For most of his life, Michael Comberiate has preferred to look at the world, as he says, upside down.<\/p>\n
With his hands on the ground and feet in the air, the retired NASA engineer has kept meticulous records of how many handstands he\u2019s done in his 77 years: more than 105,000.<\/p>\n
Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. <\/a><\/p>\n He\u2019s done handstands on mountaintops, pyramids and sheets of ice; in about 250 countries, all 50 U.S. states, plus dozens of times in Antarctica and the North and South poles. Comberiate – whom friends and colleagues dubbed \u201cNASA Mike\u201d – says by his estimates, he has done \u201cmore documented handstands in more places than anyone ever.\u201d<\/p>\n Over decades, Comberiate has suffered severe back pain, separated shoulders and undergone several surgeries for torn rotator cuffs – injuries he says are unrelated to handstands, but rather mostly due to years breaking boards and cinder blocks as a taekwondo master black belt.<\/p>\n Now he\u2019s battling his fourth bout with cancer – a rare and aggressive form called mantle cell lymphoma – so he\u2019s put most of his travels and handstands on hold.<\/p>\n Comberiate said he hopes that once his five months of treatment at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda end in late February, he can overcome the side effects that cause dizziness and weakness in his arms. He wants to get back to his regimen of at least five handstands a day and try to do more handstands in more places.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a fun thing to do,\u201d Comberiate said one afternoon in the spacious home that he built himself in Highland, Maryland. Even though he\u2019d just completed inpatient cancer treatment, he could barely sit still as he talked with excitement about his passion for inversions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unique and it introduces me to a lot of people and breaks the ice,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople start talking to you when they see you with your legs up in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n He grew up in Adelphi, Maryland, and started doing handstands as a teenager. In college at the University of Maryland in College Park, he joined the Gymkana gymnastics troupe. He later got the idea – which his friends considered harebrained but fun – of counting the handstands he did everywhere he went.<\/p>\n When he traveled for his job, making satellites and specialty communications equipment that could withstand harsh weather in far-flung places including Australia, New Zealand and Alaska, he\u2019d tack on extra time to do a handstand or two. He estimates he\u2019s spent about $250,000 of his own money to travel.<\/p>\n To keep track of his efforts, he\u2019s saved a photo of nearly every handstand. A few years ago, he self-published a 900-page autobiography called \u201cThe World I Have Seen Upside Down.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s the time he did 10 handstands to get just the right shot at the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. There\u2019s him upside down at the Great Wall of China, in front of London\u2019s Big Ben and the Louvre in Paris, and amid elephants grazing in a field in Kenya. There he is on sheets of ice in the North Pole, and in Bethlehem inside the Church of the Nativity, built over the site where Christians believe Jesus was born.<\/p>\n Comberiate said his handstands start conversations, even when there\u2019s a language barrier. If he\u2019s alone, he asks passersby to snap his photo. Inevitably they ask: What\u2019s this about? Where are you from?<\/p>\n \u201cThe next thing I know, I\u2019m walking with them, and they\u2019re showing me their world,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like I represent some kind of freedom or enthusiasm. I guess it\u2019s a can-do spirit that is contagious.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Comberiate\u2019s friends – Michael Smith, of Odenton, Maryland, who\u2019s known him for 25 years and traveled with him to Africa, Asia and Europe – laughed recalling the handstands and the stares.<\/p>\n \u201cMike\u2019s the kind of guy who\u2019s going to squeeze every drop out of life,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n Comberiate recalled how hard it was back in the \u201colden\u201d days to catch his handstands with film cameras.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d come back home from a long trip, hoping you got the shot and you\u2019d have to wait to develop the film to see if it was a good one,\u201d Comberiate said.<\/p>\n In his basement, he keeps hundreds of glass vials, old film canisters and prescription bottles filled with little souvenirs from his travels. One is marked \u201cDead Sea Mud, Jordan. Nov. 12, 2011.\u201d Another holds sand and reads \u201cEl Camino, Santiago.\u201d<\/p>\n Comberiate said he used to pick destinations by throwing a dart at a map on his wall. Once, it landed on the floor, and he took it as a sign to go to Antarctica.<\/p>\n His handstands are not in the Guinness Book of World Records but he is – for his work at NASA. In 1999, he and a colleague set a record for holding the first \u201cpole-to-pole\u201d conference call between the North and South poles. He\u2019s also been recognized by Ripley\u2019s Believe It or Not for carrying ice from the North Pole to the South Pole and vice versa.<\/p>\n This spring, his cancer returned.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people hear a cancer diagnosis, and they sit in a recliner and say, \u2018Oh I have cancer, and I\u2019m going to lead a cancer life,\u2019\u201d said his wife, Carolyn. \u201cNot Mike. He\u2019s done the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n In the past few months, even as he juggles his treatments, Comberiate walks 10 miles a day – mostly on a treadmill –<\/b> or exercises on a stationary pedal machine when in the hospital.<\/p>\n \u201cMike\u2019s made peace with the fact that he\u2019s not going to be around forever,\u201d said his friend Smith. \u201cHe\u2019s bummed about it, but he\u2019s not going to sit down and go, \u2018Poor me. Woe is me.\u2019 He\u2019s going to continue to do what he can for as long as he can.\u201d<\/p>\n One afternoon, as he showed visitors his memorabilia in his basement, Comberiate asked, \u201cYou want to see me do a handstand?\u201d He\u2019d just gotten home the day before from a week-long stay at NIH. He still had his hospital band on his arm.<\/p>\n \u201cCome on, Mike, you can do it,\u201d he said aloud to himself. \u201cJust get those legs up there.\u201d Several times he bent over, put his hands on the floor and tried to thrust his legs in the air, but he was too dizzy. After a short break, he tried again and nailed it for a few seconds.<\/p>\n \u201cSee,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew I could still do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Content<\/p>\n New science points to 4 distinct types of autism<\/a><\/p>\n After more than 125 years, the Christmas Bird Count is more popular than ever<\/a><\/p>\n