Firstly, WOW, what a fantastic weekend!
Thank you all so much for the wonderful feedback! As always I truly appreciate it knowing my hard work, and that of my team throughout the weekend has not been in vain!
I think we can all agree, participants and the event team alike, that this year's event was fantastic! And exceeded many people’s expectations! 🎉🤙 As described by several participants, ‘last year was brilliant, but this year was truly exceptional!’.
Not only were we able to retain the fun & relaxed atmosphere that many participants have come to love (and expect), but we had a few event ‘upgrades’ such as the food van, campers on site, and beautiful badges made by sponsors at Create Camper Co. + Ambition Sport that really added to the event, but moreover, we had the privilege to see a new official women's world record achieved by Lena Meringdal, for the "Longest Distance Travelled By Skateboard In 24 Hours", achieving 425.488Km (264.38 Miles), and surpassing the previous world record of 422.1Km (262.28 Miles) achieved by Saskia Trump in 2017 at the Dutch Ultraskate in the Netherlands, and (I believe) a new WR was achieved by Mark Gansbuehler for the longest distance ridden on a Snakeboard in 24 hours, achieving 298km (185 Miles).
(To read more on Lenas success at this years Ultraskate, visit the IDSA blog)
Last year was a historical moment (2023 - 1st Edition) being the first official ultraskate of its kind in the UK, with sanctioning & endorsement from both SkateGB & The IDSA (International Distance Skateboarding Association), and marked the beginning of an exciting journey for the UK Ultraskate. And without a shadow of a doubt this year has firmly validated the importance of this event's continuation for participants, and the need to guarantee its future.
As many will know by now, I started the UK Ultraskate last year on my own (very last minute), (and really to be clear, I mean own my own), and I was short on money for the event, short on volunteers and short on time. My ‘saving grace’ was having so many within the community willing to financially donate to the event, alongside support from so many sponsors keen to see the event come to fruition, and managing to convince family and close friends to help marshall/steward at the event. But bringing this event to fruition, and working round the clock over several weeks took an enormous toll on my mental health, my family, and general ‘joie de vivre’. In turn, this certainly brought about an enormous degree of reluctance and apprehension when the conversation was brought about running a 2nd edition. But I love the sport, and didn’t want to disappoint, and with time being on my side this year, and having Kevin Murphy to help where possible, I was once again able to bring this year's event to fruition, and I am happy to report with far less ‘physiological scarring’.
But in order to guarantee the future and continuation of the event, continue to ensure participation satisfaction is maintained, or even be in a position to further improve the event, I have decided some changes to the event will have to be made, and plans will be established in the next several months moving forwards. Important elements to these changes will include the establishment of a committee, an amendment to ‘rules & operation’ of the event and its enforcement, and more excitingly possibly a ‘community support fund’.
Committee - I am happy to announce that whilst details are still to be determined and finalised, the committee will include Kevin Murphy & Alex Safar, and I (Pierre Duedal) will be remaining in my role as founder and chair.
Amendments to ‘rules & operation’ of the event and its enforcement - This may sound dramatic, but fear not. For many of you this will be a minor adjustment.
As all of you who have attended the UK Ultraskate will know, we are all a very friendly group, and the events team do the absolute utmost to ensure all participants have a great experience, often going above and beyond the ‘call of duty’ to help. But unfortunately, this kindness has been taken advantage of on too many occasions and changes will have to be made moving forwards. Despite clearly stating on the website and facebook announcements the arrival times, and access limitations to the site outside of the venue's operational hours, I had several people requesting somewhat unreasonable adjustments to be made for them. Whilst we managed to ensure the gate was open for these individuals to leave the venue, this was incredibly difficult to accommodate with such a shortage of volunteers. But moreover, I personally had a rather unpleasant conversation with a gentleman who thought the rules were unreasonable and shouldn’t apply to him, and argued with me over how the event was being operated, to which in conversation threateningly mentioned to me his ‘daughter is a solicitor and that she is the one i want to worry about!’. The issue was eventually resolved, and the event went on. But to be clear, the rules will firmly be enforced moving forwards, and abuse to me and my team will absolutely not be tolerated. Moving forwards if this threatening behaviour will result in the immediate removal of the individual from the site, and the associated participant being disqualified.
‘Community Support Fund’ - On a more cheerful note, whilst this is still a ‘pipeline’ dream, my hope is to create a community support fund to help support community groups and projects, alongside individuals, access the sport and the event.
Both last year and this year required me to put down the initial investment required to ‘kick-start’ the event, which is an enormous commitment for me. But moreover, last year we just broke even at the last minute. Ultimately, what I am getting to is that, I am pleased to announce (that whilst the finances still need to be reviewed) it appears that we have managed to achieve a small profit this year through increased registrations, and merchandise sales which is fantastic news moving forwards.
