Solo Skate Trips

Trying to organize a skate trip or tour on your own can present a few difficulties. However, with a little advanced planning you can create a memorable weekend or vacation.

The model for solo skate trips comes from the bicycle touring industry, in which self-supported bike trip are very popular.  Bicyclists plan a route, pack their gear on panniers (saddle bags), make lodging plans, and off they go.  Unfortunately, multi-day solo skate trips are not so easy:

• ·       It is hard to carry your gear:  Even with a skate bag, it is difficult (and certainly uncomfortable) to carry extra clothes, toiletries, etc.  This difficulty essentially eliminates the idea of staying in campgrounds. If you do decide to plan an overnight trip, you should certainly practice skating with a loaded pack at home first.  Some long-distance skaters have created trailers that can actually be pulled behind you! We don’t recommend this unless you are highly motivated.

• ·       Finding good pavement is difficult:  Unlike bicycling, pavement is critical in skating. If you have not been there to pre-check the route, you can easily end up skating on poor pavement (or, even worse, a dirt road). That can ruin the fun quickly!

• ·       Avoiding traffic is imperative: It is no fun and even dangerous to skate on roads with traffic and no shoulders.  On a bicycle, it is generally no problem to cycle for a short distance on a high traffic road to connect two low-traffic side roads.  This is not true for skaters with their wide stroking spans!

These obstacles don’t mean you can’t do a solo skate trip, they just mean you have to plan a little bit more!  Here are some suggestions if you are interested in solo skate travel.

• ·       Plan a day trip: Who says you have to go overnight? There are often great trips several hours away by car.  This will allow you to only carry a small daypack.

• ·       Stay in a hotel: You can play a multi-day solo trip and avoid carrying much luggage by staying in a hotel.  You will still have to carry an extra set of clothes and toiletries but this is manageable for many people.

• ·       Have a friend drive a support vehicle: This can provide you with great freedom! You can stay in campgrounds or hotels and can even have the support vehicle meet you at sections with no pavement or high traffic.  On trips of several days, you can rotate drivers.

• ·       Try a paved trail: Governments throughout the United States and Europe are jumping on the bandwagon of creating paved trails.  This can eliminate any concerns about hitting poor pavement.

Don’t let the difficulties stop you! If you have the itch to do a little solo skate travel, hit the web for research, pack that bag, and have a great skate vacation!