The School of Greatness - 212 The Power of Breathing to Get In the Zone with Laird Hamilton

Episode Date: August 10, 2015

"The zone is ultimately the now." - Laird Hamilton If you enjoyed this episode, check out shownotes and more at lewishowes.com/212.

This is episode number 212 with the legendary Laird Hamilton. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome everyone to today's episode number 212.

Thank you so much for joining me. I had the pleasure of sitting down with a legend in today's sports world. His name is Laird Hamilton and at at 215 pounds at 6'3", with an uncommon combination of balance, flexibility, and strength, he is truly a larger-than-life athlete and individual. Not only is he the quintessential big wave surfer, Laird is also known as a renowned innovator and guiding genius of crossover board sports, including toe-in surfing, stand-up

paddleboarding, and hydrofoil boarding. He is an incredible human being. I had the pleasure of training with him at his house, and I thought we were going to be doing some extreme pool workout and some other crazy lifting, but I went on a day and a morning when they did an hour of breathing, on a day and a morning when they did an hour of breathing. And it was one of the most challenging hours of my workout life. I was in the first minute, thought I was going to pass out. And then after 20, 30 minutes, I thought I could hold my breath forever and had complete calm and clarity and felt like I was in another dimension. Then went back into more pain and anxiety and stress, but the breathing all allowed me to really focus and center myself. And it was one of the most inspiring hour workouts of my life, to be honest,

to witness what we were creating together as a group of about 10 guys at his house in Malibu. And we dive into the mindset of the breath and the mindset of getting in the zone and really how to optimize your life at the highest levels throughout this entire interview. Had a pleasure connecting with him, a pleasure training with him, and hope to go learn some more if he lets me come back and train at his house ever again in the future. I'm very excited to get you guys into this episode. I want to give a quick shout out to our sponsor over at Onnit.com. If you want to achieve total human optimization, then make sure to check out Onnit.com.

They've got some of the best fitness foods, workout gear, and supplements to take your mind and body to the next level. So if you want to achieve total human optimization, go ahead to Onnit.com. That's O-N-N-I-T.com. And you get 10% off when you use the checkout code greatness on all supplements. So go ahead and check out onnit.com for more. I'm very excited to bring you our guest today. His name is Laird Hamilton. He's an incredible human being. So let's go ahead and dive into this episode with the one and only Laird Hamilton. Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness podcast. Very excited. Laird Hamilton in his house. Good to see you, my man. You're welcome. Very excited about this episode because

of what you just put me through, which was an intense workout, which is really just a breathing exercise. And before we get into your which is really just a breathing exercise. Yes. And before we get into your story, I read a quote somewhere. You probably know the quote, the real quote. Something about if you master your breath, you have the strength of 10 tigers or something like that. Is that the quote? Have you heard that before?

I'm not sure, but that sounds... There's some like Tao quote that's like, learn to master your breath. You have the strength of 10 tigers. It's true. Crazy, right? of 10 tigers. It's true. Crazy, right? It's real. Why is breathing so important in our, not a lot of entrepreneurs here, but in our existence, yes, in our lives. I mean, you know, and I've been fortunate to be exposed to a couple different forms of breathing.

And of course, you know, when you're in the ocean or in the water, breath is an ever important thing because you're, you know, your relationship with drowning. But, you know, lately I've been kind of studying under this guy, Wim Hof, who does all this breath training. But the thing that you realize is that your spirit or your soul is connected to your breath and that when that when you you know like when a baby takes its first breath is when it the spirit comes into the body just like when the breath stops so does the spirit leave wow so if you really want to get into like a kind of a little bit bit deeper conversation, it's a connection to your soul or your spirit. And then it's obviously mandatory for life. Exactly.

Breath is the way we get oxygen. Oxygen is essential for living, so it's all about breathing at the end. And then we know through cardiovascular activities and any kind of exertion, it's all about breathing. I mean, breathing is your fuel. That's your energy. That's your power when you're not eating food and digesting and drinking water. But oxygen is the thing that ultimately fires every cell in your body. So that's your, you know.

So have you been practicing breathing strategies or techniques or working on your breath for, since you've been surfing and swimming the ocean for your whole life, you've been doing that? Or is it more in the last year you said you started to dive in and really practice it now? Well, it's been the last year or last year or so that I've really focused on isolation of the breath. I've been exposed to some yoga breathing and some types of yoga breathing over the years um but i haven't been so uh disciplined and consistent with it like i have been the last year and a half or two and and so you know that's but i but i i indirectly have been doing it anyway sure because first of all when you have to when you're swimming swimming is a breathing rhythm being in the water you always have to hold your breath uh all, when you swim, swimming's a breathing rhythm. Being in the water,

you always have to hold your breath. You know, so you get, so you have a relationship with your breath if you do any kind of diving or free diving. I mean,

you already have established a deeper relationship than normal people. Yeah, yeah. Because normally people are, they don't even think about breathing. They're not even, you know, they're not even conscious of it. And if you want to become a better swimmer or better in the water, whatever sport you're doing, you have to master your breath at some level.

Absolutely. You're getting better just by practicing it. Yeah, it's a byproduct of you doing it without even being conscious of it. And then when you do some heavy circuits or other types of intense training, you know what the breath is all about. I mean, usually the breath is what dictates the failure. At a certain point when you're out of breath and you're behind, you look at any endurance athlete or any fighter, as soon as they start mouth breathing and they're like, everybody will say, oh, they're finished. Yeah. Their body can't keep up. Yeah. They're done. They're going to say they're done. So what have you learned about yourself in the last two years

after essentially 40 years of breathing strategies and mastering your breath now into actually diving into these new strategies, what's opened up for you? What's been available for your body, your mind, your relationships, your health, your businesses when mastering this new way of breathing? I think it definitely brings a certain amount of control over your system that you didn't have. You have a sensitivity to... You have more control now in these last two years than you did for 40 prior years studying this? For sure. Wow.

For sure. Just because of the sequencing of breathing and the way the body reacts to it. And when you get into it, it's like any form of training. When you put stress on the system, then the system adapts. That's how it works i mean evolution is because there's stress on the situation so there's a there's an adaptation and then we evolve and and and uh you know so by but when you start stressing the body through the breathing then it adapts and becomes more efficient and you start to get control of you. You find that you can, you know, you can breathe yourself into real calmness. Yeah. You can find,

you can use the energy to bring your energy up and make you more, you know, more, uh, aggressive or more powerful. You can control your lactic acid threshold. I mean, it just, it seems somewhat, uh, you know, boundless. Yeah. It's crazy, man. I mean, it just, it seems somewhat, you know, boundless. Yeah. It's crazy, man. I'll just reiterate what happened for those that obviously weren't here. There's probably 10 of us outside. I walked in, you guys were already doing the breathing. And then you took us outside on your pool deck and we started breathing. And within about 45 seconds, I thought I was going to pass out. You're like, okay, you're going to breathe in a certain way. And I'll have you demonstrate this for a okay, you're going to breathe in a certain way. And I'll have you demonstrate this for a second.

