Gold Coast extreme athlete Damien Rider on latest stunt and how child abuse shaped him

Years of horrific child abuse may have defined athlete Damien Rider, but it’s what he’s done with his trauma that stands out. Read his incredible tale and watch never-before-seen footage of his wild stunts.

Damien Rider is 10,000 feet above the earth, hanging upside down from a sketchy rope ladder he rigged up on his living room floor.

The Gold Coast extreme athlete climbs one rung at a time, unassisted, to the top of a hot-air balloon. A parachute awaits on a tiny platform.

But before he straps on his chute to jump, he will “nearly pass out” and “dry-retch” from a burst of hot propane gas spewing from the balloon like a geyser.

Damien Rider says he lives every day as if it were his last. Picture: Glenn Hampson

The balloon is moving at 30km/h, sideways and upwards, as below-freezing temperatures and fierce winds whip the extreme athlete’s body all over.

At these heights, clinging on for dear life over Bathurst, Rider is not in some lotus-like meditative state, nor is he afraid of certain death if he falls.

He’s humming the Hunters and Collectors’ hit Throw Your Arms Around Me as he tackles a stunt no man has ever attempted.

Why? To “change the world”.

Gold Coast-based extreme athlete Damien Rider climbed up the side of a hot-air balloon at 10,000 feet on a rope ladder above Bathurst and then parachuted off the top. Picture: Supplied.

Rider, a lifelong crusader to prevent children suffering the trauma and abuse he did, has taken on one extreme challenge after another as a way to raise both money and awareness.

He tells the Bulletin he “doesn’t give a s**t about money or fame” and tackles out-of-this-world tasks like this as a way to “keep himself in check just as much as helping others”.

Rider, 46, is a firm believer that 99 per cent of therapy and mental health counselling is “total bulls**t”.

It is controversial, but Rider, who suffered abuse so bad a leading psychologist described it as “among the worst cases that I have come across in almost 40 years of practice”, has risen above it all, and says “life isn’t limitless but it can be lived without boundaries”.

The 46-year-old says he has “no negative emotional attachment” to his past. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Some horrific examples of Rider’s abuse included numerous childhood bashings at the hand of his mother’s boyfriend and sleeping in rock caves at the beach – all to avoid the fear of returning home.

In his book, ‘Running on Empty’, he says: “A switch would go off in his (mother’s boyfriend’s) head. The next thing I knew, I was getting dragged by a foot and smashed against a wall. He’d get drunk and attack my mother, absolutely beat the s**t out of her and throw her against the wall. Her face was often black and blue, split open. He’d rape her and then turn on us if we tried to help her out.”

Rider wrote he would then hear the man “laughing”.

Another occasion was when his “violent alcoholic” grandmother would make Rider, only a small child at the time, catch flaming chestnuts from an open fire as they spat out and burned his hands. If he didn’t catch them, he would be “dragged and smashed on the concrete floor” by the woman.

Rider in the “zone”. Picture: Supplied.

And it’s these terrible experiences from years gone by that fuel his drive today to wring every last drop out of an extraordinary life.

Although, he hates to be called an “adrenaline junkie”, “daredevil” or “assumed to have a death wish”.

Rider trains meticulously for his challenges, which have included running a marathon with a mattress on his back, skateboarding across the entire Route 66 in the US and paddling 800km from the Gold Coast to Bondi while facing sharks, swells and wild weather.

He says he factors “every little detail” into preparation and will “absolutely live in the zone” months in advance.

Preparing for the big climb. Picture: Supplied.

Rider says his latest hot-air balloon challenge is a “significant step-up” from the last big test, in which he rode atop a balloon while meditating and jumping off with a parachute.

And it had his close circle of friends “gravely concerned”. “They were 100 percent convinced it would be impossible and that I was going to die,” he says.

THE CLIMB

A portion of the climb. Picture: Supplied.

