Austin Keen: Why True Athletes Stay Dangerous Into Their 60s | DSH #1755

True athlete, that's challenging, it's satisfying.

Yeah, you could play it into your 50s, 60s, 70s, no problem, most sports you can't.

That's why I think Pickleball took off, too.

I had a Pickleball phase.

I remember me and my buddy got challenged by these because we were just trying to get on my courts

and then so these older women, they were probably in their 70s.

We're like, oh, I guess we'll play.

But if they give them the time of the day, we'll play with them.

And then we start playing and we got smoked by a 70 year old man.

I mean, they might have been their 60s, but either way, they smoked us

and we're like, we both looked each other like, we're not going to talk about this game.

Let's play one more of the other on the match.

And then they smoked us again.

And I don't think we had me and him have ever played Pickleball together again.

We got Austin on the show today.

Fluent from OC just for the pod.

Thanks for coming, man.

That's right, dude.

Yeah, wrapping the vitamin bar shirt.

We're here.

Healthy snacks, right?

Healthy snacks to healthiest bars in the market.

That's a big issue these days, man.

You go in any grocery store.

You're the cleanest, best tasting bar that you can buy right now.

Yeah, how many ingredients are in the bar?

Hand full, but we got 15 superfoods.

So that makes the ingredients list add up for sure.

And all that we have 25% daily intake of vitamins.

And it's all from the superfoods.

Super clean.

Not trying to sell it too hard here.

No, you're good.

You're good.

Yeah.

My side hobby, when I'm at grocery stores, is to just read ingredient lists.

And I even have this app that scans.

How do you heard of this app?

Which app is that?

Yuka.

Yeah, so Yuka, man, they kind of,

they kind of, we had some like weird like difficulties with them.

But we got all squirt away.

But we're probably going to give you a low score first.

It was weird though.

Yeah, because we're like, what's going on?

And like on our end, it was staying low.

But then they were saying on their end, it was like rated high.

Huh.

Yeah, so they must have had an algorithm.

Yeah, it must have been messed up or something.

So they got it all sorted out recently.

So we should be rated now.

This happened like a month ago.

Oh, okay.

We're all rated.

They don't even clean because they're right in Cliff Bar like healthy.

Stop it.

Cliff Bar's like loaded with sugar and freaking,

how is that healthy for you, you know?

You know, it's a shame looking back when I was a kid in an athlete,

eating Cliff Bar's and drinking Gatorade all the time.

And if I just optimized my nutrition back then,

I probably could have been like a D1 athlete.

Yeah, I was so malnutrition as a kid.

I was chugging two liters of root beer,

eating specific rolls like I was not eating healthy.

And look at you, you still came out.

No, I mean, maybe that's, you know, I stayed very active,

which probably helped reverse that.

But you look at kids now and they're like hitting a gym at 15

and like taking protein supplements.

Like I had zero knowledge of that growing up.

Yeah, there wasn't good information back then.

I feel like.

No, no, and I was in the South.

So we were 10 years behind.

I think I'll see now.

Yeah, you guys aren't known for eating healthy numbers.

Definitely not.

I mean, sweet tea.

I thought I was doing something good

when I would drink sweet tea in the morning.

Wow, I was a morning beverage.

I thought I was hydrating.

What's in sweet tea?

You basically, you know, you know,

brew your little tea like concentrate.

And then you just mix it with water

and like three cups of sugar.

Wow, that's pretty much sweet too.

I don't know, I can't remember how many.

It's probably like two or three cups of sugar.

Damn, just loaded with sugar.

I haven't been down South often.

I hear the food is heavy, but the people are nice.

It is, man.

But, you know, I feel like the South is getting a little bit.

Like I said, I feel like there are always two years behind

and also with like social media and stuff like that.

Information is traveling faster.

They're still behind, but they're getting more informed.

And people are starting to make healthier decisions

and getting more and tune with better quality products.

Not even just food, you know?

Yeah.

So you spend a majority of your childhood down South?

Yeah, actually I was born in Savannah.

And then when I was like two years old,

I moved to Indiana.

And I lived in the cornfields of Indiana

for like six years in the middle of nowhere,

a little town called Knox, Indiana.

And then moved back to Savannah, Georgia

when I was about eight years old.

