The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Almost Famous OG: Catching a Wave with Alana Blanchard

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

Our Bachelor Nation OGs Bob Guiney and Trista Sutter are reconnecting with her Special Forces teammate, professional surfer Alana Blanchard! Alana shares how her children helped her train for the show, because sometimes it feels like you have to carry the weight of the world on your back! She opens up about how hard it REALLY is to go through the challenge of Special Forces. Plus, find out why people call Alana and Cam Newtown “twins”!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone.

Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast and the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's start with a quick puzzle. The answer is Ken Jennings' appearance on The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs. The question is, what is the most entertaining listening experience in podcast land? Jeopardy Truthers believe in... I guess they would be Kenspiracy theorists. That's right.

To give you the answers and you still blitzers. The Puzzler. Listen on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Humanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness. Psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you.

Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. Everyone thinks they'd never join a cult, but it happens all the time to people just like you. And people just like us. I'm Lola Blanc and I'm Megan Elizabeth. We're the hosts of Trust Me, a podcast about cults, manipulation, and the psychology of belief.

Each week we talk to fellow survivors, former believers, and experts to understand why people get cold in, and how they get out. Trust me, new episodes every Wednesday on exactly right. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Almost Famous Podcasts with IHartRadio. Hi, everybody. This is Trista and Bob.

And we are here today for the Almost Famous OG podcast to talk to Alana Blanchard, who was one of my cast recruits on special forces. world's toughest test did way better than me um and of course you probably all know her from her professional surfing career and that amazing butt on instagram oh thank you thank you oh my gosh i literally bob i have to say i wrote her when we could start following each other um on instagram because you're not supposed to follow each other before they announce the cat and I wrote her immediately and I'm like, oh my gosh, please, can you share your tips into getting that beautiful behind?

Oh, thank you. How are you? How are you? Good. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I'm so excited. And I think you did amazing.

I mean, that was just, you know, a crazy, crazy experience. And I just remember you being like the sweetest. I was like when you left, I was like so sad. Because I felt like when anyone left, it was just like, I don't know. I was like, no, you were just, I don't know. I felt like you helped me because I was like, wow, she's doing it. Okay, I got this. Oh, you're so sweet.

I remember when I was leaving. You were like, oh, I'm so sad you're leaving. And, you know, you were just so kind to me. So thank you. But you literally, you crushed it. I do not understand how especially the hike day, the hike, where you were like way in advance of, it seemed like all of the guys. And of course, they show the clip of you saying that in preparation, you carried your kids around. That is great preparation.

That is great preparation. Totally. I mean, I think for any more. mom like that's just kind of what we do right like when you have little ones and um we have a lot of hills and trails here um and i'm a surfer and there's a lot of hills and trails to get to like the surf break so we're always kind of going up and down things and we're carrying our kids so i think that definitely benefited me because i was just kind of used to it um and my kid is well back then he was pretty much the exact same weight as the Birken.

So it was perfect. I was going to say that had to be, you know, my wife, when we had our kids, all of a sudden, her arms were just ripped. And I was always like, how are you doing this? And I realized she's carrying around 40 pounds all the time. Yes, exactly. Yeah, he's constantly just carrying things. And yeah, I think, I don't know, something about I just actually like doing those kind of

things so the um i feel like any of the athletic stuff in those challenges i was like okay i got this um i feel like that kind of was my strong suit where the other like mental stuff was like definitely my weakness oh girl i don't think so total opposite yeah i was going to say i don't think so watching it you came off like a powerhouse i don't know how you did have that stuff yeah oh thank don't you think trista i mean well i was going to say i i didn't mean the opposite for her. I meant the opposite for me. I felt like the mental I could do, the physical I had a really hard time with. But Bob is right. Like, I don't think the mental part, it seems to me as an outlook, an onlooker. You did not seem weak in the mental department. I mean, girl, you survived,

what was it, five hours of the torture noises in your ear. I don't know how you even survive five hours. Yeah, that was definitely. And I'm pretty, I feel like it was longer. I came out and it was 7 a.m. I think we started at like 1 a.m. with the torture noises. And I just, I, but looking back, I kind of wish I just stuck it out just a little bit longer, but it was driving me crazy. Just being cold, being in the stress positions, and just listening to that noise, you kind of start like going crazy. Like for a little bit, I feel like for the first hour or two, I kind of was just out of it and I kind of like zoned out. But then like after a while you're like, I just can't handle this anymore. And you keep thinking, okay, they're going to stop it. They're going to stop it.

