World Record

We are going to set a world record. Early last month Kenton and I submitted an application to the

Guinness Book of World Records. Here is the application below. We hope to hear back from Guinness World Records by March and then, if we are accepted, we will set the record in May.

Application:
A team of longboarders, Longboard For Love, want to set the farthest distance traveled by skateboard in a 24 hour relay. They will be riding, relay style, along Bear Lake bike trails until time runs out. A support bicycle will follow the active boarder with supplies such as water and first aid. The team will carry a GPS that will track the miles traveled during the allotted time, as well as tracking mile markers on the trail. 

The support bicycle will also have a bike computer attached to track miles traveled as well. Longboard For Love is doing this as another fundraising attempt for local charities. The team founders, Mason Bennett and Kenton Durfee, recently completed a month long skateboard journey along the California coastline and raised over $7,000 for a Utah based charity organization, Bridge of Love, which helps orphaned Romanian children. This money was used to pay for a tutor and computers for the orphans. Bennett also collaborated with friends in New York to do a Skateboard Dance Competition. Funds raised from the dance competition were donated to Bridge of Love. The hope with the relay is to be able to raise funds for charity, as well as spread popularity and awareness for the sport of long-distance skateboarding.

It is anticipated that the team will consist of no more than six members. We are aware that there currently is a record for the farthest distance traveled on a skateboard in 24 hours by one person. Andrew Andras holds this record and traveled 261.8 miles in one day. We don't want to challenge his record but instead want to make a similar record. Instead of a solo race we want to do a relay. We believe by switching out boarders every hour or so we will be able to travel significantly further than Andras as well as establish a similar record that other longboard skateboard teams will aspire towards beating.

Dracula's Dash for Hope 2014

This was another fun year of running for Bridge of Love's annual 5k race, Dracula's Dash for Hope. I am happy to say that I ran much better this year than last year. I even medaled and got third in my age group! After four years of running cross country in High School and not being very good, this made me feel pretty happy. Here are Jamie's instagram pictures of the race. It was a fun event this year. Lots of volunteers came to help out and the race had a fairly good turnout. Next year we hope to see even more of you there!

One Year (and a Few Months) Later

I had hoped to write this post exactly one year from the completion of our first trip. Unfortunately due to a busy life schedule I couldn't find the time. Better late than never. Here is a little review of what is going on with Kenton and I, as well as Longboard For Love.

Life has been crazy this past year. A few days after finishing our longboard journey I went back to Utah and married my sweetheart Jamie. We have had a wonderful year since then. Almost immediately after getting married we moved to Davis, California to research at the California National Primate Research Center. After working there a few months we moved back to Utah where I picked up my schooling again and Jamie started working. School has been crazy. Currently I am trying to pack a full years worth of Organic Chemistry into one summer (...I have dreams where I am studying chemistry...or taking exams...terrible dreams...) as well as preparing two papers for publication based on the research I did last summer. Life is good.

Kenton went home to Arizona where he worked with his dad's business and tried to find true love. Soon after he went back to BYU Idaho where he continues work on his business degree. He has since been blessed to find love and was recently married to an enthusiastic and adorable young lady, Alexis. They are the cutest couple and I am so happy for the both of them. She is up at school with him and they are just studying away. Life is filled up with school...school seems to be taking the most of our time and energy.

As far as Longboard For Love well....between new marriages, jobs, and school it has been difficult to plan out another trip or even organized our schedules to decide when we want to go again. Things are in the works though. I am going to do a short trip in celebration of the completion of my final exams. I just submitted an application to the Guinness Book of World Records for another journey we hoping to do. We won't give details yet but it will involve a relay of sorts with a larger team of people coming to Longboard For Love. We will be doing it to raise money for charity again. The big details still need to get hammered out and when/if Kenton and I find time we will do that.

Just wanted to keep ya'll updated. Thanks for reading!

Computers for Romania

Check out this sweet article

about students at the LDS Business College getting more computers for the children of Bridge of Love (Podul Dragostei). The business students are learning to refurbish old computers that are just lying around and then donating them to the children of Romania.  Huzzah for an education that keeps giving. This will make a huge difference in the education and futures of the Romanian children.

It is really cool what people can accomplish when they get an idea and follow through with it.

Read the article here.

A Good Man

Kenton and I happy
to be hanging out

Throughout my life my cousin Kenton has been one of my closest friends. Each summer my family would drive to my mother's ancestral home in Arizona. There Kenton and I would get into all sorts of boyhood shenanigans camping, climbing trees, swimming in the irrigation ditch, swinging on hammocks, etc.

Gathering eggs and catching chickens

When Kenton and I were about 14 or 15 years old, we went to a summer camp together. During a break I was a little bored and I saw Kenton's journal. He let me take a look at it so I started flipping through. I found an entry he had written a few days before. In it he wrote that one of his heroes was....me. I stopped reading and sat up, frankly shocked. I got my journal and showed Kenton an entry I had written in my journal, where I wrote about my hero...Kenton. We had a memorable moment as we sat shocked and flattered that the person we looked up to though so highly of us as well. Afterwards I was thinking of the irony of the situation and I thought, "You know what. I am right. Kenton is the better one, but I want to live to be as good as he thinks I am." 

When planning our recent longboard adventure I thought long and hard about who I would like to have with me. Who would actually follow through on such a crazy adventure? I thought about it and suddenly it came to me...Kenton! Kenton was the perfect choice for so many reasons. I knew that if Kenton said he would come, then Kenton would stick to his word and he would follow through. I knew the trip would get hard and we would want to quit, but Kenton is one of the hardest workers I know and I knew that he would do all he could to push himself and push me during the hard times.

Building boats to float down
 the river on our camping trip

Another reason I asked Kenton to come is that Kenton is the nicest and happiest people I know. I am often very sober minded, but Kenton always has a smile on his face. Just being around him helps me be more cheery. We weren't always happy and didn't always get along on the trip, but Kenton's sterling example and happy disposition helped me set aside whatever petty thing was bothering me (like maybe we were lost) and apologize or figure out solutions. Kenton's happy attitude was vital to our trip.

Kenton sacrificed so much to do this trip. He was taking summer classes WHILE ON THE TRIP! We had to buy him an ipad and stop at every library we found so he could do homework. I am sure he sacrificed the quality of his grades for the trip. He gave all this up for people he doesn't even know. Kenton has never been to Romania, he has never met any of the kids we helped out. Despite all of this he sacrificed a month, lots of personal funds, grades, and personal comfort to go on this crazy adventure. All to support his crazy cousin and help people he hadn't met. Kenton is so full of charity and love.

Grown up and building
a camping shelter

The most beautiful thing we experienced on our longboard trip was the kindness and giving attitude of others. People who donated. People who gave us something to eat or a place to stay. Newspapers who spread the word. People who gave encouragement. Out of everyone who gave to the trip I think Kenton gave the most. He really is my hero and I look up to him in so many ways. I called Kenton a few days ago to talk about our next longboarding adventure and we ended up chatting for about 40 minutes until I had to go to class. I am glad to have someone so happy, so hard working, so giving, and so kind in my life.

Kenton recently got engaged and I am so proud of him. I hope his fiancee knows how lucky she is because she is marrying a good man, my cousin and hero, Kenton Durfee.

Up to our waists in mud

Guess we haven't really grown up that much.