Thanks to all the people who came along and made this event as awesome as it was.Here is Matt's take on the day...
Saturday 2nd June, under a blazing blue sky, the most longboarders ever seen in one place within the UK, amassed outside Bath train station in southern England for the Lush Longboards/Boardfree Skate-athon. A whopping 70+ people turned up to skate the 15 mile cycle path between the towns of Bath and Bristol, on all manner of skateboards, in order to raise money for the Boardfree charity, Lowe Syndrome Trust. The event had been 3 months in the planning and with the help of Dave Cornthwaite, the nutter who skated from Scotland to Cornwall as a warm up to his epic mission across Australia, we managed to pique the imagination and curiosity of the longboarding community. Interest came from all over the country as more and more people agreed to give up their day for a very good cause.
After a frantic drive through the rush hour traffic, the Lush wagon arrived at Bath Spa station to see a car park full of eager skateboarders all amped to be doing their bit for charity while spending the day with a huge bunch of like-minded people. Skateboards ranged from homemade planks, tech composite speedboards, shortboards, longboards, slalom boards, a five foot+ V-lam beauty and even a board made from a pallet! Once the names were ticked off and the free T-shirts distributed, everyone made their first pushes into the 15 mile journey. Unfortunately, that was as far as the guy with the pallet board got after his truck snapped off! A quick return to the car, and he was back up and skating on his spare board!
The cycle path itself is an amazing piece of tarmac that snakes alongside rivers, ponds, woodland and farmland. You can forget that you are skating through industrial areas and city suburbs since they're hidden behind the vegetation. Most of the route is along flat ground and so the journey involved constant pushing. The group of skaters stretched for about a mile along the path as people skated and chatted at their own pace. After the first few miles, attempts at pushing switch to alleviate aching calf muscles soon ended up in a few people crashing into hedges and down ditches! Another casualty came just near a bridge where photog Rich was laying in wait with his camera. As one of the skaters crouched down to give it some style he hit a fart-stone and got pitched onto his arse...much to everyone's amusement
The 15 miles went quicker than expected, and about 3 hours after starting, 70 hot and sweaty longboarders cruised into Bristol Temple Meads car park which signified the end of the journey. No one seemed keen to leave and people hung around trying out each others boards, chatting and discussing their new compliment of blisters and sun burn. It may have only been 15 miles and it pales in significance to Dave Cornthwaites 3,000 mile epic across Australia, but I think everyone had deep respect for him by the time they had finished. A big thanks to Lush Longboards and Boardfree for organising the event and a massive thanks to all the people who made the commitment and traveled from near and far to give up there Saturdays for an incredibly good cause. Not only did we raise a sh!t load of money for the Lowe Syndrome Trust, but we proved the UK longboarding scene is growing like crazy and you all became part of the biggest longboard event ever in the UK. Next year we'll do the same and it'll be twice as big! Good luck to all the people setting out on their own Boardfree epics across the UK, New Zealand and Europe. 15 miles was enough for me...you have my complete respect! 
