Guinness World Record Journey by Skateboard

From June 24th till the 28th of September, 2008, I skateboarded a Guinness World Record breaking 12,159km across part of Europe, right across the United States, and from west to east across China.

Below are blog entries for every day I was on the road, starting from Day 1 of the skateboard journey (actually Day 323 since I left Japan on my bicycle).

On the 15th of November 2007, I was staying at Trellis Bay in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. I wrote a blog post about how lots had happened since I last wrote a blog post, but for reasons that I didn’t divulge at the time, I couldn’t write […]

A story never told: My job as a yacht charter ...

At some point towards the beginning of my skate across China in 2008, I wrote the following piece for the www.skatefurther.com forum. I happened to come across it again after all these years, so I thought I would share it here. Somehow I managed to capture well the trials and […]

Distance Skateboarding in China

For the last three days I have done little but sit on the couch. Highlights from the couch so far include: I put together some random footage of Michele (my host here in Shanghai) and I skating around Shanghai (above). Youtube version of the same video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O36qc1ufk9o Read Moods […]

Day 805 – CHINA (SHANGHAI): Couch potato

Without adue, footage of the final 1,200km or so of the longest journey by skateboard. You can watch it on the Vimeo video below, or see the Youtube version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O36qc1ufk9o. What’s the difference? On some computers, the Vimeo version can be a little jerky and slow loading. But, it […]

Day 802 – CHINA (SHANGHAI): Chilling out in Shanghai

Today’s distance / ???????: 48.1 miles / 77.4km Average speed / ????: 7.8mph / 12.5km/h Time on skateboard / ????: 6h 10m Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 7,168mi plus 386mi (?) / 11,537km plus 622km (?) Ascent / ??: n/a Descent / ??: n/a End-of-day GPS coordinates: N31°13′58.8″, […]

Day 800 – CHINA (JIANGSU): From Luxu to the end ...

At the very sensible suggestion of Felix, I am taking it easy here in Luxu. There is no huge hurry to get into Shanghai, so I’m spending some quality time here chilling out with natives. Native English speakers that is. Yesterday I visited the Sino-Canadian school and spoke to four […]

Day 797 – CHINA (JIANGSU): In Luxu

Today’s distance / ???????: 32.8 miles / 52.8km Average speed / ????: 9.5mph / 15.2km/h Time on skateboard / ????: 3h 28m Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 7,120mi plus 386mi (?) / 11,459km plus 622km (?) Ascent / ??: n/a Descent / ??: n/a End-of-day GPS coordinates: N31°03′01.7″, […]

Day 795 – CHINA (ZHEJIANG and JIANGSU): From Nanxun to ...

Today’s distance / ???????: 37.8 miles / 60.8km Average speed / ????: 7.8mph / 12.6km/h Time on skateboard / ????: 4h 50m Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 7,088mi plus 386mi (?) / 11.407km plus 622km (?) Ascent / ??: 130m Descent / ??: 140m End-of-day GPS coordinates: N30°52′25.1″, […]

Day 794 – CHINA (ZHEJIANG): From N30.59.11.4 to Nanxun

Today’s distance / ???????: 53.1 miles / 85.5km Average speed / ????: 7.7mph / 12.3km/h Time on skateboard / ????: 6h 56m Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 7,050mi plus 386mi (?) / 11,346km plus 622km (?) Ascent / ??: 275m Descent / ??: 305m End-of-day GPS coordinates: N30°59′11.4″, […]

Day 793 – CHINA (ANHUI and ZHEJIANG): From small town ...

Today’s distance / ???????: 46.7 miles / 75.3km Average speed / ????: 8.1mph / 13.1km/h Time on skateboard / ????: 5h 44m Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 6972mi plus 386mi (?) / 11,220km plus 622km (?) Ascent / ??: 285m Descent / ??: 265m End-of-day GPS coordinates: N30°56′49.2″, […]

Dau 790 – CHINA (ANHUI): From Wuhu to Shicheng – ...

