Interview by Obstacle Racers Australia.

I was very excited to be approached by Obstacle Racers Australia to do a little article on little ol me. While I've enjoyed the articles and interviews I've done in the past, this one is really very much in the field I'm interested in.  They're really close to my own blog/website in their intention, they want to spread the obstacle course love... just like me.

Here is the link to their article:
Aussie Ninja by Obstacle Racers Australia

Hope you like it!

Marcus the Motivator

Marcus the Motivator has written an extremely helpful and unsurprisingly motivating book on how to be successful and keep your actions firmly aligned with your goals.  Excited about his new book, we sought to interview him to find out more and Marcus was extremely generous with his time!

Have you always been motivated yourself, or did something happen to shake you up and give you purpose?

I have always found myself quite motivated, I would always be pushing myself to be competitive at different sports whilst growing up, but it wasn’t until a close friend hit a rough patch and I was able to help him through those tough times that I realised that motivating people was my thing. When I started I wasn’t very good at it either, but I had a natural instinct and talent for it and after a lot of repetition and practice things started to really click. I just love the feeling of being able to help people and assist them to become their better self.

That's great!  I have to admit that helping someone else grow is even more exciting than actually growing yourself sometimes.  How did you find the book writing process? How did you keep your own motivation up while locking yourself away to produce "The Pinnacle of Motivation"?

I guess for me writing the book was just a matter of keep writing no matter what, even if I couldn’t think of something good to write, I would write anyway, I wrote a lot and ended up getting rid of maybe 90% of it but the 10% I did keep would become the book and I find this process works best for me, if I don’t feel like writing I do it anyway, if I don’t know what to write I do it anyway, even if what I write makes no sense I keep going, because I know at some point I will hit that magical point where everything is flowing and something magical comes out, sometimes it truly feels like an out of body experience, almost like somebody else is writing it for me.

That's incredible!  You've almost written 9 books to get to the essence of one great one!

Can you tell us one of your hardest case? Who did you struggle to inspire?

I guess a great example is a video testimonial I have from a man named Andrew, someone who came to me in a great time of need who I am proud to now call a friend. Andrew was referred to me by a mutual friend, Andrew was in desperate trouble having gambled away a significant amount of money but the problem with that was as we discovered that gambling was his true calling, being a mathematical genius he is able to spot patterns and find amazing situations where it’s not really gambling because he knows it’s going to work. So when someone’s biggest obstacle is also their biggest advantage it becomes difficult, as an example if someone has a drinking problem well you can help them stop drinking but this case was completely different. Andrew had reached the point where he was just being silly and self-destructive, he basically knew bets would lose and would bet on them anyway instead of doing what a normal person in that situation would do which is bet on what they know is a high likelihood of winning. It took a lot of work and I had to take him in living with me so that I could fully immerse him to positivity and we implemented various plans including punishment vs reward system for positive reinforcements of winning bets etc. Long story short he’s now extremely successful and I am truly proud of who he is now, there’s quite an in depth testimonial on my Facebook page where Andrew gives his side of it.

Marcus, that's hugely generous of you.  I feel like all of us get into bad patterns, that we know aren't good for us but do anyway... How could a normal person maintain enthusiasm and motivation during the less fun moments of working towards their goals?

By reading my book haha I have actually specifically created chapters around different situations and scenarios in life where people need motivation. The book works on its own from start to finish which I encourage people to read the first time, but there are various chapters designed to refer back to at different stages of life. When things are going bad, it’s very rare that absolutely everything is going bad, sometimes it’s important to take a step back and focus on everything that is going right, understand that we can’t always change what happens to us we can change how we feel about it and most negatives bring with them positives even if it doesn’t seem that way and trying to find the positive out of the negative. Obviously it’s much more detailed than this but these are the basics and at my events and in my book I cover how you can do this even when you absolutely do not want to or feel like it and also how to prepare for these situations because you can guarantee bad stuff will happen in your life and if you’re prepared in advance its much easier to deal with it using autopilot instincts vs dealing with it unprepared as it happens.

