Adventures

stripers - spearfishing

Spearfishing

In 1956, snorkeling in whitewater during a rare summer Nor’Easter when he was 16-years-old, Bing speared a 51 lb. striped bass that was widely believed to be a world record. The Quincy Patriot Ledger described the young spearfisherman as having “more courage than sense.” The problem was, spearfishing was illegal in Massachusetts, and the local Harbormaster let him off with a warning instead of a certificate. Bing passed the underwater hunting gene on to his sons, Patrick and Owen. Together with a rotating cast of characters they take to the ocean in search of adventure and good meals, with Bing often choosing to show off his accuracy (left) instead of heft.

Owen West - Mount Everest

Mount Everest: The North Face

In 2001, Owen attempted to summit Mount Everest from the technical and treacherous North Side. By the time Owen had staggered down from the narrow northeast summit ridge after turning aound at 28,000′ because of sickness, two men were dead, a man had snowboarded from the summit, and two of his own teammates were stranded for the night just below the summit.

Owen West - EcoChallenge

The Eco Challenge

The Eco Challenge is the ultimate adventure. It’s the world’s toughest expedition race, taking its racers to the very edges of their emotional and physical limits–then shoving them past. Co-ed teams of four navigate their way on a brutal 350-mile course by mountain biking, jungle trekking, caving, whitewater canoeing, sea kayaking, mountaineering, climbing, rafting, and hiking, stopping only when their bodies can take no more punishment. Owen has represented the United States six times in the race and has finished as high as 2nd. Recently, he was the ‘token male’ on Team Playboy X-Treme during the hardest race yet.

40s comeback - west

A time-crunched 45-year-old Clydesdale finds the family efficient triathlon training frontier: 6 hours per week

After a decade-long hiatus from serious endurance sport, I missed the benefits of hard work concomitant with big goals. In 2010 and 2011 I entered two mountainous Tour de France stages to see what biking was all about. To build cycling forbearance, I emphasized long distance, low intensity workouts. Bikers call it “saddle time.” The training did not work for me. Working a full-time job while maximizing the time spent with my wife and two young boys — whom I coach in several sports — didn’t leave time for 5+ hour weekend “base” workouts.

So I decided to go old school as an experiment. I reverted to the ethos I learned as a rower in the 1980s at St Paul’s and Harvard, and as a 1990s Marine: Every workout is a race.

I found a way to complete big events on 6 hours per week.