Regular visitors to Push have no doubt noticed, and ideally read, the blog from Skate4Cancer founder Rob Dyer. Dyer founded Skate4Cancer at the mere age of 15, when he first dreamt up the idea of skating from Los Angeles, California, to Toronto, Ontario, to raise awareness for cancer prevention. Since then Dyer has tirelessly promoted Skate4Cancer, earning support from both the skate industry and the mainstream media, and reaching out to countless skaters and teenagers with his message.

Dyer, along with a dedicated support crew, started another skate journey this spring. He's skating from Vancouver, BC, to Halifax, Nova Scotia; an estimated 7,000-plus kilometer journey that will be accomplished one push at a time. Having just passed through Toronto, we felt it was time to check in with Rob to get a status report on the tour and gain some insight into just how road-weary he might be.

Photographer Erin Hogue, who's been providing all of the images in Rob's blog on Push, volunteered to interview Rob for us. Since she's been on the tour since it began, we figured there was no one better for the job.

Erin Hogue: The first time I heard about Skate4Cancer was 6 years ago, in high school. You casually mentioned that you were thinking about skateboarding from L.A. to Toronto. I was stoked to be able to see, first hand, your ridiculous dream actually happen. Since then Skate4Cancer has really grown and evolved. Why now, after all these years, have you decide to do another skate?

Rob Dyer: Skate4cancer was started by a skateboard marathon, and we have grown and have taken part in many different things now, and we have finally found our focus and mission that is "The Cure is Knowledge." Now that we've found our focus, we've decided to bring Skate4Cancer back to where it started and to really shine a light on what we have learned. We want to open people's eyes to show them where Skate4Cancer is headed and to emphasize this new message; "The Cure is Knowledge."

What is "The Cure is Knowledge" and why was this change necessary?
Basically, the focus is education that leads to cancer prevention. We just noticed that the demographic that we were targeting was young people, so it made more sense to educate their young minds than ask them to donate money. Young people don't necessarily have money or what not, but they have a mind that is growing every day, and hopefully we can help mold that mind to believe that their actual physical contribution means much more than money. Whether it's through educating their mind, or by getting involved -- kind of like the way that we did with Skate4Cancer -- by physically using something that you really love doing, to help out.

So right now you are using skateboarding, something you really love, to get people to listen and pay attention. How do people generally react when they see just you, skateboarding down a major highway?
I think it is just something that they have not seen before, so they react like it is something they haven't seen before. They just act shocked and I think a lot of it is that skateboarding is looked at in a certain way, and I think anyone who has skateboarded in public gets it. I think that they see a skateboard on the highway and think, "why is he doing that here? That's why we built the skate park."

If you could have one-person skate with you, on the highway, for one day, who would it be?
Ha! That would be rad! You know what? It's a tie of between three people. One would be Jon Roth, because he can grow the best mustache in the world, and he is the most calm, nice person in the world. You could talk to him about anything and he would understand.

Second would be Chris Hammell, for a crazy amount of reasons. But I think it would be more so because he is basically like a brother or a father figure, and he has played that kind of role a bit in my life. He's older and wiser, and he always comes up with the most ridiculous nicknames for me.

Then the third would be Brad Pitt because it would be funny: it's Brad Pitt! People would drive by and would be, like, look at those two guys skateboarding down the highway...oh wait, is that Brad Pitt?!? Brad Pitt is skateboarding down the highway? It would be hilarious... and I would hope that he talked in the third person the whole time!  

We are living in a van that is basically a moving Skate4Cancer billboard. People are constantly approaching the van offering donations. When we tell them that we do not accept donations, their jaw always drops. Why doesn't Skate4Cancer accept donations?
We just do not feel like it is our place, because first off, I just believe that there are better places that you can put your money. There are places that actually need funding to be able to do research and for equipment and what not. Skate4Cancer is not that place.

It's kind of hard for people to understand and comprehend, and we struggle just to get by as a group, as an organization, but it's one of those things. I don't think it would be hugely different [if we accepted donations], you know what I mean? The result would be the same.

