Extreme athlete Damien Rider to tee off his Fairway to Hell world-first endurance record attempt in Kalgoorlie

Celebrating his 50th birthday, an extreme athlete will attempt a world-first endurance record in support of men’s mental health and stopping domestic violence and child abuse — by running across the Nullarbor while playing the “world’s longest golf course”. On September 24, Damien Rider will tee off at Kalgoorlie Golf Course to launch his Fairway to Hell challenge, which will see him run to Ceduna over 12 days, playing rounds of golf as he goes. While he is no stranger to ultramarathons and extreme physical feats, Rider is by no means a golf expert, but says he has been training hard during the past four weeks to give the sport the “respect it deserves” while he tackles the 18-hole Nullarbor Links. Rider said helping men be better was a topic dear to his heart, and motivated him to complete various physical feats in search of inner peace and healing. “In those regional areas there’s a lot of men who are struggling in all sorts of ways — a lot of people who are struggling — so if I can help the male aspect of it, and then they can translate that to their kids, then their boys grow up to be good men, and then their men treat their women right,” he said. “So, we’re talking generational change, rather than ‘let’s just chuck a band-aid on some problems that are going on’. “Let’s go back down to the source. Let’s show men what men are and how to be. Let’s show the boys how to be men. That’s the only way I feel we’re going to change the domestic violence and child abuse that’s going on.” It all began on January 3, 2015 when Rider started a 500-mile solo paddle unsupported around the Australian coast, and continued the next year when he skateboarded 2500 miles along Route 66 in America, totalling 56 days. He also completed a 50-day motorcycle journey across America, meeting people who had faced immense trauma, meditated on top of a hot air balloon at 7500 feet above ground, and climbed a rope ladder from the basket of a hot air balloon to the top without a parachute or safety net. “I just travelled around and did some cool things and learnt a lot along the way,” he said. “Everyone had told me it was impossible to heal yourself from PTSD, and I’ve done it, so that set me off to find answers to other questions or other things people thought were impossible. “Putting myself purposely in physical, mental, emotional and spiritual anguish through these different events, whether they’re in the air, on land, in the water, underwater, it helped me work out how I remain calm in those situations, and what’s common between how I deal with things in normal life, like business, love, loss, all that sort of stuff as well. “I was able to integrate all of that across my life, and now I’m able to reach other people through it.” Rider said he had not been planning to do any more events, but he could not stop thinking about this one after joking about it with golf brand Golf Gods. He said the Golf Gods team were “funny, cool, down-to-earth dudes” and they would be coming up with a little extra challenge for him to complete when he arrived at each golf hole. Whether it be hitting blindfolded, in stilettos, or while counting backwards, it will all be a surprise for Rider. And while his head usually always goes straight to “how can I do this the hardest way possible?”, Rider confirmed he would not be carrying his golf clubs as he rans — although the thought did cross his mind. The challenge will also see Rider read pages of his ninth book, The Masculine Man, which was written to be read one page per day. Every month of the year is a different subject, such as business, relationships, and what strength truly means — and each page is a different day of that month. Rider said he was proud of the book, despite having published many before it, because he felt like it could have a lasting impact on both men and women. “I’ve done it one day at a time because men can get up, they can learn something straight away and have already achieved something for the day,” he said. “Rather than just grabbing the phone and looking at all their problems that are going on, they can read that and it’s not forceful, but it also gets more retained because it’s every day.” 1800 RESPECT 1800 737 732