On Board Solo

Rob Thomson, 28, a Canterbury University arts graduate from Christchurch, has completed the longest unassisted skateboard journey ever made, travelling for 462 days over 12,000km from Leysin, Switzerland across Europe, North America and China to Shanghai.Thomson said other long distance skateboarding feats had involved support teams and he had wanted to do his unaided, carrying his own gear and being self-sufficient. “I took a couple of years of my life to put myself outside of my comfort zone,” he told New Zealand’s National Radio. After a rest in Shanghai, Thompson will return to New Zealand and bike from Auckland home to Christchurch. He hopes to have the odyssey recognised by Guinness World Records.