My name is Serge Berig and i've been an avid longboarder for close to three years now. I'd like to start off by telling you about what I have planned for this summer and the inspiration behind it. On May 22, 2009, I will travel to Annapolis, Maryland where I will embark on a 3500 mile journey across the country. I have partnered with the American Breast Cancer Foundation and will be fundraising for them, with a modest fundraising goal of $1000. The name of the trip is "Skate for the Twins". Along the way I also hope to promote alternative transportation methods. My final destination will be San Francisco, California where the adventure will reach its conclusion. Mark Dalmacio, from KickPushCure, might join me on the last stretch of the trip as well.
I hope to average around 45 miles per day, which means the trip will take around two and a half months to complete. The trip will involve camping whenever possible, and there will not be any trail cars or anything of the sort. The trip is self financed, meaning that my personal expenses will be around $2000 with food costs, motel stays etc... taken into account.
As for my personal inspiration, well...last summer was pretty uneventful for me. Apart from taking a few summer classes at a local community college, and volunteering as a nursing assistant at a local hospital, I didn’t really have much going on. Living in Brooklyn, the main highlight of my weeks was the Earthwing friday night rip, where I got to skate with a diverse, skilled and stoked individuals. Plus I got to hang out with and thoroughly annoy Brian Petrie while trying awesome new Earthwing gear :D
One day I stumbled across a site with a bunch of skaters who planned on skating across America (http://skateacrossusa.com/). I thought it was a really cool idea, and it got to the point where I emailed them about joining. Unfortunately their trip fell apart. And so I made a post on Silverfish, asking whether people were interested in a coast to coast skate trip. I received plenty of replies and messages from interested individuals, but many of them were half hearted. Brian from Loaded Longboards emailed me about a thing he was planning from Maine to Florida, which I was super stoked about, but after a few months of staying in touch we lost contact. At that point, it became clear to me that if I wanted to do the trip, I had to put in as much effort as possible to get things rolling. And so I did. I spent countless hours getting sponsors aboard, finding genuinely interested, willing and dedicated skaters, discussing the event with the ABCF, and talking with various skaters such as Jack Smith from Skatersjournal, who helped me out with the route. Everything started coming together.
And then everything fell apart. After months of staying in contact with the two skaters who were supposed to do the trip with me, they bailed at the last second. I started to panic. I started to freak out. But I had come too far to just call it quits, and subsequently sent a message to Rob Thompson from 14 degrees.org, asking for advice. Rob just recently received the official world record for longest journey on a skateboard, almost 8000 miles. The first thing he told me was: DO NOT GIVE IN TO FEAR. And I didn’t. I modified my path to follow a bicycle racing event being done this summer (raceacrossamerica) and tweaked the end portion to adventurecyclings Western Express route, which leads to San Francisco, California. So here I am, about to embark on one of the most epic, challenging trips of my life on a kickass Longboard Larry Deck, Abec 11 flywheels and good ole American Randal trucks. Tears will be shed, self torture will be inflicted, sweat will be lost in gallons, but I will endure the hardships, brace the elements and persevere until the end.
I have a blogsite where I will posting trip updates and new photos, hopefully every other week. The site is skateforthetwins.blogspot.com If you want to help me out or donate to the American Breast Cancer Foundation, you can do so by hitting up the donation button on the site. Thanks for your support and wish me luck!
-Serge