Full Send
Depart normal, commit to the challenge, and discover a life of pure adventure with the characters, experiences and vehicles to help you capably embrace life on the unbeaten path ahead.
Meet Andrew & Kicker
For professional adventure athlete and seasoned travel photographer Andrew Muse, there's still one instant outlet for pure adventure: Baja California. With a swell forecast, Muse sets out with Kicker, his golden retriever and regular road-trip companion, in search of solitude. "You can find yourself at a beautiful point break without a single soul in the water," Muse muses, "if you're willing to go far enough."
Of course, it's never just about the surf. When it's time to load up a Ford F-150® Raptor® R™ truck for every adventure it can handle, the sky is not even the limit (just add a paraglider). The activity options snowball as Muse tests the off-road capabilities of what he dubs the "perfect vehicle for Baja," as well as the dynamic peninsula's endless fun offerings, where Muse reveals the priorities for a life of meaningful adventure.
Unfamiliar missions that send you fully into The unknown.
A "full send" means different things to different people. Regardless of your appetite for risk, or your experience and skills, the recipe remains the same: Commitment outside your comfort zone, plus a capable ride. When you're ready to embrace unfamiliar missions that send you fully into unknowns, it helps to lean on sound advice from seasoned guides for new terrain ahead.
Discover the Country’s Best Off-Road Coastal Escapes
Read MoreAndrew Muse knows how to send it. The professional multi-sport athlete and photographer has made a name for himself by sharing big adventures with the world, from accessing remote snowboard lines via prop plane to speed flying across sand dunes. At 19, he flew to Kauai and lived out of a backpack for two months, highlighted by a formative 15 days camped out on the Na Pali Coast, trying to live off the land and ocean.
“A full-send adventure means you just kind of go for it,” says Muse. “You decide to throw everything in the truck, point it somewhere and hope for the best.”
Like in the multi-day Baja trip showcased above, Muse is locked in on his various coastal adventures, where he can combine his love for overlanding with a newfound passion for the ocean. It’s there, he says, that “different environments can be different kinds of teachers. Anytime I paddle out, free dive or find myself on the coast, I feel like I’m gathering knowledge and a deeper connection with life.”
Want to create your own full-send teaching moments? Here is the best advice from Muse on making the most of the adventure at hand.
Stay Calm and Adventure On
Staying calm is incredibly important if something goes wrong. If you get caught in a current, or find yourself farther offshore than expected, you usually can’t just sprint back to the beach. You need to settle in mentally, control your breathing and conserve energy. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Go with the Flow…and Bring All the Gear
As I've gotten older, I've learned to go with the flow and enjoy whatever conditions I'm given. Having gratitude for where I am and what I get to do makes it pretty easy to keep things in perspective. You're not going to change the swell, the wind, or the conditions, so you might as well figure out how to have a great day with whatever you've got. Having all the different toys and tools for the different conditions helps as well.
Embrace the Sand
Sand gets everywhere. It gets in your truck, your gear, your sleeping bag…especially if you have a golden retriever. But that's just part of the charm. Learn to shake out your blankets every morning and every night and embrace it. And don't forget the flip flops. Really, the only reasonable footwear near the ocean is flip flops. That's probably my most important advice.
Where To Launch Your Full-Send Alpine Adventure
Read MoreMadison Rose Ostergren defies labels. She skis big mountain lines in films for Teton Gravity Research and Warren Miller Entertainment, so you could simply call her a pro skier, but that’s just her “day job.” She’s also an accomplished trail runner, mountain climber, part-time skijor champion, and musician.
That diverse approach to adventure is ideally suited to the Teton Mountains. Ostergren has the Fastest Known Time for the Grand Teton Picnic, an unofficial mountain triathlon that features a 25-mile bike ride from her home, Jackson, Wyoming, to Jenny Lake, a mile-long swim across the lake, and then a 10-mile run and solo climb up the 13,775-foot Grand Teton, then all back again in reverse.
For Ostergren, who doesn’t love biking or swimming, pushing outside of your comfort zone is the key element of a full send. And you don’t need to live in the Tetons either to carve out an epic alpine day. With a little creativity, Ostergren says you can design your own all-day mountain adventure to scratch that limit-pushing itch. Here’s how.
Be Curious
Start from a place of curiosity, and make sure variety is at the heart of it. A full-send adventure in the mountains probably entails some combination of running, hiking, climbing, or skiing. What does the day look like if you combine a long bike ride with a mountain climb? And start local. Is there a mountain and route where you can create your own Picnic?