You're going to breathe in a certain way and you don't want to hyperventilate, but close to it. And I remember my whole body was like tingling. We're laying on our backs and my whole body was tingling. And I was like, I might pass out if I push this because I was dizzy. I was lightheaded. I was like, it's early morning here. I'm like, where am I? Up in Malibu. And it was intense. And we did it for, I was like, yeah, okay, maybe this is like a 10, 15 minute thing, warmup for the real workout. We did over an hour, it felt like, of breathing. It was one of the most intense things I've ever done. One of the most intense workouts. And I've played high level sports and three different sports. It was insane. you know, high level sports and three different sports. Absolutely. It was insane. But that's,

I guess that's really the point. The point is, is that you can, you know, you can just be not moving and put the system through an intensity stress that is more intense than moving all the parts. And, and, and I think that's, again, part of the mastery of it. Like when you know, you know, because we, you know, we're so trained in to believe that that working out is is something that you know you bang iron and you run and you bang and you and it's all this is hammering and then we have to feel sore it feel like someone punched you to feel like that was a good workout oh yeah me too you know can you walk i can't walk i can't walk either you know like that and that was and and we we considered that to be good training. When you can go into a situation where you're almost sedentary, you're laying there, you know, and then maybe we make you do a couple push-ups and then you just go to a whole other place.

you know, it just, it, it, it, it, it kind of shines a light on really what is training and what is working out and what is being in shape and what is, you know, all of that, that we, that we, we have, you know, we try to box up, we try to package and say, well, this is it. And, and we have a pretty good, you know, mindset about what we think it is. And then all of a sudden something like that comes along and you're like, well, actually we don't know what it is. But they really feed each other. Those systems are all, you know, they're all feeding each other. Your body doesn't really know the difference.

If you can implement strict breathing, it doesn't know the difference between that and you running and forcing your body to breathe hard. At the end, your body's like, okay, well, I need oxygen for whatever whatever reason it is either because i don't have it or because i'm i'm burning it off or but at the end it needs it it needs it doesn't doesn't need to know why and so then you have to get it how do i get it i got to do it through the breathing and so you can if you're if you're disciplined i mean we learned because we were doing these altitude mask training so So we have these special masks. Training masks. But they weren't not the restriction masks, but an actual mask that simulates altitude. Sure. And you put these resistors on it.

And it's a process that they developed for Russian fighter jet pilots. Before they had pressurized cabins, they'd send these guys up and they'd fly up to 15,000 feet. And all of a sudden, they'd just burrow in. And they're like, well, what's wrong? Well, they're not acclimated to the altitude so how do we acclimate them how do we acclimate thousands of them in a short period of time and so they develop this mask system with these restrictors and uh and what you do is you wear an an oximeter that tells your tells you where your blood levels are so uh you you you can see where the blood level is and you're supposed to get your blood levels are. So, uh, you, you, you can see where the blood level is and you're,

you're supposed to get your blood level down to like 70% oxygen and you stay there for three minutes and then you come back out. It takes three minutes to get there and you do that six times. And then you do that once a day. And then within a couple of months and build up to it and right to 20,000 feet and you're like, no problem. You're fine. But you realize that we can implement that same thing just by controlling your breathing and by restricting it. And you don't even need, you don't even need this thing, but it takes a discipline and it takes the time. Yeah. It took, you know, we did an hour of it. It was like, yeah. The interesting thing was I was doing it and I realized that I wasn't focused on anything else in my life. I wasn't,

you know, it came up in a couple of moments. I was like, Oh, what about that thing that I was stressed about yesterday and about this relationship issue I have and about my business. But then it was like, you're going through so much in your body. You have to be in the moment, present of your breath that you can't stress about something else, which was so bad. I was like, wow, just in an hour of meditation, essentially meditation. It's, and it's actually, and then, and that's the whole thing with, you know, whenS training, the Iceman's training has to do with, and this is because I've been exposed to different forms of meditation, this is a mechanical meditation system where you can actually implement a process to to meditate not not an ethereal process yeah not something where you have to kind of you know where you get to a swami and he tells you to go to this thing and you know and from from my scientific practical mindset where i come from it doesn't work you guys just i can't

get there it's like and i will you know transcendental and I'm all go, okay, yeah, that's great. But when you tell me breathe this many times, exhale, hold, you know, you know, breathe again, exhale, hold. You're going to see this. You're going to feel this. Athlete. That's I'm coming from, you know, I'm coming from math. I'm coming from practical. Like, you know, this does that. That does this.

You know, I need that. I can't be, it can't be too ethereal for me. Some people actually excel in the ethereal, but I don't, I i'm not that's not the way my mind to be in your body more that's right yeah and this and this is a way to that that it's allowed me to to do some meditation that first of all i didn't know it was possible and i'm like wow that's what they're talking about when the guy you know know, I've probably experienced some things that it takes somebody, you know, 10 or 15 years or more

from being taught by a guy in Tibet to even get near. But you're getting into it in three to six months by practicing it and being in your body, not just being in your head. Well, the presence, like you said, all of a sudden you're in a spot where you aren't thinking about any, there's nothing else.

You can't. You can't. There's nothing. It won't allow you. Like there were a couple moments, I think, where we were just relaxing, you know, for like 10 seconds. So I was like. You'll drift for a second, but we'll just bring you right back. And then you're like, okay, here's the breathing exercise.

So if you can, let's maybe do like 15 to 20 seconds of what someone could practice at home in a safe environment. Yeah. Because you were pushing us pretty hard and maybe you weren't. But for me as a newbie, I was like, Oh, this is the real deal. Yeah. Well, you need to go into it slowly. I mean, you know, you can go online and get a course from whim. Like he has an incredible online program, you know, basically the, the foundation of it really has to do with it, with it. And I call it a circle breath and I don't even, you know, I I'm an amateur, but I know, I know that, that, that, you a, I call it a circle breath. And I don't even, you know, I I'm an amateur, but I know, I know that the, that, you know, I look at it as a circle breath in the sense of that the in and the out are similar. And then it's really, um, it's a rhythm and it's almost like hyperventilation, but not that because hyperventilation takes a lot of energy and

you're short breathing. So what does hyperventilation look like if hyperventilation is more like like that where you start to where you'll get you were not really getting you're kind of you can get a co2 build-up which happens which make you you know i mean you can pass out doing any kind of breathing you know or lack thereof yeah but um this breathing is more like, like if you think about pumping something up, like how you pump a raft up or how you, or you blow a balloon up, you know, you blow a balloon up like. Right. So you're in that kind of a rhythm and, and it really is about oxygenation, right? It's about getting oxygen into the system in a, into the system in a very efficient way and full saturation. And then from there, and you'll have all these sensations. Like you said, you feel your body tingle.

You'll have weird things on your lips, your ears. I was getting lightheaded. I thought I was going to pass out. But those are totally normal things. So what's the purpose of oxygen, oxygenating your body? What's that purpose? What's that do for the body once it's complete? Well, I mean, ultimately it definitely will allow you to work harder, you know, so that if you implement like, like for example, you can do, you know, when in whims program, you do these pushups and you do them

just with normal breathing. And then he has you sit there, and then you oxygenate your system, and you exhale and hold your breath and do push-ups, and you do more push-ups on an exhale breath hold than you did while you were breathing. Breathing. Wait, so you could do more push-ups completely letting it go and then holding it, not taking a breath in, and pushing. You can do more push-ups than if you were breathing. Yes.

How is that even possible? Doesn't your muscles need the oxygen? They do. But the fact is, is that you've saturated your system with a volume of oxygen that, that you normally don't get when you just normal breathe and do an activity. And that's really what it's about, right?

