HONG KONG — The list of endurance feats Damien Rider has accomplished in the past decade is jaw-dropping.

He has prone paddled solo and unsupported in the ocean for 17 days, charting an 800-kilometre course along Australia's eastern coastline from the Gold Coast to Sydney's Bondi Beach.

He has skateboarded 4,000km over 56 days along Route 66 through the Mojave Desert in the United States, enduring temperatures of 55⁰C.

He has pushed a three-tonne pickup truck for 28km along the Gold Coast Highway, and ran the Gold Coast Marathon carrying a 16kg mattress on his back.

What makes 45-year-old Rider's accomplishments remarkable is that he became an endurance athlete only in his mid-30s, after struggling through years of drug and alcohol abuse.

He survived not only a heart attack at the age of 22 but as many as four attempts at taking his own life before the age of 36.

Substance abuse had been Rider's means to try to erase the unimaginable nightmare that was his childhood. An abusive adult in his family had routinely raped and beaten him from a young age.

"It was physical, emotional and sexual abuse. There was no one to turn to," says Rider, who suffered the ordeal for years.

"As an adult I spiralled out of control trying to deal with my childhood trauma. My past impacted my entire life, my relationships, my work and my self-esteem," he says, adding he experienced post-traumatic stress disorder early in life.

Rider recalls running to the beach near his home in Adelaide, Australia, to seek refuge in the caves.

"I lived each day not knowing whether I was going to see the next sunrise," he recalls, adding that in his darkest moments, he hoped he would never see one again.

His story was featured in a National Geographic documentary, Heart of the Sea.

"After my last suicide attempt, I knew I had to change. I wanted to break the cycle of trauma and suffering," says Rider. "I felt happiest on the ocean and I knew that's where I needed to go."

He returned to surfing and started prone paddling — lying face down on a paddle board and using his arms in lieu of an oar. "I felt vulnerable but free," he says.

Rider made up his mind to train as an endurance athlete and set himself the challenge of attempting a solo prone paddle from the Gold Coast to Bondi Beach.

For eight months, he trained hard, paddling and running while wearing a 20kg vest.

On Jan 3, 2015, Rider entered the ocean at Rainbow Bay, in Coolangata, Gold Coast, to begin his epic prone paddling feat, spending 13 hours a day in the ocean for 17 days until landing on Sydney's Bondi beach.

It was a transformational journey.

"There was no team assisting me, on land or at sea, and no ribbons or trophies at the end," says Rider.

He survived 21 shark encounters along the way and was even thrown off his paddle board by great white sharks on more than one occasion. He faced dehydration, starvation, fatigue and near-drowning, losing consciousness at times.

"Being out at sea, with nowhere else to go, forced me to face the demons from my past. I had a lot of time to think about everything that had happened in my life," says Rider.

"For 17 days I faced every obstacle the ocean could throw at me and I prayed that the challenge would not break me."

The battle taught him that everyone is capable of overcoming their greatest fears and challenges. There was a shift in his mindset, from feeling like the victim of his circumstances to being the one in control of his own life.

"Our past, no matter how painful, does not need to determine our future, and no matter how many times we are knocked down, we can get up and find a way to keep moving forward," he says.

"I realised that if I could overcome my childhood trauma, I could teach other people how to do it as well. Never did I imagine that this personal journey would connect me with so many people from around the world who are trying to heal and find peace."

He is now a motivational speaker and has spoken about his journey at TEDx several times.

In 2014 Rider founded the charity Paddle Against Child Abuse, and in 2015 he created the first child abuse awareness week, which is held in Australia and Thailand in January every year.

Both these initiatives hold sporting events globally to raise awareness about violence against children.

Rider was voted Men's Health Man Of The Year in 2015 (by the Australian Men's Health magazine) and was the final baton bearer for the 2018 Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast, Australia.

Through his endurance feats, Rider continues to challenge himself to discover what is possible mentally and physically, sharing his insights with others.

In 2017 Rider released his book One Breath Meditation (self-published in 2017, published by Austin Macauley Publishers in 2019), a technique that is a part of Rider's "toolkit" of life skills to overcome any stressful situation by becoming calm and controlled, simply with one breath.

"When life throws things at you, it may be hard to find the time to sit quietly for 30 minutes and meditate.

"But everyone can make time to become aware and reconnect with the breath," says Rider, who has been leading retreats on breathing and meditation for elite athletes, chief executive officers and everyday people in Thailand, Bali, Mexico and the United States over the past six years.

Rider recommends being aware of the present moment and your surroundings and breaking down a big goal into smaller, measurable targets to achieve your objective.

"What has helped me is not to overthink things and go ahead with the task at hand," he says, adding his mantra is 'Breathe, accept, adapt and keep moving forward.'

"The paddle to Bondi showed me the purpose of my life," says Rider, whose life demonstrates what it is possible to do, despite facing unthinkable hardships.

"While you may not have any control over the past, you have the power to write your future." SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST