FYTB teamed up with the Masters and made inspirational gold for anyone who swings a golf club. I put Leslie June to bed with this last night and she woke up wanting to watch it again… and again and again. It’s Masters week :)
Props to you Tom Brady.
SCRIPT:
Where does greatness begin?
There is no specific place.
No exact location you can pinpoint on a map.
True greatness starts within.
Internally.
With a dream.
Dreams are not some fleeting thought or ambitious notion.
Dreams are alive living inside each of us.
Relentlessly pursued.
Followed.
Chased.
Fueled by passion.
And with enough support and self-dedication.
Dreams are confronted face to face.
Defining us in the most important moments of our lives.
Greatness isn’t found at a certain place.
True greatness is measured by where our dreams take us.
Somewhere others could never see.
Inside yourself, you knew what was possible all along.
Yesterday Teton Gravity Research posted this video on FB, and what drew me in to watch the ten minute film was the description they posted along with it “This is one of the most powerful short films that I have watched in a long time.”
The story is about a son who is seeing his aging father begin to withdraw slowly – due to age – from the things that once made him so passionate about life.
A poem that his father wrote for him as a baby has stuck with him since childhood, and so the son challenges his aging father to reconnect with what inspired him in his younger years, and to go back to what he knows is an important place for his father.
They embark on a 28 day boating trip down the Grand Canyon together, and the words that this father had written to his son begin to take on a new significance and understanding for the son.
I can’t stop watching, and sharing this video. I even made Greg and our friend Drew come upstairs right after I finished watching it so they could watch it with me on the Apple TV. It’s an emotional film, and for me, has extra significance because just three months ago, I was embarking on my own 21 day trip down the Grand Canyon with some close friends, and I think this captures some of the magic that is unexplainable, but always happens when you’re on extended adventures that push your normal comfort zone.
I think this film challenges us to all think, what are your important places? Where would you go back to, if you could? What have you maybe distanced yourself from, that in the past has brought you joy?
The poem and the film speak for themselves. The best way to describe them is simple – powerful.
The Important Places
Child of mine, come as you go
In youth you will learn, these secret places
The cave behind the waterfall
The arms of the oak that hold you high
The stars so near on a desert ledge
The important places
And as with age, you choose your own way
Among the many faces of a busy world
May you always remember the path that leads back
Back to the important places
What: A long river trip on an incredibly rare river with an awesome group of friends Where: The Wild and Scenic Wilderness of the Selway River, from Paradise Creek Ranger Station to Selway Falls When: Meet in Missoula, MT at 6pm June 17, and return to Missoula by 11am June 24 Who: About 13 of us total What else: email any questions to Dennett Dwyer
WHAT NEXT?
Read the below. There are some logistics, as well as a lot of info on what to bring—this may require some shopping/borrowing/stealing; also, the sooner we have confirmed details from everyone, the sooner we can nail down important logistics like shuttle and food.
LOGISTICS
Travel arrangements and requirements
• Please plan to meet in Missoula June 17, or arrange to be met in Darby (SLC crew).
• Please do not plan to be able to be back in Missoula until June 24th.
Weather
There is a lot of elevation change on the trip. Temperatures could be in the mid-nineties at their hottest, but most likely will hover around 70-80 degrees, with nights in the high 40’s to low-50’s (and the nights will get slightly warmer as we go). Afternoon thunderstorms are VERY common there in June/July.
Shuttle
Rivers go one-way. This means we’ll need to shuttle gear, people, and vehicles from top to bottom and vice versa. The most efficient way to do this is a paid shuttle service, but our total costs will depend on number of vehicles, space in vehicles for people and (heavy) gear, and time (one-way the shuttle takes a full day). This is why meeting in Missoula with time for us to sort this out is essential.
WHAT TO BRING
Key point: space is a concern, but weight is not.
Equipment / Gear
Everyone will be given dry-bag space of set dimensions when we arrive at the put-in on the afternoon/evening of June 18 Couples will consolidate into larger bags, and tent partners can be determined then. Here is what you will need:
Mess Kit: BRING YOUR OWN PLATE, BOWL, SPOON, CUP, FORK, KNIFE
River clothes: swimsuit, wetsuit/drysuit, river booties (wetsuit booties, NOT water shoes); helmet; PFD
Land clothes: pants, shorts, underwear, t-shirt, towel, jacket for chilly nights, hat, socks, rain jacket, optional gloves, long underwear
Footwear: heel-strapped sandals for the river/day, durable shoes that would allow you to side-hike, or comfortably sit in camp
Sleepery: Sleeping bag and pad. Expect nighttime temperatures in the mid-50’s.
