Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais - Leading with Your Heart | Big Wave Surfer, Garrett McNamara

Episode Date: March 4, 2020

This week’s conversation is with Garrett McNamara, an international big wave explorer known for discovering, pioneering and surfing the biggest wave in the world - The Everest of the Oceans - Nazaré, Portugal.Garrett also lead the iconic two-man team who rode tsunami waves generated by a 300ft calving glacier in Alaska and is the first and only foreigner to receive the Vasco da Gama Medal of Honor from the Portuguese Navy for his contributions to Portugal.He currently lives between Hawaii and Portugal with his family where he and his wife run the McNamara Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on providing children meaningful nature experiences, creating life long stewards of the Earth.In this conversation Garrett shares some incredible stories from his upbringing – which help make sense of how he became the man he is today.Garrett is known in the surf world for being a pioneer and a master of his craft._________________Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMasteryGet exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindsetFollow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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slash finding mastery. That's David, D-A-V-I-D, protein, P-R-O-T-E-I-N.com slash finding mastery. Now this week's conversation is with Garrett McNamara, and he's an international big wave explorer known for discovering and pioneering and surfing the biggest wave in the world. And it's known as the Everest of the oceans, Nazaree, Portugal. And if you haven't seen this wave yet, do a search online and look for just Nazaree, N-A-Z-A-RE, and surf. And it's just an extraordinary wave. I mean, it's amazing. It's this amazing convergence that takes place right at this tip at Portugal.

And so Garrett, he's amazing. He's received the Vasco de Gama Medal of Honor from the Portuguese Navy for his contributions to Portugal. So he really did something very special for this unique wave that he found, basically, and was one of the McNamara Foundation. It's a nonprofit organization focused on providing children meaningful nature experiences. You know, what they're doing is they're trying to teach people to become lifelong stewards of the earth. And in this conversation, Garrett shares some incredible stories. I mean, wait until we get into this about his upbringing, which all of it helps make sense of how he became to be the man he is today, which literally is a pioneer in high consequence environments and absolutely fascinated with the ocean and human potential. And Garrett flat out in the surf world amongst his peers is known for being a pioneer, but

also deeper than that for being a master of his craft. And I also want to mention that nobody gets to the places that people like Garrett get to without a deep commitment towards mastery of craft and mastery of self. And that's where the psychological skills play part. And that's why Coach Carol, the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, that's why the two of us fired up compete to create, which if you're inspired to train your mind in the same way that help world-class athletes do what they do, that's allowed Garrett, for example, to drop into 80 foot mountain of waves, then, you know, we've set that course up and hopefully it scratches that itch for you. And quick little rundown over the course of eight weeks, what we

do is we pull back the curtain and show you how world-class athletes and performers train their mind and organize their inner life so that you can apply those same skills in your own life. And the end game is to flourish. That's it. By conditioning your mind to live in the present moment more often. The present moment, it's the only place where performance is expressed and wisdom revealed. So the entire program is dedicated to show you how. How do we do that?

And so if you're interested, I hope you are. Punch over to compete2create.net forward slash finding mastery. And because you are a Finding Mastery listener, you get a $50 discount for your purchase. Again, compete2create.net forward slash finding mastery. So with that, let's jump right into this week's conversation with a legend, Garrett McNamara. Garrett, how are you? I'm good. Mike, looking at your dog.

Look at that guy. He's like a little human. He's a human in a dog suit. Australian Labradoodle. I mean, they really are sweet, kind dogs. So Labradoodle Shepherd? How's that? Australian Labradoodle shepherd some how's that australian labradoodle and i i don't actually

don't know if it means they're from australia or it's um like some australian shepherd yeah maybe i'm not quite sure because they do have uh shepherd doodles or whatever oh they do yeah but yeah yeah so he's he's with us today. Okay, so let's do this. Where did you come from? Came from my mommy. I was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and we just were there until I was about one, and then moved to Berkeley, California during a very liberal and a lot of uprising and People's Park riots going on.

And we got there right as that riot was ending. We drove right in. It was like 69, 68, 69. Okay. And then how old were you when you moved out to California? One and a half. Okay. So right away. 69. Okay. And then how old were you when you moved out to California? One and a half. Okay. So right away.

Yeah. Yeah. So you feel, do you, are your roots in California or do you feel your roots are in Massachusetts? More in Hawaii, but my main roots from the beginning, yeah, California, definitely. That's what molded the beginning of my life. Why did mom and dad move from Massachusetts to California? Well, when I was one and a half, we were living in a boarding school where my dad was the Latin teacher, English major, and basketball coach,

and my mother was the house mother. And they actually found me a mile away from home when I was about one and a half, getting ready to walk down the dirt road, getting ready to walk on the highway in my diaper. And so I guess I was an explorer from the beginning, just wanted to explore. And my mom was preoccupied, to say the least, so I could get away. She said I was an escape artist,

but I think she didn't really pay attention to where i was okay that's alarming because why is that looking back like what was she distracted by uh she just really caught up in whatever she's doing and it seemed but i yeah she was more of a she said god raised God raised us. She said, yeah, I just let you guys go. God raised you. Wow. And I remember from a very young age, I could do whatever I wanted at any time of the day or night. So then how did you learn consequences? How'd what?

How'd you learn stuff? Like how did you, what were the consequences that? We just went out and did everything. And that's how we learn from experience in berkeley it was pretty crazy we were free i mean we would go to school get dropped off at the front door and we'd walk out the back we'd go to uc berkeley and this is elementary school we cut every single day and if my found us, he'd bring us back to the front door and we'd walk out the back. You've been training your whole life for being able to manage like counterculture, off access, risk taking, dangerous environments because you've been pushing up against rules and boundaries since one and a half maybe. I guess like unintentionally yeah

naturally just having fun that was basically we were just having fun we were just kids having fun we had two stepbrothers and they were our best friends we introduced my dad and their mom and that was it then we lived together and we were out of control we would in berkeley you got all these apartment buildings where all these college kids lived. And we'd climb the fire escapes. And this is like nine years old. Steal all the marijuana plants. Take them home. Roll fat joints.

It was out of control. At nine years old? Yes. Come on. It was out of control. We'd get this big black trash bag full and we'd come down the fire escape on our BMX bikes. It was amazing. We had so much fun so if you want to raise one of the most dynamic big wave surfers on the planet ever have no rules well i don't know i

don't think that um works because i'm not the most dynamic guy but no rules work for me i know you're gonna you know use the humble card but you've you have a massive dent you've made a massive impact in big wave surfing and like what are some of the records large i think largest wave at nazaree for sure right yeah i got super lucky my whole career but i mean i do believe luck is when preparation meets opportunity and you just got to grab it when it's coming by or it'll pass you by and I've I always had kind of a mission always was focused on it some type of monumental feat on the big sessions that we had I had to focus on one a year just to put food on a table. And it was pretty amazing since 2003. We got to do the Jaws Towing World Cup when I quit surfing.

