there's a twelve-mile bike trail between our hotel and the mall. I don't have a bike, but I did pack passable running shorts. The bus departs at 7:00 AM Sunday, t-minus eleven hours. <i>Let's do this</i>.<p>At the behest of a whim, what ensued was one of the most magical nights of my entire life. I could probably go on for pages, but I'll refrain. To summarize, I spent 3.5 hours walk/jogging along a <i>breathtakingly gorgeous</i> trail, two hours running excitedly between the amazing and largely-deserted monuments (some of them, like the Korean War monument, are especially captivating in the dark), and another 3.5 hours battling fatigue, sore legs, and <i>god-awful chafing the likes of which I had never imagined</i> in a race to get back to the hotel before the heat of dawn.<p>Spontaneity really pays off sometimes.

I drove my Jeep from Alaska to South America, because I wanted to.<p>In all, I drove 65,000km (40,000mi) in 22 months, through 17 countries.<p>Without a doubt, actually leaving was the hardest part.<p>I highly recommend such a trip.<p>All my stories and photos are at <a href="http://theroadchoseme.com" rel="nofollow">http://theroadchoseme.com</a><p>For anyone wanting to do something similar, <a href="http://wikioverland.org" rel="nofollow">http://wikioverland.org</a> has all the logistical information you'll need (borders, paperwork, gas prices, etc. etc.)<p>Edit: I'm in the early stages of planning the next one, which will be bigger :)

A couple of weeks ago I was pretty bored and decided that I wanted to get out. I rode down the street to the grocery store on my board (about the size of a Penny board). After I went in and got some candy (Altoids actually) I decided to keep going to the end of the mall where the store is located. Once I got to the end, I found a sidewalk that went around this big lake and under the highway, so I followed it through a pitch black tunnel and when I ended up on the other side I just found where a road started and decided to follow it until it became a dead-end. After a while it did so I turned and followed the next one until it did too.<p>Around this time I decided to try and find my way back by going forward instead of retracing my path. I called a friend to ask him to check how far I was on Google Maps. He said I was around five miles away from where I started at this point, and offered to help me find my way back. I declined, since I still wanted to find it myself. After another long while I decided to call him again, and he said that I was now around nine miles away from where I had started.<p>I was getting tired and had thought that I would be pretty close at this point, so I asked him to give me directions to get back. When I finally got back I was tired, hungry, and so thirsty, but I had a really enjoyed my little adventure. It may seem silly since I was ultimately so close to where I live, but I had never been anywhere along that route so it really felt like an adventure of discovery.<p>After getting some food and something to drink, I retraced my route on Google Maps and it turns out that I had gone 21.7 miles. It took me around four hours.<p>Here's my route for anyone who is interested: <a href="http://goo.gl/maps/Yvwwj" rel="nofollow">http://goo.gl/maps/Yvwwj</a>

This is nuts, and a fantastic achievement, both. I have a state of the art push longboard (Dregs Uptown, probably the lowest deck you can buy except for a landYacht, 72mm wheels, very clean Red bearings) and I've injured my achilles a few times on 8-10 mile skate outings.<p><a href="http://www.silverfishlongboarding.com/forum/general-longboarding/240873-drop-thru-dregs-uptown-push.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.silverfishlongboarding.com/forum/general-longboar...</a><p>also, i did the drive from Sydney to Brisbane with a couple surfboards, highly recommended. Next time i'll do S to W (in a campervan)

@rotub, if you care "Bald Hill" is where the Hang-gliders launch from Stanwell Tops.<p>And going down that hill on your skateboard after having already travelled (I'm guessing) ~50km for ~8hours, is impressive and totally crazy.<p><a href="https://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=-34.223424,150.99456&#38;num=1&#38;t=m&#38;z=17" rel="nofollow">https://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=-34.223424,150.99456&#38;n...</a>

Well done. Great attitude.<p>Reminds me of beginning a long hike and feeling the pain in your calves start too early in the first hour. And knowing that you have over a week to go. But you just do it rather than skulking back.<p>Had a full day hiking from Italy to Switzerland in torrential rain, too stubborn to stop at the start, then unable to find a flat spot to pitch a tent later. Obviously traffic and road conditions on a skateboard are one thing, but I think you'd be hard pressed to die from rain itself otherwise. Still, it's such a mental deterrent at times.<p>Did you take the detour along the Sea Cliff Bridge?