It's about you, you understanding that, that, that the oxygen that you store in your system is right it's about you you understanding that that the oxygen that you store in your system is greater than the one you're getting and and to get more because also you have to remember it takes energy to breathe yeah so when you add an activity with breathing then now it takes energy just to do the breathing and because our breathing isn't a very efficient we're not absorbing enough when you compound that with the amount of energy it takes to do the activity right

so yeah the the breathing energy the energy it takes to do the activity and then you're and then you're and then you're behind and that's why you i mean ultimately the muscles don't fail because they're failing they're just not getting the oxygen i mean we were like those of us who had shirts on you know we're dripping in sweat absolutely just breathing absolutely and it's not even that hot already i know that no i know it's all it's counterintuitive you look at it like oh yeah and and again you know to have the discipline to be able to do it and implement an hour of breathing and realize that you're really getting an incredible workout um you know it's that's part of that's part of the process i think that's part of it's to teach

you that that and you know at a certain point you know you either have to be exposed to people that are doing it or you have to be at a maturity level to handle it because you know our normal mindset you just got to grind away at stuff and it's because that's actually an easier way to approach things. It's easier just to go, I'm going to get on my bike and I'm going to ride for two hours straight. Or I'm going to go in here and I've got this weight and I'm just going to bang this weight. Or I'm going to sprint back and forth across this field. It's another thing to go, okay, I'm going to go lay down. It's more disciplined to do what we did.

Exactly. Which is the irony of it, right? It almost takes more discipline to do nothing than it does to do something. But that's kind of the irony of the story in a way. It's interesting because I was so grateful that you were facilitating it for us because it was my first time. I don't know if there were other guys first time there. Yeah. A couple of boys. I think they've done it once or something. Yeah. And it was interesting because I was like, you made it so comfortable for us, at least for me. You're like, it's okay do we, you made it so comfortable for us. Yeah.

At least for me. Yeah. You're like, you know, it's okay. You don't have to do the same pace as everyone else. If you need to breathe. Yeah. You can take a break. For sure. And I really appreciated how you were facilitating that.

You know, you become like a master of teaching it through doing it yourself. It sounds like. Well, but also that's a, that's an approach that I think that I've already always had. I think that that's a little bit how I work in my, and it's not something that people perceive of me because of what I do. They think they're going to come and get hammered. And that's not the way I approach things. I, um, have you read a natural born heroes? No, yeah. So natural born heroes is a phenomenal book, but there's a big, you know, for me it was, it was biblical because I, it was was like the philosophies of some of the guys in the book,

like the guys that are like fitness natural that were all about training in nature, but they're also all about no competition. They were against competition because they felt like it really was a restriction of elevation of everybody's individual thing. restriction of elevation of everybody's individual thing. And, and, and I, because of my kind of lack of, um, because of my approach to competition that I, I always feel like, you know, that, that a lot of our evolution gets held back because we protect information because it's really about, I'm going to try to beat you. So if I know something that I think I can beat you with, I won't tell you because then you'd have it too. And I wouldn't be able to beat you. But if my objective is to make you be as good as you can be,

and I'm going to try to be as good as I can be, I will be like, you can't believe this, try this. And so that's more how I approach things. And I think because of, especially like in big wave riding, when we've gone out and done the things we've done, that it has to do with the fact that we've done it with camaraderie. We've done it with community. And really the evolution of man, if you looked at why man survived, was because of that, that that was the way we behaved. And it was only when we became so populated and so dense did we create competition was more out of entertainment,

that really competition was designed for entertainment. That's why we have competition. And at the end, fighting and all these things that we have, they're not real fighting, because real fighting doesn't last very long, and it's very brutal. And it would never be, you wouldn't watch it on TV, and it wouldn't be something that,

and you wouldn't just do it unless you were planning on actually killing a person. And there's also this thing about the, you know, that everybody being able to do it, like true arts, true fighting or true activities are meant that a child should be able to do it and an old person should be able to do it to make it something that really is for the species. Yeah.

So, again, these are all kind of deep ingrained ways of approaching it, but that's how I always, I never approach it like, hey, I'm going to hammer you. Now, if people come with the attitude like, hey, I can do this, then I might subject them to something. But that will be only because that's what they're asking for. If somebody comes to me with in confidence, like, hey, I'm going to give myself to you. Take care of me. I'm always going to do that because I think, I mean, it has to do with how I grew up and where we are in, in dealing with

heavy situations. The situations are heavy enough. I don't need to, we don't need to do anything. I don't need to go and see how long you can hold your breath. And because what's that going to, that doesn't do anything. And, and, and the bottom line is, is that you can destroy anybody. I don't care who you are. I can stack more weights. I can make you hold your breath longer. I can, I mean, it's like the stretch is deeper. The breath holdings, everything can always be, you know, you can always create something that's undoable.

Yeah. It's more about creating something that's doable and how high far can we push that? How, how, you know, and, and again, individually push your barrier, you know, and, and it's interesting cause it's, that's total Wim Hof philosophy. That's total, that's total, uh, you know, natural born heroes philosophy. Like I see it and you start to see it, you know, and in a way, um, that's tough mutters philosophy, that Spartan race philosophy. I mean, these are all about getting the collective through and and ultimately that

really is the most primal system because that's how we made it because without each other in our evolution what match are we against you know right all the the things in the in the you know in the world we're no match it's kind of like other yeah it's like, uh, nobody wins unless we all win mentality. Absolutely. That's right. Yeah. Nobody survives unless we all survive. Yeah.

And so, and so in a way, I mean, it's, it's, uh, it doesn't mean I don't like healthy competition in the fun of, you know, a little paddleboard race or some boxing ball or something. And, you know, my competition concept really used to be more like, or should I say is more related to like okay you know you you want to compete with me and you think you're you you're courageous well then we'll go to a big cliff and we'll just keep going up until one of us doesn't jump and whoever jumps higher is the winner because i always thought that that was the real defining through courage courage wow for me i go that so for me i go that's i go you want to really talk about, you want true competition.

We have competition with courage. And I think that's part of the process that brought me to riding giant waves. That I thought, well, if I ride the biggest waves in the world, and I ride bigger waves than anybody else has ever ridden, and most of the waves I ride, no one wants to ride, that kind of puts me in a unique position. Yeah. That's your own.

That puts me like, you know. And I mean, I always love the term, the victory through attrition. Through attrition. What is that? What do you mean by that? The last guy standing. At the end, you don't even need to be any good. Right.

If you're the last guy and everybody else is laid out. Sure. You know, in the 300. Yeah. Where there's only one guy standing. Yeah, right. You're the winner. It's interesting.

And through that approach, you can give all your secrets away. You can give all the information away. It's still who's got the most courage. That's right. So you can just be as good as me. Technically all the information you need, but are you willing to go above and beyond me? That's right. And then it becomes a skill thing. Yeah. So then you add skill to that too. So that as an added element of, because you know what, there's always some crazy guy that'll do anything stupid so then but then will they survive so then which again that's part of the thing but again it's part about the survival thing we're like yeah the guy might be able to go higher but if you go up to a cliff and then the guy jumps higher than you and he dies he doesn't win and you

still are you're still you went higher right so again it has to do with you know it has to do with you have to still have you can't have the element of who's the craziest because there's because you got a skill yeah you got to have there has to be and you also have to have understanding you have to have experience to know where the line is where the or your line is yeah where your line is right because you always have somebody that's willing to be a little bit crazier, but then can they do that year in and year out? I mean, just saying year in and year out. Right.