Where can readers find you?

Website: www.marcusthemotivator.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/marcusthemotivator

An Interview with VSL

Another blog post by me... must mean another blogger interviewy thing.  I'm trying to smash these out to get the word out.  I'm not sure how successful it all is, but I have to say that I'm very much enjoying the process.  It's been really fun thinking back to why I created Aussie Ninja Warrior and why I started on this little adventure.

Anywho, here is the link to this interview by VSL :
http://www.visahotline.co.uk/aussie-ninja-warrior-things-need-know/

Interview with My Neon Green Notebook

I was recently interviewed by Morissa Schwartz's blog (http://myneongreennotebook.blogspot.com/).  She's super lovely and really super accomplished, and was just really interested in everything, including me and my little journey towards Ninjaness.

The link to the interview can be found here.

Thanks Morissa!

An interview with The Crazy Mind

I was recently interviewed by the website The Crazy Mind who seems to interview pretty much any old thing (a category I totally rock) and they seem to have a million, trillion followers... so that's pretty ace. 

Given the amount of articles this website pumps out, I'm probably only going to stay on that front page for a minute longer, an hour tops.  Still 15 seconds of fame is better than -15 seconds of fame, which is not great but also a paradox but also just kind of un-rad.

Link to the article can be found here. I'm pretty interesting.

An interview by blogger Simandan

I was recently interviewed by the supernice Mihnea who has been running a really quite successful blog about his travels around Asia and his passion for archery. He also has a huge interest in a whole heap of sporting adventures which is where I came into the picture.

Links to the article can be found here.

Aussie Ninja Warrior - launching today!

 

 

I've been busy setting up my new website Aussie Ninja Warrior to basically make a central place for all my Ninja Warrior posts but also to tell my story and help other people with their training.

 

I don't know if I was looking in the right places, but when I was first starting my training, I really couldn't find anything on what areas I should be focusing on, how to train, how much I should train, really how to start at all.  There were a few little articles in various fitness magazines but they were often way too broad to be of much use. 

 

I've learnt so much over the past few months that I thought it'd be helpful for me to try and consolidate everything to one place...and that if it's helpful for me, then it's probably helpful to everyone else as well. 

 

I'd love to help people start their training, I don't know everything, but I have been obsessed with this good gig for a good while, so I'm sure I'd have answers to your questions, or at least, an idea on where to find answers.  If you're interested in training for Australian Ninja Warrior, or American Ninja Warrior, or you'd just like to be more amazing athletically, check out my little website and contact me if you have any questions.

 

 

Go ninjas, go ninjas go!

Vet to Home

I recently built a website for my friend Lauren, who I've known for years and years and quite frankly she has one of the coolest jobs around.  She's a vet, who travels to people's homes and farms to check up on their beloved furry friends. 

We always had cats when I was growing up, and I have to say that they were always super freaked out at the Veterinary clinic with all the other animals.  Also, they hated their cages... which seems fair enough if you're used to roaming all over the neighbourhood.  Once we were looking after this stunning long haired Chihuahua for a friend who went overseas for a year, and it was quite old and needed heart tablets and stuff.  Taking that little guy to the vet was always slightly traumatic because all the other animals in the waiting room wanted to eat him.  He was 2.3kgs. That's a snack for a cat.

So when Lauren wanted to become a mobile vet, I was totally rapt with this idea and wanted to whip up a website for her.

The website link is : www.vettohome.com.au
The Facebook group is : https://www.facebook.com/drlauren.bugeja.3/about

Here are some pics just for fun:

 

Fiverr.com

I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I have to admit that I find Fiverr.com super super annoying.  It has so much potential to be super super great, but really, I feel like everyone on there is just out to scam as many people as possible.  I don't think I've had a good experience yet where I thought afterwards 'that was absolutely a great investment'.  Mostly my thoughts range from 'scammed again' to 'uh, such a waste of time'.  Has anyone actually had a great experience on Fiverr.com? Came away spending only what they intended to spend and got some great value?

