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Friday, August 11, 2000
The lifeguard enjoys his Haleiwa Cafe lunch at a leisurely North Shore pace.
Eco-Challenge, the Super
Bowl of adventure sports, is
not for everyone. But for this
group of athletes, it's the only oneBy Dave Reardon
Star-BulletinThere are no huevos rancheros and lattés where the former Army Ranger is headed. He won't have time for casual sit-down meals, anyway.
Creatures, not creature comforts, await Mike Trisler and his teammates in Borneo.
Leeches and spiders, cobras and elephants, alligators and sea urchins. Oh my.
And don't forget the occasional headhunter.
"I hear they're going to give us machetes," Trisler said, only half in jest.
Trisler, Brian and Dianette Strange and captain Jason Middleton comprise Team EarthLink. They are climbers and sailors, runners and swimmers, divers and navigators.
"They pretty much put any regular person to shame in terms of fitness," said Arley Morgan Baker, EarthLink communications director.
They leave tomorrow after a month of training together here for Eco-Challenge, the Super Bowl of adventure sports.
Eco-Challenge is an annual 5- to 10-day endurance race through 300 to 350 miles of the world's roughest terrain. It's made for TV, but it makes "Survivor" look like "Gilligan's Island."
"It's the world championship of adventure racing," Middleton said. "Each year the location is different."
The modes of travel vary each year, too.
EarthLink is among the favorites of the 75 teams competing Aug. 21-Sep. 2 in Borneo because outrigger canoe racing is among the disciplines, and Trisler has shared local expertise with his teammates from California.
"We're not doing it just to do it," Trisler said. "We're doing it to win. Period."
Trisler, competing in his fourth Eco-Challenge, has paddled the Molokai-to-Oahu race three times.
He is also good friends with fellow lifeguard Brian Keaulana and windsurfer Rush Randle, two prominent Hawaii watermen.
"They've been real instrumental in helping us," Trisler said.
They've also assisted the team in developing a secret weapon -- a kite. If the winds are right, the kite can propel the canoe much faster than the orthodox sail supplied by the race.
The team completed its training here with a 20-mile outrigger journey from Haleiwa to Makaha yesterday, and the kite worked fine.
While individual will and stamina is tested, Eco-Challenge is really a team event.
Teammates must finish the race together, and normally may not stray more than 100 feet from each other during it.
"If you don't get along you might as well not go to the starting line," Dianette Strange said. "On the first day we clicked. All four of us are diverse and I think maybe that helps. We all truly enjoy hanging out together aside from training.
"Some teams are fighting like cats and dogs and the race hasn't even started yet."
Unlike other endurance races, the Eco-Challenge is not run in stages. Theoretically, teams can keep going without ever stopping.
"You sleep when you want," Middleton said.
Which means not much at all, if you want to win.
Trisler has dealt with severe sleep deprivation and nasty critters in a stressful, mission-oriented environment before. After graduating from West Point, he went to Ranger School.
"A lot of it is very similar to Eco-Challenge," he said. "You hike with heavy packs and navigation is a key. You might get to sleep one hour a day.
"The No. 1 responsibility is to not get lost."
While he was a reconnaissance platoon leader with the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Trisler and his partner, Eric White, won the services-wide Best Ranger competition in 1995.
Soon after, he left the Army. Trisler, who was born and raised in Indiana, decided to make Hawaii his home.
"It was kind of a lifestyle thing. I loved being in the military, but after four years at West Point and five years as a Ranger, I was kind of ready for a change."
He continued lifeguarding, which he started doing part-time in 1993. Pulling people out of the dangerous North Shore surf might seem a lot different than leading snake-eaters on long range patrols, but Trisler said the jobs are similar.
"When the surf is big I put my life on the line. The guys I work with are the best in the world at what they do and they're skilled athletes," said Trisler, 32. "In the Army it was the same, but now I have the freedom to pursue other things, like acting and Eco-Challenge."
He began doing stunts for the "Baywatch" television series last year, and has also appeared in several episodes as a lifeguard.
He played Ben Affleck's stunt double in the film "Pearl Harbor," and has a role in "Windwalker" which begins filming Aug. 28 at Kualoa Ranch.
Trisler barely missed combat assignments three times while in the Army. He said the Eco-Challenge is the next best thing.
"I wanted to go to war when I was in the military. When you train that hard you want to test yourself," Trisler said.
"The Eco-Challenge is almost like being in combat. You're pitting yourselves against other people, using your athleticism, wits, intelligence and common-sense."
