Hi everyone, I am a 27 long time skateboarder and I will be skateboarding for distance for charity Ochre (Oesophageal Cancer) raising money via JustGiving. My uncle died of cancer and this charity were so good to him during his final months. My intention is to do Oxford Skatepark to London Southbank. (60 miles) It will be challenging, and there has been lots of planning so far, lots of people telling me its a dangerous idea, but they are negative and I truly believe this can be done safely if planned to a T.
I have been using a Google Maps walk and cycle planners. But really struggling to find out what is actually skateable. Ideally I’d like to be able to skate downhill concrete jungle skate 3 style everywhere, but we know the UK can’t provide that! What I need from you guys is as locals (South), who know the different areas of my route, provide me with advice and illustrations of all the skateable paths and cycle routes available. This will allow me to be safe and avoid roads, dirt tracks, shit areas. If you have knowledge of paths/routes skateable that connect towns that would be awesome. Alternatively if you know good route planning software then shout me. I understand at times I will be walking but that is fine.
Skateable paths intel required for: Oxford, High Wycombe, Thame, Slough, Uxbridge, Hayes, West to Central London. Any other places from Oxford to London en route that are better can be dialled in to the route.
If anyone would like to be considered to join me (if my injured friend drops out) or even meet me on route and skate a little then be my guest. I’d love to meet you all. Again once all your ideas come out I shall piece them together accordingly. My email address is domkingofsk8@hotmail.co.uk if you want to send pictures of drawings, directions etc. I shall post the JustGiving at a later date for donations, as this is still in planning.
Much appreciated any advice. Lets make this a reality for a good cause!
Ah mate I’ve cycled that and there’s no fucking chance you’re skateboarding that without a long board or electric skateboard. You’re gonna need massive soft wheels. I’m fairly sure some of that route was gravel too. This was about a decade ago tho
Have a look at Komoot. It’s a cycle touring planner app, but you can specify the surface types you want on a route. Won’t be 100%, but it might give you a better starting point.
Could you (or a mate) cycle the route beforehand to pick up what the surfaces are like (ie how crusty)?
Might also be worth posting on a bike forum to see if anyone has ridden it and can give you any info.
I don’t know the area at all so can’t help much more than that!
edit did @LA do something similar quite recently? Might be able to give you some tips.
I skated a Marathon so only 26 miles and we were quite fortunate to plan the route along the coast from Worthing to Brighton and back and as a result had quite a bit of Prom available to us. Saying that, most of it was pretty rough Prom and the bits that weren’t Prom were very old like pebble dash pathways… I used a big cruiser with Krooked Zip Zinger 65mm wheels which were really decent. I also switch pushed on all the smoother / wider / straighter prom bits to allow my leg a break.
I can’t offer up any practical advice but maybe this will give you a bit of confidence::
In summer 2008/09(?)I was skating the flat ground spot at Brighton’s old pier and a longboard guy started to hang out for a few days. I think his name was Buzz or Sting or something like that. He announced his plan to skate from Brighton to Newquay. I brushed it off as nothing because he seemed a bit of a party casualty type and wouldn’t stop talking. There were some Spanish guys skating there on the daily and one of them, Eduardo, was like, ‘I’m down, when we going?’. Long story short is they left that weekend. Longboard guy on his longboard and Ed on his regular board. There may have been a wheel change for softies but I’m not sure. They turned up at the spot in the morning with rucksacks packed with gear and pushed off westwards along the prom. They did it. It took them over a fortnight, but they did it. I don’t know if it was for charity or just the hell of it, but mission accomplished. They said they rough camped a bit and stayed with skaters they met along the way. So it’s definitely doable. Unfortunately Buzz/Sting or whatever is no longer with us (r.i.p.) and Ed is back in Spain as far as I know, so getting any real details now is not going to happen.
If that doesn’t inspire you there are plenty of stories of Chef Pierre skating from SF to Santa Cruz. Which is a trip I think Erick Wincowski (Santa Cruz pro) has done as well. That’s some distance on some shitty roads.
As someone has already mentioned go and do a recce of the whole route so you know where you’re going maybe take some notes of where good places to stop are etc. Which parts of the route are rougher then others. Maybe worth having a back up car to follow you in case of injury and they can carry spare water etc.
A friend of mine done the coast to coast on a bmx starting at Whitehaven skatepark and stopped off at a park on the NE coast. He got someone to pick him up each night so he could rest and get dropped off to start off at the same place each morning.
Drive a route and set up a go pro or something out the passenger window, same route on the way back so you get both sides of the roads and watch it back and see where your trouble spots will be.
Although google maps might give you enough info.
I may plan and cycle the first part of the route for sure. That Komoot looks more accurate. Thanks for this.
Was this an official marathon happening at the time? I might keep this in mind as a backup, as I could resort to doing a coastal path if things go tits up with this route. It could prove more safer and practical. We shall see.
Pritchard, Dainton and Cates skated to Newquay from Newport.
On one of the days Pritchard skated ahead whilst Dainton and Cates waited until he couldn’t see them and then hitch hiked a few miles up the road ahead of him.
Pritchard ‘caught up’ with them and couldn’t work out what had happened and how they got ahead of him haha.
I recall seeing a news article years back about a British longboarder who pushed across Australia. He had a special longboard where the wheelbase was extra low, like 5-10cm above the ground so he wouldn’t have chronic spinal imbalance after pushing mongo for 3000km.