And then I spent the rest of my time there growing up

until I moved to California just right around 17, 18 years old.

And you must have loved to move.

Honestly, it like didn't even seem real.

Like I mean, I just remember like when I moved from Indiana

to Savannah, Georgia, and I saw my first palm tree,

I was just like, whoa, this is so sick.

Now like palm tree, oh, the beach, like this is like paradise.

And then I started making surf trips down to like cocoa beach

and you know, Florida and stuff.

And I was like, Florida was like my like dream place

to live. I was like, I'm moving the cocoa beach.

Like I hated leaving.

I hated going back to Georgia every time.

So just when I had the opportunity to go to California,

I mean, just absolutely unreal.

Yeah.

Yeah, a lot of people think I grew up in California.

Man, it was a, you know, like the universe definitely

led me there for sure.

Yeah, you seem like a coastal type of guy.

I'm a coastal guy for sure.

Yeah, you definitely get me involved.

Like it says like, oh, you look like you're from California.

But I'm like, people in California don't look like me.

Maybe an L.A. or Venice Beach, you know, but I think maybe the hair.

That's what that's I'm saying.

But like surfers, you know, you had surfers on here before.

They don't, a lot of surfers don't have like long hair, you know.

That's true.

They might hold them back when they're yeah, you know, I'm like in the one.

Yeah, the dreads work in my favor because like when I used to have long hair

when I was a kid before dreads and you know, the water kind of sticks it together.

But when I'm like, do my thing and I'm in a barrel, you know,

the locks kind of have space.

So I can actually see through them.

Interesting.

Wow.

It's just so good.

Now say every now and then I take that like air drop to the sand

and blind and just hope I land on my.

Is this the longest your hair has ever been right now?

Yeah, I mean, it pretty much stays the same length,

which I'm very lucky for.

It's gotten pretty long recently.

I've considered, you know, given a little trim or something, you know,

sometimes I grow the fro out, but then it gets obnoxious.

Dude, it's cool.

That's cool.

It's a vibe.

It's good for branding.

It's good for branding, you know.

You got it on your logo.

Got it on the logo.

Yeah, I grew up with it and it's a rare look these days.

The fro.

It is.

Used to be popping back in the day.

I bring it back, baby.

You think I should bring it back?

100%.

Yeah, that's cool.

I don't know if girls like it, man.

Oh, they love it.

They love your hair.

I don't know.

I think it's hit or miss.

People are either, you know, questionable.

I think, you know, I don't know what people think.

Because I see white guys with dreads and I'm like,

that's what I look like, damn.

And then I'm like, look in the mirror.

I'm like, no, I'll look alright.

Yeah, maybe some of them are like, damn,

he has longer hair than me.

I'm a boy.

Going back real quick to Georgia, though,

middle school was pretty rough for you.

Growing up was pretty difficult.

Oh, man, middle school is brutal.

Just like school, just like, you know,

I looked back on my childhood and it was like,

I thought it was normal at time.

And looking back, I'm just like, man,

that was fucking weird.

Yeah, I mean, my parents were house parents

at like a place called Bethesda Home for Boys.

So like, it was like, used to be this orphanage

back in like the 1800s or something.

Maybe even before that.

And now it's like a place where it's a,

it's a, it's an amazing place.

Now we're, you know,

kids that don't have parents that can kind of

help take care of them or whatever,

they go to this, they go to Bethesda

and they have like a whole property

of like multiple housing areas.

And then like cafeteria, gym, church,

like all the stuff.

It's kind of like your own little like,

it's like its own compound community.

It's right on the marsh, right on the water kind of.

And yeah, so like half our house was like our normal family house.

And then you like walk through a door

and it was kind of like hostile style.

And then you have like,

my parents were responsible for like,

I don't know like six, seven, eight boys there.

Wow.

Yeah, and then, you know, it was all like a point system,

disciplining them on a point system,

which is kind of like a weird thing,

you know, like growing up with that.

And that time I thought I was like,

oh, this is just normal because we actually had,

when I lived in Indiana,

we had like foster brothers and sisters.

Interesting.

So, um, yeah.

So when you say point system.

Yeah.

What do you think about it?

They're not like the real parents.