At 30 years old, I quit. I gave up on my passion. I was open to store. I figured that was the right thing to do for my future, for my kids, so I could, you know, keep food on the table. The serving crew, once you're 30, just usually over, maybe even before that. And then I was driving just to work and looking at my favorite way, perfect. And I never drank coffee at 30. I i started drinking coffee getting depressed at the desk doing the you know checking the drawer making sure we made some money that day and trying to

get customers to come in and show my cool picture and talk about how great the store is and and i was doing good the store was good but i was depressed and i remember driving by lonnie's like perfect and i'm like what i gotta get back in the water and i got went to the store and i said i had this book business plan for dummies it was the first time i ever wrote a real business plan and i did that for the store and i said let's try that for surfing. So I said, okay, goal, keep surfing. How do I do that? Okay, win the Eddie and win the Jaws. Okay, and then I train and eat right and focus, manifests.

And I had that on my bathroom mirror, on the refrigerator, in the car, and everywhere I went every day I focused on the goal and I realized that every second I took from the goal focus from from the roadmap it would take me longer to get to achieve and it was super interesting the the eddy and the jaws end up happening on the same day. And I'm 4am just freaking to every back then you got to call to check the buoys to see what the waves are doing. So every hour changes. I've got every hour all night long. And I have my partner waiting for me on Maui. Rodrigo.

So just a level set Jaws is one of the heaviest waves in the world. It's on Maui only breaks when it's massive. The Eddie is the occasional, it's not guaranteed that it's going to run, but it's the international invitation where people from all over the world come in for this large wave event to honor Eddie A a cow right and why may obey and so you've got a heavy wave and then you've got this not that why may is not heavy but you've got a really powerful cultural experience in surfing you know that the eddie offers so those were your two big ones and you thought if i win both of those well i'll put it up i didn't think they both happened the the same day. You know what? I wasn't focused on winning. Was I focused on winning? I guess I was.

Yeah, I was focused on winning both of them. But like you said, Eddie is the most prestigious, most memorable, so special with a few friends in the water surfing in honor of Eddie Aikau, the epitome of the Aloha spirit. The most selfless person gave his life trying to rescue everybody and i had surfed it the year before i pal i was like seventh alternate so you got to get invited yeah so at this point you okay so the seventh alternate seventh alternate so you didn't even make the cut list and you're age 30 something

at this point is that right yeah 32 32 33 can you hear my dog yeah oh my god he's really feeling it right now okay so yeah no no no no go back to actually you know let's do this how did you get to hawaii got to hawaii from berkeley to hawaii we We were in Berkeley for about a couple months while my mom wrangled up a bunch of people to start a hippie commune. Mom's out there now. Well, she's looking for herself first. She's trying to find herself.

So she figured a hippie commune was it. And she got my dad and made pretty much forced him to come along. And, and he was happy. He's come along. And he was happy. He's pretty content. And he was his teacher. And she said, okay, we're going to Berkeley. We're going to start a hippie commune.

She inherited a bunch of money. Mom did? Yeah, so they were cruising. How much? I don't know. Like big time? Probably like a couple hundred thousand, which was a couple million back then. Wow.

And that was from her mom or dad? I don't know. It's a good question. I got to ask her. It was from her mom, from her dad. And I'm just trying to get a sense, like it was enough to kind of get by or enough like living got dramatically changed? Living, I don't know. So I was one and a half, so I have no idea.

But we just did whatever she wanted. So it worked. But I remember we always had to get to the bank to get the next payment when we were in Mexico. So then you moved to Mexico. Well, she did the commune. And we got 30 people in a house all together. All just amazing. So fun.

All running around naked. I wrote a book. It's called hound of the sea it's a memoir and i i was talking to the publisher and my wife i'm like i i remember all i remember as a kid was running around naked through the fields eating watermelon and then i'd always look down and i'd see watermelon seeds all over so i'm like i want to scribble a little boy in the field with watermelon seeds all over and i want to call it watermelon seeds on my ding dong that's the title of the book but it got vetoed i don't understand i figured out and put the little boy on the cover you know go scribble okay hold on you can put seeds all the way on his belly and put a black spot over

it if you have to, but I was like, let's go all the way. Let's get some people interested in this book. I gotta say this. So I, I've known your body of work and who you are from being in the surf community and you're a legend by reputation and by what I've seen and everyone I know in big wave and also on tour, whatever has said, you don't know Garrett yet. You got to meet him. You got to meet him. You got to meet him. So how about it? Okay. All right. So I didn't realize you had this colorful and let me get it right. Massachusetts, California, you build mom builds a, um a commune, then Mexico for a bit, and I think Central America too. Yep.

Right? Yep. And there's a little heavy period there, I think. Well, you read the book, huh? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And then Hawaii.

Yeah. Okay. Walk us through that narrative. And the reason is to set the context. Like, how does somebody who is world class at risk taking in consequential environments, how do you cut your teeth? And there's lots of ways. So this is like your way. So let's go from hippie commune. How does that blow up? Okay, so we're at the hippie commune having the time of our life.

And there's like 30 people on 44 acres in one house and then everybody started getting their own houses and my mom didn't really like that. She wanted everybody together and for some reason that wasn't, she didn't find herself there so she wanted to keep hunting and she told my dad, let's go travel to Mexico in a Volkswagen van. My dad was happy. He didn't want to keep going. He's like, I'm good. I'll stay. You want to go, you go. And my mom took me and left my brother, my father, and we

jumped in a Volkswagen van. I remember it's kind of red, red, Casadero to British Honduras and stopped at beaches and the van broke down every few hundred miles and I was like five or something, somewhere around there and I knew how to fix everything on the van by the time we got to Honduras. I knew any sound of anything and I knew how to fix it and what it was going to be and how, where we had to find parts. And it was pretty amazing. We ended up in British Honduras where we actually were in a traveling circus for a little while. It was crazy. And my mom dropped me off with this mexican family we went there and they took us in and fed us and we hung out for a day or two and then my mom had to do her normal

routine to go to the bank to get the money or i don't know what she was actually doing and she left me with this mexican family for about two weeks and it was awesome we had horses and cows and chickens a big ranch and i was in heaven i was like wow this is nice and uh stability you know kind of good family and then here comes mom driving back and it looks like a man i was happy to see my mom but i kind of feel like i was kind of didn't want to leave because it's so stable and nice and uh then we went to british honduras where she met this pretty crazy mexican guy who would be really abusive and that's the only part of my childhood that i really blocked out that i don't remember any of it the abuse yeah she said she explained

it in detail and it did not sound good. So I definitely blocked it out. And so were you abused or mom abused? Mom, I don't think I was at all. I don't ever remember being abused at all. What period of time? Was that how old? Five, six, somewhere around there, maybe seven at the oldest. And how long did it last?

John, I don't think we were there for more than a couple months and maybe six at the most. But then I would go back to Berkeley. Liam would come or she would alternate or keep us together. But I think she liked to leave one of us with our dad because he was probably really sad about everything. Finding Mastery is brought to you by Momentus. When it comes to high performance, whether you're leading a team, raising a family, pushing physical limits, or simply trying to be better today than you were yesterday,

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FindingMastery20 at FelixGray.com for 20% off. Okay. So when I'm listening, I'm hearing like wild adventure, borderless, boundaryless type of behaviors and principles. And then I also hear incredible freedom and incredible dysfunction. I'm imagining drug use. I'm imagining that there's as much experimentation that humans can have.