So what got you into big wave surfing in the first place? What got you inspired by that sport? Well, environment. Yeah. You grew up in Hawaii, right? I was in Hawaii. Oahu? I was on the north shore of Oahu when I was very young and exposed to the biggest waves in the world.

And then exposed to the greatest big wave surfers in the world. And then having a natural kind of thing about a thrill, a little daredevil, a little thrill seeker. I just had a thing. You just have a mechanism. I think there's some science behind it. Certain guys are born with... I think they're just missing something like the thing about like probably not you know when where that line is of not to do or but there's a and it's and i think it i think there's a certain there's a certain amount of us that it was important that

we had that because we needed to be able to uh do that i i i said yesterday in uh in the conversation uh that the there needs to be an expendability uh aspect to a certain group in in in the in the in in in you know in our species yeah we have to have that that's part of what we needed in order to survive like if no one's willing to go against the tiger or whatever, then we all die. If no one's willing to figure it out. And while he's getting eaten, we can all run and maybe we can pull it off. Right, right, right. And so we have that.

I mean, that happens a lot with the young. And that's why most of the wars are with young males. Young males have it. And then maybe some of us have it more of it and we keep it longer, but at the end it, it, it, you know, they were, um, we were talking about dolphins, how they protect themselves when they're being attacked and, and they put the babies in the middle, the mothers around the babies, the old people around the mothers, then the fathers, and then the adolescent males are on the outside. And because they're the ones that are the most

aggressive and they're the most willing to take risk and you look and i go well human species aren't too far away from that pretty similar yeah we're the ones that are you know young male and then and then there's then there's the ones within that group that have that like i said that little mechanism that that drives you so that's what drove me to to to big big was because i had some inside of me it was just this thing. And when you combine that with maybe you just start to have some things to prove and maybe some kind of certain family dynamics and environments of racial tension, and you feed all those things into the right.

The perfect storm. Yeah. And did you have all that? Yeah. All those things? For sure. And so what was the goal for you growing up? Was it to be the best big wave surfer? it to prove people wrong was it no well maybe all of those like i

you know like i had teachers say you know why i a lot of the the hawaiians and the japanese and other people that i grew up with were like you know they used to say hey you know boy you can't eat your surfboard because i'd go surfing every day and i just had to be like crazed about surfing and they're like you know you can't eat that thing like like hey you're gonna need to work or you have to survive and and i was like oh no i think i can eat this thing but but uh you know or teachers telling you you'll be nothing or you know or or or being in an environment where you know that that you're white and everybody else isn't right and you're kind of like that as an outsider. And you know that if you are great at this thing, that they might not need to like you,

but they'll respect you. Sure. You know, I have a saying like, they don't need to like me, but they need to respect me. And so that was a big part of it, you know? So, you know, that was a big, that was a big, those were the things that fed me, fed the, you know,

and I remember when I was a kid at one point thinking, you know, like going to bed, going wishing I would wake up as a giant hawaiian you know just because you can't you can't date girls and you know you just you just had all these dynamics it was like a nightmare and and but those were the things i think that also kind of cult you know that those are the things that cultivated my you know drive and passion oh yeah and my relentlessness and my and my fearlessness and all the which i think i already had the mechanism so it was perfect like i already had all the stuff and then it was you know what do we say you can't make an eagle out of a chicken you can only make a super chicken but i just i was fortunate maybe that i i had an you know i had

an eagle's mentality and then i was an environment for training Eagles. And so I had like a good combination of all the, all the pieces that, that made it, you know, made it something that, uh, you know, it was, it was destiny. Sure. What was the biggest adversity you feel like you had to go through growing up or in your young adult life? I mean, listen, cause, cause you know, we all can have a thousand reasons why we're, you know, poor me and look what happened. And I wouldn't change one thing. But, you know, we were poor, for sure, very poor. And people, you know, it's interesting. I've had a conversation with some people that are like, you know, somebody from another country says, oh, you know, I wasn't raised, you know, I was raised in a third world country and this and that.

And I'm like, yeah, but did you have an outhouse? I had to explain to them what an outhouse was. I go, do you ever have cold showers? Do you ever have a tin roof on your house? Open tin roof with screen windows. I mean, this is how. Living off the land, essentially. Yeah, well, no.

Because in Hawaii, there's lots of fruits. Yeah, yeah. But you have that. I mean, the local, the Hawaiians, they lived off the land well. So I became, I you know and that's and i ate the way they ate and i worked with them and that had i think that that also led to cultivating my strength yeah you know what i mean i think that i because i was with the the local people that the way they lived and and and you know i always used to say i'm looking white but

i'm thinking brown you know so yeah and uh but, uh, but, but you know, those things, I mean, I, I know that the rate, the being a Howley was a, that was a, that was probably the overriding blanket of the whole thing. I mean, you know, okay. Money, whatever. Hawaii. Howley's a white person in Hawaii. I lived in on the big, on Oahu for three months. I was in, I was in the taro fields.

I was exactly, I was like, exactly. So, you know, I grew up eating taro and poi and pulling taro and working at a pig farm so I think that was probably the most intense part the racial and being in America still that didn't mean anything

America meant nothing we're not America, we're Hawaii when I go to Europe people go you're from america you'll say no it's hawaii hawaii different experience in america it's a different culture yeah yeah but so so i would but i if i looked at any one thing i'd probably say you know i'd say that that uh that was probably the you know that was probably the most intense part of because it's in your school it's at your house it just doesn't all the time all the time no effects who you can't date you can't this you can't go it's like everything's affected by it yeah now do you feel like was there a moment

during a big competition where you earned everyone's respect or was it kind of like over time they were like oh here's the holly we respect you now for what you're creating what you're you're creating this pride of haw of Hawaii or you're making us proud. Was there a moment or was it kind of like it just grew over time? No, I think it was over time. I think, I think there was, I think there were moments. I think there were moments that, that would, would kind of solidify. I mean, at a certain point, you know, you have to start within your hometown or within your neighborhood.

And you earn the respect of the people most immediately touching you. And then eventually you earn a little bit more as you get more well-known and you're more out there, you earn more respect. But I never, ever, I never think I'm not a Howley. I'm not a white guy. Because I'm never not going to be a white guy. Right, right. so i don't ever have that unrealistic approach which means that if i go to a wrong the wrong neighborhood or someplace where they no one they don't know me um i'll be back where i began and and so i'm

realistic about that i also know i have a lot of giant guys that would back me if i you know something happened but you know i i i'm you know, if something happened, but, you know, I, I, I'm, you know, I was, I'm used to kind of dealing with things on my own. And so I, you know, but, but yeah, it's, it's, you know, that's, that's the, those are the things that shape you. I mean, those are the things that really, you know, it's the tempering that makes you what you are. And, and, you know, I, um, have such have such respect for the culture that I was raised in. And actually, most of the time, it wasn't the Hawaiians that really, that were the racists.

It was more of, it was a lot of the other cultures that were there that were like brought by the missionaries to be migrant workers. Really? You know, whether it's, you know, because you had tons of Chinese, tons of Japanese, Filipinos, Portuguese, you know, which Portuguese don't think they're white because they have black hair. Yeah. So I'm like, actually you're whiter than I am. Sure, sure. I'm tan, you know, but you know, so you have a lot of those guys and the real Hawaiian, Hawaiians, I mean, other than a few warriors, which you could earn their respect,

some of these other guys, you were incapable of earning their respect because they didn't even respect themselves. Right. Right, yeah, exactly. It's a whole culture there, yeah. If you would have grown up in the Orange County, where would you have grown up? Which is what people think. Right, were they used to grow up there?