Because looking back on the last few seasons, I'm like, oh, that doesn't, you know, it's probably like three hours of, you know, hell or whatever. But I could do that. But it just kept going and going and going and I was like please let me talk to the lady because I would rather get like drilled by her than be in that yeah I would rather her tell me I'm a bad mom whatever she wants to say I'm like I'll talk to you however long you want just don't don't leave me in here anymore but I just was it loud like with the headphones really loud so loud so loud you can't hear anything else you can't see and you're just in those stress positions so you can't relax and after like a night of running and you're just exhausted and then they they want to like yeah they it's just crazy

looking back on it they want to push you mentally like they told the lady like oh she's having a hard time you know she's missing her kids and um they kind of played into that i think um and yeah they looking back on like oh i wish i kind of understood like why they like say things or do things because they want to push you so hard mentally to break. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was watching it.

I mean, Tristan and I talked about this afterwards because I got, you know, I've known Tristan and I, you know, we used to date and we've known each other 20 some years. I was on her season of The Bachelorette before they made me on my own. But seeing her on the show was like, it made me emotional because I'm seeing my friend go through all these challenges. Yeah. Then I got emotional again. in this last episode, thinking about my wife being in that situation, having someone go, you know, you're a selfish mom being here. I mean, I would, I even said to Trista, I'm like,

I don't even know what I would do if someone was like challenging me in that regard. That would have set me off for sure. Totally. Yeah, I think at that point that when they took the stuff off, you're so out of it. And they told us to be really docile. Do not speak back to them unless you're like asked a question. So I was just like, and I just, like, and I just, remember being like I understand that uh-huh like I just and I but I guess like at the same time if I really think about it I probably did kind of feel like a bad mom doing that like being on the show and being away from my kids because I only weaned my second um like a month before the show oh wow I just was like I don't know it's so crazy as a mom you just have this like as soon as

you leave your kids, I think you just have this, like, anxiety or whatever it is. Guilt, mom guilt. Yes, guilt, mom guilt. I'm sure dads get it too. Not as much. But I just wasn't, I would, yeah, I wasn't used to being away for them. And like, I'm glad you guys are like, oh, you did so good. Because I felt like I'm like, I just cried all the whole time on national TV.

No. No, no, no, no. I mean, honestly, I feel like all of us felt like we cried so much, but it didn't. They didn't really show a ton of it. And you, you crushed it. I was just so freaking impressed. I mean, I am not a surfer at all. I hate open water.

I, you know, I don't know that I've even ever tried surfing. But I feel like everyone should think, let's go surfing. Because clearly if you are able to get through special forces like you did and your main career, obviously, I know you work out. too. But is surfing that there's something to be said for surfing to prepare you for special forces. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. I think I think it's just the constant like you're um, well, I think there's a few things. I think our environment with surfing constantly changes. So we're kind of used to, we have to like think on our toes a little bit. And then we're kind of used to being put in situations where you're like, okay, this is kind of crazy and scary. Like if you're

surfing big waves and you're kind of feeling uncomfortable, but you have to, like, breathe through it. You can't, like, freak out because if you freak out, it's going to be worse for you. Yeah. And then it's like just, I think, you know, I've been surfing my whole life, so I have that, like, endurance. So I think there is something to say with, like, that definitely helped me. And I feel like if I didn't have that, I would have been out, you know, on the first day for sure. Because mentally, I don't think I was, you know, as strong as you. I just, I don't know. I was just like, this is crazy. Like that first day when we got into our area, I was just like, I can't sleep here. Like, this is, this is disgusting. Like, how are we going to sleep good here? But I ended up

sleeping kind of good because I didn't have kids. Yeah. Because you don't have your kids. You don't have the stresses of normal life. And we're freaking exhausted every time we got the chance to finally lay down. Totally. Completely. Yeah. Like, I was like worried about, that was my biggest worry going into it. I'm like, how am I going to sleep on a cot? But then I think you're just so exhausted and I ended up sleeping kind of good. Totally.

My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't

is a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now hold up, isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor and they're the same age. And it's even more likely that they're cheating.

He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobble. Yes, yes.

Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free. Heart Radio app, search emergency intercom, and listen now. A foot washed up a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable. These are the coldest of cold cases, but everything is about to change. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime.

A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA. Using new scientific tools, they're finding clues in evidence so tiny you might just miss it. He never thought he was going to get caught, and I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. On America's Crime Lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors,

and you'll meet the team behind the scenes at Othrum, the Houston Lab that takes on the most hopeless cases, to finally solve the unsolvable. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Janica Lopez, and in the new season of the Overcomber podcast, I'm taking you on an exciting journey of self-reflection. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life?

Like, am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time? I wanted to be successful on my own, not just because of who my mom is. Like, I felt like I needed to be better or work twice as hard as she did. Join me for conversations about healing and growth. Life is freaking hard. And growth doesn't happen in comfort. It happens in motion, even when you're hurting.