Running naked, I don't know if that was you or others. Everybody. We had sweat lodges with peyote. I ate peyote when I was like four. Come on. Our friends owned gerardelli chocolate in san francisco and they would come up for the parties because we had all these scientists and these psychiatrists and we had all these amazing just super intelligent people

on the commune with us and it drew a lot of people in from San Francisco to come for the weekend. And we had this pond with a sweat lodge. And I remember they came up with all these bags of chocolate and big watermelons. And all the adults are all getting ready to do their sweat. And the kids are all just, we were kids just having a blast. And the peyote went around. And I remember all the kids, kids older kids they would always like make us do whatever they wanted so they uh gave us peyote and we ate it i remember eating some peyote a button the straight button and uh then throwing up the biggest watermelon chocolate

fountain you ever saw oh no i remember i remember that clear day i don't remember the trip but i've i've taken peyote afterwards and it's not that heavy of a trip so i mean i guess it matters how much you take because of jim orson he's just going out there and when he was taking it but he probably was taking some other things too i don't know so what is drug use for you what is your drug history been as uh you know surfing we tried we really had a lot of fun when we were young and then it can get ugly if you don't if you keep going and luckily i'm stopped and don't do any drugs and uh are you a user abuser or addict during that time user abuser addict probably all three at one time so you so the addict is like i really can't stop yeah i got to there for a bit where i was just never gonna do it again and then you do it again

and then never gonna do it again you do it again it's really fun in the beginning and then it can get really ugly and um get a hold of you and won't let you go what does ugly mean ugly is you know just driving by perfect waves going to get drugs instead of going surfing yeah so there was that was the primary choice and was it a numbing experience for you a distraction a way to hide some of the pain it was it just to have fun and in the north shore you have six months of really good awesome waves and then you have six months of nothing i think it's kind of trying to keep the rush going for fun yeah there you go and it was we hung out with older people from when we were really young and we could there

i mean everybody was just like yeah we mainly smoked a lot of pot but then coke got pretty uh came into the picture and that was when it got a little bit ugly. Definitely got ugly. When you talk about it, like, does it, is there pain behind this? Or is, are you like matter of fact about it? It's hard for me to actually feel what's happening. There's no pain, but I just think about what other, like, you know, I thought, to be honest with sponsors and stuff is the only thing that kind of comes to mind that i don't want to you don't you don't want them out that that there was this personally i'd love to share it all

and um yeah help people understand and and uh realize that you don't have to be a victim you don't have to let those things define you and you there is amazing easy ways to uh to be on on track and not making conscious choices make conscious choices choices to love yourself and mainly when whatever you put in your body make sure it's loving for yourself there you go whether it's information or food or anything make sure you're loving yourself. Is that a philosophy that you live by? Live by it. I'm not the best at it.

I work on it every day. I mean, you can meditate in the morning, and I do meditate, and I'm loving, kind, and helpful. That's my focus, loving, kind, and helpful. First of all, be very loving, kind, and helpful to yourself, and you can do that with everybody else and then when did you adopt that philosophy i've been reading deepak for some years now and then

just had a really amazing retreat with annarest Yoga, probably the best yoga on the planet. And I've always been very selfless, but unconsciously, just as normal as that's just who I am. But now that I've read some really powerful books that help me really understand how I am and who I am and how I can be. And my wife, Nicole, definitely, she's solely the reason that I'm so happy and doing so well. Okay. So was early life... Just by her sharing everything with me.

So women are so in touch with everything and so selfless. And so if you listen when they talk, you can learn a lot. Okay. All right. Early childhood, middle adulthood, middle adolescence. Was it traumatic or not? Am I putting a label on there that is undue? For me, it was not traumatic.

It's not traumatic. It was fun. Amazing. There was one part of my life that was not fun. Okay. Okay. So after the hippie commune and after Mexico and Honduras, my mom dropped us back off with our father.

And he had this amazing restaurant in Berkeley and this amazing area. And we had two block street. It's called Emerson, 20 friends, BMX, skateboard all day, every day, baseball team, soccer, football, basketball, everything, but skateboarding and BMX was our favorite and baseball. But then we had every single baseball card, every football card, every stacks of gum this high from the, from all the baseball cards. And, um, and so where was, where were we going? Uh, I was saying traumatic and you said no fun, fun. So then mom comes back after about a six months or a year i don't know how long it was and we're like oh here

she comes and she's like we're going to she's going to find her god now she didn't i don't think she quite found herself so now she's got to find god because herself was not what she was looking for so probably maybe she had some emptiness or something. She left my dad. That was the biggest mistake she ever made because he was there ready for her, and she just wanted to go find herself and then find God. So she takes us to Mount Shasta

where everybody's looking for aliens and spaceships. That's where they're supposed to be. And I guess a lot of people over there are looking for God as well. Maybe the aliens and God hang out together. I don't know how it all works, but I'm not sure. So she finds this cult called the Christ family who somehow resonates with what she's looking for. And they're all looking up their cult leader as Christ Lightning Amen, who is very elusive, very hard to find.

We're always hunting for him. He's in Florida. Okay, let's go to Florida. He's here. He's in Florida. Okay, let's go to Florida. He's here. He's there. And from Mount Shasta, the laws of the cult are you have to burn everything you own, money included. There's no sex, no killing, and no materialism are the laws so uh all your lively possessions uh anything leather anything made from animals money all her inheritance in the fire our nice leather boots they're normal boots but keep your feet warm in the fire we they uh gave us a sheet that we cut up like a robe. So we had these Jesus robes, exactly.

Vision Jesus, that was us, little Jesuses, with one rolled up blanket that we held on our shoulder and no shoes. And we walked for, I don't know how long. And we weren't allowed to hitchhike. But if somebody stopped and wanted to pick us up, we were allowed to takehike but if somebody stopped and wanted to pick us up they were that we were allowed to take a ride i think i was like my brother was this that's not really bad with the whole i i feel like i was seven and liam was five so it must yeah that sounds right so so honduras must have been like

four and six four three and five somewhere around there so um then we're and uh so people would pick us up hitchhiking i'm not hitchhiking they'd pick us up we take a ride they take us home feed us those are like the highlights of the whole experience uh as we're walking barefoot forever the people would always we'd be chanting no sex no killing no materialism and the people would always say well where did the kids come from? That was before. Oh, my goodness. We'd come up to like a Safeway or what's a big Publix or something,

and straight to the dumpster. Heaven, so much food, so good. We would eat out of the dumpsters. What was your worldview then? I know that you didn't have it formed, but if you look back, what did you think about the world when you were a young kid? It's like a playground. Okay. And then when you got into, did you go to school, like high school? Very rarely. Yeah. That's what I thought. Okay.

You're out the back door. So you didn't. Elementary. Not at all. Not at all. I get this. I get to Hawaii. They think I'm borderline retarded.

And I go to my school. Number two, second smartest kid in the class. That shows you how behind Hawaii is in the education system. I couldn't even write my name, I think, like in sixth grade. How does that work? Because we never went to school. We didn't learn anything. We learned the streets.