I've used fiverr.com a couple of times now, and I've either got to hassle the seller to produce what I actually asked for... or it turns out to be a straight up lie... Which is exactly the reason that each seller has feedback... but everyone is so desperate to keep their own feedback high that no one really complains... or feedback is provided instantly, before the real results are realised.

Also, even though the website is immaculate and extremely well developed, Fiverr charge a buyer $5.50... and the seller gets $4... and that money takes like a month to 'clear'. It's a rort I tells ya.

Anywho, I know I'm not being very specific or providing exact examples, but I'm curious to hear about your experiences with fiverr.com?   Good? Bad? Meh? Fine?

 

Sleepless near Seattle

So........... this entire post is going to make me sound ridiculous.  In Australia, as an adult, I had one mattress for 3 years and another mattress for 15 years, but totally fine, barely any thoughts given to the subject.

In the 6 months we've been in America, we have purchased 5 mattresses. 5! I don't know what the hell is wrong with me, but basically I've been waking up really, really hot, to be the point of being quite nauseous. Very similar to the couple of times in Australia I'd accidentally fallen asleep with an electric blanket on and woke up in the middle of the night dying of heat.  I've always been a hot guy, especially compared to my partner, who uses me as her hot water bottle.

It took me a long time to figure out it all might be mattress related. Moving from Australia is a big move, we sold pretty much everything, so I wasn't sure if I was feeling crappy because of the diet change, stress, different hemisphere, different altitude, the weather, who knows.  I've never really been allergic to anything, so I didn't understand why I was feeling so crappy.

It took me so long to realise, that on our first mattress, we missed the 110 day money back guarantee thing... it took me like 116 days to figure out I might be having mattress issues.

In the interest in being super entertaining and breaking fascinating up to the minute news, I will now discuss each mattress in turn.   Take that CNN.


HJELLESTAD mattress from Ikea

Like lunatics, we were bouncing around the Ikea store lying all over everything and we liked this one the best.... and this guy was nothing but trouble. Ikea delivered everything but that mattress (they forgot it) and then it took weeks and weeks and a trillion phone calls to get it... I had stupidly signed the delivery docket at the time of the initial delivery (they had delivered an entire apartment's worth of stuff) so they had no pressing bureaucratic reason to come right back.  Ikea is amazing, and totally works... except when it doesn't and then it really doesn't.  You can't call the store at all. You can only call the call centre, that can't actually do anything.  It was a crazy frustrating time for endless pointless phonecalls.

In the interim, we were sleeping on this crazy ugly futon couch guy:

Two people do not really fit.
Anywho, eventually the mattress came and I didn't realise for ages that I was feeling sick each morning.  I'm a morning person, it's when I'm most excited and most productive, so it was super weird... and I seriously thought it the secret sugar America puts in everything.

Once I figured that it could be the HJELLESTAD mattress, it was past the 110 day thing and Ikea's hands were completely tied. So, it was standing up in our bedroom for weeks and weeks until I just broke and called a recycling company to take it away.  The whole thing was an expensive exercise.

In the meantime, we were enjoying our new:

CASPER KING SIZE - MATTRESS OF THE CENTURY

The whole thing was super painless, especially after the rabbit hole of insanity Ikea put us through, and the unboxing was as impressive as everyone says.  It comes in this box shaped like a mini-fridge, and then unfolds and blows up right before your eyes.

It was a great mattress, my partner super loved it, but I was still waking up too hot.  Not nearly as bad as the Ikea one, but not nearly as good as mattress back in Melbourne, Australia.