Tent: please coordinate who you will share a tent with or if you plan to sleep under the stars or tarp (perfectly viable option)
Sunscreen. It is probably wise to plan for one bottle for every two people. We can coordinate at put-in so we don’t end up with 90 bottles of goop.
Sunglasses: if they are prescription or otherwise expensive, please be sure to secure them to your head if wearing them on the river.
Games: we’ll bring adventure bocce. Would be ideal to have a Frisbee, any travel-size waterproof board games, etc.
Safety: a personal first-aid kit is wise. If you don’t have one, no worries: there will be a large group first aid kit. If you have special medications or concerns (eg epi pin) let us know so we can account for space in the group kit (it is important to locate that centrally, versus your personal bag, so any responder on the trip can move as quickly as possible)
Food:
• Jesse will have a full 3-meal menu planned for the night of June 18 (campground) through the lunch of June 23 (takeout), including large-scale snacks such as trailmix. Please plan to bring anything you expect to complement that.
Booze:
• In general, plan to bring your own booze or drugs. Boxed wine is suitable, if the wine is in a durable bag inside the box. If liquor, please avoid glass bottles (transfer to another container if needed). Unfortunately, beer is the worst violator of the space consideration and we will not be able to bring nearly as much as we’d like. The glass rule applies here, too. Be warned: If you are a beer drinker, we will pack this last, allocate cooler space and ration the beer appropriately.
Boats:
• Please only bring a kayak if you plan to hard boat more than 1 day. Rafts will be three oar rigs and one paddle rig. This should be the perfect amount of boat for us to have more beer than normal.
Communication:
• We will have a satellite phone. This means you CAN call your children, wife, or lawyer if you’d like. However, please reserve that for emergency situations if possible. The same goes for in-bound calls. We will know the number for our sat phone by Missoula, in case you need to be reached while we are on the river, but please ask those who have it to use it to not expect to get a hold of you.
COSTS
Costs: Total per-person cost of the trip is currently estimated to be between $250 and $450. We will know more as the logistics and rentals finalize. Most costs will be handled by Dennett or Jesse, upfront. If you purchase something for the group, keep your receipts. If you are bringing a raft, you are not expected to pay into raft rental costs. An outline of possible costs is below.
Deposit: None. We can settle up by Square/check after the trip
Considerations: These are the things that will affect total per-person costs.
Equipment rental
Food
Shuttle
Fees
Repairs
OTHER DETAILS
1. Communism: It’s (dumbly) important that, if asked by ANYONE, we say every one of us has paid an equal amount of money and effort to go on this trip. As a collective. The reasoning is that if one of us is profiting, that person can be fined (massively) for running a commercial trip without a license. In recent years, put-in rangers have become weirdly sneaky about casually asking this question in order to write a citation.
2. Capitalism: As Dennett has probably said a dozen times to all of you folks, this is a trip of a lifetime. For me–as someone who does a lot of these trips every season—it’s a special kind of awesome to do it with not only my family, but also mine and their good friends. I’m stoked. And if you’re not as psyched as me, then just take solace in the economics: to do this river commercially, you’d be paying more than $2,000 per person. I think we can get that much fun out of this.
Allergies/medical considerations: Again: please definitely highlight these ahead of time.
Assumption of risk: It goes without saying, this is a group trip of individuals solely responsible for their own safety. Rivers are dangerous, and so are your friends (esp when they’ve been drinking). We have a lot of qualified first responders on the trip, but they have no legal obligation to help us.
Today is October 10th, 2012 which marks the 4 month anniversary of the day we laid my father to rest after being involved in a tragic motorcycle accident while leaving my neighborhood. To summarize the last 4 months, I can only say that time, memories and emotions have basically all blurred into one surreal adventure where it is hard to decipher between what should affect me and what shouldn’t. In addition to my attempts of coming to terms with what happened on June 9th, 2012 – there have been countless other interesting and emotional events that have prevented me from fully dealing with the loss of my father. Colorado nearly burned to death, Aurora was tragically shot up, Dixie took rest, uncle RT (my dads brother) passed exactly a month ago and now I’ve been forced to nearly give up on one of my most meaningful and important relationships. Everything aside – there have been a lot of positives that have also occurred through business ventures, travel, family communication and finding an all to real *real*ness in this world… but it is hard to focus attention on these without fully dealing with this sub-par hand of cards that has been dealt through the summer of 2012.
