The 4th Bath to Bristol Charity Skate

This past weekend saw the 4th Lush Longboards Charity Skate from Bath to Bristol. The selected charity for this year’s event was Macmillan Caner Nurses, as they having been taking care of the legend that is ‘Longy’, during his battle with cancer. It was also decided that compulsory fancy dress would be the order of the day this year as a way of drawing more attention to the event and its aims. Needless to say we dispatched our resident longboard nut Matt off to join in the fun and see what happened;

Marcus and his new hombre!

I woke up Saturday morning to the grey misty dawn and immediately prayed for a dry event as last year’s rain made a usually good day appallingly draining and difficult. As the sun rose the cloud cleared but it never brightened and the oppressive humidity increased. With Kym driving myself and Marcus loaded the car with our boards and packs for the day, we then battled through the traffic, and Bath’s ever complicated one way system, to get to the start in time, eventually making it with only 10 minutes to spare. After grabbing a few shots on the camera and catching up with a few friends Rich Auden gave the order to get started. Marcus and I had decided to get off to a quick start to avoid being held up in the usual log jam of skaters on the river path at the start. After sprinting to the head of the field, with music in our ears and our hearts pounding we just pushed, stopping every few miles to take on water. Upon getting to Saltford we discovered we had covered 4 ¾ miles in a little under 25 minutes so a decision was made to carry on at the same pace and forgo the usual lunch stop at Warmley in a bid to see how fast we could get from start to finish.

Tunes pumping and awesome costumes - what will next year hold?

By the time we hit Bitton we had already been caught by the roller-bladders who had joined us at Bath but had not seen any other skaters. Then as we neared Warmley, the slight uphill began to take its toll, the legs began to ache and Marcus riding his Kisiwa was finding it particularly tough but he kept pushing and sipping fluids till got reached our next break. After a drink and some chocolate we pushed on, over the ring road with its killer slope up to the first bridge, and then revelled in the drop down in to Bristol. My feet were beginning to ache and the ever so slight downward incline began to help ease the pain but the wet leaves and fallen sticks under the trees did make for a few tense moments. Keeping a keen lookout for our turn off to Shiners we carried on, but unbeknown to me, Marcus was falling back.

Matt, Bruno and Marcus at the finish

About two miles later I noticed the sign for Shiners and dived off the path in to a busy street, dodging traffic looking for a giant warehouse and the now infamous roll-in on to the Shiners hill. After reaching the gate I sat and waited, catching my breath and trying to drink as much as possible. After a few minutes I made my way back toward the cycle path, hoping to catch Marcus and I was greeted by a very tired looking American Indian on a giant skateboard with Bruno in hot pursuit, wiggling furiously down the pavement. After leading them to the finish we greeted Liz as she and Charlotte arrived in the car and we proceeded to phone Rich to get him to open the gate so we could rest and contemplate the hill and the new roll-in.
After discussing times with Bruno it was established I had been waiting about 15 minutes for Marcus and him which put my time at 1 hour 14 minutes and Marcus and Bruno’s at about 1 hour 28 minutes, which we all agreed was not bad for 15 miles.

Rich and Mark with their new ramp...

After a fairly lengthy wait other skaters rolled in, including a group who we had seen earlier but who had missed the signs and had ended up at Temple Meads station. As the crowd started to grow people began to christen the roll-in and photographers jumped up from where they had slumped and started squeezing off shots from numerous angles.

Zombie Rich, mega standup slide.

All in all we were treated to a wicked day of skating, for a fantastic cause and with a lot of likeminded people. All I want to know now is how the hell are the Lush crew going to top this next year.......
For more information visit the forum over at Lush or to donate check out the Just Giving page