We learned the street. We knew about the world. We didn't know about Booksmart. But then in Hawaii, I went to school a bit bit and i liked my teachers i loved my teachers my first teacher miss scalpy so it was amazing i loved her and that's where i was the second smartest in the class to oscar romosco and so i was kind of like okay this is cool and but it was tough once i started surfing you're going walking down the street to go to school and you go right to school and you go left to the beach i went left a lot after i mean that was sixth grade we got to hawaii miss galby so is that pupakea pipe that was actually wailua we're in the armpit in cement city

okay my mom uh it was crazy this uh musician she she tried to get us to Hawaii like three times. Everybody threw us a big going-away party, and we never made it. And then the third time, we still thought it wasn't going to happen, but she got this African-American, was her husband. She married him. He's a really good musician, nice guy. His name was Daryl. And he got the tickets. we're going to the airport

she sewed up these costumes for lack of a better word we were in orange velvet pants white satin shirts with orange velvet vest it was the the Jackson 5 meets the Partridge family going to the airport. Oh, God. Yeah. That was the great, that was like, eh.

That was like coming back to Berkeley in the Jesus robes to my dad's street where all the kids were. All our friends and we're walking up with Jesus robes

just terrified that somebody's going to see us. So the Christ family wasn't fun. The robes were not fun. She left us with one of the brothers. Honduras was not fun for that small period, right? Yeah. No, I don't remember that.

You blocked it out. Yeah. Is that because it was so traumatic that you blocked it out? Yeah. Okay. So you have the ability to manage difficult things. Either you block it out or you just roll with it. Somehow you figured things out. And we're just lucky. Irish. Are you Irish? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What is your working definition of luck if you take it

past the theory that you just mentioned which is preparation meets opportunity i think if you're a good person and you have good intentions you know yin and yang given you get especially if you're not expecting anything in return and you're just being selfless and honest and loving and kind, um, luck will come your way. Do you have a spiritual framework? I just recently, I was a Christian back in the day and I was pretty into it. And, and I just like, how can any religion say that, that amazing, beautiful person that's not a Christian is going to hell or that amazing, beautiful person is not going where everybody else is going.

All these different religions have their little, what are you, twisted scriptures or whatever they want to call it. So I just like pulled back from all religion. And I always had God as my uh rock like oh please god or thank you god and i thanked him a lot and said please here and there especially underwater on a big wipeout but i tend to thank him way more than i ask for help and but anytime i ask for help it worked but i believe in the power of manifesting and i believe in the power of attraction and and energy and scientific fact everything is connected and we're all part of

one energy and um i but i didn't know what to call it anymore i'm like what is this energy what is this thing this created everything and the great unknown the creator um and but i didn't really have didn't feel good whenever i oh what am i saying please i'm underwater giant wave on my head and 30 seconds go by i'm like please papaya save me i didn't feel right please great unknown this didn't resonate and just recently i came to call it god who cares i it feels good when i call it god so i'm just gonna please god god is god i know what he is or who he is i feel like it's an energy and and if you want to go try and think oh yes there's this god and he created us and then you go okay no who created god that's when it gets really weird and uh we're not supposed to go there

but i just think everything's energy. I know everything's energy. That's a fact. And if I want to call it God and it feels good, I'll call it God. So I've just decided that actually recently in the last month. Okay. Because I wasn't calling it God anymore. And I didn't know what to call this thing that gives me a false sense, a sense of security.

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mastery at checkout for 20% off your first order. That's calderalab, C-A-d-e-r-l-a-b.com finding mastery what are you an explorer of explorer of i like to explore big waves yeah explore big waves but i've been exploring a lot more internally yeah that's why i the question. Cause like you're the first part of your life was definitely like at the whim of your parents, they were explorers of searchers, maybe more so than explore. They were searching for something. And then you found surfing as a way to tap into nature, have some thrill, be part of a community, um, and a way that you could maybe get good at something, right? Because you can get your arms around it, so to speak. And it sounds like you've been wrestling on the, with the internal side, probably your whole life,

trying to figure things out, using sport, using surfing as a way to contextualize it. So let's, let's get into, let's get into the, go back to this, um, this moment in time where you had two big wave events that you're, you're depressed. So you're a good surfer, thirties hit. You're like, I got to put some food on the table for my kids. Why did you not repeat what your parents showed you how to raise kids? Hmm. I don't think I consciously didn't, I don't think I consciously focused on doing things that they didn't do.

My wife at the time, she had her, her father and mother were together and seemed pretty stable. She had like nine brothers and everybody kind of lived together as a family, which I thought that was really cool. The society these days tells us we need to separate from our parents and separate from our family and divide and conquer. So they do a really good job at that and they all stayed together and everybody looking oh yeah you guys are living together i kind of liked it and

i actually really liked it maybe it's kind of because of the commune childhood so mom didn't quite sacrifice her lifestyle for the kids you in flipped it on its head and said, I'm going to sacrifice myself for the kids. And you went and got a job, found yourself depressed, said, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. I can't live life this way. I'm going to start thinking about creating a structure and a path for surfing success and surfing as well. You find yourself at this crossroad now. Do I pick the Eddie or do I pick Jaws? And which one did you pick? I picked Jaws because I had a partner waiting on me. But the kicker was the year before I was seventh alternate.

There we go. And I was the only surfer in history to ever get to paddle out as the seventh alternate because the seventh guy did not show up. And I got out in my heat heat ready for the horn to blow and the seventh guy shows up and you paddle to the beach devastating i lived at wyoming bay i surfed it more than anybody i could see it from my front yard. And it was my dream. And it was so devastating. But still, I was torn. And I was still an alternate. I was like, I think I was I don't remember what number, but I was alternate again. Probably climbed

the ladder a little more. But I was still torn because it was such a desire to surf in the eddy and and you made you made the decision to not do the eddy but to go to jaws partner you had a guaranteed spot at jaws that was very strategic maneuver i was with a bad boy clothing who was a brazilian company and there was this guy rodrigo rezende who i at that time felt he was the most focused big wave rider in the world and but he couldn't drive a jet ski he didn't know how to drive a ski at all yeah so this is mid 90s it was 2003 2003 okay he was uh brazilian i was a brazilian sponsor for the company so i knew if i had a brazilian

partner they better chance of getting in and uh i actually talked to the organizer and he's like yeah i take go with rodrigo and we'll put you in so the strategic but he was also the gnarliest best big wave rider so both strategic i had the best guy in it and he's a Brazilian. So we are getting in and we can win. I, I, I actually knew we were winning. Were you on the ski or surfing? Both. So partners do both. The craze kicker is I went to Jaws about a couple of weeks or a month before.

Cause they called the contest on. We all went over there. And it's gotta be bigger than 25 feet, something like that. Hawaiian. So 50 foot plus. Yeah. And it's got to be bigger than 25 feet, something like that? Hawaiian, so 50 foot plus. 50 foot plus, yeah. And the swell didn't come in. And it was shitty wind.

