What a rush!

After leaving Big Bear we hit the road for almost 3 hours. It took forever to get to get to our destination and when we arrived it was about 90 degrees outside. We had to drive all the way around Palm Springs, past the windmill farms and then head south towards Calexico, then head west toward Ocotillo Wells where Lance and the crew were waiting for us.

As soon as we got there we put on riding gear, started up the bikes and took off. Ryan took off the quad and I hopped on the 250 bike. As I took off it was going good until\ I hit a bump a bit too fast and fell off the back while I watched the bike move ahead of me by itself. I got back on and kept going and rode for a while in the sand and then Ryan and I switched.

I then went sand surfing by using a snow board and had a fun drop down a steep dune. Ryan did the same while I went 4-W driving in some major rock and dirt terrain.

We had a set back in the desert as Ryan somehow got high-sided on a giant rock. When I got to the FJ I saw Ryan looking underneath and knew that something was wrong. I guess you can imagine I was pretty mad and I had to work hard to keep my cool. The funny part is he said that he did not know how he got there. How does that happen? It took some quick thinking and Lance went back to camp and got his heavy duty lift and we jacked up the right side about 20” so that the car was off the giant rock. We then tied a tow strap to the rock and a few of us pulled it out.

We then took a ride in the Sand rail and we were flying. I had no idea how fast they were but we had to be going at least 80 mph. It’s like flying on the sand. The camera crews stayed in the sand rail and got some cool moving shots. I am sure their cameras will need some cleaning after that. In all, we had so much fun in the desert and we really hated to go. Eventually we headed back to camp, packed up, grabbed a sandwich and hit the road flying. We got some great footage but by this time we are now 90 minutes behind schedule and fighting the clock.

Nathan Petty drove us to San Diego and I actually took a small nap and felt a lot better. We drove at record speed to get back on schedule. We went straight to Mission Bay in San Diego and got on the ski boat. Ryan and I both Wake boarded and Wake skated and both got up right away and had fun. Ryan caught some good air and I tried but just fell flat on my face, oh to be young again! Then we went to the OB skate park and rode in the small bowl and had a few drops. It is a great skate park and we want to go back.

Unfortunately the wind needed to do the paragliding was gone due to and almost Santa Anna condition so we had to forgo paragliding of Torrey Pines. We were bummed because when we did this on the practice day we loved it and couldn’t wait to do it again. Oh well, next time.Then we hopped in the cars and drove quickly to La Jolla cove and jumped out at the clam. We jumped at the same time and Ryan did a flip on the way down. We went so deep that we actually hit the bottom with our feet but we were okay. We then put on a diving mask, held our breath as long as we could and did a semi-wimpy free dive. Only about 30 seconds underwater.Around 7:00 p.m, we arrived at Windandsea and saw The Red Bull girls giving out their product to people in the parking lot. It was such a rush to pull up and see friends and family all waiting for us. We took to the water right away. We each altered the order of the sports and went non stop for about 40 minutes. I surfed while Ryan rode the Surf Kayak then we switched. It was cool as a few surfers must have known what we were doing and were telling us " to move over there its a better wave". They would move out of the way so that the camera could get some great shots. They were real cool about us barging in on their space. We then both rode a skim boards but I only did it a few times as it hurt my back and did not want to blow it out.

I then rode the Body board while Ryan was riding the skim board and caught a few waves. We did all the ocean sports in spite of the shark attack. Maybe we should ad that to the list as another event - swimming with sharks? For the last event, we both ran into the heavy shore surf and body surfed our last wave together in the womp completing THE PUSH . By this time the sun was gone as we ran up the sandy beach and were greeted by our friends and family who greeted us with hugs and kisses. It was un unbelievable day.

Thanks for everyone coming out to see us on Friday. It was great to see you, we got some cool pictures with friends and family. This was a night that Ryan and I will remember for the rest of our lives. Thanks to everyone who helped us out. We set out to achieve something that no one has ever done and we did it. I don't think either of us had any idea how great it would turn out. It was a great experience fpr Ryan and I and I know that neither one of us will ever forget the experience we had, Pushing our fears aside and taking life on to the fullest.

Most of all I want to thank my beautiful wife, Deanna for being so patient and supporting us the whole way, she is the one that keeps our family going strong and without her love and support, I could have never done this. I love you De Anna.

I'll add in photos and more details later. I am on my way now to New Orleans on a business meeting and leaving in the next few hours. I am still pretty exhausted but will start filling in the gaps on this blog very soon.

Later!

SHARK UPDATE

Several beaches in San Diego have been closed for 72 hours due to a shark attack. HOWEVER, La JOLLA shores is still open so THEPUSHGAMES continue ! See you tonight.

3 more events done!

