Watch The Adventure!
Luckily GoPro hooked us up with the gear to capture the event! this was incredible!
You can watch the series here >>>
Some spectacular moments couldn’t be capture though did our best
DeBrief Below
Below will go through an overview of the trip and some lessons that learnt along the way
First Few Days… First Major Hurdle
Starting the skate I think I got to excited and I started of doing 100+km a day. My body started failing me; My left knee got inflamed so much I couldn’t use it at all, my right ankle, left hip and shoulders were also not far behind in failing. Pushed through! … Till on the 3rd day where I physically collapsed on spent the night on a farm making a bed our of hay. But hey, it was super comfy with the Hammbag!
Made it approximately 25km out from Mulhausen (Germanys geographical center). At this point needed some recovery time. Tried hitchhiking for the first time to make it there and it only took me a few hours and 3 lifts. Was such a fun experience. The last guy even took me around town and we had a beer, despite barely speaking english.
After only a few days in Mulhausen already establish my local pub and was starting to wave to the locals. In a very broken conversation even discovered that they were warning people to be aware of a skater along some main roads! It was a really nice town even picked up a pack of German Pokemon cards.
Lesson Learnt About Goals
I’ve learnt a lot from this trip! One of the things early on was goal setting. Breaking up the bigger mission (1000km skate) down to bite size chunks. Each day I’d have a minimum target to reach by the end of the day. Wither with distance or a place on the map. Then I’d break that into 3 sections. Having breakfast break and a lunch break. then the last break I’d arrive and celebrate with bed break! (usually only had 2 meals a day).
Some days were extra difficult because lack of energy, more up hills, rain, non stateable roads or getting lost… really there were a lot of factors that I didn’t count on. Then would have to go easy on myself and allow for another break to just give myself a breather to keep moving on.
A section often was anywhere between 30 – 50km and would usually take between 3-5 hours.
When making the goals I’d always make it attainable. Would usually have an extended goals. Which were more difficult although still capable. Majority of the time would actually manage to accomplish it because it felt like just doing one more additional step.
Finally Frankfurt!
The next 3 days were really difficult skating with an injury 270km to Frankfurt and I still had the biggest hills to climb over! The weather wasn’t looking great and even pushing on flat ground hurt. This stretch also had a lot of bush terrain where skating wasn’t really possible… However my board is such a beast and did manage to roll down some pretty dodgy dirt roads. There was still a lot of bush walks though. Climbing over those hills meant for some fantastic down hill! Infact about 25km of continuous rolling!
Frankfurt was amazing and managed to arrive when Museumsuferfest was happening. Had a great recovery week there and met some really awesome people! (As I did everywhere actually). Was a really interesting town having modern architecture on Germany’s usual historical feel.
Had some amazing experiences. Like finding a couch to stay at 11pm when didn’t have anything planned. Stayed in an awesome hostel. Urban rouged hammock (really easy in Frankfurt) and lost my GoPro. Loosing a GoPro isn’t that great. It was when they sent me another one almost right away to show how much they care and support us!
Dark Days to Munster
This was only a mere 290km, and started of extremely difficult for the first 150km. Left on a heatwave day (35 degrees), had first major stack of the trip, The downpour of rain came. Luckily cleaned my wounds a bit. Plus my knee was getting worse despite resting for a week. Walked into a pub that opened as skated passed it and had the most regenerating beer of my life to date! From then it was amazingly fun! You can see the topographic side on view. I did have to walk up 2 enormous hills about 15km each of up hill. Someone gave me a beer and picked me up for the last 5km of the last hill. Ended up dropping me further away and of course. Then, oh boy! what a downhill! BUT didn’t get a lot of footage cause no GoPro and its really hard using your phone as a GPS, MP3 & a camera while bombing 60km/h down hill.
Managed to skate 290km partly due to the large amount of downhill and partly due to the fact that there was a big ass storm coming! Arrived in Munster and it was love at first site! this city is beautiful! Munster means monastery because of the crazy amount of churches. Was more interested in the crazy amount of social life and things happening in the city. Definitely one of top German cities.
Luckily had some time so travelled to Cloppenberg to catch up with a mate for a weekend. Got to spend a great time in a small German village, had a few local meals, and got to do my laundry!
No Way! Netherlands!
My leg is still not 100%. I am saying leg now because my Achilles has stretched or pulled and now almost in unison with my knee it’s very difficult to push with either leg. Although I’m almost there! so it’s happening! Interestingly architecture and people changed almost instantly after entering Netherlands! It was a really pleasant skate however after hitting another breaking point had to hitchhike again 25km to Utrecht for some recovery time. Utrecht is like Amsterdam’s cool young cousin and HIGHly recommend for everyone to check it out. Especially the Culture boat!
From Utrecht I had about 50km to skate to Amsterdam. Considering what I’ve just done it didn’t seem to bad, however my ankle still was recovering from tendinitis and my knee still had not gotten better! Luckily I had 2 things on my side. Still had another day left and Netherlands if flat! like Flat flat! it was insane, each push as weak as it was would carry me at least 20m.
Taking it easy on last 2 days only skating 25km a day really got to enjoy the country side. Found a really cozy hammock spot just out of Amsterdam before entering the final destination of the journey.
AmsterDONE!
Done! made it! Holy crap!
That was a crazy adventure! If you’ve ever thought about a trip like this. I highly recommend. Overall I hitch hiked twice for 25km each. the trip was 1120km, skated 1070km in 30 days! (including recovery stops for injuries).
Now for me, it’s 2 months of adventure in Europe!
Stats
Average Speed: 13km(with injuries), 16km(without)
Top Speed: ~65km
Average distance each day: 80km
Skate hours a day: 10 hours
Total skating days: 14
Rest Days: 16
Common meal: Nuts
Common Drink: German Beer
Common Accommodation: Hammock (60%) + Couch Surfing (20%) + Hostel (20%)
Spent over the 30 days: $400
Spent over 3 months: $3300
Improvements
During the skate was well under prepared for the physical side. Instead of pushing myself and doing 120km in one day. On the first two days.
This did force me to stop in a few towns to recover. In hindsight this turned out to be better, forcing me to slow down and enjoy towns that would’ve just skate passed. If I did it again I’d take it slower from the start and plan the route with some days to stay.
A more logical diet: Instead of literally only having beer & nuts. Often get these from petrol stations along the way. Although this was a very enjoyable diet, my body probably needed more sustenance. Lost 6kg on the trip.
Last, packing. Would completely re-assess my packing. Only used 20% of things brought. Go from a 12kg bag to 6-8kg! this would’ve helped with setup/packup and the journey.
Lessons Learnt
Read It!
Here’s a little comic book my mum wrote for the adventure.
All hand done!
