Bear Woznick is the author of the Best Selling Books "12 Rules for Manliness - Where Have all the Cowboys Gone, ""Deep in the Wave - A Surfing Guide to the Soul" and "Deep Adventure - The Way of Heroic Virtue". Bear is also a two time World Tandem Surfing Champ and Legends Stand Up Paddle Surfing Champ - Sailing Captain, Adventurer. Sky Diver, Private Pilot, Ninja Black Belt, Distance Surfboard and Outrigger Canoe Paddler, Licensed in Scuba, Ran with the Bulls in Pamplona just to mention a few of his adventures. Tandem surfs with wife two or three times a week. This extreme sport involves lifting a woman of your head in acrobatic lifts while surfing. He is married and Father of four adult children.
Bear is the Host of EWTN's award winning motorcycle TV show "Long Ride Home with Bear Woznick" (also seen on Prime Video", the Host of EWTN's “The Bear Woznick Adventure Radio Show", heard by millions each week world wide on over 500 stations in nearly all 50 states. The Big Kahuna on Fox Network’s adventure reality show “Clean Break" and is a Guest star and stuntman on the television series, HAWAII 5 – 0. He and his bride have a YouTube based show "Spirit of Adventure TV with Bear & Cindy" where they share their fun in the sun and the Christian Inspiration at their home in Hawaii and sailing their boat in the Caribbean.
Bear is an inductee into the Catholic Sports Hall of Fame; Surfed huge waves at Waimea Bay;; Co-founded the professional International Tandem Surfing world tour; Developed & coached hundreds of tandem surfers including world champions. Pedaled his bicycle from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean – San Diego, CA to Jacksonville, FL; Paddled the treacherous 30 mile open ocean channel between the islands of Molokai and Oahu; Licensed Private Pilot; Licensed Scuba Diver ; Skydiver. Holds the very rare NINJA blackbelt and holds instructors licenses in several other martial arts forms; Has repelled off mountains and even out of his 25th floor Waikiki Condo ; Full on Waterman ; Sails ; Distance Outrigger Canoe paddles and surfs the outrigger canoe; Spear Fishes; swam many times with sharks; Many Ocean Rescues; Member of Knights of Columbus biker outreach Knights on Bikes, Member of the Sons of Hawaii MC; Has his own CPA practice with a Masters Degree in Tax; Pursuing Masters Degree in Catechetics at Franciscan University of Steubenville; Novitiate Oblate at the Benedictine Spouse of the Holy Spirit Monastery on Oahu’s north shore.
A PARTIAL LIST OF TALKS: (These talks can work for just men or women or a mix.)
"12 Rules For Manliness - Where Have all the Cowboys Gone?"
"HEROIC VIRTUE| A QUEST FOR THE 7 VIRTUE"
"THE MOST DANGEROUS PRAYER" - THEY WILL BE DONE
"THE 300- THE SPARTANS AND GIDEONS ARMY TEACH US WHAT A SMALL BAND OF MEN CAN DO WHEN THEY STEP INTO THE BREACH
Bear uses the story of the 300 Men of Gideon's Army and the 300 Spartans at Themopylae to inspire men to live a valiant life of virtue.Bear uses adventurous stories to bring each virtue to life and to give the audience traction in pursuing them. This can be given as short as one talk or as 7 talks over a period of days.
I HAVE COME TO BRING A FIRE AND HOW I WISH IT WAS ALREADY BLAZING: (This is meant to teach the lesson of detachment from our own agenda in pursuit of friendship with God.) Bear uses stories from scripture about fire and sword starting with the flaming sword in the garden of Eden, the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, the three young men in the fiery furnace, Jacob grappling with God. He uses his knowledge in several martial arts and his second degree Ninja Blackbelt to talk about this fight and then he ends with Elijah challenging the prophets of Baal to the Super Bowl of the Gods on Mt Carmel to send fire. This tells us how God works to teach us the lessons of detachment and to learn to cling only to him and not to be lukewarm nor to stand on one foot and then the other. But to choose this day whom you will serve.
DEEP CALLS TO DEEP AS THE WATER ROARS: As world champion surfer, Bear has had his share of big wipeouts. In this talk, he goes through every stage of surfing from paddling out, to waiting on the wave to paddling for it and riding it as a metaphor for the contemplative life. Bear even uses the anatomy of a big wipeout that he had to give hope to those who are going through the dark night and how it is meant to bring us to a point of surrender and to just loving God for who He is not out of fear and not out of what he does for us. It teaches us to love God for His sake, to love others for His sake and to love perhaps even ourselves in a sense of self forgetfulness for God's sake.
Bear share how dark it is in a big hold down. How no amount of struggling helps. You just have to surrender to the power of the Wave but then when it releases you, the only way you know which way is up is to swim towards the light. He also shares that in God there and there really is no darkness at all, but in the Dark Night his love is shining so bright that it blinds us and it seems dark. So no matter how dark a place you are in have hope and release yourself to God.
GO DEEP OR GO HOME: (This talk challenges us to an hour a day of prayer.) When people ask Bear what it takes to ride twenty foot plus waves, he tells them his 20/20/20 rule. You must be able to hold your breath for the two minutes and twenty minutes that it takes for the sun to set when it first touches the ocean. You must be able to paddle your surfboard twenty miles without stopping. You need to be able to dive down twenty feet grab a boulder to weigh you down and run twenty meters under water.
Bear shares how Aloha means to give breath. And that this is what the essence of prayer is; to receive the breath of God's Spirit. He shares that the people of Hawaii are more people of the water than of the aina (land). And so we experience daily that we should not take breath for granted. He shares about scuba diving one hundred twenty feet deep and running out of air and needing to trade off oxygen tanks. Then he challenge people to the 20/20/20 rule of prayer. If you want to go deep with God, one hour of prayer each day is the minimum. He shares different ways they can do this. They can pray twenty minutes three times a day or any combination in order to pray the total sixty minutes all at once.
Bear shares the rosary, the Liturgy of the hours, Lectio Divina, Mass, the Divine Chaplet and other ways they can commit to a disciplined pattern of prayer and devotional reading. He ends by challenging them to make that commitment for sixty minutes per day for sixty days and see where it leads them. He challenges them to go deep or go home.
