Fitness From Ground Zero: I Hung The Human Flag On 6 Of The 7 Continents

Sydney, Australia December 30th, 2018

I landed and set foot upon the continent of Australia in the beautiful city of Sydney. It was my second time there, the first being 10 years prior before I discovered the human flag. Before I knew the power and meaning of the human flag. And of course, before I could do the human flag. I arrived mid morning as most international flights do. In order to save money I somewhat foolishly booked through a long connection in China. This means I was on a plane sitting for over 24 hours. The total was somewhere over 36 hours in transit from USA till Sydney. I checked into my hotel, suffice to say, I was tired. Resting however, was not an option. I was coming to explore the country and celebrate the start of 2019 in Sydney, but my time was limited to only 2 days there as I had already extensively explored that part of Australia. There were two things and two things only to do in Sydney, celebrate New Year's, and hang the human flag.

Although it had been 10 years memory and google map research kicked in immediately as I arrived at the CBD of Sydney where the most iconic building the Sydney Opera House is located. I needed caffeine to make up for almost no sleep on the plane, I found an energy drink and began to close in to where I saw the Opera House. Leading up to the trip I had used street view to virtually walk around the area and I knew several potential areas where poles would be. Mind you, anyone that has hung the human flag knows that you can't just do it on any pole, my personal favorite is a thin bottom vertical bar with a horizontal bar on top, think metal fence. A pole that is too thick is hard to grip, a pole too thin will topple, especially with my weight (200lb/90kg that day).

Suddenly I closed in, the Opera House, it was the day before New Year's eve, a minimum of 5,000 people had to be there, taking photos, enjoying wine, enjoying the ocean and beautiful Harbour Bridge. But not me... all I wanted was the pole to hang the flag. I literally stopped and glanced at the Opera House and laughed as I gave zero shits about it for the current second. 5,000 people looking at one of the most marvelous buildings in history and I'm looking for a pole.

One more shot of espresso at a cafe and it was time (seriously I was tired!). I put on the MP3 player. U2's Love Is Bigger Than Anything In It's Way Beck Remix was the chosen track as it had carried me through the year of 2018. The pole that had looked too thick on maps suddenly in person became doable. I set the camera down on timer. I took a deep breath, in that breath the first broken half flag of 2012 came, the dream of hanging it everywhere came, first in the famous gym Muscle Beach Venice, California, then in the dangerous ghetto of Communa 13 in Medellin Colombia.. In front of the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, in front of the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, and in front of the Flame Towers of Baku, Azerbaijan. I don't know if I will ever set foot in Antarctica, it's close to $20,000 to get there, and I'm not really sure if I could find a pole or wall to do the flag, science base maybe? So the goal was 6 of the 7 continents, hang something that to me means the power of the human body and the human emotion. The human flag to me symbolizes that the human is more powerful than the flag of any nation, that we are all one human race, and that is more powerful than any nation, any religion, any race. It symbolizes that wherever you came from, whoever you are, whatever you are, we are all human and we are all in this together.

I'll go out and address any keyboard warriors, my human flags are 2 to 10 seconds, I know this is NOWHERE near the record, I've done a human flag push up a few times, and I know there are people can do 10 to 20. My mission was never to be the best at the human flag, at my weight it's not in the cards, and I like lifting real heavy sometimes so leaning out to gymnast weight is not an option. The mission was about spreading the human flag, it's art, it's meaning, and it's beauty.

So late post, but from Sydney Australia to wherever you are, Happy New Year 2019 and may the human flag become a movement bigger than anything in it's way.

The other 5....