The Saiko

( TheSaiko.com )

Surf icon, Laird Hamilton, has declared his entrance in the Race Across America (RAAM).  Known for tackling larger-then-life waves and keeping surfing true to its roots, Hamilton has rallied a team of 4 to compete in the team division of this monumental challenge of riding a bike more than 3,000 miles across America.

Beginning in Oceanside, California and terminating in Annapolis Maryland, Team Surfing USA consisting of the founder of Bally Totaly Fitness, bass player from Rage Against the Machine, Laird Hamilton and an Ironman veteran will  attempt to make the entire race in less than 9 days.

RAAM has a rich, underground tradition that few have completed.  This mysterious and menacing event had The Saiko curious, so we went directly to their site to get some of the data that we know all of you are dying to learn:

• 1st race was run 27 years ago
• Total distance traveled if over 3,000 miles
• The distance from the lowest point of the race to the highest equals 2 miles
• Each team or solo racer will climb a total of 100,000 feet during the race
• Only a total of 200 solo and tandem racers have actually completed the race
• In 2008 racers raised over $4 million for charities

These are the sort of statistics that legends are made of.  It makes sense that Hamilton is “giving it a go”.  The Saiko has a deep interest in all things fringe, underground, mysterious and down-right-crazy.  RAAM falls into that category, but it’s difficult to have context with such an intimidating race.  To help put it into perspective, we consulted the RAAM website again to get data on how RAAM compares to Mt. Everest (though we were hoping to learn how it compared to Chuck Norris).  We learned from Wolfgang Fasching (solo winner of RAAM and holder of 3 Everest summits), “Everest is more dangerous, but RAAM is much harder.”

That means that Hamilton’s Team Surf is in for some good pain.  We feel pretty confident that they can handle it, but how quickly will they complete it?

More about Team Surfing USA:

Laird Hamilton (Big Wave Surfing Icon):  Hamilton will be pedaling to bring awareness to The Beautiful Son Foundation (www.beautifulsonfoundation.org).  Additionally, he’ll be riding for all of the other charities on his Team Surfing USA team.

Tim Commerford (bass player for Rage Against the Machine):  Commerfore will be pedaling to bring awareness to Hans Rey’s “Wheels4life” (www.wheels4life.org).  With a solid cycling background, he is known as an obsessive mountain biker who thanks his bikes in the liner notes of his albums.

Don Wildman (Founder of Bally Totaly Fitness): Wildman, an 8 time Ironman participant, raced in RAAM in the 90s.  At age of 76, he completed a 500-mile journey of standup paddle boarding and cycling in 2006 with Hamilton.  Their goal was to raise awareness for Autism (www.nationalautismassociation.org) and Lou Gehrig’s disease (www.alsa.org).

Jason Winn (Founder of Bonk Breaker Energy Bars):  Winn is a California native.  He completed his first Ironman triathlon at the ate of 23.  His bars are sold in 4 countries and has earned the brand Competitor Magazine’s “Best of 2006 – 2008″ award.