Cyclist riding from Perth to Geelong to support legacy of WA brothers murdered on Mexico surfing trip

A beginner cyclist is riding all the way from Perth to Geelong to support the legacy of two West Australian brothers murdered on a surfing trip in Mexico nearly two years ago. Damien Kelly passed through Coolgardie this week, 600km into his 4000km journey raising funds for the Callum and Jake Robinson Foundation. Mr Kelly said the ride would take him from Perth to Coolgardie, then down to Norseman and across the Nullarbor to Adelaide, and then along Victoria’s Great Ocean Road before finishing at Geelong. “As a young 67-year-old, I still think I’ve got it in me,” he said. The Callum and Jake Robinson Foundation was started by the brothers’ parents, Martin and Debra, and supports initiatives linked to things the pair loved and were passionate about. “They loved sport, surfing, their dogs, Jake was going to be a doctor — everything relating to what the boys did and had a passion for is what the parents are trying to keep rolling,” Mr Kelly said. The foundation is involved with diabetes education, ocean beach clean-ups, supplying sport equipment for Australian and American schools, and post-traumatic stress disorder dogs for first responders. Mr Kelly has been a good friend of the Robinson parents for many years through surfing and a shared love of long-distance ocean paddling. He is a father of three, stepfather to two, and grandad to seven, and said it was impossible to understand the pain the brothers’ parents were going through. “Two boys going on a surfing holiday in Mexico, before one of them takes up his career as a doctor in Geelong and the other one is chasing his dream as an elite athlete in lacrosse, and their lives come to an end,” he said. “I just thought it was something I could do . . . hopefully it’s a reward for the foundation and it helps them or helps what they believed in,” he said. Mr Kelly said he was aiming to travel an average of 100km a day, but the reality of heat and strong winds had slowed him down. “It’s a ride for a purpose, and if I take 40 days or 100 days, the ride for the purpose is still there,” he said. “That’s what I keep in the back of my head — that it’s a ride for what I believe in.” Mr Kelly said he found accommodation in the towns he passed through or, if there was not one close by, slept on the side of the road in his one-man tent. “The beauty about my tent is — if I don’t put the cover over the top — I can see all the stars and just lie there looking up at the Southern Cross,” he said. “The experience of riding along in the serenity and putting yourself to bed at night under the stars is something that costs nothing but is worth millions.” Mr Kelly said the ride was a mental game, and the secret was not taking himself too seriously. “You have to have bit of a sense of humour, otherwise you can’t do this thing — it’s just too hard, you wouldn’t last,” he said. “You got to be half stupid. My mate asked me if I’m riding for mental health or something, and I said ‘no, but when I’m finished, I’m going to need it’.” Mr Kelly said the challenges he had faced so far were heat, wind, trucks and flies. “Most of the time, the trucks give you a wide berth, but if there’s another truck coming at the same time from the other direction, there’s no space for error,” he said. “When there’s a wide load, the driver blows the horn, and I actually have to get off the road because otherwise I’d get clipped. “If it’s 40 degrees, it’s the heat that’s coming off the bitumen as well. “Your water is as hot as the air temperature, and it has trouble going down your throat, but you’ve got to force it. “The flies go up my right nostril and come out my left nostril. “A lot of people say it will be character building, but I kind of disagree with that, I think it’s bringing the character out of me.” Mr Kelly only took up cycling six months ago when he decided to take on the big ride, previously keeping active through water sports. “Something that keeps me going is the amount of support that I get with messages and seeing the fundraising thermometer going up and things like that — they’re all positive moments,” he said. “At the end of the day, maybe the two boys are travelling with me and keeping me rolling.” Mr Kelly did not have a set end date and said he would be riding until the end of April “at least”. He encouraged anyone who might like to support him to check out the CJR Foundation webpage. “You’ll understand how good the foundation is and what it does and what it’s for,” he said. “It’s right to the core of life.” Donations to support Mr Kelly’s ride can be made here: https://www.cjrfoundation.com/damiens-ride.