But we went out anyway. And it was like 20, 30 foot faces. And he told me in a couple waves. And it was so terrifying. And it wasn't even big. And I was so afraid of this place after that. I was so scared to jump. Was this the first time you surfed it?

First time. So I'm going to the contest first time. Luckily, we had a warm-up the day before, but it wasn't a warm-up. It was worse than a warm-up. It was a terror. It was like, holy shit. Describe Jaws to me.

Jaws is like Superdome. There's this really beautiful bay, and it comes out to the north, and there's like this little perching spot where you can sit up. The whole place, you can see everything, but it gets a little closer on one side. And then it's all rocks on the bottom. It's a super long cliff, like, I don't know, a couple hundred feet, and you've got to walk down this muddy path and then it's all

boulders huge boulders and it looks impossible to paddle out if you time it just right you can make it without breaking your fins off or ruining your board i was super lucky i don't think i've ever paddled out at josh i may have once or twice i don't've ever paddled out at Jaws. I may have once or twice. I don't remember ever paddling out at Jaws. I've always was on a jet ski or on a boat. And I paddled in at Jaws before. I know I have paddled in because I had to get my boards off the rocks and then come back out. But it's just this amazing, perfect reef.

The amazing thing about Jaws is the reef. It's a perfect uh triangle reef swell hits it just makes this hollow top the way the wave stands up perfect and then makes a perfect two round cylinder that all the surfers desire called the barrel to get in the barrel is the the goal and the dream and the happy place and i actually named my son barrel he's five and his name's barrel of course he's ahead of all of us oh man he's in the barrel all day every day so when i was in early 2000 i was surfing a bunch as well and i would watch what you guys are doing and there there's a, there's a, for me, there's like this mythical, not mythical.

It's a party line, I guess under let's call it 12 foot face. It's fun. There's some, you know, like it's on right. Like the double overhead and you got to really, at least me, I have to really kind of compose myself to drop into those waves. But then over that, when it starts getting like 15, 16 foot faces, I don't, I don't have that skill. Like that thing is terrifying for me to feel comfortable. And then when I'm watching you guys start 50 plus, and it's a wave of consequence,

not just because the amount of water, but because of the throat of the wave. Yeah. And I remember in the nineties seeing waves, these mythical monsters that are out there and the purveying thought was you can't get enough speed to come into, to drop into the wave because the way the water going up the wave is too great for the speed that the, the surfboard needs to go down the wave and the arms arms. And the arms, you couldn't generate enough momentum. And then if you did, you had a good chance of dying. Because you get pitched, right? Like right on top of it.

So you've been on this scene for a long time. Why did you go from the 20-foot-plus into the 50-plus? And then your record holds it. Is it a hundred or 80? 78. Why did I make the jump? It was just a progression of what I've enjoyed. And I was always looking for the rush, mainly always every wave.

And, and I was not comfortable at certain levels and i had to go out and get comfortable and uh and i got when i wasn't comfortable that's when i got the rush okay talk talk let's pull on that thread for just a little bit those spaces that you are not uncomfortable you will go look for them am i i don't know i wouldn't really look for them but they were there and i would just so it's weird because the north shore got so crowded and toe surfing started when i saw laird and buzzy and derrick the first day they did it at our backyards and i ran home and got my gun to paddle out to ask them to tow me into one but i just stood on the beach i mean literally you can

visualize that cartoon character where his jaw drops on the ground and he just stuck yeah just in awe and and didn't paddle out but then from that day i was like i gotta get a boat they did with a boat they didn't use jet skis so i got a boat i got a big black zodiac painted a big shark mouth on the front we started towing with that thing but then the propeller would come by and like ah so uh then they introduced the personal watercrafts wave runners and then it was on yeah it was amazing okay how do you get better at being uncomfortable like what have you learned because you spent a lot of time in very uncomfortable experiences you know what a lot of it was god my sense of security and God definitely made it,

made me kind of fearless. But then I, after so many big wave sessions and so many wipeouts and so many locations, and then after surfing the glaciers in Alaska, the fear disappeared. Like it literally disappeared. I could not get the rush anymore. And the only time I would get the rush is if I was. I could not get the rush anymore. And the only

time I would get the rush is if I was afraid I would never get the rush. You know, the indoor, there's the endorphins and the dopamine. Um, you know, I would get the, the, which one's a heavier, quick one. The dopamine, right? Yeah. Both of them, both of them happen but dopamine's a feel-good chemical just like boom that's adrenaline adrenaline it's on like yeah zero to two seconds yeah heart's thumping yes yeah and i wouldn't get that anymore no matter what was going on so you probably had um adrenal fatigue or adrenal burnout like combat folks that are in the amphitheater of war come oftentimes can come back totally burned out from such high levels of chronic stress. And so you

might've had some fatigue in there, but hold on before we go there, because this isn't really important. You said, God, what does that mean that God to you? What does that mean? That what I was a full-on born-again Christian. And I was going to heaven and nothing was going to go wrong. But that wasn't supposed to happen. Okay. So your model was that if I die out here, this is how it's supposed to happen. No.

Before I had kids, that was. Before I had kids, and I didn't really care if I died because I was having so much fun it was my passion once I had kids I was not gonna die and I knew that and I made sure I got a train properly and was always ready and I got a really good relationship with my gut and I know when things are gonna go wrong I can sense things in the future and what's going to happen, how they're going to happen. And I pay good attention to it and listen to it. And there was like a couple of times I threw in a towel, one time in particular that I threw in the towel and it was a perfect day of Jaws. And just nothing felt right.

And my partner put me in a wave. It didn't feel right. And then I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to drive today. And I, and it was not very, not, not normal for me at all, but I knew something wasn't right and didn't, didn't serve that day. So most of the times you would feel safe enough when you would listen to your gut, it wouldn't send the signals that you should leave. It would send signals that this is dangerous, but you have the skills. Send me signals to go deeper,

go deep, go bigger. That's it. Just get as deep as you can and get, put it all on the line for the ultimate ride. Cause that's going to give you the rush. So it was about the rush. You were a thrill seeker at that i also put food on the table you get to get contract signed every

year if you go deeper you can get the picture you get the wave of the day that's right it was a lot of ego a lot of um but it was very satisfying um in the moment and as the awards or the ads or the movies or whatever, you got this, all right, you're going to get paid again. You're going to get paid again. Yeah. The last time I didn't listen to my wife and my gut, I shattered my shoulder at Mavericks. And I was letting ego get a hold of me again.

And I went to Mavericks with a sore neck, super hungry to get into the Mavs contest, which is unnecessary. I had Nazare. But, you know, I've been surfing Nazare for five years straight. Or maybe it was even up to, I think it was six at that point. Mavericks is a big cold water wave in northern california and nazare is in portugal yeah right like a big massive we'll get to that in a minute but a one-of-a-kind type of experience so so you didn't listen to your gut yeah nazare is a sandbar so there's no channel so you're never safe And it is the biggest wave in the world.

Any year that Nazare doesn't win for biggest wave, it's politics because it's 10 to 20 to 30 feet bigger. Guarantee, no exaggeration, every single year. Kai Lainey, I love Kai, but that wave at Jaws was peanuts compared to what came in at Nazare the year before, that same year. And it's the most challenging because it's never the same wave twice. Mavericks and Jaws both break in one spot. There's a beautiful channel. It's cutting. When you surf Nazare for five years straight, paddling and towing, you show up at Mavericks and you're a kid.