Eventually we had to say goodbye and ask Casper for a refund which they were gracious and lovely about. Also, calling their phone number, not waiting literally 40 minutes on hold like Ikea, and speaking to someone super cheerful who has all the necessary powers was such a joy. With Customer Service like Ikea's prevalent in this world, Casper is going to make a million, trillion dollars.  I couldn't recommend them enough.  They organised the recycling collector guys too.  The whole thing was amazing and I was sad it didn't work out for us.

Next we tried a brilliant store in Portland called Parklane Mattresses.

These guys make it all from sustainable materials, recycle where possible and use two trucks. One to bring your new mattress and one to haul away your old one... ensuring that no bed bugs or anything nasty could ever contaminate your new mattress.  So smart.

Again we lied around on everything in the store like lazy lunatics and chose the Pettygrove:

All the mattresses were named after streets, so we were secretly bummed that we didn't love the mattress named after the street we're on, but this guy was so super comfortable.  Unfortunately I didn't last 4 hours on it without waking up feeling just so sick.  My skin felt spiky and it took me half a day to feel right again.  My partner slept completely fine.  She loved that mattress so hard.

I tried the next few nights, but one night I barely last 40 minutes without feeling way too super hot and moving to the couch. It was a tough week, by Friday I was totally delirious from exhaustion. It was actually my birthday and my lovely partner had organised a night away at a cool log cabin in the mountains.  Instead of doing a nice dinner and roasting smores by the camp fire (which we have never done and were super pumped about) I went to bed at 8:30pm, completely passed out and woke up feeling amazing the next day (but still somewhat drained, but amazing/drained). The log cabin just had some crappy old mattress, but seriously nothing ever felt so good to me ever.

Obviously our home mattress wasn't going to fly, so Parklane were again super super awesome and let us change it over with just a small admin feel to pay their drivers. I'm thinking at this point that maybe I had an allergy to something, so the next mattress we tried had no latex, also known as the Westover:

This guy uses a soy cushion top as opposed to a latex cushion top thing, and while my partner found it slightly less comfortable than the Pettygrove, I still barely lasted the night.  I woke up at 4:30am and just felt so gross... so I got up and started my day.  Super great for productivity, terrible for tiredness.  I tried this one a few nights, each with the same result. At this point my partner is pretty sure it's all in my head.   Awesome. 

Working on this point that it is an allergy thing, I ordered this guy from Amazon:

It encases the entire mattress so anything you're allergic to is trapped and can't get to you.  It didn't make any difference to me, I still got superhot, and life still sucked quite a bit.

Parklane have been really nice, and allowed me to get a refund even though I've now cost them two mattresses.  They are a great company and I couldn't recommend them highly enough.

Since mega multinational corporation didn't work, neither did internet sensation, neither has cool indie earth-friendly shop, I decided to go super mainstream and go to SleepTrain, where we picked this guy:

It kinda hurt my heart to be in here.  Everything seemed super mass produced and kinda awful, but I'm strugglin' here. It got delivered today, but apparently is has ventilation strips down the side.

On all of these mattresses, I'd be crazy hot on any part of me that was touching the mattress, and then the rest of me was like the air temperature... so sleeping with a doona was insanity sometimes, but other times I'd be so hot on my stomach, but my back would be so cold... the whole thing has been super weird.

Fingers crossed tonight is the night of good sleepiness.  I'm excited and super nervous. I'm not sure my partner can take another disappointment. I'll just be keen to sleep in a big boy bed.

Update : 25th of May.
No good. My partner feels like she's sleeping on a table, and I still got way too hot and have felt sick and headachey all day.  We're going to put the Mattress Encasement and mattress protector on to see if that makes a difference.... or we're just gonna sleep on an inflatable mattress.  Either way, happy happy times.  I'm almost considering doing a few AirBnB around town, finding a mattress that works and then just buying that one.

 

Cyber Security by Super Mega Systems

I used to do photography on the weekends and after work as a yea to get creative after a whole day of spreadsheets and grey computer screens.  People get so happy when they have a great photo of themselves... I loved the creativeness of it and the joy people got from my work.  Since moving to America, I've been missing my photography studio and equipment (all sold back in the move from Australia) so I thought I'd start another business.  This time in Cyber Security.

