Following the sucess of last year's 15 mile charity skate along the Bath-Bristol cycle path, we thought we'd do the same thing again for 2008. So we did. And you thought last year was big...
Words and photos by Rich
Raising money for charity is cool - it's fun and you come away knowing that you;ve really helped someone out. We had so much fun doing it last year that we thought we'd do it again. Our hunt for local good causes led us to Sustrans - the Bristol-based charity responsible for maintaining and building the UK's cycle network. As it happened, the very path we were proposing to use for the event was being threatened with being turned into a bus route, so in an attempt to raise awareness and stop this happening, we threw all our lot in with Sustrans and pledged to raise all we could for them to help keep the path alive and help them with their mission to expand the UK cycle network.
Saturday the 7th June 2008 dawned bright and sunny. It was going to be a hot one. It was also going to be a busy one. A few weeks before we had notced that signup numbers were getting "a bit out of hand." Even then, it was a bit of a shock to come round the corner of Bath Spa station carpark to see this:
"Everyboy say WHOOOOP!" Click the picture for a big version to spot yourself!
Even the fisheye struggled to get everyone in! Yikes. Nat looks scared...
This many people was actually quite interesting. For one, the "mass start" we were planning wasn't actually possible, becuase the carpark wasn't wide enough. Also, a huge traffic jam of longboarders formed as everyone tried to get onto the path at once! Skater carnage! It also made our planned halfway stop a bit interesting. There was no way we were going to be able to coordinate everyone stopping in one place at the same time. Happily our 200-and-something strong crowd (herd? flock? gaggle? fleet?) of skaters got the idea and strung themselves out along the path quite nicely, stopping off at pubs and cafes all along the route as the day got hotter and hotter.
Don't stop pushing...
With so many people skating the path, it is impossible for a single viewpoint to really capture (or have any idea!) all the things that went on. I skated with Bedminster legend Canadian Mike for a while, kickflipping his 44" deck every few minutes, jumping off the odd railway platform and this monster carve on a transitioned bridge.
Yeah Mike!
Coming into the Mangotsfield Tunnel - a welcome break from the heat!
There were so many stories from one event... Crazy fancy dress costumes, boards made out of bits of pallet and 8ft long scaffolding planks, excessive beer consumption, I even found one dude wearing three sets of socks to protect himself from the inevitable blisters! Genius. 200 crazy characters, families, hardcore skaterdudes, dads, mums, people from all walks of life generates quite an atmosphere, something quite impossible to capture with words and pictures.
No caption needed...
Now that is high tech... This thing had the inertia of the QE2 and a similar sized turning cicle. Awesome.
After many miles of skating, we thought the best place to end the day was at a pub. A great idea, except that the plaza that the pub was on is a "NO SKATEBOARDING" area... Haha that didn't last long! The security quickly gave up and left us to rest our weary feet and quench our thirst with Wetherspoons finest tap fodder.
Fart stone casualty
Seeing as we're in the west country, Cider seemed somehow appropriate.
How are you still skating after this many miles? NO SKATEBOARDING!
To everyone who was there - you are rad. Well done for skating the distance, and thank you so much for coming along and making this the biggest thing we've ever done! To everyone who wasn't there, you missed one of the craziest evets ever in the history of Lush and Longboarding in the UK! See you next year!
Final Sustrans amount will be announced soon - watch this space...
Post your own pictures of the event up in this forum thread.
...and read other people's takes on the crazyness in this one!
