F3 New Orleans

Author: Robber

  • GrowRuck 03 Preblast & Agenda Update

    Gentlemen,

    With GrowRuck 03 quickly approaching, I wanted to provide you with an update on the agenda for the weekend. Please read this comz completely, and if you have questions, let me know either through comments below or on the Twitter machine.

    First off, I want to thank the local Qs for their help in organizing the event. These men (listed below) have spent many hours herding cats and without their hard work, this event would not be possible. Next time you seen them thank them.

    Local Qs:

    • NOLA: Heisenberg
    • Northshore: Turbo
    • Houston: Leprechaun

    Secondly, I want to tell you men how excited I am about the opportunity that lies before us. As anyone who’s done an event like a GORUCK Tough before will tell you, putting yourself in a stressful and difficult situation helps you better understand who you are, and where your limits lie. Most men who take on and finish a Tough find that those limits are well past what they originally perceived. Additionally, the bonds forged in these difficult situations are strong and not easily broken.

    This experience paired with F3 GrowSchool will hopefully strengthen your leadership chops and give you some tools to help you grow your regions.

    Now, here’s all the logistical info that you’ll need to know for the weekend:

    T-Shirts

    We’ll distribute t-shirts during GrowSchool on Saturday AM. Wearing these shirts has been scientifically proven to make you ruck hard. Trust me.

    Packing List

    Please double-check that you have all the required items on the packing list in your ruck prior to start time. Don’t be the guy that causes OBT to have to do 100 (more) burpees because you forgot your $20 or extra batteries.

    Required Packing List

    • A rucksack or backpack
    • 6 Bricks (4 if under 150 lbs) / 30# plate (20# if under 150 lbs)
    • Water – 2L minimum (hydration bladder recommended)
    • PT belt/reflective band around your ruck
    • $20 cab fare (but you aren’t allowed to quit)
    • Headlamp with extra batteries
    • A photo ID

    You can check out GORUCK’s full packing list and recommended items here.

    Agenda

    Friday Night

    Capitol Ruck Tour in Baton Rouge: Friday, June 9th 6:30 (caravan from City Park)
    City Park (1 Palm Dr, New Orleans, LA 70124)

    For GrowRuck 03, we have the opportunity to combine some 1st and 2ndF on Friday night by taking part of the final portion of Cadre Danny Stoke’s Capitol Ruck Tour in Baton Rouge. Danny (our GORUCK cadre) is traveling across our great United States this year to raise awareness and money for Operation Enduring Warrior. OEW’s mission is “to honor, empower, and motivate our nation’s wounded veterans through a physical, mental and emotional rehabilitation”. It’s an amazing organization and I’m proud that we’ll be able to support it.

    We’ll ruck the last few miles of the tour, then take part in the closing ceremony at the Louisiana State Capitol where representatives from OEW will speak to the group about their experience in the service.

    The trip to BR and back should give the crew plenty of time to hang out and get some good 2ndF in, and I’m proud that F3 will make a big presence at this stop on the Ruck Tour.

    The plan is to meet up with the rest of the group at 8:30 at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine (Skip Bertman Drive Baton Rouge, LA 70803) for the last 4 miles of the ruck to the Capitol. To do so, the New Orleans crew will meet at City Park (1 Palm Dr, New Orleans, LA 70124) at 6:30 to caravan to the rally point. The Northshore guys will coordinate travel from their AO, and the Houston guys will arrive in Baton Rouge in time to rally with us.

    The patch ceremony should wrap around 10pm allowing us to get back to New Orleans by midnight.

    Capitol Ruck Tour
    https://www.facebook.com/capitaltour2017/

    Operation Enduring Warrior
    http://enduringwarrior.org

    Saturday

    Convergence: Saturday Morning, June 10th 8:00am – 9:00am
    Audubon Park (6500 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70118)

    Convergence led by Dredd & OBT, with men from three local regions. This is not intended to be a heavy, break-you workout, but hell, you never know with these two guys at the helm.

    Please, please, please encourage everyone to participate in the Saturday AM convergence and GrowSchool.

    Coffeeteria & GrowSchool: Saturday Morning, June 10th 9:30am – 11:30am
    PJ’s Coffee (5432 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115)

    Breakfast provided (we’ll pass the hat to cover it), in a sit-down instructional setting, led by Dredd & OBT in the back room at PJs Coffee. If you’re the type of guy that doesn’t have total recall, bring a notebook to jot down some truth nuggets.

    GORUCK  Tough Challenge: Saturday Evening, June 10th 5:00pm
    City Park (56 Dreyfous Dr, New Orleans, LA 70119)

    Our challenge will take place at City Park and will begin at 6:00pm sharp. Our start location is the Goldring/Woldenberg Great Lawn. Be there for pre-challenge BOM at 5:30.