In two days we will head to court for the criminal case against the 27 year old driver who illegally, and unknowingly pulled directly in front of my father after our heartfelt time we spent together. He has since pleaded guilty to his charges and we only await a sentencing hearing… where we will get a chance to meet the man responsible for this accident. It is hard to say how my family and I will respond to this long awaited meeting, I’m sure there will be some existence of anger and hate, but I personally know that all of the anger is going to have to be overcome to fully heal from this loss.
All I can do is remember the amazing person my father was and how incredible the time was we were literally *just* able to spend together. At my fathers service, I presented the final moments we spent together into a playlist – my father’s final playlist. I will eventually release the video of my speech to everyone, but today I release to you these final moments through memories, movies, songs and writing. Within these final moments I was able to build him a playlist he would be proud of. Everything seemed to happen naturally… and with little effort. If I had known this would have been the final hour I would ever get to spend with my father… I still don’t think I would have changed a thing.
My Father’s Final Playlist
It was a calm and sunny Saturday summer morning when my father pulled up into my driveway on his brand new to him Yamaha Venture. It was a big bike, cherry red and gorgeous… and I could immediately tell from the smile on his face that he was happy. He wanted to show me this bike and I took the time to look at it. We played with gadgets, disc changers and radio stations. I was super surprised that a guy like my dad hadn’t yet taken the time to figure out his own stereo so he could at least listen to music while he cruised. I figured it out for him… taught him… balanced his speakers… and programmed some radio stations. We spent at least 20 minutes in the hot colorado sun mesmerizing over his added extras and light bar additions to the bike. This bike was reflective… my dad was glowing. We eventually rolled inside and as we were looking at a random appliance problems in my kitchen … he simply asked me – “what happened to your microwave?” To which I answered… “oh, you didn’t see that video? – come here”
So I pulled him to my upstairs computer… and I showed him this.
Track 1 – Video – Beer Run
After watching … and laughing at this video peace – I previously had another open video just sitting there on my computer. Also revolving beer.
Track 2 – Video – St. Patty’s Day
My Dad chuckled at the Guinness comments… so staying on the Beer theme I asked him “Dad – did you know that we have our own beer?” And I cued this up.
Track 3 – Video – Hydle Ale Release
Post Hydle Ale video, man he laughed at the Hydle Ale Logo… so I asked him if he saw our KOHL’s rock out video? — which is a beautiful peace with all my nephews and his grandchildren.
Track 4 – Video – KOHL’s Party
Now at this point… I command-tabbed over to final cut where a project I was previously working on was open. It was from the Denver Day of Rock show that took place only two weeks prior and I KNEW my dad would be intrigued. He’d never listened to Amanda Capper – So I let him watch… and listen.
Track 5 – Song + Video – Someone Like You
I knew my dad was in kind of a hurry… he had to go somewhere and a quick call from his girlfriend made me leave the room. I never respected or wanted to show any appreciation for his new relations, which he knew, so even though I know he only talked to her for a couple seconds… I still managed to leave the room and go to the garage. What my Dad didn’t know – is I was setting him up for his final 3 songs in a new listening environment.
I listened to him watch a video… and engage in the music you just listened to. Came back upstairs and asked – “did you like that?” To which the reply was an obvious “yes.” So I led him to the garage and started playing this, which I knew he would love even more.
Track 6 – Song – Baby I’m Amazed
It was fun… shooting the shit with him, as he had no idea what the intro to the song was all about or what song was coming up. But as soon as the keyboardist drops into the beginning riff … he belted out “Paul McCartney – Baby I’m Amazed!” and sat on the couch. I knew he would know exactly what song it was – This was fun. I sat on the couch across from him… It’s orange – we call it Bronco… and we listened to music. Loud music – The way he would make me sit and listen when I was a kid.
We get to the part where Amanda Capper starts singing… he sits up and points to his arm, looks up at me and energizes, “You know those hairs on your arm that stand up?? Those goose bumps? — Yah!!” To which I simply reply … “You just got CAPPER’d” and we sit and listen to the rest of the song.