We just finished up mountain boarding, mountain biking and carveboarding. We found a great trail where we had some awesome runs and a few falls. On the mountain bike Ryan cleared a 8 foot gap in the trail and we have some great video and photo footage of that.

We also got a great shot of Ryan jumping the bike off a boulder over me. The adjreiline was defintly pumping during this part of the Push and Ryan was on fire and going for everything.

When we got to the carveboarding. By the time we were finished, Mike ( from Beyond Outside) said " This kid should have a sponsor!" Ryan was completely covered in dirt and sweat and one big smile! Ryan said that this has been the "funnest part of THE PUSH so far!!!"

We are off to Borrego now!

For more updates you can also check out Jeremy's Miners twitter. Click here.

What a thrill!

A quick update
We were able to hike into some areas that still had some snow so that we could snowboard. It was almost pure ice so it was a bit difficult but we did it.

We were able to get 2 successful runs on the Street Luge in this morning. We got up some speeds of about 34 miles per hour and it was such a thrill! Some big trucks and a few cars pulled over to watch us make our runs.


The rappelling was probably the most breathtaking event so far. When we were at the top we were able to see some amazing views ( I will upload some photos here later as we drive to the desert) . We went down an 80 foot sheer cliff and then had another 30 foot drop after a small plateau. Both Ryan and I were pretty scared while preparing at the top but after being up there and catching our breath, we both made our desent to the bottom.

We are running about 10 minutes behind schedule but we expect to make that up in the next 3 events; mountain biking, mountain boarding, and Carve boarding.

More updates and photos to follow!

We are on our way!

Well, I cant believe it, we are 0n the 215 and heading up to Big Bear. Nathan is driving and Ryan is driving up with Mike Mulder from Beyond Bikes. My buddy James Hardy has his truck loaded with Bikes and boards. Justin from streetluge.com is on his way with 3 sleds, that will be sick, we love those things!. We will be getting up to Big Bear tonight before dark to scout out a few locations for rock climbing. A local named Ken is going to help us out, he has been very helpful. So many people have reached out to us to help, it’s is a manifestation of how caring people can be,

We are bummed as we have found out that the plane we wanted cant land in the desert, on the dirt landing strip so we may not have a plane to take us to San Diego. This means we loose about an hour in the schedule due to our extended drive time and its going to require us to move faster, much faster. It’s a drag but it just makes the Push more exciting.


Here is a picture of us driving and my laptop with wireless internet. I love technology! We’ll keep Pushing.

The Local ABC affiliate Channel 10 just shot Ryan and I and will be showing a pre-Push story tonight at 7pm . Click here for the link to the video.

I am hoping that everyone will come out to Windandsea in La Jolla for the last six events. It promises to be a great time. Planet X TV will be there, along with channel 10 , the Red Bull girls, Mitch’s Surf Shop, Nathan Petty Photography, X Dreamz Sports, Voz Sports, a few local TV stations and many of our fans. The weather should be great, so come early and surf with us or just come watch the sunset on this unbelievable beach.

To extend the evening on the beach our platinum sponsor Mike Mulder from Beyond Outside will set up a beach legal fire, have some tunes and non alcoholic drinks and munchies for everyone to enjoy. I hope that you can make it out to come celebrate with us, we would love to see you there.

For directions go to http://www.sandiego.gov/lifeguards/beaches/windan.shtml .

Also check out our article in Surf Shot Magazine and on surfshot.com

THE PUSH

I am up early taking care of some loose ends and getting ready for the day. Our Press Manager, Stefany Pike, got a hold of Channel 10 and we have an interview at 9:00 am in La Jolla. I will get the details of when it will be aired on here later today.

I wanted to get our list of events on here so you could see what an EXTREME day we have in store.

5:30	5:45		1		Street Luge
6:45	7:00		2		Mountain Bike
7:00	7:15		3		Rock Climb and Repel
7:30	7:45		4		Carve Board
8:00	8:15		5		Mountain Board
8:45	9:00		6		Snow Ski
9:15	9:30		7		Snow Board
12:15	12:30				Arrive at Desert
12:30	12:45		8		4 Wheel Drive-Off Road
12:45	1:00		9		Sand Rail
1:00	1:15		10		Quad
1:15	1:30		11		Moto
1:30	1:45		12		Sand Surf
1:45	3:15				Drive to San Diego
3:15	3:30		13		Skate
3:45	4:00		14		Paraglide
4:45	5:00		15		Jet Ski
5:00	5:15		16		Wake Surf
5:30	5:45		17		Wake Board
6:00	6:15		18		Cliff Jump
6:15	6:30		19		Free Dive-1 minute under water
6:45			20		Stand Up Paddle Board
			21		Surf
			22		Body Surf - Shore break Womp
			23		Surf Kayak
			24		Body Board
			25		Skim Board
	8:00				FINISH AND CELEBRATE!!!!

