Check this out - distance skating record holder Jo Coles has organised an AMAZING event! An opportunity not to be missed, and boy are we all excited. Raising money for Shelterbox, skaters of all kinds are invited to come and skate the TOP GEAR track. There will be some BIG miles skated that weekend! Follow Jo’s thread here on the Skate Further forum, or the Lush Forum, and visit the site here! GO JO!

FROM PARIS: Bustin Boards are kicking off their Euro domination with a push race in a secret Paris car park this Sunday. Log in to Facebook and then hit up this link to find out more…

As well as a tonne of Canadian push race action going down, we had a fair old bit going down on our own shores this weekend. The Eastbourne IGSA World Cup 2009 hit town and some of the Skatefurther crew were there to take part, take it all in and get stoked.

Skatefurther team member Laura travelled up from Plymouth with “Marathon” Matt Elver, the wickedly fast JJ Tighe, and members from the Liquid Boards team to spend 4 days camping and skating at the Beachy Head course.

Skatefurther forum member Len skated 15 miles to get to the event, with only a backpack, sleeping bag and no tent - fortunately he was housed quickly, and joined in the festivities! Alex (kornrocks) and Gav (gavmck) performed their duties as race marshals astutely, and kept the corners safe for spectators and riders alike.

Matt and JJ reached the juniors consolation finals, with Skatefurther friend and XSS skater Kim Edwards coming away with a 3rd in the womens race, making her the British Women’s Downhill Champion - congratulations Kim!

Whilst Laura watched everyone skating in the day (too late for freeride registration and no leathers), she slalomed in the evening under the expert tuition of Michael Stride from Octane Sports, and documented the whole thing for everyone.

The support for the juniors at Eastbourne this year was tremendous, and everyone pushed themselves to achieve their best times, gradually progressing each day until by the end, they were comfortable with the speed and the hill. A real learning curve, or hairpin!!

Well done to everyone who took part, and to Dangerous Decks for providing the best campsite social spot. See you next year everyone!!!

Check out Laura’s photos of the event here.

Paul Kent came away with a win at this years R.O.G.U.E. race in Edmonton, Canada. His winning time of 52:53 was an amazing improvement on last years win. The 21km race course features a beautifully paved trail system that winds and twists it’s way through heart of the city of Edmonton like a rollercoaster. It climbs out and dives back into the River Valley multiple times making for an exhilarating though exhausting ride.

Pic of Paul from the front page of the Edmonton Journal

Paul’s wife Rachel also got in on the action with a 3rd place in the womens with a time of 1:25:53. Rachel’s sister Anna joined Paul with a 1st in the womens race in a time of 1:09:37. Anna got 41st overall.

The event was run and organised by Edmonton skateshop Local124 with an amazing first prize of $1000.

We’ll we’ve been sitting on this one here at Skatefurther for a few days. The main reasons being that we were waiting for all the pictures to come in from the epic day and we were waiting for our legs to recover.

Goodwood has always had a very special place in British distance skating. This is the 3rd year we have attended and the numbers have quadrupled in that time. This year was amazing; 26 and a bit miles on silky smooth surface, light winds, blue skies, free water and nearly 500 inliners.

For some the challenge was to complete the 11 laps, for others there were personal bests to beat, for a few; records to be broken. Skaters came from far and near to skate the legendary motor circuit. We had skaters from France, Wales, Plymouth and Zoltan skated all the way from Bristol!

The start was pretty interesting this year, a few skaters headed to the front row to get a good start and keep up with the inliners into the first corner!

After a while eveyone settled into a routine of pushing and coasting. Keith O’Leary decided to pump the whole way but the rest of us pushed. It was a super hot day and the free water was really appreciated.

The final results look like this

1st Matt Elver 01:49:10.66

2nd Rob Hanson 01:53:41.31

3rd Josh O’Keefe 01:54:54.08

There are so many photos from the day, keep your eye out on the Goodwood Roller Marathon website for them. If you were there you can search for pics of yourself, downlad a certificate and watch a video of you crossing the finish line!

The best of the pics will go up on the Goodwood thread on the forum, and if you are on facebook, you can see most of them on the skatefurther facebook page.

We had an excellent day, was super good to see everyone there. Next year?