Maybe not as visually creative, but it's still provided that sense of helping people out... and like photography it feels like the technology is changing every second... and as daunting as that sounds, I find that exciting.

Anywho, I was interviewed for a blog called NYClady... welcome to America me.  The blog link is here.  I am, however, going to post the whole transcript here, cos, y'know, why not?  Also, super weird being called 'Mr Waring'.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I sat down for an eye-opening chat this week with Adam Waring and learned a lot about Cyber Security and what I need to do to protect my computer and my life.

Mr. Waring worked in IT security for nearly 15 years, but mainly on massive databases for huge corporations.  In spare time he used to love doing photography, and would work in his photography studio on weekends.  His photography website was something he was really proud of, and had hundreds of photos on it.  Then one day it totally got hacked (someone turned it into a porn site, it was awful) and he struggled and tried everything but lost all his hard work that he took pride in.   The irony of an IT security person getting hacked wasn't lost on him.

He had to rebuild and it took ages, but through the whole process, he learned heaps about websites, and all their holes and gaps that some jerky hacker guy would use to take it over.  Adam learned that prevention is key, and so he started this Super Mega Systems to help people before they get into the situation he found myself in.  Even sites like Wordpress and Drupal have some holes that are easily fixed if you know what you're looking for. 

Super Mega Systems - Cyber Protection offers a few different services; the quickest and cheapest is a scan of your entire website (including backoffice) to see if there are any vulnerabilities.  The other service is far more to do with the set up of your business.  For instance, does your staff have access to systems where they could commit fraud? Of course everyone wants to trust their employees, but it's also about protecting your employees too. If something did happen and everyone has access, then everyone is suspect.  http://www.cyber.supermegasystems.com/ will work with your business to ensure you've segregated the system access and processes so that no one person can rip the company off.  Again, prevention is key.

Other IT Security firms are run by IT guys who know computer code inside out but don't really understand how the business runs... Super Mega Systems Cyber Protection is run by a business guy who just luckily happens to be really good at IT systems. The CEO worked for some of the biggest companies in the world, seen it all, and now wants to help everyone get good practices in place to help them become a great company that is protected.

Apparently estimates are that 95% of American companies were hacked to some degree in 2015 but only 40% of companies realized it. This is astonishing.  That means approximately 60% of companies in America have had someone poking around their data. One company Super Mega Systems worked a year ago had it's data stolen and held for ransom, and they literally had no choice but to pay that ransom. How crazy is that?  No business would survive long without the data it's built itself on, and Super Mega Systems wants to help make sure everyone who works hard to do good isn't at risk to sleazy hacker types.

I don't know about you but after hearing all this I am far more paranoid about my own cyber security. Everyone with a website should get it scanned. It's super cheap for the value you get out of it, and really, it's the responsible thing to do to protect your data, your customers, your suppliers, etc.

American Ninja Warrior - Parkour Update

So I've graduated myself from the Beginner class to the Beginner 2 Parkour class, and am much happier for it. The Monday night Beginner 2 class is for ages 16+ so it's a bit less rambuncuous but also it's way more technical. I've actually discovered I don't know how to jump with my left foot. So far, no matter the exercise I've always found a way to kick off with my right... it's terrible. I actually have an amazing leap with my right, (maybe because it's always done all the work) but I'm now going to have to put some work in to un-program my brain and teach myself how to jump with my left. So weird!

I actually think I've got enough natural talent to join the intermediate class... except, it's really taking my 2 full days to recover from the beginner 2 class. That balance between striving forward vs acclimatizing your body is something I've always struggled with.