I love that all the comments on this HN thread are so positive! Amazing achievement and totally unorthodox.. nonetheless super inspiring. AND the HN community is renewed in its vigor. +! for online society.

Firstly, that's amazing--congrats on finishing. Secondly, really well written piece!<p>Never boarded to be honest but these type of stories always put a smile on my face and I'm glad stories like this do get on HN's main feed. There is a lot more to these type of stories than the actual journey itself, yours especially. Congrats again! Since you never will do that exact trip again, maybe another is a possibility?!

Great story. Reminded me of two stories from my hometown:<p>1. When I was in high school, a kid skateboarded the Boston Marathon, I think the first person to do so. He was younger than me, probably 15. The local paper asked him why, and he said something like "no one else has done it, and I want to see if it can be done."<p>2. When Boston's big ring road (Rte. 128) was built in the 1950s, people were allowed to ride bicycles in the two right-hand lanes (!). I was surprised to learn that a bunch of kids (15 or 16 year olds) used the road to bike from Boston's western edge to Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire (1), about 80 miles. A lot of people might say "big deal, I can do a century" but this was using 3-speed bikes. These kids didn't think "it's too far, can't be done" but rather "we have these relatively modern bikes, can take the highway for part of the way, let's try". And they did.<p>1. <a href="http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/news/x1084479703/Bob-Burke-Biking-from-Newton-to-Mt-Monadnock-in-the-1950s" rel="nofollow">http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/news/x1084479703/Bob-Burke...</a>

Amazing! Congrats. These are the kind of things we <i>should</i> do for just the heck of it, and of course for happiness and satisfaction that we get out of it :)<p>This reminded me of a guy who cycled 100 miles to meet his first customer.<p><a href="http://www.cyclelove.net/2012/11/why-i-cycled-a-hundred-miles-to-meet-my-first-customer/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cyclelove.net/2012/11/why-i-cycled-a-hundred-mile...</a>

I have a skateboard but not that good. I'm considering getting a long board because I don't do tricks that much. I just want to free ride using any board. And I think it's better to use long board if just free riding.<p>Anyways, he's amazing. Even though he get back twice, he still continue his plan and do it. Roadblocks didn't stop him.

It sounds like there might not be a 'next-time' in the near future, but maybe think about putting some lights on if you're doing another 3am start. Even riding my bike at 6am without eye-searingly bright front and backlights makes me very nervous, I'd be terrified skating on the road in the dark.

You should check out Long Treks on Skate Decks.<p><a href="http://www.longtreksonskatedecks.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.longtreksonskatedecks.com/</a><p>Some funny sponsored longboarders (with one of them being a cinematographer) trek from Peru to Bolivia, and down Morocco, filming their all of their antics.

Seriously impressed with this. At the height of my skating and fitness in general I was almost passing out after having to skate 5 miles. Because of that, I was expecting to open up the link and see this was all done on an electric longboard. Nope. Just solid motivation.

When I was younger I probably did about 85km of skating a day... in Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2. Seriously though, a skateboard requires a lot of effort and when it comes to going uphill it's not exactly a walk in the park. Massive respect, shine on you crazy diamond.

Nice! This would've been exciting. I've wanted to do a similar thing with a friend for ages, where we'd go out kayaking to Sydney Harbour and watch the sunrise. It'd be pretty dangerous, but so much fun.<p>Whereabouts in Sydney did you start your journey?

I have lived without a car for a few years, so I have walked in rain like that a few times. I can't imagine skateboarding in it, but then I can barely stand on a board. At one point, I tried to learn but it didn't really go anywhere.<p>Good piece.