Also, our focus is prevention and so if people give us money, they feel like they have done something, and a big part of Skate4Cancer is to leave people with a feeling of, I still need to do something, they didn't take my money so I can't help them that way, well, how can I support what they are doing? That is exactly how we want to leave people, with the sense of them wanting to do something, and wanting to contribute somehow.

Last week, towards the end of the day some new friends of ours came and brought us dinner. We were all just hanging out, joking around, and watching the sunset over Lake Superior when an older gentleman approached us. Can you elaborate on this?
He was driving a truck from Toronto to BC, and he took a stop to look at the beautiful sunset, like we were. I guess he noticed the van and he walked over to us and said, "This is great, this is really great." We got talking a little bit, well, it was mostly him just talking, it seemed like he wanted to tell us something... His wife was passing away from cancer. She was very sick with what started out as *** cancer, but it was not caught early enough and spread throughout her whole body. Just talking to him about it, and actually feeling a little bit of what he was feeling, by how much emotion he had inside of him, was just really overwhelming.

He was talking about what his wife was going through and what not... I catch myself constantly, like we all do... we get trapped inside of our bubble, inside of our own little worlds and what not, and we all tend to think about our problems and our issues. Just listening to this man and what he's going through -- like the hardest thing in his life -- and his focus was not himself at all, it was just his wife. It was really cool, that when you really love somebody and really care for somebody, you don't matter: they are the only one who matters. It was very inspiring.   

You have said that the day after this incident was a really big day. What caused the day after to be different than any other?
I think that it was a really big day just because the past, like three or four days, I have not felt good at all skateboarding; actually I have felt like really horrible. And the next day I felt super good. I don't know if it can 100% be because of what happened yesterday, but I think it is. Just with those two friends of ours and that older gentleman, I don't know... it's really amazing that as people we can share stories with each other and it inspires us to live our life better or work harder. You just can't take things for granted and it is cool that just a simple conversation with somebody can do that. It's wired, it's almost like, I don't know, an artist painting a painting, we talked about this once, the things that change society the most aren't money or power driven, it's almost like they are... passion driven. I think the worst things in this world, like the biggest tragedies, can lead to the greatest things, too.

You are interviewed constantly, from television to newspapers to school projects, and the same couple of questions come up again and again. But what is one thing about Skate4Cancer that tends to get overlooked and you wish that it wasn't?
It seems like, a lot of things overshadow why we are doing what we are doing. Whether it be the extreme idea of us skateboarding across the country or what not, it sometimes takes over the actual issue of what we are trying to get across, which is the "Cure is Knowledge."

It is one thing that I wish people in interviews would focus on a little bit more, but it's hard for them. It's a big, touchy subject. I guess a lot of people look at cancer prevention as things like smoking and what-not and people don't want to be told how to live their life

The only thing you can do is sit down and talk to them and explain to them. Say like, "listen, I lost my father to lung cancer, and I don't want your kid to have to deal with what I had to deal with, growing up without a father." As soon as you put it like that, their attitude changes. As soon as you put it in that light people are more prone to change. That is the one thing that I love about people, is the fact that we are more prone to care about another human before ourselves any day.

Anytime you flip it [preventing cancer] around like that, you explain to them that they could be harming someone they love; they will put that cigarette out a lot quicker then if you say their harming themselves. If you try to explain it in the right light to somebody about cancer prevention then it works a lot better. Prevention is the one thing, the main thing.

Skate4Cancer has really grown and changed a lot since you completed the first skate seven years ago. After you finish the cross-Canada skate, where do you see Skate4Cancer going next?
I see Skate4Cancer going more in the direction that it's in right now; focusing on the "Cure is Knowledge." The Cure is Knowledge tour that we do every year is more focused on cancer prevention and educating youth. I see Skate4Cancer as kind of a youth movement. It is up to the youth of today to take what I have initiated and grow it into something bigger than myself.