The Why Not? Blog

At the tender age of 25 Dave started skateboarding. 14 months later he became the first person to skate the length of Britain. Another 8 months on he had crossed Australia on his board, breaking a world record & raising over £20,000 for three charities. Now, at 27, he's writing his first book, is a motivational speaker and a businessman, and he's only just gotten started on a lifetime of challenges which from the outside look just darn crazy. So, why? You know the answer, don't you. Why not?

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Books, boards and balls...

It has finally happened. Rolling along a north London street a man points at Elsa and says, "A bloke is skating around Australia on a board like that." Absolute genius.

Within an hour-long skate between Camden and Golders Green I was stopped seven times yesterday by people who knew about BoardFree. One chap, owner of a classic fold-up bike, eagerly had a go on Little Elsa (Elsa, a little battered after 900 miles through Britain, is currently in Germany getting a new coat) and then looked at me disappointed, "there's no kicktail, you can't turn," he said.
"But she's really smooth isn't she," I offer,
"But a kicktail is really handy in tight situations," says the man before hopping onto his bike and peddling away. I watched him go, looked at Little Elsa and told her not to worry.

Last week the BoardFree Initiative got an official sponsor. The Initiative is designed to compliment the awareness BoardFree raises about longboarding itself, and my aim, especially after the Australian journey, is to get out on the streets and teach people how to board. I'll be doing this with a quiver supplied by www.lushlongboards.com. Five boards arrived last week, shiny and new and begging to be tested out. To date BoardFree has gotten numerous people into longboarding, with Lush's help I'm hoping the Initiative starts a mini-revolution before 2007 is out. Dan and I grabbed a Kilima and Samba, scooted the Swansea Bay cyclepath and tarmac-surfed back to St Thomas with the wind behind us. It is good to be home.

I write this as the sun shines down on north London. If sourcing 20k worth of commercial sponsorship to cover BoardFree Australia's costs wasn't enough I've also made tracks with the BoardFree Story in the past couple of days, jotting down two draft chapters which will slowly form the foundations of a book about the project. I feel overweighed and stressed with impending financial doom, but the sheer volume of material collected since March 2005 - when my first longboard arrived in the post - gives me a warm-glow. There's something comforting about being to tell a story which is full of heart and honesty, one with a solid beginning and with one hell of an ending. Whatever that ending is, the events from the past fifteen months ensure that it's going to be quite a tale. Two questions: which publisher will win the book? And what should it be called? Answers on a postcard, or on the new BoardFree forum!

Watched Brazil-Ghana with Dim and Pete a couple of days ago. This Saturday England play Portugal in the World Cup quarter finals. Two matches away from the final, COME ON ENGLAND. Around this time last year I was finalising dates for BoardFree Australia. It was originally going to start in late May. I pushed it back a couple of months so it wouldn't interfere with the World Cup. Make the re-scheduling count, England. Make it count.

2 Comments:

  • At 12:07 pm, Blogger Seadog said…

    finally took your advice, and got myself a blog... got the football blues, not helped by living in a francophone country... hope life isn't too manic, em x

     
  • At 4:10 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Davey dave!

    Let me know when you will be in sydney ok??

    Like what dates you kinda looking at?

    Ill be there 29th dec - 10th Jan ;-)

    deeeeee

     

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