
I skateboarded 85km from Sydney to Wollongong. It took me 12 hours - rotub
http://www.rotub.me/blog/my-skate-of-mind.html?hn
======
minikomi
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?
[https://farm1.staticflickr.com/144/320147593_cc5c8e82ed_z.jp...](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/144/320147593_cc5c8e82ed_z.jpg?zz=1)
yes.

~~~
rotub
The best memories are often unprepared and unplanned, awesome. Thanks for
sharing man

~~~
lostlogin
All true - biked from Aberdeen to Skye over summer. We took no sleeping bags
but did get a tent. Hell, it was summer, how cold could it get? Very. I think
we nearly died. It gets cold in Scotland in summer as it turns out. Fantastic
trip.

------
buro9
That's awesome, and I'm seriously impressed that you did it on that board and
those wheels.

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.

The not taking it too seriously, and doing it because you can is great.

~~~
zimpenfish
I believe that's how the Dunwich Dynamo started. Although I'd imagine doing it
in jeans would leave your nethers somewhat akin to a freshly tenderised steak.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunwich_Dynamo>

~~~
buro9
I've done it in jeans. Admittedly with padded shorts underneath.

One of the guys I met along the way on that occasion was in regular jeans and
no padded shorts. He also didn't bring water or food. He made it to the end,
with the biggest grin on his face that you can imagine.

He now randomly delivers free muffins to people across London:
<http://www.wakeuptomuff.com/how-to-get-muffed-up/>

~~~
zimpenfish
I did it in full-on padded lycra with chamois cream because I am a weak old
softie.

On the other hand, in my defence, ... no, there's no defence.

Will be doing it again though, it was hella fun.

~~~
davidw
Why _not_ use appropriate gear? You'll go faster/farther more comfortably.

~~~
buro9
I do at times, and I don't at times.

Sometimes I like to shoot for comfort, technical wear, the right food,
sunglasses for the job, etc.

Other times I just want to remember what it's like to experience that child-
like feeling of just grabbing your bike and rushing out for a ride.

There's something really liberating and fun about not acting like an adult and
preparing. And it re-introduces some risks that make the ride more
'interesting'... such as whether you'll bonk, and whether you get lost because
you didn't plan, or whether it rains and you get soaked to the bone as you
didn't check.

~~~
davidw
Jeans or not, if you ride enough, often enough, hard enough, and long enough,
you will

* Bonk.

* Get lost.

* Get soaked/frozen because the weather took a turn for the worse.

* Get roasted/bathed in sweat because it got a lot warmer than you planned on.

I have hours of anecdotes for all of the above, despite dressing in the best
possible gear I had/could afford at the time, and riding the best possible
bicycle I could afford at the time (gears, brakes, etc...).

------
kibwen
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.

At 8:00 PM on Saturday, I decide that I will _not_ 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.
_Let's do this_.

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 _breathtakingly gorgeous_ 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 _god-awful
chafing the likes of which I had never imagined_ in a race to get back to the
hotel before the heat of dawn.

Spontaneity really pays off sometimes.

------
grecy
I drove my Jeep from Alaska to South America, because I wanted to.

In all, I drove 65,000km (40,000mi) in 22 months, through 17 countries.

Without a doubt, actually leaving was the hardest part.

I highly recommend such a trip.

All my stories and photos are at <http://theroadchoseme.com>

For anyone wanting to do something similar, <http://wikioverland.org> has all
the logistical information you'll need (borders, paperwork, gas prices, etc.
etc.)

Edit: I'm in the early stages of planning the next one, which will be bigger
:)

~~~
lanstein
> Edit: I'm in the early stages of planning the next one, which will be bigger
> :)

Better get a G-Wagen then ;)

[http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/gunther-holtorf-g-
wagen-r...](http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/gunther-holtorf-g-wagen-road-
trip-500000-mile-2012-07-24)

~~~
grecy
No thanks. Too expensive.

I plan to show it can be done quite cheaply, and with a relatively cheap
vehicle.

------
rpicard
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.

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.

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.

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.

Here's my route for anyone who is interested: <http://goo.gl/maps/Yvwwj>

------
gtani
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.

