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Although chronologically the UK journey came first, it wasn't originally part of the plan. To skate the width of Australia seemed like enough of a challenge but, as planning went on, the need for a warm-up - physically, psychologically and logistically - became obvious, not to mention sensible.
Britain's most famous charity route, the End to End (or JOGLE/LEJOG) had not been been travelled by anyone on a skateboard by the time BoardFree UK began in late April 2006, and the addition of this journey gave some real umph to the project as a whole. Yes, the 900 miles was going to be a feat in itself, but up until then (perhaps not surprisingly) it had been difficult to convince corporate sponsors that the Australian journey was possible, and we needed sponsors to come on board to make the project the success it had the potential to be. Also on our minds was the need to entice the media towards the project - it was all very well talking about the plans for BoardFree, but before the skating began there was little of substance to write about.
By catchphrasing the End to End a 'warm-up' there was no intention to be derogatory about the challenge ahead (to all intents and purposes the incredulity surrounding the chances of the Australian journey were shared by many, even for this shorter leg), but even if side by side with Perth to Brisbane the length of Britain was just a walk in the park there was to be no doubting the validity of BoardFree if BFUK was a success.
Distance aside, John O'Groats to Lands End was a chance to tie down the logistics of an endurance skateboard journey. The biggest fear was traffic, and having a support vehicle on the road behind the skater was a statement of awareness to authorities that the journey's safety was being taken seriously. Even on narrow country roads the suport van tucked in behind Dave, we just had to move aside more often to allow vehicles to filter past. There are no rules in Britain that govern for long distance skating, so we treated the longboard as a bicycle and made sure that we had answers if police did pull us over. Reflective jacket and helmet were worn 100% of the time, on the road and when TV cameras were present (like it or not, if you skate long distances you become a role model, the lid stays on...), orange flashing light - not blue, this colour is reserved for police - on the support vehicle, and big signs on the back of the van stating our actions and reasons, this at the least was sure to allay the typical frustrations of a British motorist. Our desires to adhere to existing rules and then go one step further and basically invent the conditions and stipulations for a longboarder riding public roads were forced by both a need to be safe and also to create an environment in which we were given mutual respect by the people who encountered us on the road. Angering and leaving a sense of foolishness wouldn't have benefitted anyone, and conversely, by adding to our unique presence on the road by behaving maturely and professionally we were more likely to receive donations through the website emblazoned on the side of the van. Gladly, it was a rare occassion to be hooted at angrily (especially considering the volumes of traffic that passed that month) and many donations to the site indicated that they had come from passers-by.
Although the UK journey was to be a record if we made it to Lands End in one piece there was no time limit to aim for. As a first attempt at this route by a skateboarder, there was no pressure on schedule apart from the one we'd set ourselves. This suited the picture, as although both BoardFree journeys required a decent pace to be set, they were not designed to rush through blindly without stopping. Not a day passed without media commitments, stopping off in towns to visit radio studios, talking to everyone who asked about the project and charities and journey plans, doing the ring-around to local papers to drum up more press. On the road alone we raised over £3000 for our charities in cash and online donations, and although the endless stopping and starting was both frustrating and exhausting at times, it was the lynchpin of BoardFree and each little donation translated to new energy on the road. It was so much easier pushing after a car had pulled over and pocketfulls of cash had been emptied into our money tins - goodwill and genorosity pushed us to the end.
The big lesson from the journey was in the psychology of endurance travel on a board. The endless sign posts, reminders of distances yet to travel, curves in the road and vistas of long uphill drags, they all promoted regular fury! The difficulties, as with all things, need to be translated into the positive if success is to come along, and whenever times were toughest an angel would appear to give us more hope. We would read the map wrong and add 15 miles onto the day's total, it all seemed so hopeless, and then a man or woman would appear and offer us a bed for the night. The blisters would take hold and burn and burn, but a family would hear us on the radio and drive out to intercept our route with bottles of water and hugs.
We learned to take each day at a time, break down the whole journey into smaller, more manageable segments, and slowly the miles passed and Lands End came closer. At the heart of the developing psychology of BoardFree was that this UK journey was just a warm-up, and if it couldn't be done then there was no chance of success in Australia, which awaited just three months later. Finally, after feet that resembled mushroom soup and one of Britain's wettest Mays on record, BoardFree UK ended at Lands End, having taken 34 days to skate from John O'Groats. We were the first people to achieve the feat.
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