No, people would think, when they look at me, I mean, because I'm from Southern California, they think that I was the captain of the football team. Water polo. Oh, yeah. I was homecoming king with the homecoming queen and all that stuff. And I'm like, obviously, you don't know me. Yeah, yeah. And I wouldn't be who I am.

You wouldn't be who you are. I wouldn't be. No, I would be. I mean, I don't know what I would be. I think I still have some certain things that are innate to my personality, which there's a real good chance I could be incarcerated, even where I grew up, had I not took a couple of the rights when I could have gone left kind of thing.

Just because of my nature of my defiance and my not, not, not, I mean, what my friend calls me, a contrarian. I, you know, not, not, not, I mean, what my friend calls me a contrarian, but I just, you know, I, I'm, what are they, what, I always throw, I always quote throw, which is, you know, disobedience is a true foundation of liberty and the obedient shall be slaves. So I'm, I'm, you know, I'm from the disobedient group. So that doesn't go well in, you know, in organized society. Of course. It's good out there on the disobedient group. So that doesn't go well in organized society. Of course. It's good out there on the frontier, in the front.

So as long as I can stay on the frontier, I'm cool. I was so blessed to have my mom take me to Hawaii as a child. I was born in San Francisco. We moved to Hawaii when I was three months old. And so it was a technicality that I wasn't born in Hawaii, which it would have been a little easier because at least I could have stood up for myself and said, I'm born here, you know, but I wasn't. So I didn't even have that, which in a way, maybe that's just, again, just a little added factor to

a little chip on your shoulder, a little extra, a little extra, you know, boost, sure. Boost in the rocket. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. Now I'm curious. I'm fascinated with the zone and getting in the zone and you're, you know, from the moment I'm curious. I'm fascinated with the zone and getting in the zone. And from the moment I met you a few hours ago, right, when you're breathing, I walked in and you're breathing intensely and then walking up. And I was like, okay, this guy's in the zone already right when I met you. How do you prepare to get into the zone when you're jumping off a 200-foot cliff or you're in a big wave or whatever you're doing, these breathing, uh, strategies or workout, anything you're doing, the pool stuff, how do you prepare to get into the zone? Because you can't just, I'm going to go surf a big wave today and jump on the board and just take it lightly. I would assume because your life is at hand. Yeah. So what do you do to prepare for

that? Well, I mean, a big, a big part of it, you know, I mean, I've been doing this so long that I have the ability to kind of just go and do it. Access it, yeah. It's kind of, it's just right below the surface. It's just sitting there like the whole time. Any moment, yeah. It can just rear its head, you know, which is good and bad. Yeah.

And sometimes it's not something that, you know, because you have the capacity to just do things in a way that you have to govern that, because that's the kind of stuff that doesn't go over well in a, you know, in a densely populated area. But, uh, but there, but a lot of it has to do with the preparation. You know, I'd say the real, the real art of, of the preparation for being in the zone is your preparation that it's really about, you know, the, the, the way you eat, the way you sleep, the way you live, what your relationships are, all those stuff. Like you're not distracted with all this and you get rid of stuff quickly. Like I get rid of stuff in a, in a, in a, uh, I have high turnover.

So I get rid of, you know, if I have a problem with somebody, I go talk to them. Hey, I call them up. I drive right to their house. If you get rid of, you know, if I have a problem with somebody, I go talk to them. I call them up. I drive right to their house. You know, I'm pretty, I want to, I just want to wipe it. You want to get clear. I want it clean. I just, I don't want to, I don't want anything. I don't like any kind of looming thing.

And I just want to, even if we just agree to disagree, you know, I want to get. At least you're clear on the disagreement. I'm clear. I'm good. Like we go, we handle it. And a lot of times I'll say stuff to people and do things that I'm not right, but that's how I feel. Yeah. You know, and I, I quote, uh, Dennis Miller, the comedian all the time. And I say, you know, this is my opinion. I could be wrong, but it's my opinion. This is

how I feel. And through that process, I think that really helps me, um, have a cleaner slate. And I think that's really a critical part of coming into being in the zone. Yeah. Because you're clear energy, you're focused, you're not wondering about relationship issues. Exactly. Which is a big factor in your ability to, because really the zone is ultimately the now. Not holding on to the past, not worried and fearful of the future. It's the now.

It's the moment, right? And that's what surfing's about. I mean, I always tell people the act of riding a wave really has no beginning and no end. It's just a continuation of where you left off. And so you go and you're in this thing. And there's ends of rides and beginnings of rides, but surfing itself of the art of, or the act of riding the wave, that motion, that feeling,

that's just a place where there's no time. There's no beginning and no end. That's why we seek it out. We crave it like what, you know, we do meditate. That is a meditation. That in that moment, and for somebody who's learning,

I'm jealous because they can do it on a one-foot wave. The wave can be this big and they go, and all of a sudden they're like, it's like in Star Wars when they go into hyperspace, where everything just goes, whee, like that. Well, that's what it is. And then it ends and you're like, oh, I want to go do that again. But it's a really unique thing. And that zone, that's what that is. I mean, that's what that is. I mean, that's what, that's what that is in, in, in, in any sport and, and any level. And when, you know, when people are, are, are so

skilled at something that they've done it for so many hours, um, it's, it's a easier place for them to be in. Um, and they also are so familiar with it. It's that they have a unique ability, uh, to, to be in it sooner and stay in it longer. And, you know, it's just, it's not something, and it becomes, it becomes very unconscious. It's not something that they really have to work towards. It's just something that they, that they, their body implements. Yeah. Yeah. What would you say is one of the things that you've done in your life that you're most proud of that maybe not that many people know about you? Oh my gosh. Well, I mean, I'm the most proud of, I mean, I'm the most proud of my family. So, uh, you know, I mean, that's, that's, you know, I'm the most proud of, of, uh,

of my relationship, you know, my relationship with my wife, with, with Gabby, my, my girlfriend, my lover, and, you know, my children and, and, and you know my children and and and you know that and the selfish side of it i'm i'm you know i'm uh first of all i'm most proud of the fact that i'm still here that i've survived and i'm like still breathing because people hey how you doing i'm like well you're still coming in out of the hole right now pretty fantastic so so that's a big part of it I did that I've had the you know the fortune to be to survive and the blessing to survive and and and that I'm still here that's it that's a big thing and then if you want to get into you know what am I the most proud of of something like of my discipline like I

quit drinking like nine years ago and and it was a thing more out of out of my discipline than it was out of uh you know out of like and then there was nothing good coming from it and i was just i got to a point where i was tired of telling myself and i you know all i my favorite was red wine and i could drink a couple bottles every night and i could wait oh yeah not glasses bottles yeah well bottles only three glasses okay let's get that straight okay but. But I could have five or six whatever glasses a night and then do that every night and wake up at five in the morning and train for five hours and ride giant waves and run around and do all this stuff too.

So it was easy for me to justify it. And then at a certain point, I got tired of lying to myself. And my mom's gone now, but one of her quotes that I always use is, if you can't be true to yourself, you can't be true to anybody. So I kind of, well, I can't be true to myself, and I'm telling myself I can do this, but I don't do it. Then how deep are my relationships, and what can I do there? And so I just, I went, okay, boom.