[http://www.silverfishlongboarding.com/forum/general-
longboar...](http://www.silverfishlongboarding.com/forum/general-
longboarding/240873-drop-thru-dregs-uptown-push.html)

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
I was tempted to use a longboard but it just didn't sit well with me. So I
managed to do it on my shortboard and am so happy I went with that decision,
although my ankles would say otherwise

~~~
gitaarik
Although you wrote you'll never do it again, IF you were to do it again anyway
some day I would like to advice you to have another look into a longboard, and
choose a day when it's nice weather! You'll have a lot of more fun riding.

Check out <http://pavedwave.org/> (The Soul of Distance Skateboarding). On the
forums you'll find tons of advice (skateboard equipment, technique, nutrition)
which can help you achieve awesome goals. You can also find events over there.
If there's one time an event close to you you should really check it out, it's
a great experience to come together and ride for 24 hours! (sound funny huh)

------
timv
@rotub, if you care "Bald Hill" is where the Hang-gliders launch from Stanwell
Tops.

And going down that hill on your skateboard after having already travelled
(I'm guessing) ~50km for ~8hours, is impressive and totally crazy.

[https://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=-34.223424,150.99456&n...](https://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=-34.223424,150.99456&num=1&t=m&z=17)

~~~
rotub
Ah yes, that hill was a killer. My knees and ankle/s were not happy. Thanks!

------
prawn
Well done. Great attitude.

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.

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.

Did you take the detour along the Sea Cliff Bridge?

~~~
roel_v
"Did you take the detour"

I couldn't help myself but LOL at that :) I'm envisaging this guy pushing
himself to even get started, middle of the night, pouring rain, swollen
ankles, muscles aching _everywhere_ , almost being run over 100's of times in
one night, cold and miserable - and then thinking 'hey, let's take a detour
over the touristic route!'.

~~~
prawn
You'll see from their reply that they did take the detour and I would too. The
Sea Cliff Bridge and coastal road are great; the highway is really bland!

------
seeingfurther
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.

~~~
lostlogin
Personal achievement stories pretty much always have good comments here for
some reason - people share their stories etc. Sometimes it seems like this bit
of the Internet isn't like rest.

------
aashaykumar92
Firstly, that's amazing--congrats on finishing. Secondly, really well written
piece!

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?!

~~~
rotub
Thanks - I really appreciate your words. Thanks for recognizing that stories
like this do go further than the actual journey itself. Nothing specific
planned but if something arises that makes me want it that bad again, I won't
say no. Cheers

------
ilamont
Great story. Reminded me of two stories from my hometown:

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."

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.

1\. [http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/news/x1084479703/Bob-
Burke...](http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/news/x1084479703/Bob-Burke-Biking-
from-Newton-to-Mt-Monadnock-in-the-1950s)

------
swatkat
Amazing! Congrats. These are the kind of things we _should_ do for just the
heck of it, and of course for happiness and satisfaction that we get out of it
:)

This reminded me of a guy who cycled 100 miles to meet his first customer.

[http://www.cyclelove.net/2012/11/why-i-cycled-a-hundred-
mile...](http://www.cyclelove.net/2012/11/why-i-cycled-a-hundred-miles-to-
meet-my-first-customer/)

~~~
rotub
Thank you! And thanks for sharing, that's a great story

------
MojoJolo
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.

Anyways, he's amazing. Even though he get back twice, he still continue his
plan and do it. Roadblocks didn't stop him.

------
flashingleds
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.

~~~
rotub
Yeah it was sketchy but thrilling at the same time. I planned to have lights
and reflectors but in the end I just had to do it and stop 'planning' it.

------
ngokevin
You should check out Long Treks on Skate Decks.

<http://www.longtreksonskatedecks.com/>

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.

------
jonesetc
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.

~~~
rotub
99% motivation, 1% sore everything

------
DigitalSea
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.

~~~
rotub
Thanks mate.

PS clocked so many hours in Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 as a kid!

------
barbs
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.

Whereabouts in Sydney did you start your journey?

~~~
andrewfelix
Hey barbs, Parramatta river and Syd Harbour isn't too dangerous for Kayaking.
Just stay close to the shoreline and you're good.

You weren't considering coming in through the heads were you? That would be
quite hairy.

~~~
barbs
Oh, I don't think it'd be too rough, but we were worried about encountering
other boats at night etc

------
Mz
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.

Good piece.

------
australis
Great piece of writing, well done.

I particularly liked this section:

 _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 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.