Rider says climbing to the top of a hot-air balloon at 10,000 feet is “something you really can’t train for”, given oxygen diminishes by at least 30 per cent.

He says the stunt required “deep visualisation” and physical strengthening exercises such as cable pulldowns and “hours upon hours” on the bike.

“I turned my apartment into a specialised gym and did plenty of cable and rope work as well as squats and work on the bike.

“I’m in no way a rock climber either so I had to work on my grip and practice at the Burleigh rock climbing gym.”

Rider says “good breath work” was 90 per cent of the challenge and he continued to hone his “slow, controlled breathing”,­ something the athlete has been doing “since I was six”.

He says the key to successfully executing any challenge is to “separate emotions from breathing”.

The 42-metre ladder suspended from the top of the hot-air balloon wasn’t something you could buy, Rider says, so he decided to rig up a crude version on his living room floor.

Warming up for the insane stunt. Picture: Supplied.

“Even the balloon pilot said before take off, ‘do you really want to do this?’

“I had to laugh it off and replied: ‘There’s only one way to find out’.”

However, despite his confidence, Rider admits there were hurdles in his training.

After one particularly gruelling session, he says his “arms blew up like Popeye” and his “whole body was straining.”

“I thought I had done enough training but knew instantly I had more to do if I was going to make this challenge. It was a slap in the face and a reality check.”

Interestingly, Rider says he doesn’t get paid a cent to do any of his superhuman challenges.

“Even if it costs me money I get to share something incredible with other people. It’s never a money-driven pursuit. It’s all about living for these experiences.”

A celabratory beverage at the top. Picture: Supplied.

During the rope ladder climb, Rider was “struggling to breathe” at about 6500 feet.

“It took a few metres to get my rhythm but I just kept visualising one rung after another.”

He was suspended, teetering between upside down and horizontal, for 21 metres of the climb.

“I felt like celebrating once that part was over, but knew it was too early.”

He says he let out a gigantic celebratory “wooooo” as he reached the top and took the whole world below into his view.

Rider, spotted left, parachuting off the edge. Picture: Supplied.

“I had unbelievable lactic acid burn and felt a stream of hot propane fumes hit me in the face. “I felt like passing out as I dry-reached from the hot gas but I was still screaming in victory.”

At that moment Rider says he felt “a huge wave of gratitude” for everything he had achieved and was “comfortable with the fact that no trophy would be given”.

Once he meditated for a moment, he strapped on his chute and “uncontrollably slide off the balloon” for 50 feet until he was flung off the side.

Rider says he was laughing the whole way down to the edge as he prepared to parachute 10,000 feet toward the ground.

MENTAL HEALTH

Rider has forged his own unique way of healing after suffering abuse as a child. Picture: Supplied.

Rider, who has hosted Ted talks and mental health events, as well as writing the memoir Running on Empty, says he “despises” traditional mental health therapy, and despite receiving professional advice admits: “I’ve tried to commit suicide four times”.

Today, Rider says he has “zero negative emotional attachment” to his past and “the worst thing about mental health trauma is no-one knows what the f**k they are talking about”.

“If a therapist can’t fix you in five sessions, they are no good,” he said.

“People can’t change what has happened in their past, but they can change how they look at it.”

Rider actively chooses not to “feed the negative”. Picture Glenn Hampson

Rider says too many people “live with tunnel vision to an isolated incident, rather than looking at it from behind, from all sides and looking to what is in front of them”.

The biggest problem, he says, is that many people have a tendency to feed the negative.

“I like to flip things around. I think of everything I’ve learned. I’ve opened up to my surroundings and live by the saying that impossible is not a thing – everything is possible.

“We are always going to go through s**t in our life, so it’s odd that when something happens, we act like it’s the first time it has ever happened.”

Rider attributes mental health issues to “not being active in daily life” and says that as soon as people stop living “unhealthy, daily habits”, they can thrive.

“I’ve been lied to a lot, all sorts of crap about trauma. My advice is to question everything.”

