Ryan Ries is not unlike kids all over America, all over the world, who grow up in Christian families but never truly make a decision for themselves.  Instead, they take the opposite path, away from God and away from the ideals and morals of their family.

After 19 years of living life and working in mainstream and underground music along with the snowboard and skateboard industries with C1RCA Footwear, Special Blend Outerwear, Forum Snowboards, Foursquare Outerwear and Jeenyus Snowboards, possessing money, women, drugs, and parties—everything the world had to offer—Ries decided to walk away from it all in order to get clean and have peace in his life.

In a hotel room in Panama, sober for the first time in months, Ries spoke to God, “Okay God, if you’re real, I want peace in my life.  I want to give everything up.  I don’t want this anymore.  I don’t want this lifestyle. I’ve been doing this for 19 years and I’m empty.  How many drugs can I do, how much alcohol can I drink, how many girls can I sleep with, and still be empty.”

After many years of partying, over dosing and seeing his friends die, he was empty.  Ries got down on his knees and said, “God, make yourself real to me. Come in my life and give me peace.”

As the son of Pastor/Evangelist Raul Ries, it seems like this would be a natural step in the life of Ryan, however, his lifestyle was far removed from the family life he left behind.  While his parents were leading a large church in Southern California, Ries found his first porn magazine in 1^st grade and started smoking cigarettes in 2^nd grade.  By High school, Ries had moved on to marijuana, meth, LSD, coke, shrooms, nitrous, Ecstasy and alcohol.  As the years went by his drug use progressed to heroin, GHB and Xanax, anything and everything he could get his hands on.

During the last 4 years of his crazy lifestyle, it was not just a way of life for Ries, it was a necessity,”I had to do drugs, almost every day, just to feel normal.  I had to drink beer just to turn my brain off.”

Once Ries gave his life to Christ, it was a done deal.  He stopped the drugs, the drinking and the women, everything that kept him tied down in the world.  A hard worker, traveling the world managing a professional skate board team, Ries found a new vision in life, a new direction to channel his drive and passion.  He looked out at the kids taking drugs, drinking, cutting themselves and attempting suicide, all trying to escape from the pain of life and he saw himself.  He saw a whole generation who needed the peace he had found.

Reinventing the EXIT Festivals of the 80’s as the EXIT Concerts, Ries found like minded musicians and artists who wanted to reach out to this generation.  He no longer lives for the next party.  Now, he seeks God’s will for his life.  He knows by the open doors, God has called him to reach into the very fires of hell to bring hope to the young people today.

“I want to go back and reach the kids that don’t know anything about Jesus, that are miserable and come from some crazy background—beaten as kids, drugs, whatever.  Our generation is not the ‘70’s—it isn’t peace and love.  We want to get screwed up and get wild and go punch stuff and kick people.  I know I did.”