Without Restraint: How Skiing Saved My Son's Life

The thrilling extreme sporting adventure of Free Solo meets the heartfelt honesty of growing up with autism depicted in Atypical in WITHOUT RESTRAINT (98,000 words), the story of a father’s unlikely discovery of his son’s prodigious talent for skiing that ultimately saved his son’s life.

Ryan DeLena’s childhood was a complicated one. When he was a toddler, he would launch into impassioned monologues from classic books and films, was fascinated by ventilation systems, and loved climbing the walls of his house―literally. His eidetic memory, penchant for brutal honesty, and defiance led to a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder―a subclass of the autism spectrum.
When public preschools weren’t equipped to manage him, his parents, Rob and Mary Beth, enrolled him in a private “therapeutic” school program, a decision that locked Ryan into a school that relied on destructive methods of behavior modification―including painful physical restraints and extended isolation, practices that are still used in these programs to this day. Some teachers pinned him to the floor for prolonged periods of time, covered his mouth, and left him with rug burns. Ryan’s noncompliance to these techniques ultimately led to the prescription of a variety of harmful antipsychotic medications encouraged by the school staff, and, further, to a two-week stay in a mental hospital to evaluate whether he should reside permanently in a treatment facility.

Fortunately, when Ryan was seven years old, Rob made an impulsive decision to kill a few hours at a local ski hill. Within his first lesson, Ryan was barreling down black diamond slopes. By his twentieth day of skiing, Ryan was executing expert runs with 3,500 feet of vertical drop. Ryan’s newfound obsession―and Rob’s apparent death wish―led them to extreme ski runs around the world. With each skiing conquest, Ryan blossomed, and Rob learned not only to appreciate his son’s strengths, but also to understand and accept his quirks. Soon, Ryan was no longer a child with a disability; he was a world-class ski mountaineer.

Emboldened, Rob decided to fight the medical and educational “industrial complexes” over the decisions made about Ryan’s care and school placement―and won.

Written in two voices (Rob’s in book and Ryan’s in italics), WITHOUT RESTRAINT is a joint father-son memoir told with both pain and levity, struggle and strength, adventure and heart. It is the story of a misunderstood boy, a father’s growth, and a shared love of the outdoors that formed their unbreakable bond. WITHOUT RESTRAINT will appeal to parents―particularly those of children with disabilities―and outdoor enthusiasts alike.

From a marketing standpoint, Ryan is a highly regarded video blogger, whose skiing descents have around 150,000 views on YouTube and have been featured on Outside TV and the “Right This Minute” viral video show. He is also a regular contributor for the Ski the East and Ski the Whites brand pages. Rob and Ryan are committed to leveraging their close connections with highly visible media contacts and members of the outdoor community―including Olympic skiers, CNN and NFL contributors, and prominent environmental activists.

Rob DeLena is one of the leading legal placement consultants in the country and for over twenty years has assisted top law firms and corporations finding legal talent. In 1998, after graduating from the Northeastern University School of Law, and after practicing law (unhappily) for two years, he founded his company, Legal Staffing Solutions. Now, he offers his expertise to law students as a speaker to premier law schools including Harvard, Boston College, University of Michigan, and Georgetown. When Rob isn’t chasing his son, Ryan, up the side of a mountain or down expert ski slopes, he coaches travel softball and offers private hitting instruction, serves as the President of the Alumni Council at The Governor’s Academy, grows hot peppers in his garden, and savors championships by any Boston sports franchise. Rob lives in Sudbury, MA with his wife, Mary Beth. His daughter Abigail currently attends The Governor’s Academy and will head to college in the fall of 2021. When Rob isn’t sneaking to Vermont to ski with his son, he also enjoys spending time with his two Miniature Schnauzers, Ada and Bruno.

Ryan DeLena is currently a sophomore at Northern Vermont University studying Outdoor Education. Known in the outdoors community for his viral videos under the moniker “Extreme Ryan,” he can often be found ski mountaineering around the globe. He was pictured on the cover of Backcountry Ski Maps (2020) and has conquered many of the world’s signature ski runs including the Super-C Couloir in Chile, the Little Couloir in Montana, Tuckerman Ravine in New Hampshire, and has climbed and skied peaks in Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Antarctica. Ryan is also an enthusiastic rock climber and avid hiker. He has climbed the Grand Teton in Wyoming as well as many classic routes in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. He is a member of the Professional Ski Instructors Association and American Mountain Guide Association, and has earned advanced certifications in Wilderness First Responder, Avalanche Rescue, and Professional Ski Instruction. Ryan lives in Johnson, Vermont.