All from one of my favorite spaces, The Kitchen. Honestly, these are going to come out so freaking amazing. Be a part of my new chapter and listen to the new season of the Overcumper podcast as part of the MyCultura podcast network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Okay, so I would like to know, I know in the mirror room you talked about with Bethany Hamilton and her, you were with her when she, right? When she was bit by the shark. And what I want to know is that obviously was a very traumatic experience for you growing up. The special forces replaced that as your most traumatic experience.

or um i mean i feel like you know i mean because i was so young at the time i feel like i bounce back way faster than if it happened now but i mean seeing yeah i mean i did see my friend's arm get bit off and i yeah it's a little bit uncomparable i guess but i compare the special forces to like giving birth because I feel like I mean I had my both of my kids naturally and I feel like

they're like in par in different ways but I mean yeah like the shark attack like that was just more traumatic I think long term but like my reasoning behind doing special forces was like seeing my dad

react he saved her life like he got the tourniquet on her arm and i was like i want to do that like because i have kids now i'm like i want to do that for i mean hopefully my kids never are in that situation but you just never know and especially having boys they just get into everything i'm like i want to be able to react like how my dad did and like if i need to save a life i want to save a life you know like um so i guess that was kind of why i brought that up and i just was like inspired i've always been inspired by my dad and how he reacted in that situation. Did he have special training? Did he have like special forces training or anything like that?

No, it's training. I mean, I think as a surfer, we are kind of, you know, used to like people, especially in Hawaii people will come and they can't swim and then they get sucked out into a rip current. And like we've had to save people before, like, you know, give our board to them or whatever it is. um so we are like i guess kind of um you know used to situations like that but when there's a situation i feel like you know your like your friend's arm getting bit off you just go into total shock and you just react how you need to um i mean i was not like i was not okay when i was when i was in the situation i was like throwing up but my dad was just like laser focused you know he knew he needed to save his daughter's best friend, and he did.

So I just always, you know, admired that. And I was like, I, you know, I want to be that way if there was ever a situation like that. Yeah. Are you guys still besties? Yeah, we're still super close. And she actually lives like 10 minutes away from me. And, you know, she travels a lot for like more like motivational speeches and stuff. So she's always traveling.

But when she's home, we get to surf and stuff. That's so cool. Yeah. Okay, I know we have to go really soon. I have one last question. And if I'm making this up, sorry, my brain doesn't work quite right since I had children. No, me too. I'm sure.

So I feel like you and Cam at the reunion were calling each other twin. Yeah. Yes, okay. Tell us that story. Where did you and Cam Newton being twins come from? So, yeah, like, I mean. There's obviously times where we're all in the bunk and we're just like, you know, we want to, and Cam, and I feel like Cam and Golden, especially, like, entertained us. They were so funny, always telling us stories. And I was like, I want to learn how to be a gangster. Like, I forget how it even, like, came about. But he just started teaching me, like, slang, like, twin and, like, you, like, tube this. I'm like, and it was just like this whole thing. I wish everyone was like, gosh, they have to show that it was hilarious um but no they didn't show it i think they wanted us to

look like we were really you know feeling it but there were sometimes where we were cracking up and the ds would be like what are you guys doing in there shut up like no laughing um but it's so hard to not laugh when like cam and golden are just like telling these stories or teaching me you know these slang words it's like it was hilarious That is so cute. I didn't know what you guys were talking about. I should have asked you about it then. But I was like, okay, we need to, we need to know this story.

Yeah, he taught me a few other ones. It was, yeah, he's hilarious. Hysterical. He is such, oh my gosh, did you, sorry, this is a total side note, but did you notice on the first day he had a diamond anklet on? Yes. And then, and then I don't know if you saw it after. this but on the last day when you guys were in interrogation they had it you know you guys all had

to strip and he stripped and took his socks off and it was on him it was like still i think he had it on the entire time i thought he lost it i thought so too but i don't know maybe they maybe they got it back anyway isn't that funny that's so funny yeah because i remember him being like oh i just lost like a i don't know like 50 000 or something crazy like a ridiculous amount i was like oh my god i would never wear that. Probably not the best choice to throw that in your combat boot, you know. Totally. Yeah, maybe not.

Okay, we've got to go. I really quickly just want to say, I've been following your story about Koda, your son, and his eye just really quickly is he doing okay? Yes, he's doing so much better. It was just another bump in the road, but he's doing so good. Yeah, thank you so much. Of course. Well, thanks for joining us.

We appreciate it. Very inspiring. Thank you. Thanks for happy me. Thank you for being here. We appreciate it. Love seeing your face. Okay, see you.

Bye, Lana. Bye. And thanks, everybody for listening to Almost Famous to OGs. We'll be back with more. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon.

This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's start with a quick puzzle.

The answer is Ken Jennings' appearance on The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs. The question is, what is the most entertaining listening experience in podcast land? Jeopardy-truthers believe in... I guess they would be Kenspiracy theorists. That's right. They give you the answers and you still blew it. The Puzzler.

Listen on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psycho babble.

Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story.

Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack, available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.