What a great day!

What a great day! I continue to be amazed by the great people who keep coming around to help us out! My buddy, James Hardy will be instrumental in helping us out with the events in Big Bear. It’s great to have him on board. The toughest part today has been coordinating the logistics. Ryan and I just can’t wait to go do the sports!

I finished up at the editing studio tonight around 1:30 a.m. and then came home and got the bikes loaded.

The footage of these events will be awesome. We have photographer, Nathan Petty , a long time friend of mine doing all of the photos. Our video ographers; Jeremy and Peter are beyond talent as well. They will be with us throughout the day getting great footage. I have worked with Jeremy quite a bit over the years. He always impresses me with his great style. Peter is a friend of Ryan’s from school. Don’t let his age fool you; he has a full ride scholarship to NYU as a result of his video ographer talents so that he can pursue this as his career.

A months worth of practice has paid off!

Wow things have been busy and its been a good while since I entered anything on the blog and. Ryan and I are now only 5 days away and the reality of what we have come up with is starting to settle in and the logistics are proving to be almost more difficult than the actual sports. We were at a church dinner tonight and a friend Stefany Pike asked me when I was going to update the Push Blog, so I thought I would do it tonight. Thanks for the reminder Stef.

There was a nice article on Ryan and I last Sunday in the San Diego North County times talking about our upcoming Push date. Click here to read it.

We have been using our last 4 Saturdays to practice many new sports.

4 weeks ago we went Carve boarding, thanks to the donation of two boards by our friends at XDream Sportz. They have a great shop filled with stuff related to the action sports world and are huge into kite boarding. The Carve Boards are a riot but we didn’t know how quick these things really were and Ryan and I both had to bail off our boards, jump a side walk with our bodies in the air and roll in the grass to avoid wiping out on the street. We looked like really bad stunt doubles but at least we were safe. We shot video of it but haven’t got it edited yet.

We then went parasailing off the cliffs of Torrey pines and that we unreal. I can honestly say that the feeling of flying is as good as the feeling of dropping down a giant 25’ wave. I can see why so many people are addicted to flying off the cliffs of La Jolla, What a rush! We cant wait to do it again. Dave the owner there was very nice to take Ryan and I up for comp flights and he is an amazing pilot. He was such a nice man and really liked what the Push stood for. If you are ready to try something totally thrilling, please stop by the Torrey Pines glider port and ask for Dave, he’ll totally set you up.

Later that day we went mountain biking on the hills behind our home. It was a nice climb but the terrain was a bit gravely and rocky and you had to be a bit careful or you could end up with some nice bloody souvenirs. I forgot how important good legs are when you ride and they got a bit tired on me a few times but it prompted me to start working on my legs in the gym more.

3 weeks ago Ryan I were taken out by X-Games 2nd place finalist and owner of StreetLuge.com Justin and his good buddy and fellow luger Rick. We met them then followed them to and older road in San Pasqual near the Wild Animal Park and had the time of our lives. It was a total blast and the first few runs went great. We got close to 40 miles per hour while lying flat on what they cal a sled. These things are amazing and cost about $900 new. They showed us how to do it by first making a few runs and then we were put on the sleds. We did the first two runs at a good speed and I think we did pretty well for first timers. The 3rd and last run was really good until towards then end and I made a mistake and sat up too far over the front trucks, got speed wobbles and then rolled it at about 30+ MPH. That doesn’t feel good when you’re not wearing elbow pads. I was using home depot style work gloves, an old ski jacket and desert pants. I still have a mostly healed up raspberry on my right hip and bruised and scabbed elbows to prove it. We have the whole thing on video. Check it out by clicking here.

Last weekend we went Wakeboarding at San Vicente and had a great time. Ryan did great and got right up every time but also spend a fare share of time head first in the drink. Overall he did awesome but I could tell he he was a bit frustrated that he didn’t do better. This was my 3rd time on the water and I did much better getting up but still struggled riding and also spent some good time eating my own wake. I would say that my younger son Braydon got more air that we did while riding his knee board . Check out the video Ryan made.

We didn’t get out this weekend due to the Cub Scout Fair that I took my younger son Braydon and his fellow webelos to. Here is a picture of them staring at a cool contraption a bunch of older scouts made using wood, rope, old soup cans, hoses and water to mix up fresh cream and ice and make ice cream. It was really cool.

Ryan had a relay race swim tournament today involving schools from all over southern California. I asked how they did and he said that they won every race they were in. There was a great article on Ryan and his life long friend and fellow swimmer Tom Chard. They have been swimming together since they were about 6 years old.

I think this enough for now but I will probably start blogging every day between now and next Friday and will give some more details along the way.

WE WANT TO THANK EVERYONE WHO IS SUPPORTING US WITH THE PUSH . DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT OUR PUSH WEB SITE.

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