Race report from event organiser and Skatefurther forum member Gav.

One fine Sunday in July, a small group of skaters gathered in a beach side car park in Margate to race the first ever UK push race. Members of 3 different longboarding crews were present with the local area well represented by Thanet Dogtown and Canterballs Longboarding (Well some of them!). A rogue element of the Southampton XSS crew was also in attendance and looking like he wanted the win…

At signup, most people were pretending they were “just in it for the cruise man”, oh how this would change! Lined up at the start, most people were pretty relaxed. We had two race marshalls on bikes who could accompany the racers and check nobody died/got injured.

BLAM! A shout of GO and the race was on!

Screaming into an early lead were Tim from the Southampton XSS and Mark of Canterballs Longboarding. We left the racers to it and jumped in the car to head to the half way point (a pub!) to laugh and shout at them as they passed. Upon exiting the pub, pints in hand, we saw the racers heading away from us in the distance! They’d managed to cover more than 4 miles in the time it took us to drive to the pub and get a beer!

Suddenly realising they might beat us to the end, we downed pints and jumped back in the car to go man the finish line! We managed to pass the racers on the way to Broadstairs and shouted a good torrent of support and abuse at them as we passed.

Arriving at the finish line only a few short minutes later we found Tim frantically searching around himself with wild crazed eyes looking for the finish! That was us. He’d only gone and beaten us there even with a car! We jumped out and congratulated our WINNER with lots of chequered flag waving and wild screaming. Shortly afterwards 2nd place finisher Mark crossed the line looking confused as to how Tim had managed to get away from him so fast.

Finally coming in 3rd was Kents OG skateboarder with over 40 years on a board, Mr Paul, who looked absolutely knackered! All the racers then headed to the beach for a delicious and well earned pint…

Thanks to our sponsors: SkateFurther, Dangerous Decks and Longboard-Sessions who hooked us up some sweet prizes!

And a big thank you to all the racers/cruisers/whatever who turned up and skated/biked the course.

Get ready for the next race of the series in autumn…

STOKED!

Official results:

1st place: Tim Peters of Southampton XSS

2nd place: Mark Burch of Canterballs Longboarding
3rd place: Paul Knowles of Thanet Dog Town

From the winner, Tim.

The Thanet push race was wicked; a good 7 miles along the coast but with a bit of a headwind and a few hills to contend with. We raised £30 for Help the Heroes and had a great day of it. Well done to everyone who made it, cheers to Nat, Gav and Paul for the organisational side!

Here it is! The first official push race in the UK? We think so. And because of this Skatefurther have helped to sponsor the event. The Margate Push Race is being run by Thanet Dogtown and Longboard Sessions.co.uk and is also being jointly sponsored by Dangerous Decks.

As it is such a momentus occasion Skatefurther have decided to include ‘The Margate Push Race’ in the all new ‘UK Push Race Series’ and supplied an appropriate winners trophy.  The next race will be in the Autumn and we hope to have one every few months at various locations throughout the UK. keep you eyes peeled on here for more…

Gav, who is organising the event, has made life easier for all competitors by producing a map so you can gen up on the course before you set off, click on the pic below to view the whole thing.

The weather is looking good, the course has been set, the prizes have been sorted and it looks like its going to be a rad day. Watch skatefurther for a the results and a write-up.

Good luck to all the skaters!

This just in! Charity Push in Atlanta.

We are pushing to raise money for Boardrescue.org, a great charity that provides skateboards for “at risk” kids all over the nation. Entry fee is 10 bucks and it goes directly to the charity! We have a drawing after the ride for some skate gear provided by our sponsors: Loaded Boards and Concrete Wave. Green to Change USA sponsoring 2 underprivileged riders by paying their entry fees. Pay your fee and finish the ride to be entered in the drawing for a few great longboarding prizes! Longboards and shortboards welcome, all skaters welcome. (Helmets are suggested…)

Sounds like it is going to be a rad day out, for an even radder charity. You can find out more about Boardrescue.org by clicking on the link above or looking on the front page.

To find out more on the event, you can go to the forum thread or see the facebook page.

This is it. The first ever distance race in the UK? 10km (6 and a bit miles)