You've given me a little inspiration, a spark, to do things that I thought
would be possible.

~~~
rotub
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!

------
Snackch3z
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)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skate4Cancer>

Here's the page for the documentary about his trips:
<http://dreamlovecure.org/>

------
itsprofitbaron
The most skateboarding I've ever done is playing Tony Hawk but this was a
really interesting read!

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!

~~~
rotub
Thanks a lot!

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

~~~
rotub
It is taking a lot of time to recover but I will get there. Thanks!

------
boyter
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.

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.

~~~
andrewcooke
sorry - i completely mis-read your comment and posted a snarky reply. deleted
it now, but had already downvoted. sorry again.

~~~
boyter
Eh didn't read the reply and not worried about the down-vote. No hard feelings
at all.

Don't suppose you could point out the bit that caused the confusion? It would
help me avoid this sort of response in the future :)

~~~
andrewcooke
i don't think there is anything you could do; i just made a very odd/dumb
mistake - i read the first "very" as a "not" (got mad; downvoted; thumped out
a reply; posted; re-read; deleted; scratched head).

~~~
boyter
My fault then. I shouldn't have gone for the double very. No hard feelings :)

------
duck
He mentioned Alastair Humphreys' site but didn't seem to link to it (lot of
great reads): <http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/>.

Here is the route of his around world on a bike trip:
[http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/adventures/roundtheworldbyb...](http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/adventures/roundtheworldbybike/)

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

------
johnwatson11218
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!

~~~
jonesetc
After a decade of skateboarding, I would say this is not a possibility now at
least. The problem is the constant balancing and the constant shifting of
weight. Even after a decade of muscle memory, I fall riding down the sidewalk
regularly. Current robots seem to be hard-pressed to handle even a little
shove.

~~~
kaybe
I found algorithms far superiour than me for 1-2d problems. (inverse pendulum
problems, balancing a ball on a 2d plane and exactly controlling its
position).

So problems probably are too many degrees of freedom, challenges like proper
vision to plan ahead and steer, and in the shoving case also the security
aspect (since there's a hard limit on how much force/acceleration a robot can
use if it is handled by humans, and if you can shove it, it surely is).

In that sense, a skate-bot (without security limits) seems to be easier than a
walking one with limits (which I assume you meant) to me since it takes down
the degrees of freedom.

------
Gabler
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.

------
guard-of-terra
Sometimes I skate from work to home and back in the morning, it's 10km and it
takes a bit more than an hour.

It's slightly longer but much funnier than subway.

How would you call a scateboard with steering pole? That's what I use.

~~~
prawn
Razor scooter?

~~~
guard-of-terra
Yeah, I guess that's it.

------
rdouble
Kudos on using a real skateboard for this ridiculous mission.

~~~
rotub
Thanks a lot - i'm glad people are picking up on the fact that I chose to use
a shortboard rather than a longboard. It was a conscious decision.

Cheers for replying!

------
doktrin
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.

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

~~~
runjake
It's just this kind of nay-saying that probably partially spurred him on to do
it.

~~~
brokentone
There is naysaying, then adequate preparation.

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

~~~
rotub
haha thanks man

------
chris_wot
I want to know how he got back :-)

~~~
timv
Trains from Wollongong to Sydney are pretty reliable, so I'm guessing he did
that.

~~~
rotub
Yeah caught a train back. 2-3 hours train ride. Slept most the way

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

~~~
rotub
Thank you!

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

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

~~~
rotub
Sitting on the train on the way back (for the parts I was awake), I could
hardly believe I had just skateboarded the distance.

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

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

~~~
rotub
I grew up on a shortboard, and don't really like longboards. I do own one and
it was a conscious decision not to use it.

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

~~~
rotub
lol

------
tdec
Congratulations on getting up and doing it..

~~~
rotub
thanks

------
singingfish
hah, wollongong.

/me waves from the bottom of the bulli pass.

------
nettizen
wow! he says:

"And I'm never doing it again."

good conclusion!

------
doesiteverend
Of all the complete shit posted on this site now...

This site is now RedditHack and the idiotic comments are a testament to how
this site is overrun by hipster douches...

~~~
conradfr
Maybe you're right. But as folks sitting in front of a computer all day maybe
it's nice to see these kind of post now and then.

Granted, I could see it on Reddit instead but the homepage is crowded with
funny images.