And it's like so easy and so fun. And so it's like it's too easy as a big wave surfer. And the first day back, it was the most crowded day ever, and I caught every single wave I wanted and had the time of my life, and everybody was going, they're all grumpy, and I was just having so much fun. I'm like, wow, this is amazing. So then I come back.

I tried to catch this monster 60-foot wave from the deep bowl, and I was coming down it it and then it doubled up and stuck me on the back and then it's the next well same exact thing i was like deep way behind every everybody's here and i'm over here i tried to get them and don't make it in so i'm like i'm gonna get a bigger board i'm gonna get a heavier board and i'm gonna go back there I'm gonna get that thing get barreled on a 60 foot wave at Mavs and uh I just got back from Nazarene I'm in Hawaii it was January we got home for New Year's we were there for New Year's and I told myself okay it's New Year's I'm gonna start doing yoga every single day get my body i was i was surfing

so much that i was really strong but i was stiff and sore and i'm like okay i gotta do yoga january first yoga instead of doing yoga instead of uh we went to a friend's party in town it's mellow nothing too out of control but we drank a bit and um i got a hangover and the next day i was hanging and then i didn't do yoga and i really didn't put the plan into place and just kind of you know had fun and cruised and then mavericks well pops up and then go my wife's saying she didn't really want me to go because she goes everywhere with me, and she couldn't go. And then my neck was sore, and my gut was kind of saying, don't go. But my ego was saying, got to go. And everybody was going up to Oregon, so I was going to be at MAV pretty much alone.

And when we went out there, we were alone. And I blew my inflation up a little extra, so I had this pillow to lay on while I'm paddling, seriously, like a pillow, so my put it i had this pillow to lay on while i'm paddling seriously like a pillow so my neck wouldn't hurt and uh just one guy pato a really good friend of mine from brazil he was there so me and pato i said come on let's go he's okay and we went out and uh we jump off the skis to paddle over and we paddle super deep right where I want to be. He's like, Garrett, Garrett, we're really deep. I'm like, yes, that's where I want to be. Boom.

The wave just comes in one second straight to me. I just, and I'm just so. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What is that like to see 50 feet of water pop up in front of you? It's black. It's exciting. Super fun. This is where you and i are different because i get incredibly i'm terrified when i see something over over my um comfort zone yeah right and it doesn't mean i'm not going to do it but this is where all of the safety mechanisms

inside of me say hey no and it's probably a demonstration of like, I don't have the skill that you have, which makes perfect sense, but you've got, you're operating at a different level. And where's your spot? Where do you like to surf? Oh, I, you know, right up the coast here in Palos Verdes, there's some beautiful waves and that, you know, I think it's pretty big there, right? Yeah. There's a place called indicatoricator and it's a nice, heavy, boilie type drop. It's moderately consequenced because of the terrain. And, you know, like I said, 12, 15 feet is like, I'm in that place where I'm like, wow. What kind of board?

Let's call it 6'3". Nah, it's more like a 6'0". Wow. Seems too small for you. Yeah, I graduated. You're staying with the big stuff. I went 10'6", about 10 years ago, just because of the eddy. Yeah, well.

Just solely focusing on the eddy. But our skill sets are very different. It was either 6'0 or 10-6. 6-0 toe board, 10-6. Yeah. So, okay. How do you manage fear? And I don't know if you, you said I couldn't get the fear anymore.

And then, so you had to go bigger. And so to go bigger, let's do it. Let's play this game a little bit differently. When you're towing somebody and it's not your life on the line. It's your partner's life that you got to go into a consequential place. He's just fallen and wiped out. And like, you don't want them to take another one on the head. Um, maybe do two things, describe what it's like to be held under by one of these giants and then what it's like to actually be responsible for someone's life that's when i have the most fun is putting other people on waves and um i think it's because

there's so much responsibility and you choose the right spot you're in control of where they're going i mean they can signal a little bit and tell you a little bit to the shoulder a little bit deeper or number two but once you let them go or once they let go and they're coming down the wave then you're their lifeline if they don't make it or in nazaree even no matter what's going on you're the lifeline because they kick out you got to get them before that next one closes out on them. It's really, I love to just run to the shoulder and watch. It's even more fun when you can tow them at the wave and then ride under them and watch them surf from under the whole time.

It's not the safest way. You're in front of the way. Yeah. Cause you can't get them as easy. You got to have somebody else out the back for backup. And that's the most, that's the best view in the house under one of your friends just ripping ah it's like just so beautiful uh then um yeah their life's on the line uh view rescuing them we have such good safety equipment now with the inflation and the and the flotation we

started out with the flotation then it turned into inflation and we have the personal watercrafts the wave runners on the outside and sometimes you have two or three one in the one on the inside one driving and one extra one roaming but when you let go and the wave closes out or you get pull in and get clamped or for some reason you know in Nazareth you can just fall from the chops and the wave closes out or you get pull in and get clamped or for some reason you oh in nazara you can just fall from the chops and the chops are as big as waves and you're flying over these chops and then the jet ski wakes now that almost every wave has a jet ski wake in it now it's crazy and so when you fall and you hit so hard your initial hit is super hard already

i think most of us don't get the wind knocked out of us but once in a while when you hit you get the wind knocked out of you and then you got to take this monster that isn't a normal monster it's a more like an animal all the way of search like different animals and um nazaree is more than an animal it's just it's really just like an avalanche it gains momentum and just it's relentless and then if you your personal you know so you're underwater getting pounded and you don't want to pull and most of us use a little flotation the smarter people do at least who want to live the other people who don't care about dying don't um and you're just getting the the first hit is the the the uh hard water the bottom of the wave and then the wave comes and hits you like a ton of bricks. I mean, it is so violent.

And it first just crushes you. And then it spins you in every single direction, upside down and backwards and around and on the bottom and in circles. And it kind of lets you go at at times and it'll take you again. And if you're in the foamy water and the aerated water, the inflation and the flotation don't work. It has to be hard water. So the wave has to pass. So you got to kind of get pushed out the back and then you come up. But you can relax the whole time during all this violence.

If you can choose to up but you can relax the whole time during all this violence you can if you can choose to relax you can relax and then you just kind of come up with a couple strokes try to use the least amount of body movement because with your legs it takes a lot of oxygen with your arms it's better to just stroke really mellow and slow with your arms calm and uh hopefully you come up and usually when you come up you're so dizzy you don't know which way is what you got to get to your senses and then half the time right when you get to your senses either the guy will get you or another one mows you over and then you got to go through it all over again and personal watercraft can get taken out or malfunction or think you went left and you went right and then you got to be on your own and you're just getting pounded and pounded and pounded

and then when you finally get like you're halfway to the beach you think you're safe all of a sudden another like 20 foot wave can just be more powerful than one than the 40 footer and that won't land on you and then when you finally get to the shoreline it's the steepest beach so it sucked you in sucked you out sucked you in sucked you out if you don't have flotation you're not getting out of the water if you have flotation you can make it how many times have you been close to dying never i really enjoy the underwater rides that's when there's a chance of better chance of getting the rush because you're just at the mercy of the ocean and have no control uh just recently in indonesia i was probably the closest to potentially dying but i somebody told me they saw me where i was so i wouldn't have died they would have found me but i hit the reef right here

and on your head i pulled my board and then i got on my board and i was spinning like all dizzy and trying to hold on the board and i was almost knocked out and i my my children and my wife flashed how important life is and how important they are and i got to the beach and i couldn't remember what camp i was staying in and i couldn't remember where my wife was. I knew that she didn't come on the trip. But I was like, but where'd she go? And then, what camp am I in? Am I in Yo-Yo's camp? Am I in Bobby's camp?