    If anyone would like to shadow the event, they need to be at the starting point to receive instructions from the cadre. Also, since this is an F3 event, we have a “dudes-only” rule for shadows.

    Sunday

    You can plan on the GrowRuck to last approximately 12-ish hours, depending on our performance.

    Finally, I’d like to leave you with this, the best advice I’ve ever received: When I was gearing up for my first GORUCK Challenge, and had the pre-event jitters, one of my buddies told me “Don’t worry Robber, they won’t eat you, and they can’t take away your birthday”.

    Remember that.

    -Robber

  • GrowRuck 03, NOLA – June 9th-11th 2017

    GrowRuck 03 will take place over the weekend of June 9-11th in the Big Easy. Unlike other challenges undertaken in the French Quarter, this event will leave you fulfilled and feeling like you can conquer the world, rather than empty on the inside (remind me to tell you the story from my wilder days that includes Hurricanes from Pat O’Brian’s and the craps table at Harrah’s Casino).

    What, you ask, is GrowRuck? It’s simple: GrowSchool + GORUCK Tough challenge. In one weekend, you’ll get, 1stF + CSAUP + 2ndF + F3 Leadership Development & Training. For more information on GrowRuck, check out this post.

    In an effort to keep this event focused on building the local regions, we are initially limiting registration to the pax of New Orleans Texas and Mississippi and and the guys leading the GrowRuck/GrowSchool initiatives. If we have any space left a couple months out we may open up registration to other pax.

    Weekend Schedule

    Here’s what we’ve got planned for you guys.

    Friday, June 9th

    • 2ndF Event (Details coming soon)

    Saturday, June 10th

    • 07:00 – Convergence led by Dredd & OBT: The men from the three local regions will participate in a Saturday morning convergence.
    • 08:00 – Coffeeteria
    • 09:00 – 11:00 – GrowShool led by Dredd & OBT
    • 18:00 – GORUCK Tough Challenge launches

    Sunday, June 11th

    • Sometime in the AM, GORUCK Tough Challenge concludes

    Cost

    The cost to participate in the GORUCK Tough Challenge is $100 and while we’d like everyone to participate in the entire weekend, we understand that’s not always possible. We welcome any local pax to join us for the 2ndF event on Friday night, and the Saturday morning workout and GrowSchool. As we finalize details for the Friday night event, we’ll make the cost of that event public.

    To HC, please comment below then mash this link to signup via GORUCK.

    Training

    If this is your first GORUCK event, I’d encourage you to participate in some ruck workouts, and put a bunch of miles in with your ruck on, and DON’T run with the damn thing on your back. For more training tips, we’ll have some hard-core ruckers on the GrowRuck 02 Facebook page that will be happy to answer your questions.

    Gear

    The most frequent question asked when an F3 group begins to look into doing the Challenge is “do I need to buy a $300 backpack”. The short answer is no. A GORUCK ruck is not required (FYI: the Rucker model goes on sale from time-to-time for around $100). Also, many guys pick up second-hand rucks at Army surplus stores, eBay, or Craigslist. Or get on Twitter and ask about borrowing a ruck — there are many in the F3/GRT community who are happy to loan theirs out.

    If you decide you want a GORUCK ruck, they will give you a 10% discount on gear once you sign up.

    Besides a ruck, you’ll need some bricks for weigh, a headlamp, and a hydration bladder. Additionally, you’ll want to pack a few snacks, an extra pair of socks, a windbreaker or light jacket, $20 cab fare, and your ID. Check out Jason’s video on packing for a challenge. Trust me, you don’t want to bring what you don’t need. Protip: Leave your phone in the car, regardless of what Jason says in the video.

    What Next?

    If you’re ready to take the plunge with your buddies and HC for GrowRuck 02, do this stuff, in this order:

    1. Comment below, say something clever, and prepare to GYMR (get your mind right).
    2. Signup at GORUCK here and pay your $100.
    3. Ask to join the Facebook GrowRuck 03 page (only after you’ve registered).
    4. Start training.
    5. Stay tuned for more details…

    Important Links

     

  • F3 GrowSchool & GrowRuck

    If you’ve been on the Twitter machine lately, you may have seen some PAX throwing out the words GrowSchool and GrowRuck. My man Mini-Me and I have been fielding some question about these two initiatives so we thought it’d be a good time to open the proverbial kimono and let you know what these things are all about.

    The purpose of this post is to briefly explain the two events, and help growing regions choose which is right for them!

