Brooke Johnson is ready to be done skating.
She’s been at it for nearly four months straight — across mountain ranges, over hills and through valleys — and she hasn’t walked, driven or ridden in a car for any of it. She’s skateboarding across America, and on Friday, Johnson is expected to cross her finish line in Virginia Beach. She will be the first woman to complete the challenge.
Johnson, 29, is more than 100 days into her journey, which started in Santa Monica. That’s more than 3,000 miles skated and 245,000 calories burned, and she’s doing it all for spinal cord injury research. Her stepfather suffered an injury to his C5 vertebrae, which caused him to become quadriplegic. Johnson said the initial plan was to use the funds raised during the trip for his recovery, but after her stepfather died, Johnson said she and her team pivoted to raise money for spinal cord injury research.
Her journey has garnered a lot of attention online. Under the username @BrookeDoesEverything, her TikTok videos about her trip have garnered millions of views on the platform, and hundreds of thousands follow her on her social media accounts, including Instagram.
“Hundreds of people have stopped on the side of the road asking for photos and talking about their journeys and their medical journeys,” she told The Virginian-Pilot this week. “There was a guy from Texas that has spina bifida, and he was so supportive of us in our journey, and he came out and brought us all the things that we needed, and I’ve used everything in his care package. People like that really, like, remind me that there’s good people in this world. Strangers have let me come into their homes and use their bathroom. Everyone’s really nice. That’s the one thing I’m learning out here, too, is that people are just inherently kind.”
Brooke Johnson takes a rest in her van to refill water and supplies as she skates along a country road in Suffolk, Virginia, on Aug. 14, 2025. Johnson has skated across the entire country to reach her terminus in Virginia Beach on Aug. 15, 2025. (Billy Schuerman / The Virginian-Pilot) Brooke Johnson, left, talks with her friend Meredith Mansfield about a drone shot for content creation purposes along a country road on her way through Suffolk, Virginia, on Aug. 14, 2025. Johnson has skated across the entire country to reach her terminus in Virginia Beach on Aug. 15, 2025. (Billy Schuerman / The Virginian-Pilot) Brooke Johnson skates along a country road on her way through Suffolk, Virginia, on Aug. 14, 2025. Johnson has skated across the entire country to reach her terminus in Virginia Beach on Aug. 15, 2025. (Billy Schuerman / The Virginian-Pilot) Brooke Johnson skates along a country road on her way through Suffolk, Virginia, on Aug. 14, 2025. Johnson has skated across the entire country to reach her terminus in Virginia Beach on Aug. 15, 2025. (Billy Schuerman / The Virginian-Pilot) Show Caption1 of 5Brooke Johnson takes a pitstop to pet horses along a country road on her way through Suffolk, Virginia, on Aug. 14, 2025. Johnson has skated across the entire country to reach her terminus in Virginia Beach on Aug. 15, 2025. (Billy Schuerman / The Virginian-Pilot)Expand
As of Thursday, she has raised more than $43,000 and is still inching toward her $50,000 goal. The funding will go to Wings for Life, a nonprofit that aims to find a cure for spinal cord injury.
“He was a big biker,” she said of her stepfather. “He loved biking, and he always wanted to travel more than than he did, so I brought (his ashes) on the journey. He hangs in the van, and he’ll hang around my neck when I cross the finish line.”
This isn’t her first time making a sizeable trek via skateboard. Johnson traveled 178 miles on her board from Los Angeles to Mexico a few years ago. After completing that feat, she said it gave her the confidence and inspiration to go farther.
A day on the road starts early, usually by waking up at 7:30 a.m., she said. By about 8 a.m., she’s out skating and aiming to hit 20 miles before noon. If that goal isn’t met, then it’s going to be a late night. Besides breaks for food — usually lentils and rice or fast food as a treat — she’s out skating for hours at a time. Then, at the end of the night, she and her team will sleep in their van, usually in a church parking lot, before doing it all over again the next day.
One of the biggest challenges, she said, has been the high-mileage days, especially as she moves toward Hampton Roads. This week, she skated 165 miles in just three days, shattering personal records and pushing her body to its limits.
For most of the ride, it’s just her and her thoughts. She only listens to music once she passes about 40 miles, and that’s not always a given. Depending on the area, Johnson said she’s usually not listening to anything so she can hear how traffic is moving around her. After a while, though, she hits her “flow state.”
“I think a lot of people think that the experience is super euphoric, but in my experience, I’m very locked into the traffic — what’s going on around me, drivers, what they’re looking at,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of like driving. If you’ve ever tried to listen to a podcast while driving, you sometimes zone in, and then you zone out, but you’re still doing the motion. Sometimes I’ll be like, ‘how did I get here?’ I just continued pushing so far. My mind doesn’t go anywhere profound. I’m not having, like, a Socrates awakening. I’m mostly just trying to stay alive out here.”
Around 5 p.m. Friday, Johnson is expected to complete her ride at the Oceanfront. To traverse Hampton Roads, she’ll skate on Route 58 through Suffolk and across the South Norfolk Jordan Bridge. She will make her final push on 5th Street, down the Boardwalk, to Grommet Island Park. After she crosses the finish line, she will dip her board’s wheels into the Atlantic Ocean, and the party moves over to The Shack for a post-finish celebration. Johnson, who works as a women’s empowerment content creator when she’s not skating, said she already has a plan for what she’s doing after the trip.
“I’m going to try all the nicest massage places in the world,” she said. “I’m going to be doing a series about slow travel. I’ve slowly traveled across the U.S. by skateboard, and so I’ll be doing a slow travel series of what it looks like to travel slowly and consciously. I’ve been out here for a while, and I’ve definitely figured out some things that I value.”
Eliza Noe, [email protected]
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