And I just stopped drinking. I literally, I was a one day. I always say all the dumbest things I ever did were when I was drinking, which they are. If I look back and look at stupid things I've done, I'll be like, oh, yeah, I was drunk. For sure. It says right on the bottle, impairs motor skills. Those are your judgments. Yeah, of course.

What would you say is the scariest thing or scariest encounter you've ever experienced with all the extreme things you've done? Was there a moment where you really thought more than every other moment wow this is it like i'm done you know i got lost at sea and it was only for the day but a day is a long time only for a day yeah that's still scary yeah it was scary wow it was scary how'd you get lost um i was jet skiing between islands in hawaii and uh and the fog was really bad from the volcano the smoke from the volcano was um the visibility was less than a mile and and i went just off course just got the unusual current and a combination of a few factors just put me out in the middle of the ocean about 60 miles north of the big island and which kind of the next stop

is alaska or something it's a bad world because you're in the middle of the big island and which kind of the next stop's alaska or something it's a bad world because you're in the middle of the ocean anyway yeah and uh and so that was i had a while to think about things and i was like that was you know i mean i've had other traumatic moments that were short-lived like two minutes or yeah yeah you know being held down to the bottom of the ocean by a giant wave and wondering with boots on, wondering if you're ever going to come up and, you know, falling in glaciers. I mean, I've had a lot of pinned-on waterfalls. I mean, there's a long list I can just keep going,

but the fact is that this one was like a stretched-out one. Your mind will play tricks on you. That's right. You start, you know, when you sit with yourself for 14 hours and, you know, wonder if you're ever going to get back again, and I can only imagine what you'd do if you went days and days. I mean, at a certain point, you start, I think, having to, you know, you have to start trying to figure out how to survive.

But I wasn't quite to that point yet. I was still on the, you know, am I going to, you know. You weren't that hungry yet no not yet but wow so what happened about came i got rescued by the coast guard they i had an e-perb which i didn't know if it was working or not you know you just turn them on and they have a little light that beeps and you know you don't know what that means i mean it could be beeping doesn't mean anybody's reading it or wow are they hearing it and uh and so that uh had like a c-130 flew over me i mean first of all finding somebody in the ocean even when the need proves like finding a needle

in a haystack oh my goodness especially when you're you know on a jet ski so many miles miles it's a big big place so what happened uh mentally for you or emotionally after that moment when you saw the coast guard coming up realize no the, realize. No, the plane flew over first. Oh, the plane flew over. Dropped me. You're like. And I was like, well, the plane's not going to be able to pick me up. So it flew away.

And I was like, well, first it flew over and didn't see me. And I was like, well, that was it. That was my shot. Oh, man. And then it came back around like 45 minutes later and was down low. And then they flew over and saw me. And then it split. And I'm like, because I was thinking, all right, the plane's here.

And I'm like, well, what are they going to do? Like, how am I going to get? I can't get. He's not going to land. Yeah. And then about an hour after that, a chopper showed up and plucked me out. Yeah, they plucked me out of the water. Wow.

Oh, so it was a helicopter. Yeah, with a basket. Well, I mean, those big, the big red boys. Sure, sure, sure. It wasn't a boat. It was a. No, no. Wow. No, it was a helicopter. Yeah, with a basket. I mean, the big red boys. It wasn't a boat. No, no. Wow. No, it was a chopper. The boat would have been at night.

So you were sitting on the jet ski. Yeah. I'd been rowing for a while. I had the makeshift oar system that I had brought with me just in case of something. I don't know. In case something broke down. So I had makeshift oars. And I actually hadn't run the jet ski out of gas because I had the foresight to know,

like, hey, listen, if it doesn't have any gas, I'm immobile. Where at least if I have a little bit, I can run away from a shark or I can go to a boat or I have some mobility. So I just left a gallon in it. Like, wow. Leave a gallon. And what did you, I mean, was there any shift inside of you after that moment where you're like, okay, well, I said there was, and then everybody else just laughed. But, but, you know,

I, I definitely, you know, I, I, I prayed and said, you know, please, Lord, you know, save me. And, you know, I promise I'll turn from my sinful ways you know and did you and uh and i i i did i think i did partially you know i mean i i think at a certain point uh it definitely i mean you know each one of those things has a has a has a effect on the wheel every spoke you just don't know what effect what spoke has and you know how that played in but i i mean absolutely what that how that affected me yeah um it was pretty heavy and then i and then i was working on water world at the time uh that the movie and i was in the stunt department and when i got there um the stunt guys just embraced me like you know like one of their lost brothers and i mean it was

it was a big emotional it was when i got back in the coast guard uh helicopter and landed there was i had all you know all my family was at the airport and it was you know it was it was an it was an intense emotional thing you know you know i i say that it you know rounded some of the corners you know yeah a little bit a little bit just filed some of the edges i mean when i was in hawaii i remember hearing the story of the legend eddie i cow who you know went out and sacrificed his life and it's like he was the biggest hero in hawaii i'm assuming one of the biggest heroes it's almost like you almost experienced the same thing yeah i might not have got the hero part but i definitely

was experiencing the loss of sea part yeah now do you still do the big extreme waves and the big extreme? I do. You do? I do. Is it as big as it used to be? Well, it's as big as it'll get me. Right. As big as it'll get you?

Yeah. But is it as big as it used to be 20 years ago? It's as big as the ocean will get me. Oh, really? You'll go as big as you can go still? It's not, yeah. will give me oh really you go as big as you can go still it's not yeah and does this does it worry you now with a family and doing these extreme activities still i mean it worries me because it always has worried me so it doesn't you know i don't think it's i don't think that the i mean

the intensity of the of the of the fear when it is as much as it can be, I don't think can increase. Right. It's scary. I don't think that at a certain point there's only so much fear that you can, you know, that you can really muster. And at the end it's, I don't think it,

I mean, I mean, I, that's a commonly asked question is, you know, do you do it different because you have daughters and a family and I'm, and, you know,

and, Do you do it different because you have daughters and a family? And I continue to answer it in the same way I have from the beginning, which is I really want them to know me for who I am. And I'm a big weight writer as one of the things that I do. And I want them to see how that makes me. When I'm done doing that, what do I look like? Before I do it, what do I look like? Before I do it, what do I look like? What is that, what's that effect on dad?

What's it make you feel? Who do you become when you grow up? Well, you know, I have an energy that comes into me that's, you know, that it's from there, that the ocean gives me, that, you know that it's from there that the ocean gives me that you know it's that extra it's that you know that superhuman yeah power that you get to do these things that the that it gives you it get the end of the ocean gives you this this power you know when the surf's big it's like i can be wounded hurt and i just it's like you just can keep you can come you can come up for it and

and uh you know and and then you get the you know and you're frantic before you're you know you're and if there's a forecast it's going to be giant you know you're you're you know you're can be you can be you know have an edge and be unruly in anticipation of it and you know and then tired right before sometimes really just exhausted from the anticipation of it, and then tired right before, sometimes really just exhausted from the anticipation, but it's almost like the body has a mechanism to kind of shut the system way down before it's going to come up,

so you just kind of get that. And then, of course, the elated, either the agony of defeat or just the elated feeling and expression of accomplishing something unique and special. And I continue to evolve in the way I do it. So my objectives are still the same. I don't participate in... It's like I've shifted to another aspect of big wave big wave because of

through my natural evolution and not for any other reason than that and and i'm fortunate that you know like the last just the last season i just had was the you know that was the highest um the highest kind of level of of of uh of what i could do um that i've had so far really so last season wow yeah so and it's you know in a way now now i at this point i don't think i could i could do what i did 20 years ago the way i did it 20 years ago but mostly because that's not what i'm doing not because i couldn't do it if that's what if that's what i was doing it's not what I'm doing. Not because I couldn't do it, if that's what I was doing. It's just I'm not doing that. And I think I have a unique, and I would like to say maybe part of it was a plan,

but I think I have something unique, which is I get to keep changing it. Of course, evolving. Yeah, which allows me, first of all, to adjust the goal. So the sport changes a little bit each time so the goal changes so i keep shifting and adapt and which leads me to ultimately continue contentment and and avoiding uh what a famous stuntman don't let your memories be bigger uh than your dreams and so my dreams continue to be bigger than my memories, as big as my memories are. And so that's a big thing.