    GrowSchool

    GrowSchool is curriculum developed by OBT and Dredd as a Q School with an emphasis on Growth. The big-ticket items covered in GrowSchool are:

    • Why Growth (& Destruction) is good for F3
    • How F3 Regions Typically Grow
    • Common Regional Growing Pains
    • Why Regional Status is a Worthy Growth Goal

    GrowSchool helps Regions understand why #GiveItAway is an F3 imperative and why, in the world of F3, if you aren’t growing, you’re dying. It’s intended for Nomads (or expansion AOs) that have been in existence at least 6-9 months and want to accelerate toward Regional status in support of F3’s mission to Plant, Grow and Serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of Male Community Leadership.  

    A location is an ideal candidate for GrowSchool if the PAX have some momentum and are wondering what the Next Step is. F3 Nation sends in a couple men to teach about F3 Growth, serve as liaisons on the road to Regional Status and push the local PAX to face outward in their community.

    The typical timeframe of a GrowSchool is as follows:

    • Friday night 2ndF event for all PAX with GrowSchool Qs (1-2hrs)
    • Saturday AM Convergence beatdown led by GrowSchool Qs (1hr)
    • Saturday Coffeeteria/GrowSchool (2hrs)

    For more information about bringing GrowSchool to your location, contact MiniMe (gcburdic@gmail.com or @MiniMe_F3  on Twitter).

    GrowRuck

    GrowRuck is a weekend-long event that combines GrowSchool with a GORUCK Tough. By adding a CSAUP event (which brings a huge dose of 1st and 2nd F) to the GrowSchool experience, F3 Nation aims to catalyze and accelerate a location’s growth.

    GrowRuck is ideally suited for AOs (or a collection of locations) that have been around for a year or longer. A good indicator that a location is ready for a GrowRuck is when PAX find themselves standing around asking, “What’s next?”

    OBT and Dredd developed the idea for GrowRuck as they began teaching GrowSchools and realized how important CSAUP events are to F3’s growth in a region. In particular, they drew on their own experience as members of GORUCK Tough Classes 193 and 707 and the role that those events, with their emphasis on teamwork and bonding, played in catalyzing F3’s growth in Charlotte and the surrounding regions

    Because the class size for a GrowRuck event is around 30 participants, GrowRucks are ideally suited to F3 locations where they can draw from multiple AOs within driving distance (GrowRuck 01 is taking place in Jacksonville, FL, but is also drawing significant contingents of PAX from St. Simons and Savannah, GA.)  That being said, not everyone in an AO or region needs to participate in the Tough to get something out of GrowRuck, as many of the weekend’s events are open to all PAX.

    While  GrowRuck can be customized to fit the needs of each region, the basic format is:

    • Friday night 2ndF Event
    • Saturday AM workout + GrowSchool
    • Saturday PM GORUCK Tough (12-14 hours)
    • Sunday AM breakfast

    If you think a GrowRuck would be a good fit for your F3 location, or if you and your F3 friends have been discussing doing a custom Tough Challenge, we would love to hear from you.

    For more information about the GrowRuck contact Robber (sean.rankin@gmail.com or @srankin on Twitter).

  • Oliver Gospel Mission Ruck Raffle

    Rather than going back the Bank (AKA The F3 Foundation), this year I really wanted to figure out another way to fund the programs F3 Columbia is involved with at the Oliver Gospel Mission. The F3F has been more than generous with it’s funds, but I wanted to make room on the balance sheet for some of the other programs that are getting kicked off around the F3 Nation.

    To be clear: It’s not cheap to give each man that posts to 3 workouts a bada$$ Mudgear jersey, but it’s among one of my favorite things to do. The sense of pride that these men have when sporting the jersey is nothing short of amazing. One guy told me that the jersey made him feel bulletproof. I advised him not to test that out.

    In addition to jerseys, we’ve been able to help out buying medicine on a couple occaisions, race registration fees, 2ndF events, and two of our pax have even started a financial literacy class. This stuff all takes cash.

    In an effort to fund these activities, we’re having a raffle, and it’s simple. Buy a ticket for $10, and win the OGM Mission Rucking Bundle which includes:

    1. A GORUCK GR0 (Donated by TNT)
    2. A GORUCK sternum strap (Donated by TNT)
    3. A GORUCK Field Pocket (Donated by GORUCK)
    4. A Coupon for a free GORUCK Tough or Light Event (Donated by GORUCK)
    5. MudGear F3 Tac Hat (Donated by Mudgear)
    6. 2 pairs of Feetures Elite Merino + Light Cushion Crew Socks (Donated by Mudgear)
    7. Black Diamond Cosmo Headlamp (Donated by Half-moon Outfitters)
    8. Platypus Soft Bottle (Donated by Half-moon Outfitters)

    To Play

    To enter, simply PayPal $10 (per entry) to F3Columbia@gmail.com. I’d recommend entering a bunch of times. We will randomly select a winner from the entries on March 15th.

    Thank you to all of our donors who gave to make this possible.