THREE American lads are kick, push and coasting their way up the South Coast on their longboard skateboards on a 2000km journey from Melbourne to Brisbane.
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Longboarders Hayden Hughes, James “J” Keagy and Ryan Caruso are mates from James Madison University in Virginia, USA.
They decided to do an epic mission before they all graduated and longboards would be the method of transport and Australia the country to cross.
“We’d always heard how cool it is and so wanted to come and see for ourselves,” Hayden said.
Caruso added that Australia was a safe country, everyone spoke English and there were lots of small town along the route.
Hayden is the experience longboarder of the trio and he also some other “big treks” under his belt, including cycling from coast to coast in the US and also kayaking from Virginia to the Gulf of Mexico.
The other two have picked up the longboarding quite quickly, although Caruso has had a couple of wipe-outs in the rain.
The started in Melbourne on February 4 and hope to finish in Brisbane on April 4, making it 2000km in 60 days, or an average of 32km a day.
The lads are trying to stay out of the way of traffic as much as possible, even doing some night skating on sections with a very narrow shoulder.
“The hills are killer and never expected the terrain you have here,” Caruso said.
“We’ve done lots of foot dragging down the hills and some walking up some of the steeper hills.”
While in Narooma, they stayed at the Island View Beach Resort where manager Jason Beard just happens to be a keen skater and a member of the Southern NSW Street Luge Racers.
The lads also managed to do some sightseeing before starting the longboard trek, hitchhiking down the Great Ocean Road, while Caruso got here a little earlier and hitched all the way to big rock at Uluru.
They are sponsored by LongBoardLarry who supplied their 1m long Pusher 2.0 boards, while Big Agnes supplied more gear including their tents.
They are also raising funds along the way for Operation Smile, an organisation that has provided for thousands of cleft lip surgeries in developing countries.
You can keep track of the lads and make a donation to the Operation Smile at www.longboardaustralia.com