Gearlist

Ok, so here is my gearlist. Maybe this works as inspiration for people that plan similar trips, or even as help for myself, if somebody happens to note that a extremely important piece of gear is missing.

Lets start with the skateboard:

I started skateboarding in the Baltic states with a Fibretec Freeride drop, a full bamboo and fiberglass sandwich construction. It is dropthrough, but without drop, which makes it low but not the lowest possible. On the other hand it has flex which I like very much and think is important for the dampening of the vibrations that could harm your knees. After skating the 1200km through the Baltics I decided to switch boards, as Fibretec had offered to build me a custom board. This arrived at my location thanks to the help of Kyra Gähwiler which joined me after the Russian leg.
The custom Flying Pan that I recieved was a Poplar and Beach vertical lamination sandwiched between fibreglass. The shape of the board included both dropthrough and drop, making it realy low. Unfortunately it had virtually no flex, which I thought might be a problem and was put of by a little first. But I thought I give it a try, as it realy was low, making longer pushing as easy as possible. It prooved to be a good choice for the very steep Chinese leg, where I had to ride a lot of downhill and the stiffness provided stability. But the Chinese leg was exceptionally steep, while the rest of the journey was mostly flat. I got used to the lack of flex when pushing long straights although I had the feeling I neede to switch legs a little more often. And the the unthinkable happened. The fairly new board (after only 790 km) started to delaminate heavily, that even without me having curbed it once. It just couldn't handle the wet weather in Vietnam I think. Very sad. Very sad indeed, and very far away from longboard stores. Luckily it held up for the remaining 700 km I skated until reaching Bangkok. From ther I sent it home in the hands of Kyra Gähwiler again, to serve as furniture decorating my future home. Luckily my sister had scheduled a visit in three weeks time from then and had agreed to bring me my old trusty Fibretec Freeride again. So after three longboard less weeks in Tahiland and Malaysia I am back united with my old board again and ready to skate a while.
The trucks that I have used have been the same on all setups so far, a pair of Independent 215, dropmounted and without washer boardside. They are remakably low and super durable. They still look and feel like on the first day.
I also sticked to Flywheels in 90 mm size for most parts, an amazing wheels that keeps speed for a long time and rolls over the imperfections of bad street surfaces (very, very important). I had them in duro 78a during the Baltics and duro 81a during Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, and feel that the 81a roll a little longer. On the Chinese leg I used Orangatan Moronga in 86a, that I initially bought for the trailer I used in Russia. They were nice for the downhills, fast and with predictable slide onset, but still sticky enough for the duro. I sent them home after the Chinese Leg though, because they were to heavy to carry around and I preferred the Flywheels for pushing.
Bearing wise I have gone through a set of both Bones Reds Ceramics, Bones Swiss Sixballs and Bones Swiss, of which the Sixballs held speed the best even when dirty, and also lasted remarkably long considering I had used them for already for a year at home. Of those three, the Swiss are still in use, while the other two had completely destroied outer rings.
In addition to that there are some spare parts, like extra bushings, kingpin, nuts, all of which were kindly provided to me by the awesome guys from the Rollladen skateboard store in Zurich.

On the camping gear:
When I started I decided to go super lightweight, and bring a tarp instead of a tent, which weighted only about 700g. Fitted with a moskito net and a floor, I was at little more than one (1) kilo for shelter, which is very competitive. After using that combo for seven months I was quite satisfied with it, but the tooth of time and some Laotian ants worked on it and the moskito net and the floor were damaged to a point where I had to replace it. Fortunately I came accross a very, very light one person tent, which weights only around 650g. This saves me another 350g in camping gear, making me faster. Sleeping bag is down of course, because of the superior insulation to weigth ratio, Western Mountaineering Ultralight made the race, weights about 800g. Add a Therm-A-Rest NeoAir Xlight insulation mattress of about 350g, and we are set for comfortable, dry and warm sleeping at under two kilos.

Kitchen Stuff:
I love my FireEco Hobo stove. It runs on wood, more precisely on twigs. And seriously, you will find twigs simply everywhere. I can not count the number of times I have heard the question: "But what will you do if there is no trees?" (also when I tell people that I travel with a tarp instead of a tent). Well, that is a problem, mainly for people who plan to skate/travel in the sahara desert or the arctic. Almost everywhere else one finds trees or bushes. But enough nagging, that stove is great. It is super lightweight, I think around 100g, and it burns really well. Unfortunately, as I can update after seven months of use, it is not stainless and started to rust. No problem in itself, but one of the legs where you put the pan on rusted through and fell of. Now my pan stands very crooked on that thing and is always on the verge of falling of. The pan itself is a ultralight Snowpeak titanium pan, weighing next to nothing and besides being completely black and crusted still cooks like a champ. This means my kitchen almost weights nothing. As longboarding makes thirsty, I carry a Catadyn water pump, which filters water through a silver coated ceramics filter, and hence allows me to basically fill up my water at almost any point. There are different models of this water pump, and I decided to go with the smallest (500g), as this is mostly a backup.

Clothing:
Well, what can I say than preach the very well known layer principle. Base layer, warmth layer, outer layer. I carry exactly two items of every clothing I have to save weight, and seriously, when traveling like this, its enough. So base layer is a synthetics/bamboo long sleve shirt, which has the advantages of drying fast and not starting to smell, even after wearing it for prolonged periods. Warmth layer (ups, I lied, only one item here) is a fleece jacket with a windbreaker membrane. Still keeps me warm even when wet, but looks ugly as hell. Outer layer is a Sherpa Climatic 100 raincoat, lightweight and breathable. The raincoat is one item of clothing where one can save a lot of weight when going for a quality product. Pants wise I have two zip pants, made out of a synthetic stretch material. Again, that stuff dries really fast, and the stretch gives me a little more room to move when skating. And them being zip is super handy, simply for not having to carry extra shorts. And last but not least, socks. I really encourage you guys to get good socks. I have two pair of merino wool hiking socks, and they are awesome. So far I had only one (1) blister. For shoes I am a bit clueless. I went with my standard skateboard shoes, except that I exchanged the footbed with a green Superfeet sole, of which I ripped the plastics part. Was very comfortable so far, and they did last. Other people have recommended lightweight trail running shoes, but I suspect that the thick but very soft sole would wear down too fast. Just go with whats comfortable.

Other stuff:
Important other stuff that I have is a first aid kit, which came in handy so far. I think I don't have to go into detail what should be in there, adapt it to the country that you want to go. I also carry a travel adapter, which I did not use so far because all the power plugs where still European. Maps of course in order not to get lost. A Gorillapod for the camera. A camera.
And my little sin in the weight department; some fishing gear, as I just can not drive past all these awesome waters without at least trying to catch some fish. And its healthy eating too.

I think it should be fairly complete now, and I will try to keep it up to date when a new item joins the team or I leave something behind.