In the words of another distance skateboarder, Adam Colton, traveling by skateboard “is a pretty stupid idea.” It really is. It is less efficient than cycling, you are at the mercy of the road surface and traffic is infinitely less forgiving towards you than other forms of human powered transport. And yet there is an inexplicable allure to it. The following is a snapshot of that allure, from the China leg of my 12,159km skate across Europe, the US, and China; China being the highlight for many different reasons.
Life is really simple
Joy that transcends borders
Breaks the ice – leads to real encounters
Freedom from timetables – the road is yours
Strong legs, super-human lungs, glorious appetite
Movement…
And static solitude
This piece originally appeared on Alastair Humphreys’ awesome blog as a guest post.
Brilliant. i just completed my first skate trek of 534miles and im hooked. you have captured why i do it in a nutshell, granted you had a lot more time to think about it than i did :). you are amazing.
Rama II – Does anyone know if the “Great Chaos” was Sir Arthur’s idea, or Gentry Lee’s?I found the Rama sequels to be quite dull and I suspect a lot of the prose was written by Lee. Most of Clarke’s collaborative novels are relatively disappointing, and that includes his last, principally written by Fred Pohl.
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