American Ninja Warrior - Things that are holding me back - #1 Update

The update is that there is no real update. It still hurts like a jerk most days. I've given the physio the flick since he either didn't know how to tackle it or was stringing me along. I only get 15 visits a year so I didn't want to waste too many. I'm now trying to strengthen my feet by working on my balance, and doing the exact opposite to what the podiatrist said, and spending as much time in bare feet as possible, and wearing different shoes all the time. Previous advice hasn't worked so I'm trying something new. I'm hoping the foot, being a miraculous feat of evolutionary engineering will figure itself out. I'm also massaging it with a golf ball and rolling out my calves every chance I get. I've got some Fish Oil that I'll be taking daily and I'm starting hot yoga to try and help as well.

American Ninja Warrior - Competitors in Oregon?

Asking for a friend...

Would love to meet anyone else training for American Ninja Warrior on the North West Coast of America.  Feeling a little bit lonely and unsure at the moment.

American Ninja Warrior - Things that are holding me back - #3

Shoulder Subluxation is a problem I completely forgot about. It first happened a few years ago in indoor soccer, then again when I was hit by a car on my bike, now it's happened about 5 times. On Thursday I was bouldering on a climb that was too hard for me... but I wanted to push myself... and my left shoulder popped out. Now it only takes a few seconds to roll back into place, but the recovery takes weeks. My left arm can feel weak for up to 6 weeks after... it sucks. I need to work some shoulder/rotator cuff exercises into my routine to strengthen the muscles around the ball joint. Blurgh!

American Ninja Warrior - 4 steps to training - Endurance

I had a shoulder injury last Thursday, so during the recovery it was a good time to start the Maffetone Method. Summed up, it basically gets you to stop using the anaerobic fibres in your body so you can train your aerobic fibres instead... basically transforming me from a sprinter to a marathoner. I know American Ninja Warrior is about short bursts of action, but I think the really great guys have a crap ton of endurance in their tank. A lot of guys go out because they get so tired, they then don't tackle obstacles properly and fall. I'm trying to prevent that from happening to me... like everything else on this journey, I have to go back a heap of steps to start from the start in something brand new to me. It's been challenging the last few days, especially the no carbs or sugars for 2 weeks thing... but I think it'll be worth it.

American Ninja Warrior - 4 steps to training - Calisthenics

I'm basically working my way through the book Convict Conditioning. It's really, really good. It's been frustrating basically starting over with almost literal baby steps... but I always go too far too fast and end up injuring myself... so I'm trying to do the exercises exactly as the book dictates.

American Ninja Warrior - 4 steps to training - Rock Climbing

The gym that I joined is also an indoor rock climbing centre, which is very lucky that it's so close. I did the beginner rock climbing course which was great and I learnt a ton. The only friends I have in Portland are the two girls I did that beginner course with. So, I basically go twice a week to do some bouldering by myself and then do a rock climbing session with the girls once a week. It's weird how different in skill level we are. The girls have great balance and leg strength, so they can do climbs I can't, whereas I'm a bit more upper body so I can get through spots they don't even want to attempt. It's great. At the moment I can do V0 & V1 climbs. I haven't finished any V2 bouldering climbs yet. In rock climbing I'm kinda sticking to the 5.8 & 5.9. Haven't completed a 5.10a yet.

American Ninja Warrior - 4 steps to training - Parkour

At the moment, I'm doing one beginner class of Parkour a week, and I'm usually sore for at least 2 days afterwards. It's really fun though and I'm really not that bad at it. I've got a good leap and I'm strong, I can usually muscle my way through things (not ideal) if my technique isn't great. Some of the other dudes in the beginner class are just amazing, it's very inspiring. I actually can't wait until I'm conditioned enough to go more than once a week.

American Ninja Warrior - 4 steps to training

One of the reasons I love Ninja Warrior is that no one type of athlete, body type, age or discipline is perfect for it. The rock climbing guys are usually great at Stage 3, but there is a heap of balance obstacles to trip them up before before then. I have no real background, I did competitive dancing in my early 30s, then played a heap of indoor soccer, and gym it up a lot, but I've overhauled everything to train for Ninja Warrior. Basically, my thinking is that the four areas I'm training are: Parkour, Rock Climbing, Calisthenics and Endurance. I am brand new to all of these things, but it's fun.