Whilst I cannot guarantee a fund for the ‘Community Support Fund’ this year as first we need to establish and guarantee funds for the event's running costs, we will try our best… (Make sure to keep posted), and certainly it is important to remember it is your contributions to the event, whether registering to take part in the event, partaking in the raffle, or purchasing merchandise that will enable us to achieve this goal/ambition.
To Conclude:
I would like to once again thank all of our sponsors for their support this year!
Firstly, I would like to give these sponsors a particular thanks & mention for their continued support, from our 1st edition through to now our 2nd, and to which, without their support this event would not be possible:
Sickboards | Team |
Stubby Precision Trucks | Pierre Duedal (me) |
Riptide Sports | Tracey & Brad Miller |
Goat Drinks | Colette |
D.Grieve & Wife Roofing contractors | David & Wife - (AT EVENT) |
Point 8 Percent | Will Spice |
SUPSkate | Donny |
Raffle Draw (2024):
Prize: | Sponsor: | Name: |
Snakeboards - 1 Pro Deck & 3 Comp Decks | Sponsored by Snakeboards | Jay |
Stubby Precision Trucks MK1 Truck & Reinforcement Baseplates | Sponsored by Stubby Precision Trucks | Pierre Duedal (me) |
Rat Assed T-Shirts & Vouchers | Sponsored by Rat Assed | Michael Preedy & Adam Wooster |
Riptide Sports Gear & Merchandise | Sponsored by Riptide Sports | Tracey & Brad Miller |
ECOlite truck | Sponsored by ECOlite Longboards | John Fisher |
SUPSKATE (Hamboards) Gear - Poles & More | Sponsored by SUPSKATE | Donny Sandusky |
SSS (Super Steady Skates) Integrated Stride Truck | Sponsored by Super Steady Skates | Joe |
Black Dog F-13 Forks (Pair) | Sponsored by Black Dog - (These were accidently missed in last year's raffle). | Daniela Langer & Steffen Keuchel |
Mudbuster - Mudguards (Pair) - 2023 UK Ultraskate Custom by @cloudbuster98 | Sponsored by MudBuster - (These were accidently missed in last year's raffle). | by @cloudbuster98 |
IDSA Gear | Sponsored by Skate IDSA | Scott & the Team |
Vouchers to Revolution Skatepark | Sponsored by Revolution Skatepark | Team |
Skate gear | Sponsored by S Duedal - (My mum believes in the community and wanted to contribute to supporting the event, so she bought some £300 worth of skate clothing from Sickboards for the raffle. Thanks Mum!) | Mum |
Hair product hampers | Salon 44 | Barbara B |
And give a thanks to our other sponsors:
Thanelife | Kevin Mok |
Create Camper Co. | Sam (Badges) - (AT EVENT) |
Ambition Sport | Geoff (Badges) |
Melonen Kacke | Lena (For continuing to support the Women 1st place prize) |
Skate IDSA & Skateboard GB | For accrediting the event |
Surfers Against Sewage | Martin for helping us keep the event clean |
I would also like to thank our volunteers this year for helping us make this event a possibility.
Lastly, I would like to say a very special thanks:
My Wife for continuing to believe in me and supporting me in my crazy endeavours. She's my muse, my rock, my everything, and I don’t think I could achieve all of this without her!
My Mum for the raffle prize contributions, donation, and of course, continued support.
Kevin Murphy, for being my wingman this year and helping me organise this event. From helping the event establish local sponsors, to going to meetings when I couldn’t be there, and generally for being a great friend (so far..) Just joking Murph, but in all seriousness, I only met Kevin last year, and from the get-go he has been happy to help out where possible. Truly his help has been enormously appreciated, and simply invaluable.
And quickly to that point, this is something I truly relish in, is the power of longboarding, and (maybe sports in general), and this event, is the opportunities it brings to meet some amazing people & make some great friends…
And lastly, I’d like to thank my kids (Manny, Zeph, and Ez), alongside their friend Maxwell for being such great helpers!
Dan G. for his continued help.
Carrie, for being a great neighbour & friend, and continuing to volunteer at the UK Ultraskate!
And so, finally on that note, both myself & the team hope everybody had a great time, and we hope to see you all again in the next edition!
And ALSO… If anybody has any photos or videos of the event please share them on the UK Ultraskate Facebook page, or email: ukultraskate@gmail.com. I would love to upload these to the website, alongside compiling all the footage and images into a video/film. (To that point, if anybody is a keen and abled videographer, keen to take on the task, please get in contact!)
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