In his late teens and early twenties Dave travelled throughout East Africa and western South America. Then, while studying at Swansea University in South Wales he edited the University newspaper full-time for two years, at the same time as coordinating the Welsh efforts of a annual charity hitchhike to Morocco.

Graduating in International Development in 2004, Dave stayed in Swansea and founded a local newspaper, HadOne, whilst working for an advertising agency as manager of their design department.

In March 2005, Dave stepped onto his first skateboard. It was a longboard with two wheels. He put his bike in the shed and started to skate everywhere.

In April 2005 Dave woke up and decided that he wanted to skate a long way.

In June 2005 he quit his job having founded BoardFree, a charitable initiative designed to raise funds and awareness for three handpicked charities, in addition to encouraging people of all ages and abilities to take up boardsports and live life to the full.

For the rest of 2005 he spent a lot of time writing emails and making phone calls.

On April 31st 2006 Dave found himself in John O'Groats, northern Scotland. He started skating south.

On June 2nd 2006 Dave crossed the line at Land's End, Cornwall to become the first person to skate the length of Britain. His right foot looked like a soggy cabbage, but the 896 mile journey had taught him some good lessons. Which was good, because it was just a warm-up.

On August 20th 2006 Dave, accompanied by a seven-person support team, began a skateboard journey in Perth, Western Australia.

Five months later, on 22nd January 2007, Dave reached Brisbane and finished his Australian journey which had become known to millions as BoardFree Australia. His 5823km journey was a world record distance and the BoardFree team's efforts had raised almost £20,000 for three charities.

Five days after flying back from Australia Dave took up a new form of exercise on a human powered hydrofoil called an Aquaskipper, having read an article about the contraption which inspired a potential journey across the English Channel. Dave founded a new initiative revolving around his Aquaskipping story, it's called BounceFree.

In August 2007 Dave finished his first book, BoardFree, a tale about a fellow who takes up skateboarding and decides to go on a long journey. Dave is now an established motivational speaker, using his unique experiences to inspire positive thinking and a no limits attitude towards every aspect of life. He believes we can all inspire, because everyone is capable of the extraordinary.

Dave's determination is also directed towards business. He works with rollsrolls longboards as their Director of Marketing, and on return from Australia was one of three directors ofclothing brand Chilled Turtle, a company based on the belief that life is a bit brighter outside of your shell.

In June 2008 Dave left Chilled Turtle to set up another company, The Little Book Creative, an agency specialising in design, branding, marketing and photography.

Dave continues to run BoardFree on a not-for-proft basis, advising and supporting the efforts of people who want to skate for charity. Four separate skate journeys were undertaken in the summer of 2007, up to twenty will take place in 2008.

Dave is in the early stages of planning two long distance paddle journeys encompassing the lengths of the Amazon and Murray rivers. But for now, Dave's concentrating on writing two more books, which are top secret for the time being, sorry.

The story continues...

Contact Dave
e - dave@boardfree.co.uk
m - 07872 986084

The Book
Buy BoardFree in Australia
Buy BoardFree in the UK

Dave is on facebook!

Websites
www.rollsrolls.co.uk
www.chilledturtle.com
www.bouncefree.org.uk
www.boardfree.co.uk (but you know that already)