Adventurer

Ryan has twice walked on biplane wings 3,000 feet over water or land and held on while it did twelve aerobatic maneuvers. He has bungee jumped on five continents and paraglided in nine countries. He has tumbled out of an airplane on both the north and south sides of the equator—bringing as many as 10 of his church friends with him at a time. Ryan has plunged off a mountain cliff with a trash can over his head, free-falling 198 feet before his safety line caught. He’s flown in biplanes, sailplanes, seaplanes, parasails, hang gliders, ultralights, a stunt plane, a hot air balloon, an experimental aircraft, and even a doorless helicopter pulling a 180º slide.

Ryan has climbed a 57-meter construction crane in South Africa, stood on the helipad atop Paris’ tallest skyscraper, and jumped off the 63rd story of the then-tallest building in the southern hemisphere. He’s spent the night sleeping on a portaledge attached to a rock face—suspended 90 feet off the ground.

Ryan has rafted class V rapids on rivers 18 time zones apart and helicopter-kayaked atop a British Columbian glacier. He has repelled waterfalls on two continents, ice climbed on four continents (including Antarctica), snowmobiled in four countries, driven a snorkel-kitted Land Rover through frigid Icelandic whitewater, ice skated in Dubai, and zip-lined more than 600 feet above a rainforest.

Ryan has driven a retired Indy car over 180 mph, spun out a Formula 2000 car on a road course, and slid a 300hp Subaru race car around a gravel rally course. He’s had his MINI Cooper on the track, off the ground, and over 110mph on the way to church.

Accompanying friends as they crossed items off their bucket list, Ryan has hiked some of the most iconic trails in the world, including Peru’s Inca Trail, Canada’s West Coast Trail, Italy’s Alta Via 2, Kauai’s Kalalau Trail, and Switzerland’s Walkers Haute Route.

Ryan has wakeboarded, snowboarded, and river-boarded—in the coldest river in France (3ºC) and in a deadly river in New Zealand.

Ryan has surfed in the Arctic Ocean (200km north of the Arctic Circle). He has snowboarded, snow skied, and driven a go-kart on snow in a wind chill of -30ºF. He’s driven a snowmobile to the Continental Divide and pushed one to 84mph in Jackson Hole. And he’s done 79mph on the back of an Olympic bobsled run with the former Jamaican bobsled coach depicted in Cool Runnings. He built and spent the night in a snow shelter during survival training in northern Finland. He has floated in the water freshly opened by an ice breaker ship in Sweden.

His greatest adventure has been becoming the adoptive father of a teenage girl.