Hey, folks, welcome to the adventure sports podcast. I'm your host, Mason.

Today we're talking to Ryan Van Duser, and Ryan is a YouTuber. It has a ton of content

out there about adventure, bike touring, bikepacking, ultra running, all that, and huge personality.

Really likable dude. And how I came across Ryan was back in like 2011, 2012, I wanted to ride

my bike up the east Coast from Florida to Maine,

east coast of the U.S., that is. And I saw that this guy on YouTube had done that and had this

whole video series, and I just watched it to learn everything I could. And I was so impressed by

the dudes just excitement and attitude. And I've been a fan ever since. So Ryan is someone

I've always wanted to have on the podcast. It just makes so much sense, but, you know, time just goes

by, and you never reach out. Like, there's just a handful of people who are like Ryan that I'd love

to have on the show. It's just we constantly get new guests coming in and you know, you just get caught up in life. Next thing you know, it's like, wow, I'd love to interview them. Well, guess what? One of my friends, Will, who just started a podcast called To Live Terminally had Ryan on the show. And I'm like, Will, how did the heck did you get Ryan Van Duser is like your first guest, one of your first guests? And he's like, yeah, man, I'll put you in touch. So he put us in touch, got to meet Ryan, got to do this interview, and can't thank Will enough. And again, that podcast is to live terminally. And I'm going to be on that show here soon, so be listening for that.

It's a great show. Will is a friend from college. We're also going to be talking about something

that's unique to Ryan on the show, which is, you know, he's a YouTuber, so he has tons of videos,

but he just wrote a book, so a totally different experience for him. And the book is about his

very first adventure, the really big

adventure that he did on his own biking over 4,000 miles from Honduras, where he was stationed

for the Peace Corps, all the way back home to Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. And I don't know about

Ryan, but I hear this from a lot of adventures. You know, we get people who are

career adventures. They've done the biggest things in the world, super long trips, and they've been

doing them for years. But there's something about that first big adventure or that one where you

really had to prove yourself early on that just sticks out in your mind. For me, I do have,

it's my Alaska trip where I flew to Alaska and rode back home to Florida with my best friend.

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