American Ninja Warrior - Strategy

I know it seems obvious, but slow progression is going to be key. Currently, I can't do a single thing that I'll need to bring to American Ninja Warrior, so it's all about progression. Start off small, master that, build on it, advance. Rinse and repeat. It's extremely tedious, but starting small helps condition my old bod, which'll open a whole heap of doors for me. I'll actually be going backwards for quite a while, doing exercises I can totally easily do... all in order to build up the tendons and supporting muscles. Usually I jump into everything as hard as I can, and usually end up injured along the way... slow and steady and driving myself crazy... that's my approach.

American Ninja Warrior - Things that are holding me back - #2

All my problems are tendonitis-y, I also have RSI but that doesn't really affect this new crazy goal of mine. Golfers Elbow in my right arm is a big problem though, it started when we were touring around Spain. I had been going to the gym heaps before we left, and then while we were bouncing around that crazy hot country, I'd only sporadically get to a gym... I tried my normal pull-ups and my elbow did not like it one bit. It's been a problem for nearly 10 years now. Basically Hammer Curls are impossible, and pull-ups develop an ache pretty quickly. 

 Dagnammit.

American Ninja Warrior - Things that are holding me back - #1

This came outta nowhere about 8 months ago. I was playing indoor soccer like 4 times a week and everything was fine for ages.. then I wanted to get better so I started training twice a week and my heal very quickly started to hurt a lot. I've now been to 2 podiatrists (and paid through the nose for orthotics) and will still no end in sight I'm now working with a physio. He thinks it's because of my tight calves. Which have always been crazy tight, but I've basically done no cardio for 8 months to heal this sucker so they really shouldn't be tight at all.

Damn old man calves.

American Ninja Warrior - Current specs

I wanted to take a serious of measurements before I started in order to see if there were any changes along the way. I honestly don't know what to expect... but I do know that it's hard to see how far you've come if you don't know where you started.

Australia's First Ninja Warrior

I know, I know... Doesn't seem likely.

American Ninja Warrior - Goal 2 : First Australian competitor

 

This one is a little out of my hands, but I'm chasing it regardless. My partner and I moved to America seeking change and adventure, and this show was a big reason for me for picking the United States. We could have moved to Japan or Malaysia or the UK to compete on their shows, but I've loved the American version of Ninja Warrior for years now. I am slightly worried that while I'm attempting to be on American Ninja Warrior that Australia launches it's own version (which would be epic, the weather allows Aussies to be ridiculously fit and sporty) but I'm chasing more of a sure thing here.

American Ninja Warrior - Goal Number 1, Get on the show.

I think I'm not going to be ready for the 2016 season of American Ninja Warrior, I've basically only got 5 months before trials start, so I'm truly aiming for the 2017 season. Which I think will be Season 9.

Aussie Ninja Warrior

Hi there, my name is Adam and I've decided to attempt to compete on the NBC TV show American Ninja Warrior.  This blog account will be my journal from start to finish of this big audacious overwhelming goal.

Welcome to my blog, great to be back!

Hi everyone, it's been a long time since I've done any blogging... I used to be great at it and made a heap of super awesome friends... but eventually I got a bit distracted by other things in the world.  With social media getting smaller and smaller and totally more immediate, I'm actually missing the days when people wrote proper things with well thought ideas and actually properly spelt out words and it's not all just  lazy"this gam sux, kys" negativity.

So, I'm back to blogging.  My partner and I have moved from Melbourne, Australia to Portland, Oregon in the US. It was a move just for fun really... this blog is intended to be the trials and funness of such a big move, products that have helped, services that have hindered, my goals and basically just any ol' thing that comes to mind.

Real excited to be back you guys.