 We're going for a bike ride today? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You ready? I'm ready. So your legs are in shape, but I'm not sure how your arms are. You're going to be ready for this? I don't think so. Like a 15-mile ride with just your arms? There they are. Look at those machines. So these are a couple of Nuke all-terrain hand cycles. Power assist. So it's kind of a game changer for people with disabilities, especially quads. We go out for a bike ride. And before we had the power assist, we couldn't keep up with anybody that was on a regular bike. And if we did, by the end of the trip, we'd be exhausted. With these, we can actually keep up with them and still be able to get a beer afterwards. How long have you been riding these types of bikes? Oh man. I started back in 97 racing downhill mountain bikes, the four-wheel kind. I got in an accident in 1995 and immediately had to get into something that was fun and fast and a little scary. Is the accident in 95 the one that paralyzed you? Yeah. Really? Yeah. Hanging out with a bunch of Norwegians. First mistake. You know how the Scandinavians like to party? Yep. And then a couple of us went for a swim about midnight. And I made the mistake of diving into a shallow pool, putting my arms to my side. And then I thought I was going to cruise to the other side. But I ended up smacking my head straight in the bottom. And immediately couldn't move my arms or legs. My buddy saved me, got me out of the pool. And within about six hours, I was getting surgery on the last two vertebrae of the cervical area of the neck or of the whole spine. And I was able to use my biceps after the surgery and my hands a little bit. And after about three months, I had my triceps back or traces of them. And I was starting to be able to do a lot of stuff like biking and getting into my car, transferring. How much of your body was affected? From here down, the nipple line down. The other thing that's pretty interesting is like all of the sympathetic nervous system doesn't work right. So when I'm out there, I don't sweat on the hot days, which can be deadly. So typically we bring a spray bottle with us to keep cool. I'll stop by a river and have somebody throw my shirt into the river, put it back on, cool off. So it doesn't sound like the accident slowed you down very much? No. Just redirected me more than anything. I was actually planning on working for Knowles or some outdoor agency when I graduated from college. So I was going to be working with people in the outdoors, all that. And yeah, I just started working with people with disabilities instead. It was a lifesaver for me. Every time I got pissed off at the world, I'd go out for a push in the wheelchair along a creek path or on a trail and feel good again. And just feel that connection with everything around me, sit by a stream and be like, yeah, life is good. Don't sweat it. You can't sweat. That's right. Like it? That's my seat belt? Yeah, exactly. There's three seat belts. Look at that. Woo. Cruisin'. I like the Swedish brand here. Yo, Revan. That's right. Oh, this is the Mister. This is the Keep Tofur Cool reptile Mister. Pull that up and over. Up and over this whole thing? Yeah. It's kind of like yoga. Yeah, I was going to say that seems like a tight. I would never be able to do that. Pants getting caught. Okay. Okay. All right. Sweet. Nice. Those are some fancy shoes for bike riding, buddy. Yeah, leather. Then I can use them as brakes if these brakes fail. I've heard you like to roll your bike, so I'm going to strap you in. You said that. You said that. Everybody knows it. And then I wrecked. Oh my God, it hurts so bad. It stays right. There we go. Got it. Nice. Yeah, everything takes time. Can't have a lot of patience. Uniquad is like having two kids. Did you ever have a bad attitude about all this? Yeah, there's some days where I have a bad attitude. But from the beginning I was kind of like, it's just like a sport. I just got to like refocus and learn what I have to do to become the best at this. Figure out what I have to train and don't give up and try everything. That helped. And that getting out of nature, like I mentioned before, so important. That was like a life saver. My bad days went for a hike. All right, let's do this, buddy. Riding with Topher. Wait up. Topher just completely smoked me right off the bat. You can barely see his little flag way up there. Look at him go. He's like, I'm not waiting up for Ryan. Uh-uh. No chance. I'm coming, I promise. Sorry. How you doing, bud? What happened? You know, how do you make this go like into a bigger gear? Oh, push it from the other side. Oh, the other side. So it goes back. Oh, okay. I kept pushing it. Shoot. Yeah, I was just like spinning like crazy. All right, Topher. You're on camera. Watch your mouth. All right. Snack-a-poe, Sven's canoe. Woo-hoo. Did you get it? All right, we're getting ready to go up a big hill. What do we do here? Shift into our lowest gear and give it our all. In prey. In prey. I'm already like, wow, this is hard on my arms. But I did not have the electric assist motor on for the first 10 minutes. So you lead the way. Oh, I got my brakes on. There we go. Okay. That's too hard. Let's see. I'm coming. I'm coming. How are you feeling? Good. This is always the part that wipes me out, but gets my blood going. Yeah. Let's do it. Oh, this part burns. Oh, buddy. All right. Yeah. I'm enjoying this. I always do. Yeah. Yeah. Funning it out with you too. Totally, bud. All right. All right. Let's do it. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. It's hard to get it going when you're serving. Starting up a hill. Up the boat. Oh, yeah. Woo. I did it. So this is the part of the ride where it's a new person on the ride where they're kind of worried about the ride. They're like, it's the first time on the bike. I haven't been out in nature before since their accident. This is the part where their frown turns into a shitting grin. It's like so awesome to see it. They're like, yeah, I'm addicted to this. Let's keep going. What kind of people do you take out? Like what's this part of the ride? What kind of people do you take out? Like what's the program all about? I try to take out a lot of pairs and quads. How many people do you think you've taken out? Geez, just about 60 right now in the last couple of years. Maybe a few more. Look at that. You know what's the most meaningful part of doing this with people? Giving people some hope. Giving them a chance to realize that they can connect with nature still and not be in a wheelchair. All right. So Topher, we're looking at a pretty big hill right here. You can do this? Heck yeah. Heck yeah. All right. I'll show you what it looks like. Kind of technical. We're going to do that. All right, buddy. So I'm going to spot you for this one. Getting after it. Need to push. You're good. He's good. Keep going. All right. You good? All right. He's good. Yeah, buddy. All right. That was impressive. Was that a good job or what? Did he do a good job? Yeah. Yeah, he did. Caught up to you. That was fun. Now I have to go get my bike down there. Topher is so impressive. And that guy, I've known him for about 15 years, has always been as positive as you're seeing him here today. And yeah, it's good to see him in his element. This is what he loves doing. And I'm honored to be part of it. And now I have to ride my bike up that damn hill. We'll see if I can do this. Seatbelt on. Yeah. Oh, I always forget to unlock the brakes. Come on. You can do it. Oh, boy. Fail. Come on.