There will be an international flavour as skateboarders from across the globe head to Kent for a 24-hour event.

UK UltraSkate - a Long-Distance Longboarding and Skateboarding event which will see participants ride their boards as far as they can around the course - is set to take place at Betteshanger Country Park this weekend.

Pierre-Edouard Duedal, founder of UK UltraSkate, said: “It’s a very international affair.

“Essentially, we have a handful of riders from the UK but we have riders from Germany, France, Poland, Romania, the USA, Singapore and, potentially, China coming. So, it’s pretty international!

“There are few events in this discipline, which are SkateIDSA-approved and sanctioned.

“It’s a must-go-to event for people in the sport, hence why people are coming from all over the place for it.”

While the competitive action starts from tomorrow, activities will begin in earnest today.

Duedal said: “In the evening, we will be running free challenges, which are pre-event challenges to get people into the mood and mindset.

“Saturday at 9am, that’s when the event starts. Participants will be skating through to 9am on Sunday when the event will conclude.

“It’s concluded by a raffle and an awards ceremony.”

This year is the second time the event has been held at Betteshanger.

Duedal noted: “That worked out really well last year.

“It offered a decent-sized track. The facilities are good and there’s camping, which is an option.

“Having participants riding for 24 hours leads to a few logistical issues and some sites were a bit reluctant with allowing people to ride around the track for 24 hours - many tracks would only allow six or 12 hours. At least the site at Betteshanger allows people somewhere to camp.

“If they need somewhere to rest, they can rest, recuperate and get back on their boards when they have the energy to.

“Last year was the first event. This year will be the second addition and, certainly, we’ll have the intention of running a third addition next year.

“With that in mind, we have ended up also getting validation from the IDSA and Skateboard GB.

“The IDSA is the International Distance Skateboarding Association. They will be sending members this year to measure the track for official world-record recognition.

“It’s definitely where we will be running our events for the foreseeable future.”

Explaining why the event had started in 2023, Duedal added: “It was kind of my way of contributing to the longboarding community.

“As a community, there’s only two or three international events - with one in Miami, one in Holland and that, basically, was it. Then, there was the Le Mans in France, which was half-related to the event.

“As far as what the event is itself, it’s a long-distance longboarding event primarily, although we do have in-line skaters, as well. It is an endurance distance (event) so people ride for as long as they possibly can to accumulate as much distance as they can.

“For us, it’s 24 hours which makes it a very unique event.

“In terms of how it came about, I wanted to try and start something to help push the sport but, also, to offer opportunities for longboarders who are maybe more local to myself so people in the UK can ride and partake in these events.

“It also encourages international riders to come to the UK. Betteshanger came about as a result of looking for a site.

“We assessed something like 17 different sites and settled on Betteshanger, just because it fitted the criteria with the size of the track, the possibility of camping on site and also a few other logistics.”

A taster session was held in March.

Asked how that taster session went, Duedal replied: “Really well, as far as I understand.

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go myself but one of my team, Kevin (Murphy), took the lead. As far as I understand, it went really well.

“We got lots of people on the day to hop onto a sub-skate. Sub-skates is an SUP Skate - which stands for stand-up paddle - and it’s effectively man-paddling so to speak on the board.

“People got to try out some of the equipment. Kevin got to explain what the event is about.

“This year, we’re taking a particular support on Surfers Against Sewage, just trying to put an ecological stance to the event.

“Admittedly, there is an underlying tone which was the fact that - despite the team trying to really ensure rubbish was separated and consolidated last year - it became a bit of a point of contention.

“So, we’re trying to push that ecological theme and agenda more this year.”

Spectators is free and open to all, although parking charges will still apply.

Go to the UK UltraSkate website at www.ultraskate.co.uk for more information.