"There are books you read. Then some books read you."
- Philip R. Baquie, Psy.D., from the Foreword
In May 2023, filmmaker Conrad Weaver and his best friend John pointed two loaded bicycles east from the Oregon coast, aiming for the Atlantic 3,500 miles away. Sixty-five days later, they rolled onto the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland, to cheers from family, friends, and the first responders whose stories had inspired the ride in the first place.
Into the Storm is the true account of that coast-to-coast journey: mountain passes and headwinds, broken spokes and blown tires, the small-town strangers who became Road Angels, and the Montana thunderstorm that nearly ended everything. It is also the story of why Weaver rode. A documentary filmmaker whose work has taken him into the hardest moments of first responders' lives, Weaver used the ride to promote PTSD911, his film about the trauma carried by the people who run toward emergencies for a living, hosting film screenings in fire stations, churches, and community halls along the route.
Weaver isn't just telling a good story. As President and CEO of First Responder Wellness Solutions and a certified leadership coach and speaker, he has spent his career studying what actually helps people through hard things, and he turns that same eye on his own hardest miles. Told with humor, humility, and hard-won honesty, Into the Storm moves between the physical demands of endurance cycling and the quieter reckonings that come with them: what it means to ask for help, to trust a partner, to keep moving when stopping would be easier, and to know the difference between fear that protects you and fear that holds you back. Weaver writes as openly about his wife Jodi, holding down life at home for two months, as he does about gravel roads along the Columbia River Gorge and a grief shared with him by a bike-shop owner in Nebraska.
Part travel memoir, part meditation on resilience and mental health, Into the Storm will resonate with cyclists, first responders, and anyone who has wondered whether they had it in them to finish something hard. Readers also get access to a free companion journal, behind-the-scenes ride footage, and a photo gallery from the road.
Have you ever wondered if you had it in you to finish something hard? Into the Storm is a book about riding into the storm instead of waiting it out, and discovering, mile by mile, what is on the other side.