Great piece of writing, well done.<p>I particularly liked this section:<p><i>I was tired of thinking about the possibility of skateboarding to Wollongong ... But this was it, this time was different. I didn't even think about it. ... I just got up and started pushing my skateboard.</i><p>I know what you mean, and have had similar feelings and experiences psyching up for (climbing) missions as well. In a way, sometimes the most difficult part is committing to the task beforehand. Good on you for doing that, following through - and for doing it for yourself.<p>You've given me a little inspiration, a spark, to do things that I thought would be possible.

Since 2004, Rob Dyer (founder of Skate4Cancer) has been doing cross country skateboarding trips to raise awareness for Cancer. He's done this multiple times, the first one going from Newmarket, Ontario to LA, California. Here's the wikipedia article about him (and his foundation) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skate4Cancer" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skate4Cancer</a><p>Here's the page for the documentary about his trips: <a href="http://dreamlovecure.org/" rel="nofollow">http://dreamlovecure.org/</a>

The most skateboarding I've ever done is playing Tony Hawk but this was a really interesting read!<p>Congratulations on finishing and for an awesome achievement - you've confirmed to yourself you can do anything you want when you put your mind to it and you did something what a lot of people don’t do (apart from skateboarding the from Sydney to Wollongong) in that despite, previously giving up for various reasons you still achieved your goal. Congratulations once again!

Awesome. Hope you didn't do any serious damage to your ankles.

Very very impressive. I have walked from Bundena to Otford (along the coast) over two days which while not as far is just as hilly. I would not even attempt to skateboard from Sydney to the Gong.<p>My personal goal has always been to walk from Sydney to Canberra. Would take about I week I estimate, but im unlikely to ever do it mostly because I am not really willing to camp along highways especially around Belanglo.

He mentioned Alastair Humphreys' site but didn't seem to link to it (lot of great reads): <a href="http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/</a>.<p>Here is the route of his around world on a bike trip: <a href="http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/adventures/roundtheworldbybike/" rel="nofollow">http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/adventures/roundtheworldbyb...</a>

Its amazing that this was done with a regular board. I would have to imagine with a longboard it would have been much easier.

Has anyone here ever thought about trying to get robots to be able to do skateboard tricks? It seems to me that unless they could be perfect every time you would first have to teach them to fall without damaging themselves. I bet that would have lots of applications in other domains!

Gotta say when I clicked on the link that wasn't the kind of board I was expecting at all. Good on you man! I've been too scared to switch back to smaller wheels after a few months on some soft 60mm's, but you may have just convinced me to go back.

Sometimes I skate from work to home and back in the morning, it's 10km and it takes a bit more than an hour.<p>It's slightly longer but much funnier than subway.<p>How would you call a scateboard with steering pole? That's what I use.

Kudos on using a real skateboard for this ridiculous mission.

You're insane, and an inspiration. I haven't touched my skateboard in close to a decade, but this is driving me to pick it back up.

That's not the best board option for long rides... I'd take a longboard type one with a larger, smoother, wheel set.

Mad respect dude ... now I feel lame for not going to the gym this morning just because I was tired.

I want to know how he got back :-)

Great attitude, great accomplishment. I liked the part about mental vs. physical readiness.

Paracetamol and ibuprofen required? Are you waking up at night with raging ankle pain?

Omg. I took the train from Sydney to Wollongong once. That was already a long trip..

That's pretty awesome man. I wonder how many 360 flips you pulled off on the way ;)

Why didn't he use a longboard? He could of done it in half the time on one.

How did you manage to not lose your fedora on this awesome trip?

Congratulations on getting up and doing it..

hah, wollongong.<p>/me waves from the bottom of the bulli pass.

wow! he says:<p>"And I'm never doing it again."<p>good conclusion!

Of all the complete shit posted on this site now...<p>This site is now RedditHack and the idiotic comments are a testament to how this site is overrun by hipster douches...