Tom Waite (left) and Rob Ashworth (right) who are taking on this mammoth adventure!
On the 30th July 2013, two friends will begin their epic 3500km trip across Europe to raise money for the charities –the Royal National Lifeguard Association (RNLI) and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA). This is no ordinary trip though, as the pair will be longboarding the whole journey. Tom Waite and Rob Ashworth, whose journey is also known as ‘SkateToTheEnd’, will start their adventure from the port town of Aalborg in Denmark and will venture through a total of six countries; including Germany, Luxembourg, France, Spain and finishing in Sagres, Portugal. Hoping to complete this immense adventure in 3 months, this will prove to be an impressive feat as the boys will only be using their human pushing power to finish this gruelling journey.
When speaking to Tom about his epic charity challenge, it became apparent just how motivated, enthusiastic and passionate he and Rob are about raising money for their chosen charities. The idea for this fundraising journey was initiated by Tom wanting to support Yorkshire Air Ambulance, as in 2001 his father was involved in a serious paragliding accident. Although it was the “RAF that helped him at the time, as the Yorkshire Air Ambulance was still a new organisation”, they chose to raise money to support the advancement of facilities to make sure that the YAA “will be the first people to the scene of any accident.” Tom told me that whilst working previously in Cornwall the pair “came into contact with lifeguards, and in general, know quite a few people who work for them so we just wanted to support them.” They are also raising money to support the RNLI. Tom stated me that the RNLI is an independently run organisation, that “relies solely on charitable donations”, therefore, raising money is crucial to the development and running of this charity. The pair aim to raise £1000 toward their chosen charities, and are currently on a total of £944.21 including gift aid. For Tom, watching this total amount increase daily “is an incredible feeling, which motivates us even more.”
Tom and Rob are keen adventure seekers, having been children’s instructors at Adventure International in Cornwall last year. For those who are not acquainted with longboarding, longboards are very similar to skateboards, only slightly bigger and have more stability. Tom described to me how he got into longboarding: “I’ve had experiences with adventure skating before, but I got to a certain point where I found it hard to progress. My mates got into longboarding and introduced me to it. I jumped onto one of their boards one day and it was so much faster! So, I got my own!” Tom also told me about the dangers of longboarding, having suffered a few injuries himself, so throughout the journey they plan to avoid roads “as much as possible, but will go along mostly cycle tracks.”
Not only are the boys taking on a mammoth task of longboarding across six countries in 3 months, they are also funding the trip themselves. Tom stated that they “are planning to camp. Hopefully we will meet people on the way who will be generous and offer us a place to stay, but we understand that we cannot rely on that, so we’ll just sleep in a wood!”
This is a truly incredibly adventure that both Tom and Rob have put so much hard work into organising, and here at One & Other we wish them all the best of luck. If you want to help support this epic trip, you can make a donation using the link below and keep up-to-date with the boys and their training via their facebook page.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Skatetotheend
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skatetotheend
Donations: uk.virginmoneygiving.com/skatetotheend
You can read my article here: http://www.oneandother.com/articles/skatetotheend-an-epic-3500km-charity-adventure/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skatetotheend
Donations: uk.virginmoneygiving.com/skatetotheend
You can read my article here: http://www.oneandother.com/articles/skatetotheend-an-epic-3500km-charity-adventure/
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