Underhill braved a lot of hazards on his coast-to-coast journey. And he isn’t done. Photo: Screenshot//Instagram
A hundred and eighty days after pushing off from his North Carolina home, John Underhill successfully completed his ambitious coast-to-coast skateboard mission when he arrived in Venice Beach, California.
But instead of putting his feet up and basking in his accomplishment, he’s decided to keep going and set even loftier goals. Now he wants to go around the country. He’s currently skating up the California coast bound for Seattle, then he’ll head back east to New York before finally returning to his home in North Carolina. He estimates it will be more than 9,500 miles of pushing and has no idea how many additional months he will be on the road.
“I don’t know how long it is going to take,” said Underhill (without referencing Tom Hanks’ Forrest Gump). “It’s crazy that skating across the country has led me to where I am at now. It’s been a crazy experience. A day that I thought would never happen.”
“If you’re new here or you’re following from my last journey, the message still stands: Get out there and do that thing,” he told his followers.
Underhill has amassed a social media following of 127,000. Since we last checked in on his journey in April, he’s gained 36,000 additional followers.
When his followers asked him why he was embarking on another journey, he responded that he has “an addictive personality.” When others asked how he would withstand the northern winter, he brushed off the worries, saying he had already experienced snowy weather when he departed on his trip last winter, learning what clothes to wear and what sleeping bag to use.
He also confided to fans that it’s been a mental challenge to continue the journey. Some days he pushes as much as 44 miles, and he often has thought about quitting. At one point, a car in Texas intentionally tried to hit him. On another occasion, he fell on a crack in the road and a passing car snapped his board in half. He’s slept in the woods, under park benches, and in baseball dugouts. He injured his knee in a skatepark and says the bottom of his feet have been in pain due to all the pushing.
He’s also been attracting the attention of the police. While passing through Phoenix, he said the police pulled him over for the seventh time since departing home. They told him the next time they stopped him, he’d get criminal charges.
To fund his trip, Underhill has been getting crafty. He’s sold merchandise with his “skateboarding across the USA” artwork, using affiliate links with skate brands Etnies and ES, and he even posted a link to an OnlyFans account once.
The last update from Underhill (sometimes he goes several days without WiFi) was in Los Alamos, California. He’s 300 miles from San Francisco, which, at his pace, should take a week or two. Give him a follow on Instagram here.
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