I think that's a big part of what, you know, right now the focus is on hydrofoil surfing. And we know through the… That's with the thing underneath? Yeah, the board lifts up and flies above the water. A lot more dangerous. You're attached to the board. The board's, you know, like a samurai sword. dangerous you're attached to the board the boards of you know like a samurai sword but um which adds to the danger it makes so you don't need quite as big a surf to have it be right yeah and interesting which is interesting because now it's like in less conditions you can be

it'd be like you know you're a motorbike racer and then now you do it naked so you go half the speed and it's twice as scary yeah um so it a little bit like that, like that kind of a situation. But yet on the top end of it, we know that this is the way that we can ride the biggest waves in the world. Yeah, that's crazy. What would life be like if there were no waves? It would be flat. You'd have to have giant motors. There'd have to be a lot of pistons involved and a lot of fuel to make up for that.

Okay. I mean, but if there was no waves, ultimately... If there was no waves for you to surf. Listen, if there was no waves, there would be no life. That's the only thing. That's the one little catch about that one, which because if there was no waves, it'd mean that there was no storms, which means there'd be no weather,

which means that we'd have a hard time existing here because everything would be in chaos. So it's just a coincidence that the waves are an intricate part of nature and its energy and our life on Earth. So we need storms to thrive is what you're telling me. We do. We do. We need for our environment to keep turning and mixing the air and creating the rain and creating the systems.

I mean, that's an essential part of our environment. Would you say as individuals we need storms to thrive as well? Absolutely. Yeah. It's all... It's the same thing. Yeah. It's symbolic.

There's always... Of course. That's what I was going for. Yeah. I want to, it's all, uh, it's symbolic. There's always, of course it's, it's going for it. Yeah. Uh, well, I want to finish with a couple of questions. Okay.

Uh, cause this has been awesome. So thank you so far for sharing everything. One of the things I want to ask is what are you most grateful for recently? Well, I'm most, I mean, I'm most grateful,

grateful for my family for sure. I mean, it's, it's not just cause Gabby's listening's it's not just because gabby's listening no not just because gabby's listening but but yeah just uh love you know i think i'm most grateful for loving and being loved uh being loved is i mean by your friends you know of course, first by your family, you know, and that I've been able to do the things that I love so much and make a life of it. I think that that's been, you know, that's been something that's been, that's just been an amazing, it continues to be an amazing blessing to, you know you know i always quote the jerk you know again

uh find your special purpose but you know that's what i want my daughters to do find their special purpose but to be able to find your you know find find your special purpose and and and and and then do it find it young and then have and then have a life of doing it and when i look at my what i've been able to do in my life, I mean, I've lived lives, many lives. And I see, you know, I'm around some of the wealthiest people in the world. And I feel sorry for them. Because with all that abundance of wealth,

they don't have what is the greatest gift, the greatest treasure, which is ultimately first having great relations, but ultimately great experiences. And these ones that you can't buy. You can't buy this stuff because you can't buy skill and you can't buy experience. You have to earn it and you have to learn it and it's it's uh i mean that's just sure you know what's the key to um having great relationships while you go after your dream after your big dreams and what's the key to thriving in relationships you know i mean it's i think there's a combination of a couple things. To be honest, I think you've got to be truthful

with yourself, with the people, whoever that is. You've got to be truthful with any, and again, even expressing things that are just your opinion. Again, you could be wrong.

Chances are you might be. A lot of times you are. Admitting you're wrong, that's a big part of it. Accepting the fact that you're wrong. Saying you're sorry yeah a lot of times you are admitting you're wrong yeah that's a big part of it yeah accepting the fact you're wrong saying you're sorry yeah for sure saying you're sorry um and and uh and loving being being just and but loving for real like in a real way being and being somebody and and also being reliable being being reliable like having them you know unique and that all comes from truth and all these other, like having them, you know, unique. And that all comes from truth and all these other pieces, you know,

lead into, you know, people knowing they can rely on you and knowing that, you know. And sometimes I'm not good with the small stuff as good, but knowing that when it's really, when it comes down and it gets heavy, you're the one they want. It's like they want to call you. when it comes down and it gets heavy. You're the one. It's like they want to call you.

My girls, I can build such confidence in them if they know that they have this rock behind. They know that there's a big rock in the back. Then they can just go out and rip it up. Because they know that they can turn around and there's a rock there, you know, ready to, ready to be. What's the three things that you do every morning that you feel like is a must for you to do in order to have a successful day or to have the most out of your day?

The three maybe habits that you have to perform, something you eat, a practice, something with your family. What are those three things to set you up to win? To set me up to win? Well, I definitely, I mean, I need to shower when I wake up. Like as soon as I wake up, I need to go in the water, like rinse off, pee in the water, dive in the water, swim in the water, whatever, just be,

just but get like ultimately like pool, water. Shower first, like out of the bed, going straight to the shower. Yeah. You know know that just cold hot yeah cold hot but but you normally cold always at the end if i go hot otherwise just straight you know stand in the cold shower yeah um gotta have that that's just like that that gets me rolling in the beginning then then from there we go to um fuel up you know whatever it's a

combination of uh a little morning rituals whether it's sea salt water lemon you know some uh mushroom powder some raw eggs you know and then i'm gonna of course i'm gonna i'm gonna caffeinate i'm gonna caffeinate raw eggs yeah yeah you rocky yeah in a way i like it in a way there's a rocky aspect of it how many rocks do you have a couple couple rocks every day oh so i make it easy you poke a hole in them you just suck them out of the egg it doesn't but it doesn't have that same effect really you don't gag on no gag reflex okay but um and then and then you know and then and then fuel like caffeine up caffeinate that so that's all part of that morning ritual like the the fueling. And then ultimately it's the girls, contact with the girls.

That's great. The good morning kiss from Gabby and maybe a hot cocoa espresso conversation. A little kiss on the girls, touch the girls, see the girls, you know, kiss, touch the girls, see the girls. And then, and then, and then we're ready to rock and roll, whatever we got to do, climb a kill, knock a tree, whatever, whatever it is, you know, lay around and breathe, sweat and almost pass out. What are the, if it's the last day of your life, and you've got three truths of all the 50 lives you've lived, and you could boil it down to three simple truths about life to share with your family, your friends, the world.