Be Bold and Ambitious
You're more capable than you think, so maybe try something new. Look at Skijoring—it's one of the craziest sports I've ever done. Think ski-cross mixed with water skiing, mixed with alpine ski racing, and then you're doing all of that behind a horse that's going wicked fast. The adrenaline is high, the competitiveness is through the roof, and the spectators, cowboys, and everyone around the event bring such high energy. That energy is key for an alpine epic.
It’s Better with Friends
Surround yourself with people who are doing the things you want and love to do. I was lucky to have a really amazing support crew that helped me along the way during the FKT attempt, which made the entire day so much better and more fulfilling. It should be an all-day adventure where a lot of food is eaten, a lot of miles are covered, a lot of vertical is climbed, and it's all shared with incredible mountain partners and friends.
Where To Find a Fly-Fishing Off-Road Adventure
Read MoreKayla Lockhart makes a living out of tracking down fish in remote places, whether it’s vampire Payara in the Amazon or long-lost trout in Colorado. The professional angler likes to say she didn’t find fly fishing. It found her.
“Fly fishing gave me a community and eventually, a real sense of purpose,” Lockhart says of the grounding act that forces her to be present. She’s since knocked out one full-send fly fishing adventure after the other, topped by the search for native Colorado greenback cutthroat, a species that was once believed to be extinct.
With proper research and the same dedication to seeing an experience through, here’s how Lockhart says you can launch your own fish-and-camp full send.
The Fishing Is Just Part of It
The beauty of fly fishing is that it can be whatever you want it to be. Maybe that means packing a 3-weight, 6-piece rod on a backcountry adventure on the slight chance you come across some fishable water. Or, maybe you're intentionally heading into a watershed because you're curious about what's there. Either way, the fishing doesn't have to dictate whether the adventure was worth it.
Do Your Homework
Download your offline maps, know where you're going, understand the terrain and weather, and make sure someone knows your plans. Pack for the possibility that things won't go according to plan, especially when you're heading into remote areas with no cell service.
Be Careful With Expectations
Expectations can be the thief of joy. Fly fishing will teach you quickly that it completely dismantles any illusion of control. You can do everything "right" and the fish still might not cooperate. But that's never the measure of success anyway; it's the work you put in to get there — the rocks you climbed, the fallen trees you crawled over, the miles you traveled, even the fly you chose to tie on. And if you get skunked, pay attention to everything else you experienced: the place you're standing, the small moments you might otherwise overlook, and what the day taught you.
Desert Destinations for Double-Send Adventures
Read MoreTyler McCaul understands the cliff-top commitment of a full send. The pro free-ride mountain biker has been a fixture at elite events such as Crankworx and Red Bull Rampage, where his creative and technical approach to steep lines and staunch features has earned him multiple podium finishes.
“Some of my favorite adventures have been with just myself, my bike, and my Bronco, and the goal is just to drive as many dirt roads as possible and to see as many sights as I can,” McCaul says. “There’s something indescribable about the anticipation and curiosity of what’s around the next corner, and sometimes that’s all you need.”
Deserts, to McCaul, offer the ideal diversity of terrain for mixing different disciplines into a single experience: cliffs to climb, canyons to navigate, and trails to bike. With a little bit of creativity, and proper preparation, you too can turn a standard off-road tour into a double-send adventure.
Trust Your Vehicle
The Bronco Raptor® is my ultimate exploration vehicle, and every adventure begins in the Bronco. It’s great to have the confidence of knowing that, whether you’re in mud, rocks, sand, or snow the Bronco can handle almost any situation. Make sure you have similar confidence in your own vehicle.
Expect the Unexpected
You have to do the preparation before you set out. For instance, always check maps beforehand to make sure you are allowed to drive in the area you are setting out to explore. But be prepared for any situation. Let someone know where you're going, and it's always a good idea to have a satellite phone in case something were to happen while you're off-grid.
The Bike Is a Tool
The bike isn't just fun. It's a great way to travel. I like to explore by bike because I'm able to get to places that a vehicle simply can't get to. When you're not in a vehicle or on a dirt bike, you're able to take in all the sights and sounds much better, and you just notice way more things that might pass you by via other means of travel.
The Raptor® Trucks
Hatched in 2008, the Raptor® program from Ford turned the punishing race terrain of Baja California into its R&D lab. High-heat, high-mileage, high-speed: The torture gauntlet sharpened key off-road components, proving factory frames and running gear can survive stress that breaks dedicated race vehicles. The testing grounds forged a Raptor foundation that’s since expanded from a single prototype F-150® truck into a global performance family.
F-150 Raptor® / Raptor® R™
Bronco Raptor®
Ranger Raptor®
