The 2022 Rock N’ 4 Ryan Tournament - Event Wrap Up

The first ever RockN’4Ryan Rockfish Tournament, which was created in honor of veteran Navy Seal, Ryan Larkin, brought leaders in the technology industry together to raise awareness and donations to support prevention of veteran suicide. 

Ryan Larkin was a decorated Navy Seal who served in 4 heavy combat tours over his 10 year service. Larkin complained of headaches, insomnia and had noted changes in behavior after his third tour. He was prescribed many medications but was not able to accurately diagnose or treat the cause of his issues. Sadly, Larkin took his own life in 2017.

“Veteran suicide is not always a mental health issue. In Ryan’s case, it was also a physical injury. He suffered from microscopic tears in his brain caused by being in close proximity to high impact blasts. These tears caused astroglial scarring, scars so small that they can only be diagnosed post-mortem.” explained RockN’4Ryan co-founder, Max Petit. 

The RockN’4Ryan fishing tournament was created by Larkin’s friends to fast-track brain research that may be able to help diagnose traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and their linkage to veteran suicide. All proceeds of the event are being donated to Cohen Veteran Bioscience (CVB), a non-profit that uses science and research to accelerate the development of next-generation diagnostics and treatments for brain disorders by harnessing the power of biotechnology (including neuroimaging, ‘omics, and biosensors) in combination with high-performance computing and data analytics.

Three rockfish were weighed in. The second and third place fish both measured in at just over 48 inches and were shockingly caught simultaneously on the same tandem trolling line by the Palo Alto team, captained by Fabian Murillo. The first place fish was over 49 inches long and was reeled in at the mouth of the Choptank River by Army veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart medal, Jeddah Deloria of the ServiceNow team. 

“We are so proud to support this cause. We are already looking forward to next year’s event, where we hope to dramatically increase the donations raised by formalizing sponsorship levels and promoting the event more heavily to the public.” said Robyn Bollhorst, co-founder of RockN’4Ryan. 

The 2022 event sponsors included: Sirius Federal, AWS, Cisco, Cybereason, ServiceNow, Sixgen, Softchoice, Palo Alto, Red River, Colossal, Stratascale, Snowflake, and Waypoint. Together, the sponsors and attendees raised neary $10,000.