You got a piece of paper, you could write them down, and that's all they got to have of you with these three things left. What would you say are those three truths? And they're like parables. Well, I'm going to have to give you the one that my mom gave me, which is if you can't be true to yourself, then you can't be true to anyone. I'd have to put that right up there at the top because that's just mandatory. And, you know, again, I'd have to go hard right again on this one,

and I'd be speed and take chances. Speed and take chances. Speed and take chances, absolutely. Because that brings a focus on. That's how I tell people. People go, be safe, have a safe trip. I'm like, speed and take chances. Because in a way, that's more, you know,

caution killed the cat. It's like, you've got be like a little more like, you know, go into it with, you know. And I don't know. I mean, I think it's a longer list than that, but those are the ones that just pop out right away. Can't be true to yourself, can't be true to anyone, which ultimately you need to be true to everyone.

And then what else the third one the third one would be uh that's a pretty tough one i'm trying to think maybe the third one might i might have to give you the third one because i have a couple different ways i want to go with it but i i don't i feel like i'll waste what would be the most important I'm going to croak and I got to kind of um you know I think uh take your time I'd have to go with love I'd have to go you got to love your you know I got you got to um you got to go first and Gabby has that she's been saying that about being taking the being first but you got to you just got to you know you got to, you just got to, you know, you got to go, you got to go with, you got to go with love your, you know, love your neighbors as yourself or, you know, just,

I think you need, I think you need to, we need to be nice to people. Okay. I like those three truths. I like those three truths. That's it. I have one final question for you, but before we ask it, what is, what are you working on what are you excited about your businesses you've got these food you've made this incredible coffee for me this morning you've got stand-up paddle boards you got tell me tell me everything you got going on where can we connect with you online yeah well i got layered stand-up which is a stand-up paddling equipment which obviously i was a you know instrumental on in starting that sport yeah um and so i and that's a bunch of stand-up equipment for flat water, waves, learning, experts, all that kind of stuff, and some really nice equipment.

So layered stand-up, and then I have an apparel line that we're just launching, a layered apparel stuff that I'm doing. It's part of the hats up here I saw. Yeah, that's one of the parts of it. But it's a technical line, which all kinds of really technical, you know, surf shorts and shirts that dry really quick and fitness workout stuff and stretch stuff and, you know, like a whole, like, you know, things that you're going to need in the daily life kind of thing. And then I have this uh thing called the total

wave that we're that we're used it's by the pool you did that you didn't see that's like this uh roller that's yours that's the roller pipe yeah wow gabby and i are involved in that project that's cool and it's a roller a roller uh fitness device that uses momentum and so you can do all these different exercises and this it has this kind of movement that's that's uh not only sport specific for any board sport or skiing or any kind of movement but then it's then it's amazing for just agility and balance and you know it's a whole um connective tissue kind of thing where you're all yeah you use the whole body to do it so there's some cardio some cardio uh aspects to that so the total wave and then and then the golf board is exploding.

That's the one right now that we have a lot of push behind as well. And the golf board is, you know, you're going to see it on a lot of the golf courses, but you can go to golfboard.com. Golfboard.com. And check that out and laugh. It's an all-wheel drive electric board that you play golf on that's revolutionizing the game of golf really it's gonna it's speeding up play it's making good players play better it's bringing new people into it it's allowing older people you know a whole new way perspective it's

just it's a little bit like and i don't know if you know a stand-up paddles effect on kind of water sports but stand-up paddling is the fastest growing sport in the world right now and has been for the last couple years and uh and it's because it's it's uh accessibility mobility perspective it just changes your whole experience and that's what the golf board's doing in golf um and then uh and then i have lairdsuperfood.com you just launched this right lairs superfood or laird laird laird no laird la. Yeah. Lairdsuperfood.com. And that we have, well, we have some formulas like the one you tried this morning. It's incredible.

We have a powdered formula for powder, people that like powder better. Especially if you're a coffee drinker, but it's meant to be put in tea or hot cocoa as well. And there's also some dessert stuff that they're making with it. Um, then we have recipes and you can go to, uh, layered superfood.com and they, we got a whole, and then we, and we have coffee beans on there and, uh, and then these other top fuel formula and, and coconut sugar and a bunch of other products that we're, we're launching. And it's, you know, that one's, I mean, all these things that I'm involved in are all authentic to me. And it's, you know, that one's, I mean, all these things that I'm involved in are all authentic to me.

I mean, it's things that I use naturally or I'm involved with it because that's just the nature of my approach. I think that's the only sincere thing, the way that I can do it. And then, so that, but that's the big pusher are those items right now. And then we have another thing called XPT, which is extreme pool training, which you didn't get to experience. Hopefully I'll come back and do it sometime. But you got to experience the land part of it, which is that land stuff we implement into the water. But it's something a little bit different.

And then those are the main things that are working. Yeah, and I also have a, we're in the process of shooting a documentary about foiling. So there's a lady by the name of Roy Kennedy, who's one of the Kennedys that is, but she's also a famous documentarian director. And so we're doing a film about hydrofoil surfing and the pursuit of trying to ride the biggest, furthest, fastest waves in the world. And so that's another one of our thrusts. That's cool.

Lots of fun things. Absolutely. I think it's only natural to just keep evolving. And these are things I'm excited about, stuff that I do naturally. And so it's why not? Very cool. We'll have it all linked up below in the show notes as well. Final question before I ask.

I always finish with an acknowledgment of my guest. Yes. So I want to acknowledge you. I've only experienced you for a couple hours now. For sure. But from everything I know about you, things I've heard about you, research, I want to acknowledge you for your consistency. You've been so consistent over your whole career, your whole life,

of being true to who you are. So I'm acknowledging you secondly for your truth and being unapologetically you all the time from everything I've seen and our experience together. And also the third thing I want to acknowledge is your courage, your consistent courage to be able to sustain this over the years and how you serve so many people,

just the level of service and care and grace that you have as a manly man. You have so much people, you know, just the level of service and care and grace that you have as a, as a manly man, you have so much grace about you, whether you know that or not. And I was experiencing that during the breathing exercises when I was about to pass out. So I want to really acknowledge you for all that you do for so many people and for your consistency, your truth and your care and your courage. Well, thank you. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. Yeah, of course. Thanks a lot.

The final question is, what's your definition of greatness? What's my definition? It's probably long. It's a long... But great is... Well, great is compassionate. Absolutely.

And incapable of being great without is compassionate. Absolutely. And incapable of being great without being compassionate. Great is humble. Because you're not great unless you're humble. So we got compassionate and humble. Great is, well, courageous. You got to be courageous. So got to be compassionate, got to be humble, got to be courageous. You've got to be courageous. So you've got to be compassionate,

you've got to be humble, you've got to be courageous. Great is loving. You've got to be loving. If you're not loving, then you're definitely not compassionate. And that would probably be... What else? I think it goes on and on, but I'll start with that.

Awesome. Laird Hamilton, thanks for coming on, man. I appreciate it so much for having me. Thank you. My pleasure. There you have it, guys. LewisHowes.com slash 212. Please share this with your friends.

Anyone who wants to be inspired to learn more about how to optimize their body, their mind, their health, their lifestyle, make sure to share this link, lewishouse.com, with your friends over on Facebook and Twitter and Google+. Again, it's lewishouse.com slash 212. Big thank you. Very grateful to have Laird on and share his wisdom with all of the listeners at the School of Greatness. And make sure to head back to the show notes to learn more about all that he's up to and everything he's got going on in his business, his lifestyle.

Check out his websites, all of his new products. Make sure to go head over there and learn more over at the show notes, lewishouse.com slash 212 very soon. Thank you guys again so much. Make sure to check out lewishouse.com slash 212 for more. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you. Outro Music