Um so I am losing weight. Yesterday I weighed in at 71kg with all my clothes on. I am usually 73kg or thereabouts nekkid. I can hardly face solid food. Grapes and bananas are my friends at the moment. I have my suspicions as to why, but right now I have the […]

Day 789 – CHINA (ANHUI): Feeling A Bit Wonky

In 20 days I will leave this country. 380km to skate. I have the remaining kilometers written on my shoe. Counting down daily… The days are passing too slowly right now. Accumulated stress from fighting bureaucrazies and fatigue from skating and dealing with the constant public attention has taken it’s […]

Day 787 – CHINA (ANHUI): Counting the days in Wuhu

Today’s distance / ???????: 40.6 miles / 65.3km Average speed / ????: 7.5mph / 12.1km/h Time on skateboard / ????: 5h 25m Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 6925mi plus 386mi (?) / 11,145km plus 622km (?) Ascent / ??: 345m Descent / ??: 375m End-of-day GPS coordinates: N31°21′40.9″, […]

Day 786 – CHINA (ANHUI): From Chaohu to Wuhu

Today’s distance / ???????: 22.2 miles / 35.7km Average speed / ????: 8.0mph / 12.9km/h Time on skateboard / ????: 2h 46m Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 6856mi plus 386mi (?) / 11,033km plus 622km (?) Ascent / ??: n/a Descent / ??: n/a End-of-day GPS coordinates: N31°49′55.6″, […]

Day 784 – CHINA (ANHUI): From Hefei to small town ...

“Thank you for your visa application Mr. Thomson. Your passport photos are not large enough, so please go and get bigger ones. Also, you need to have this blue police registration form to apply for a visa extension. No, this is not a rule only in Hefei, it applies everywhere […]

The Waiting Game

I am in Hefei Metropolis, about 400km away from Shanghai.  So…it appears that instead of outright blocking access to certain websites, the Chinese gov*ernment is just capping the download rate of certain websites. Or something like that. Because I am having great difficulty in signing into my Flickr account, which […]

The Great Wall… (rant warning)

Today’s distance / ???????: 46.4 miles / 74.7km Average speed / ????: 7.4mph / 11.9km/h Time on skateboard / ????: 6h 18m Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 6833mi plus 386mi (?) / 10,998km plus 622km (?) Ascent / ??: 350m Descent / ??: 350m End-of-day GPS coordinates: N31°51′11.8″, […]

Day 778 – CHINA (ANHUI): From Luan to Hefei

Today’s distance / ???????: 40.4 miles / 65.1km Average speed / ????: 8mph / 12.9km/h Time on skateboard / ????: 5h 02m Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 6787mi plus 386mi (?) / 10,923km plus 622km (?) Ascent / ??: 310m Descent / ??: 305m End-of-day GPS coordinates: N31°44′37.4″, […]

Day 777 – CHINA (ANHUI): From Yeji to Luan

Today’s distance / ???????: 58.9 miles / 94.9km Average speed / ????: 8.4mph / 13.5km/h Time on skateboard / ????: 7h 02m Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 6747mi plus 386mi (?) / 10,858km plus 622km (?) Ascent / ??: 240m Descent / ??: 240m End-of-day GPS coordinates: N31°50′48.7″, […]

Day 776 – CHINA (HENAN and ANHUI): From Huangchuang to ...

Today’s distance / ???????: 44.2 miles / 71.1km Average speed / ????: 9.1mph / 14.7km/h Time on skateboard / ????: 4h 51m Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 6688mi plus 386mi (?) / 10,763km plus 622km (?) Ascent / ??: 100m Descent / ??: 90m End-of-day GPS coordinates: N32°08′30.1″, […]

Day 775 – CHINA (HENAN): From Luoshan to Huangchuang

Today’s distance / ???????: 26.4 miles / 42.5km Average speed / ????: 9.6mph / 15.4km/h Time on skateboard / ????: 2h 45m Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 6644mi plus 386mi (?) / 10,692km plus 622km (?) Ascent / ??: 105m Descent / ??: 110m End-of-day GPS coordinates: N32°11′39.6″, […]

Day 774 – CHINA (HENAN): From Xinyang to Luoshan

Today’s distance / ???????: 32.3 miles / 51.8km Average speed / ????: 8.7mph / 14.1km/h Time on skateboard / ????: 3h 40m Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 6617mi plus 386mi (?) / 10,650km plus 622km (?) Ascent / ??: 160m Descent / ??: 175m End-of-day GPS coordinates: N32°06′32.3″, […]

Day 772 – CHINA (HENAN): From N32.18.57.8 E113.42.43.2 to Shinyang