When Baby I’m Amazed finished – he wanted to know when this show was… and why he missed it. I lightly explained that he missed a lot of things. One of them was an unbelievable experience after hours in a Utah bar. So I played this one…
Track 7 – Song – Drift Away
— Emotional Acoustic Version
— Denver Day of Rock Live Version
As I explain the jam session video we shot in Utah singing drift away to a very special BMX crowd revolving around an injured rider – Stephen Murray… I transitioned into the Craig Hospital video I had just completed. I explained about bringing Amanda Capper into the mix and how we accomplished what we did. I commented aggressively about him having not seen the video… since this was something I hold dear to my heart and means a lot to me. But since he didn’t have time to watch the 9 minute masterpiece … I explained enough to him so he would understand where this next song comes from. It was an Amanda Capper original, her own creation from watching the video I created. She was inspired to write a song about life from the perspective of a little girl … only this girl had a name – Briley Alberi, the daughter of one of the most amazing families I had ever met. The Alberi’s were the subject of a Montana creation for the 2012 push dinner video. I told my dad how I had video of Amanda playing the first idea of this next song sitting upstairs in my living room in early February… and that this was the first time she ever played it live. I told him about how it is the ultimate complement when your work inspires the work of others… and this is where his final song on my dads final playlist came from.
Track 8 – Song – Time To Try
We sat listening on my couches… across from one another. Not a word was said. My father loved music, and he loved the music I was playing for him. I knew this… because I could feel it. In the next couple days I would learn more about my dad and his true musical background than I previously knew about anything thing else about him. He was a known unknown in this world of rock and roll music growing up and he has proof of it. I would meet one of his best buds from his growth years… his real fast and free years of growing up without a care. I would learn that although my dad couldn’t or didn’t play an instrument, he would still instruct others how to play. He could belt out guitar riffs with his voice… he could hit the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and although he didn’t complete his pursuit of rock-stardom. His friends did.
We stood up… hugged – said our I love yous… walked out to his bike, listened as he revved his engine one last time, down my street and around the corner. I stared him off into the distance… stood barefoot, shirtless on my driveway – had an unnerving feeling, said a mental goodbye, paused. and walked inside. No more than 30 seconds after this moment, my father was tragically involved in a motorcycle accident he would not wake from. A vehicle would carelessly turn left directly in front of him before leaving my neighborhood… and I would never get to share another hug with this man I called dad.
I’m sorry it had to happen this way dad… and I know you are looking down and saying the same. As I expressed to you on our airport run in October, 2010 – “You really fucked things up here, and it will be interesting to see how you react to this situation.” And it was. But this wasn’t expected by anyone. You should never have had to spend the emotional energy on the feelings you were going through – it makes you “check out from real life.” I also told you this, but you didn’t listen and it sucks you had to go through this alone. Yes – I know enough to look into your emotions more… but I also know enough to let it go and move on. You are back where you belong… loved by your true family, who actually care about you.
Now it’s time for the next chapter. My dad’s latest project was reliving his past and rejuvenating elementary school stories back into the skull of one of his best friends growing up – trust me on this one, this is already one hell of a story. People go their own ways in life… some remember things – and some don’t. My dad remembered everything, which is the perfect match for someone who forgot it all. I’m a storyteller, just like you dad … but I possess some talents you didn’t have, and I’ve been inspired. May you and your brother Craig turn some SOIGDH in the heavens. Turn it up loud, so all those old dudes can hear you party. But keep it quiet enough so you can still chime in on what is happening down here. Doc and Capper might have something to say. True story by me, you mother HAWKer!
There will be a memorial service to celebrate the life of my father, Leslie Kenneth Hydle at Crown Hill Cemetery on Friday, June 15 at 4:00pm. A kickass reception and musically inspired evening will follow.
This will be an afternoon of good music, amazing stories and incredible celebration of the life of my father of the year. Did you know he won father of the year? Twice!!
If you had a connection with Les – and I know A LOT of you did!… please do not hesitate to show your appreciation and make an appearance. Did I say amazing music? This is going to be a show you will not want miss.
Memorial Service
Friday, June 15, 2012
4:00p.m.
Pavilion of Reflection
7777 W. 29th Ave.
Wheat Ridge, Colorado 80033
303-233-4611
If you would like to publicly share memories of Les … please leave a comment on our event page or visit his online obituary.
Every last thought, prayer, visit, note and gift has been deeply felt by our family and my family and I thank you.
In the history of HYDLE.com… this ridiculous “TSOIGDH” entry marks my 999th public blog post since May of 2009 – When I started this crazy world of blogging ideas, thoughts and Genius vs. Not Genius intermanents and social media successes or failures.
So for the sake of getting google credit for it…
“TSOIGDH” = TURNING SHIT ON IT’S GOD DAMN HEAD
Turning shit on it’s god damn head is going to be my 1 single inspiration for the next 999 blogpost entries. I can’t wait to open up my connection layer for all my loyal readers… so I can start finding out who you actually are.