Rider says he will continue to push the boundaries and has a set of six extreme events on the cards.

“The last eight years was just a warm-up,” Rider laughs.

RIDER’S EXTREME CHALLENGES

800KM PADDLE, JANUARY 2015

On January 24, 2015, Rider paddled into Bondi Beach after a 17-day, 800km solo, unsupported paddle. Along the way, he had 21 shark encounters and suffered from starvation, dehydration, and was knocked unconscious numerous times before accomplishing his goal. National Geographic produced ’Heart of the Sea’, which documented the journey.

PHUKET PADDLE, OCTOBER 2015

Rider completed a four-day solo and unsupported circumnavigation of Phuket, Thailand, on a stand up paddleboard, a feat not previously attempted.

PHUKET PADDLE AND RUN, JANUARY 2016

Next, Rider tackled a three-day nonstop event around Phuket. The event consisted of three different disciplines: an 80km prone paddle, an 80km stand-up paddle, followed by a 128km run around the island of Phuket.

SKATEBOARDING ACROSS ROUTE 66, AUGUST 2016

On August 23, 2016, Rider rolled into Santa Monica Pier after a 56-day, 4023km skate across the entire Route 66. This journey included a 24-hour nonstop skate through the scorching hot temperatures of the Mojave Desert.

It was another challenge, Rider says, that critics deemed “impossible”.

The challenge earned him yet another first world record title.

EXTREME PUSHUPS, SEPTEMBER 2016

Rider completed 2740 Push Ups for World Suicide Prevention Day, which totalled the number of recorded people to take their own life in a single day.

RICKSHAW RIDE, JANUARY 2017

Rider took part in a PACA (Pedal Against Child Abuse) event by riding a 1950s Thailand Rickshaw from Noosa to Surfers Paradise. This was followed by pushing a three-tonne pick- up truck from Surfers to Coolangatta and a paddle from Coolangatta to Currumbin.

MATTRESS MARATHON, JULY 2017

Rider ran a full Gold Coast marathon holding up a 36lbs mattress with the message ‘Never lay down, Never give up!’ scrawled on it. He was dubbed by the media at the time as “the mattress man”.

MELBOURNE MARATHON LIVE-STREAMED, OCTOBER 2017

Rider live-streamed an entire Melbourne Marathon to social media while carrying a 30lb camera rig on his body.Throughout the race, he chatted with the 400,000 viewers tuning om and answered questions as he undertook the challenge.

BATONBEARER, APRIL 2018

On April 4, 2018, Rider was the main Queen’s Batonbearer for the opening of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

ONE BREATH TOUR, APRIL 2019

In 2019, Rider began his One Breath Tour. He spent 50 days riding a motorcycle across the US while stopping at schools, detention centers, veterans and mens support groups to share his story.

He spoke to the various groups about overcoming challenges, depression, and suicidal thoughts while sharing the tools he discovered to rise above and keep moving forward throughout his life.

During the tour, he exchanged notes with North America’s leading universities, including Yale, Stanford, and Harvard - to help create new literature on how to deal with mental health in men and youth.

FIRST BALLOON CHALLENGE, JUNE 2021

In June 2021, Rider says he had set himself a challenge “no one would ever think of doing”. He rode atop a hot-air balloon, while meditating - 7500 feet above the ground - before parachuting off the top.

The feat earned him another world record.

BALLOON CLIMB AND JUMP, MAY 2022

For his latest wild challenge, Rider climbed a rope ladder to the top of a hot-air balloon at 10,000 feet over Bathurst, with no assistance or parachute. Once at the top, he strapped on an awaiting parachute rig and launched himself off.

Rider was named the 2015 Men’s Health Magazine Man of the Year, and has been instrumental in creating child abuse awareness events across the globe. In 2018, he was

keynote speaker for the Royal Commission into Institutionalised Sexual Child Abuse for Australia.