For weeks the 68-year-old Arthur Dijkstra from Soesterberg has been on the road on his longboard. Via Amersfoort, Utrecht, The Hague, Middelburg, Maastricht, Den Bosch, Lelystad and Zwolle, the longboarder arrived in Assen. All that for charity Kika.
Dijkstra left Amersfoort in mid -June to take the tour through his home country by longboard. That hobby arose not even that long ago and was especially something he tried for health reasons. “I had some problems with my left knee, it turned out that grit was in. Cycling and walking with a heavy backpack was no longer allowed. I thought: let me try it with a longboard.”
For example, Dijkstra became an avid longboarder at the age of 60. “I just started doing it. At the age of 63 it became serious. Then I made my first trip around the IJsselmeer, also for Kika. And last year I went from the northernmost tip of the Netherlands to the southernmost tip.”
The idea of raising money with his longboard against childhood cancer arises when he hears through his hairdresser about a seriously ill boy. “She had a brother with a rare form of cancer, neuroblastoma. I wanted to do something with the sport anyway, and then I hung Kika.”
In the meantime there are hundreds of longboard kilometers on the clock and now he visits all the provincial head cities, with today Assen as his destination. “I go on average 12 kilometers per hour, that can be done. But it can also be against. At the first dam in South Holland I had wind force seven or eight, then I had an average of 6.5 kilometers per hour. But I had the wind along the Albert Canal in Belgium, then I got 17 per hour.”
Tricks, Dijkstra does not dare. “I can’t do that at all. I stand in front of my right leg, but I can also do with my left leg. But not with a heavy backpack.” Along the way he sleeps with people who offer him a place to sleep. “I meet very nice people,” says Dijkstra. “When I rely on the farmers in the evening, then we are a little dazed at looking at each other. But in the morning we separate as friends.” Dijkstra has now collected 2,400 euros for KiKa.