Where am I? I kind of knew where I was, and I knew that she wasn't with me, but I didn't know what camp I was in, and I didn't know where she actually was. And that went on for about an hour yeah and they were kept filming it and there's they said that i didn't see the footage but they said that i was saying the same three or four questions over and over and over yeah full concussion yeah concussion yeah okay i mean i think about your model and it's really, I wouldn't know how somebody,

myself included, could begin to replicate how you've experienced life and how you experience risk. And, you know, I don't even know what the takeaway is because it's so rare and so extraordinary. And the easy question that I have for you is, what do you hope people could learn from you? Well, definitely everything is possible. It doesn't matter where you come from. It doesn't matter how you started out. I mean, at one point I was eating out of a trash can. So don't let your past define you. It's history.

It does not exist. And plan for the future, but it doesn't exist either. You've got to live now. And really the main tool that I know that everybody can utilize and that can help everybody live their dreams well first of all you figure out what you're passionate about and it can be something that you love to do when you're three or something that you think you're passionate about and now that now that the world got a hold of you and molded you to however you got molded parents and social media and tv and they mold us really really well so a lot of us don't even know what our real passion is anymore sometimes you got to

go back to when you're three what you love doing more than anything and then make that your uh make sure it's um your passion that is the goal that like keep surfing and figure out how to serve humanity in one way or another one through your passion And write the goal, write the map, and focus. And be very careful what you write, because if you write that and make the perfect map, a realistic map, a map that the goal has to be realistic, or it doesn't really have to, but better if it is. And it will come true. It will flourish.

It will work. You'll be doing what you love and you'll be contributing to society contributing to mother earth contributing to the world and you will feel good all day every day the the best thing in the world is putting smiles on people's faces when you see people smiling from something that you did with them or for them, it's the best feeling in the world. I didn't write my first goal until I was 30, so it's never too early. Most kids out there, you guys can start now, and also never too late. Never give up on your passion. Troll's with us today.

And Troll's a friend of mine. I know you've got questions. What questions? You're quietly listening for the most part. One question I have is you spend so much time with different kinds of people and different cultures and different experiences, what was it like for you in some of your early memories being alone, immersed in the powerful ocean for the first few times?

In that phase of your exploration with the ocean, did you ever run into consequence where you actually had to get rescued before you started to explore boundaries that eventually just removed? When I was 15 I hitchhiked or got a bus I don't know somehow I got up the sunset point and I paddled out to sunset and I took off off. It wasn't hardly anybody out. And it was like, I think it was the dreaded seven. Eight feet's good, and six feet and under is good, and eight feet and over is good, but seven feet's a little weird.

And I took off on this wave, and the board slid out, and it was only like a 12- or 15-foot face, and I got pounded beyond, and I vowed to never surf a wave over 10 feet and I hung out with these two guys Fielding and Jasper they were like really good professional surfers at that time and I was going to be like them they were small wave pros they didn't surf waves over 15 feet and I was going to be just like them and very content and happy and never surf a big wave ever again and having to get rescued i've never really had to get rescued but i've got i'd gladly take a ride on a ski anytime. I'd gladly get rescued or get help to the beach to go get my board.

In, I was about 22, Wyoming Bay, pretty much herniated my, I thought I broke my back, but they said I just herniated my dick, so it was way worse than breaking the bones. And as I was underwater, I could feel my heels touch my head, and all the wind knocked out, all the air knocked out of me, and I came up, and I couldn't speak, and I was seeing black and white, and this guy, Ace Cool, he's like this big wave uh very interesting character and he was paddling by and so you need help and

i'm like i couldn't say anything because i was like couldn't talk and he kept going and then he's oh i hear say you okay and i went no finally it came out and so he came like, no, I hear you say you're okay. And I went, no, fine. He came out. And so he came and gave me his board and I pat and he kind of pushed me in. But that was the one time I remember kind of getting rescued. I could have made it, but I was very happy to get some help. You're incredibly resilient, resourceful. There's a sense of independence that somehow you've learned from being a pack animal, you know, from early days. And if people could come to live life according to what you've come to learn and to really embody, what would life be like for us? If people could live life like me? Yeah. Based on the principles that you've come to learn they would have a lot of freedom and fun and um it's really about letting the kids

learn from experience and actually letting them do things that society tells us they can't hold the knife they can't go in the water and swim there and there's different things that are safe and other things that are not so it's more freedom more carefree more um yeah you get to feel a lot of freedom which we don't have these days how do you finish this thought it all comes down to well we choose not to have these days we have freedom if we choose it and what was that cool addition yeah it all comes down to i don't know you tell me good response i don't either that's why i'm asking the question you know it all comes down to following your heart let your heart guide you what do you do to strengthen your connection to

your heart ayahuasca do you yeah how often i'd actually work pretty well. What do I do? Deepak Chopra, amazing. Fierce Medicine by Anna Forrest, amazing. The yoga practice? Yeah, but she wrote a book. Okay. It's really good. I highly recommend it. Death Meditation.

That will get you in touch with your heart. Yeah. It's important. It really will. There are some really good ceremonies out there these days, but I've done a couple and I was like, and I just met this one family that does the most amazing, beautiful experience and just really shares what's important. And it really opens your heart.

But all these ceremony things that people are doing is cool. It's like the cool thing now. If you don't write down what you felt and learned and actually look at that every day, you're just going to go back to normal life and senseless. But if you actually integrate what you learn, you're going to have great results and you're going to be a very contributing person

with selfless and very desire, people very much desire having you around them. Cool thought. Chronic stress is a real problem for people. You live in a highly acute stress environment with consequences. Um, but chronic stress, that inability to manage the load workload, whatever the load is on our mind in our brain is a real deal for people. How do you, how would you hope people could better manage chronic stress? I would recommend meditating every morning.

