Welcome all the Steemian friends to my story of longboarding across the USA alone with broken arm and almost without money.
This is chapter one.
Screenshot captured from video where I started(Golden Gate Bridge, SF) my journey across the USA - https://www.facebook.com/danielius.narauskas/videos/vb.100000273708515/1196568423695603/?type=3&theater
On post I wrote :
"Hey guys, I just started my +3000miles/+5000km journey all the way across USA just with longboard. Just before I went from Europe to USA I've broken my arm. But this little thing won't stop me. I was preparing very hard to make this trip possible. And it was hard not physically but psychologically. I had dream about trip like this almost over an year. Now this dream is becoming reality. And, what I most need is your support. Without it, I wouldn't even be here where I'm right now. Thanks to all who believes in crazy people like me. I have several cameras, so I will be recording my journey. After all, I will make a movie out of it. So, goodbye now everyone!
To infinity and beyond!
Stay tuned!"
Question number one :
How I came up with this idea?
Several years ago I had a dream that I'm stuck in New York City, Manhattan. I cannot escape and come back to my home town Kaunas, Lithuania. But somehow I'm not afraid. I feel good. And after that dream I had couple more of similar dreams, so I started to dream to go to USA in 'real life'.
I was in love with hitchhiking. I hitchhiked all across Scandinavia( from Lithuania-Latvia-Estonia-Finland-Sweden-Norway-Lithuania) back in 2014, and. So my first vision was that I will hitchhike in USA. I started to check flight tickets. As soon as I saw the prices my enthusiasm dropped down to 0%. Flight from anywhere in Europe to San Francisco, USA were from 900 to 1300$. This amount of money were too big for me back then. So I said to myself :
Okay, maybe next year.
And months later I was scrolling FB news feed during work and saw big article :
"MEGA ERROR FLIGHT TICKETS FROM ISTANBUL TO SAN FRANCISCO AND BACK JUST 188 EUR!"
That's when I realized this is my one and only chance. If I wont take it within 10mins it will wash away.
Obviously I had no doubt and bought it. And I needed to think what I will do in USA. Hitchhiking was a cool thing to do, but I understood that it's too boring for me. You do nothing. You don't even drive while hitchhiking. You are just chillin'. I needed something more extreme in my life. (don't get me wrong, I love hitchhiking, I'm just sharing my thoughts before the trip)
That's when I came up with idea to longboard across the nation. From West coast to East coast. SF to NYC.
But I had few problems :
- I didn't had any longboarding experience. Not counting when I was 11 years old I had skateboard.
- I didn't had any savings to make it happen.
- My longest solo trip was like 4 days, so I needed to learn to be alone at least for a few months.
- Something unexpected happened just before the trip(yes, I've broken my arm) but more about it in the next chapter.
As you can see I had many problems to deal with not mentioning that actually no one knew what I wanted to do. I knew that if I would tell someone(friends, parents etc) they will say that I'm idiot and I didn't wanted to hear that.
This is an early interview that I gave for SkateFurther website, which is about long distance pushers.
https://skatefurther.com/2016/06/18/danielius-narauskas-5000km-from-san-francisco-to-new-york/
Alright, that's it for this time. If you have any questions, just comment or if you have your experiences to share too, that would be amazing.
Steem on,
Narovski
Dude this is awesome! Definitely following you based on this post alone.
Had you heard about Adam Hilton's Long Treks? He crossed several countries on a longboard, some solo, some with a team.
I've been trying to build up the longboarding community on Steemit since I discovered it, if you want to help, invite people to the Facebook group "longboarding on Steemit".
Keep doing what you do man!
Upvoted, keep them comming
Thanks. I just uploaded new chapter - https://steemit.com/travel/@narovski/longboarding-across-the-usa-2-broken-arm-without-money-alone
Wow narovski, I very much like your post. Such determination and positive outlook to life mostly belongs to the youth. Great example you give here!
If you like, please look at my newest post (freeline skaters, you remember). I look forward reading your next article.
Thanks, Johano. I'm going to check your post now!
By the way, I just uploaded new chapter - https://steemit.com/travel/@narovski/longboarding-across-the-usa-2-broken-arm-without-money-alone :)
what an adventure. Well done. I can't wait to see more.
Thanks. I just uploaded new chapter - https://steemit.com/travel/@narovski/longboarding-across-the-usa-2-broken-arm-without-money-alone