CELEBRATING EXTREME DADS
So it was Father’s Day on Sunday – the one day of the year, dedicated to our wonderful dads! Well, here at Extreme Element, we think that Dads deserve a whole lot more appreciation than that…so we’ve devoted our monthly blog just to them. Here’s our nod to some of the most extreme and fearless fathers out there…
Alright, we all know this face, right? He’s famous for surviving in the wilderness, in some of the most extreme and harsh of environments in the world…even if it means drinking “water” (or even his own urine) through a sock!
But…there’s so much more to him than just a celebrity face. With 3 young boys at home, he claims that his family are a “driving force” for him while he’s away on his adventures – and really, who can blame him? Having served with the SAS for 3 years, and after suffering a freefall parachuting accident in Zambia, Bear went on to climb Mount Everest, cross the Atlantic on a RIB, and journeyed across Antarctica, amongst a great number of other adventures. He is now internationally known for his various Survival and Adventure series on television.
Here’s a guy you may or may not have heard of…he’s an American Adventurer, author and activist – but most remarkably, he’s the only blind person ever to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
If that’s not impressive, then we really don’t know what is! And as if this wasn’t enough, the 46 year old father of two has a great deal more to add to his list of extreme accomplishments: in 2011, he completed the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race at elevations above 10,000 feet, and also the Primal Quest – an adventure race over 460 miles with 60,000 feet of elevation gains. More recently, he joined fellow blind kayaker, Lonnie Bidwell, for a 127 mile kayak trek on the Colorado River, through the Grand Canyon!
Tommy Caldwell:
Nominated for National Geographic’s “Adventurer of the Year 2014/2015” award, Rock Climber Tommy Caldwell is a pretty awesome guy to be able to call “dad”.
In January (2015) Caldwell, along with fellow rock climber Kevin Jorgeson completed the first free-climb ascent of the “Dawn Wall” – part of Yosemite’s 30,000ft El Capitan rock, earlier this year. Their progress was tracked by worldwide media, and they soon become a social media hit.
With a large number of other impressive accomplishments from a range of climbing styles under his belt, Caldwell has also endured the terrifying true-life nightmare of being held hostage by rebels in Kyrgyzstan in 2000, whilst on a climb in Central Asia…needless to say, this frightening experience has done nothing to dampen his love of adventure.
Steve Irwin:
Finally, we couldn’t write a blog post about awesome dads, without a tip of our cap to a truly special father-figure – not just to his own kids, but we’re sure to many children (some of them, not so small) around the world.
The wildlife expert and “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin was renowned for his unfailing love of animals, especially for those that others would tend to shy away from. Irwin traversed the globe, tackling and rehabilitating “Crocs” – with a great many of his daring stunts caught on camera for the world to revel in. His antics with a whole host of the world’s most dangerous animals, along with his larger-than-life Australian personality, are what made him so irresistible.
Born into a family of wildlife experts himself, Steve Irwin in turn passed on his passion to his own children who have continued to follow in his footsteps…”Crikey!” – what a guy!