And you do a minute. There's a really good one we've been working with lately as you, you do your minute, five minutes, 10 minutes of think about every single thing you have to do for the day and for the rest of your life and throw it all in there. And then think of, uh, it's just three to, there's a three to five step process, but first just think about everything you got to do and then just kind of trying to meditate on it and then meditate on the breath and the breath is really the only way to actually calm the mind down for me if you just focus and just say that while you're doing it in your mind so so i don't i can't hold on to more than one thought so if i do that i'm good i i'm actually in the zone women i think they can

hold on to more than one thought so i don't know i don't have a solution for them okay how often are you in the zone you talked about flow state in the zone how often do you get there and in i can close my eyes and get there in a second if i just really when i close my eyes i'm more in touch with my heart when my eyes open there's too much distraction but if i close my eyes i can feel my heart feel my body love myself figure out how to share this great feeling with everybody i definitely wear my heart on my sleeve so but the head gets in the way when if your head and your heart are fighting it's really chaos and if you're following your heart everything else is perfect and there's a recently somebody was sharing with me i'm like there's all these injustices there's crazy things going on in all the third world

countries that isn't and i've always thought that everything happened for a reason and there's a greater something's for some reason but there is i was like there's things that are going on in these third world countries there's no way that they could be happening for a reason and um it just like thought to myself okay if that these what's happening was coming from a heartfelt decision a decision from the heart, then I would say, yes, it happened for a reason. But if what's happening to somebody or an old country or the world, Mother Earth, stemming from greed,

it is not happening for a reason. What are you most concerned about? As a man in your, I don't know, 40s, 50s, what are you most concerned about? The most is just since my shoulder pain, no, no, health, being really healthy and being able to continue doing everything. And I know that for me, yoga is the answer and meditating.

I love strength and condition. I love going to the – it's not CrossFit, but it's functional fitness with my good group of guys in Hawaii, Kaiborg and the boys in Haleiwa. It's so much fun, such good support. And it's not a lot of ego. I mean, you can bring your ego in if you want. They're not pushing for that. And so it's a beautiful environment to get stronger.

But yoga really seems to be the key because the flexibility and holding the poses and actually tensing your muscles but also relaxing. So it's strength and flexibility yoga. Force yoga is the best. You sit in these poses as long as you can. And any time you're going into a dull pain, stay there until it goes away. Sharp pain, stay away. Dull pain is just garbage that we're holding on to. Let me flip that on the psychology side.

At any given moment in time, I can find myself in a standing civil war within myself. Arguing. Battling sometimes. It's not my highest self. It's not, you know, but it is part of it. My experience. Do you relate to that at all? Definitely.

And what do you do when you've got that tension? You use it from head and heart, or maybe it's an argument with yourself. Like, man, what are you doing with your life? Or it's something more benign and small, which is like, Hey, you don't have what it takes to be able to actually do these goals or something like that. Some guilt, some shame, some critique that you work through. How do you do it? Close your eyes and go, is this loving, kind, or helpful to me and everybody? My choices affect. You're an extraordinary human. I don't know um anyone like you i'm not saying i'm the best at this but i that's what i go that's right that's your go-to yeah right there and did mom teach

you that did the commune teach you that did someone did something later did the ocean mama ayahuasca and when you say seriously okay so are you talking about drugs or are you talking about it's medicine it's not drugs so ayahuasca is something that you've flirted with or you use on a regular basis no i went to become more in to feel more we us we we don't we're not feeling anything these days we're on autopilot we just follow this guy the motherfucker the mind and you gotta follow this and it helps you the heart yeah are you a compassionate human meaning that you live with great empathy and compassion? I live with great passion and compassion. I'm working on empathy.

You're working on empathy. Definitely. I think my greatest quality that I'm really always willing to work on being a better person. And I think that's the main reason my wife is still with me. What is mastery to you what is how do you define think about articulate mastery mastery yeah oh it's when you're um you they say 10 000 hours four hours a day for 10 years, you become a master at anything. And I have to agree with that. Once you do something so much with so much dedication and passion, you'll become a master.

But to be a master for me is to be, I think you're a master when you realize you know nothing. And you're always willing to learn more and experience more. And to be at peace and happy all day, that's when you're a master. And that is very challenging and you know you close your eyes go to your heart and feel what's right and what's how you can be of service and what you love and how to love yourself and everybody around you that's when you're really a master. God, I want to be around you more often. I swear. But again, I'm not that good at it. I'm still working on it.

You know, Garrett, I'm so happy to have met you. And I think we were all over the shop in our conversation. And so I apologize if I've done a disservice to your genius, but I'm fascinated by so many different ways that you've experienced life. And I think the framework of your, your, the experience of your life are essential to understand the insight you have. You are unconventional in the way that you've lived and you're unconventional in the way that you think. And I love the, the essence of how you approach life, the humility, the, um, the excellence that you are able to demonstrate by surfing the biggest waves in

the world and holding records and being responsible for other men's lives that you're towing in. And, and, and at the same time, it's all so delicate so delicate you know you're not like thumping your chest and rah-rah maybe there's some of that but it doesn't it didn't come out today and it feels like at any given point in time the whole thing could kind of fall apart and i love all of that and i love that because it makes sense to me it's not there's no bulletproof ironclad. This is how it is. It's like the surrendering of the, to the fragility of life and having the internal fortitude and strength to manage the most difficult part of life, which is the heart not being held under by the largest, one of the largest forces in the world.

It's the heart. Yeah. They're all been talking about the hundred foot wave and I'm just like all day, every day life is the hundred foot wave. They used to be the 10 second barrel and you just focus on being in the 10 second barrel, wherever you go.

But now it's the hundred foot wave. Amazing. Okay. Garrett, barrel wherever you go but now it's 100 foot wave amazing okay um garrett where can people find you where can people follow along with your worldview and the and the fun stuff that you're doing and the deep stuff you're doing on instagram we have we do our best to post things that are meaningful and actually do some good with the platform showcase other people and what they're doing and share what we're doing and we just started a I don't want to call it a vlog more of episodes we started shooting some episodes and we put the first one out there. But we're not going to really launch it until like I have four or five. So that'll be a cool place.

Gary McNamara YouTube, I think. What is it, Benny? Is that what it is? Okay. I don't know anything about all that stuff. I just try to. We'll put it on the show notes with all the right links. Yeah.

Yeah. We'll put it all so people can access it. And you know, to the, our community, uh, of people who are thirsty, hungry, they're really trying to understand how to be better. If you gave them one little parting gem, what would it be? Do a one minute meditation. Cause it's easy. We can all do that and focus on, get a mantra of how you want to be all day, every day and just meditate on that mantra. And then it's hard to keep it going all day long. It's good to do a one minute,

three times a day. And if you want to go 10 or an hour or whatever, that's fine. And that's great. But if you do the one minute, you're already working towards being a day and if you want to go 10 or an hour or whatever that's fine and that's great but if you do the one minute you're already working towards being a better person because you're setting the intention and and digesting it and saying it to yourself over and over how you want to be how you want to contribute how you want to be saw how you want to be seen. And we all just want to be loved. So love is the answer. Thank you. I mean, I'm like giddy. I've got a little shake inside of me. I just feel,

I don't know if it's adrenaline or gratitude, um physiologically you've changed me and um i appreciate you thank you well i've never had so much fun and usually i go all different directions so it was perfect hold on now this conversation i'm sure you've had more fun seriously in this kind of environment and yeah but sharing this stuff is super important and beautiful. And thank you. You know what? This is really fun. This is the 100-foot wave

right here today. This is it for me too. Yeah, man. 100-foot wave podcast. Yeah. Appreciate you, Garrett. Yeah. Thank you.

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