As 2007 begins, so the preparations step up a notch for BeatsWalkinEurope.

With less than 5 months on the clock, Sam Benson prepares to skateboard an epic 4000km across 5 European countries, starting in Barnstaple, North Devon, and finishing in Santander, Spain. In doing this he aims to raise as much funds and awareness for three select children’s charities; The Lowe Syndrome Trust, Link Community Development, and Sailability Australia.

    On the first of July, 2007, Sam Benson will be leaving on his record breaking skate across Europe, travelling nearly 4000km through some of the most famous cities in Europe.

    Sam has been skateboarding for three years, and was looking to do something new to which he could involve what was then simply a hobby. This was when his friend Jay piped up with the idea of longboarding to Rome. Since then the destination has changed, and sadly Jay will no longer be coming with us, but the stage was set, and BeatsWalkinEurope was conceived.

    The route will see Sam and his support team travelling along the south coast of England into Calais, down through Paris into Geneva in the first month. They will then travel into Italy to the city of Turin before returning to France and stopping at Marseille. They will then be moving along the south coast to Carcassonne, where they will stop before continuing through Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid before they reach their destination of Santander.

    The trip has been planned to take between 8 to 10 weeks, boarding through the intense summer heat of southern France and Spain, at an average of 50km per day.

    The support team following Sam concists of Tom Fletcher, Laura Hatwell and Chris Morris, who will be working to make sure everything runs smoothly while on the journey.

    Also adding their support to the team are several companies, who have sponsored us everything from headwear and sunglasses, through to Longboards and Gym memberships. As well as this, Team BWE are preparing to create a DVD of the journey, and have acquired the services of a ghost writer, Owen Platt, who has agreed to write a book documenting the journey in order to raise more awareness for the three charities. As all of the profits from these two ventures will be donated to the charities, this will also help to increase their funding.

    BeatsWalkinEurope is part of the Boardfree initiative, which was founded by Dave Cornthwaite in 2005, which aims to raise money and awareness for the three children’s charities; The Lowe Syndrome Trust, Link Community Development, and Sailability Australia. The Boardfree initiative also aims to promote sport to youngsters of all ages and encourages a ‘no-limits’ attitude to the lives of people everywhere.

To read more about BeatsWalkinEurope and how you can help us, visit

www.beatswalkineurope.com  or donate online at www.justgiving.com/beatswalkin