They can't like physically discipline.

Yeah, yeah.

You have to be kind of like careful with that.

So yeah, point system work.

And I remember when I was a kid, I was like,

I want a point card.

You know, I felt left out.

I left out.

They had those in my elementary school.

Oh, really?

I mean, it's kind of a smart thing

because then you get like rewarded, you know,

at the end of the week.

But like, my point system was like, you know,

yard work and stuff like that.

And then I got, you know, 20 bucks at the end of the week.

Yeah.

I think it works, man.

You know, reward them if they do well.

And if they don't, then they don't get anything.

Yeah, I mean, I, you know,

these, these poor, poor guys, man, like they had it rough.

You know, like some of them, you know,

I know a couple of the guys end up being really successful

and not playing in the NFL.

Wow.

Actually, yeah.

The Marcus Dobbs, I'm pretty sure, yeah, has,

he played a few teams in the NFL.

I'm not sure where he's at now.

But I just, when I heard about that, I was like,

at first I heard he was playing for a UGA.

And he was like, oh, damn, that's awesome.

And then I looked him up like later on.

He's like played for like,

I think he played for like, Seahawks, Niners.

I don't know, I was blown away.

That's amazing.

So were you close with those people

that you grew up in?

Him in particular.

Yeah, I mean, like, I remember he was like,

probably like the longest in that,

in our, like, cottage, they called it.

Yeah.

So.

Wow.

What an interesting dynamic to have, like,

your family on one half of the house

and then eight kids living right next to you.

Yeah, wow.

I mean, they become like your brothers in a way,

you know, and I'm like, there's like part of the,

you know, they're there.

They go to school and stuff and you're doing your thing.

And, um, but yeah, you, I remember that's how I learned

how to do a backflip.

Hmm.

Me and one of those guys were,

we're just like watching Power Rangers.

And the next thing you know,

we're like, start teaching ourselves

how to do a backflip in the hallway.

And that's how I learned.

Wow.

So I would just like use the hallway wall

as like my spot.

So you keep doing it crooked into the hallway wall

until you slowly get more like backwards.

Yeah.

And then you just eventually just send it.

I'm sure your teachers left you doing that in the hallway.

Yeah.

Just slam them into the wall.

Damn.

I got really good at backflip when I was a kid.

Yeah.

Can you do, you still do one or no?

I'll always, I'll always be able to do a backflip.

But when I was a kid, like, I was doing stuff I can't do now.

I mean, I was doing like full twists.

Like, I mean, I hit it.

I nailed a double backflip.

Holy crap.

Grass when I was a kid.

A double backflip.

Land on my knees.

That's still crazy.

Yeah.

Land on my knees.

And I scared myself kind of away from trying that again.

But I got two rotations on grass.

Dude, that's nuts.

I've never heard of a double backflip.

That's probably fifth grade.

Yeah, I've never heard of someone.

We were so good at, uh,

me and like these neighborhood kids.

We were so good at, um, we call it flipping.

Flipping?

Yeah, y'all want to go to grass?

Flipping.

Flip.

You ever see those trampoline videos where they'll be like,

eight guys on the trampoline.

Oh, yeah.

And then I'll send the guy up.

You did that?

Yeah, not a level they're doing it now,

but like we're kids do the double jump.

That's how I got, you know, you really start,

you practice there and then you take it to the grass.

Yeah.

And then you do the cartwheel to get the speed,

you know, the run cartwheel.

And then, um,

but yeah, we got so good at flipping that or tumbling,

whatever, uh,

and fifth grade our gym teacher was like,

what is going on?

Like these kids are insanely good.

And she ended up like starting like a, um,

like a tumbling class kind of.

Hmm.

And she probably spent her own money

because like our schools,

there's no budget for anything cool like that.

And, um,

but when my brothers would,

like my brother used, you know,

playing football so half time,

it wasn't a lot of like grass, you know,

like like a lot of open grass,

like you have in Southern California.

You know, I was just like,

it was so hard to find good grass.

And so like my brother's half time

football, I'd go out there and just start doing flips

just because I loved it.

Wow.

And then I love the attention too.

Did you, did you join the gymnastics team?

No, it was just, she started this like,

our PE teacher just started this like a little tumbling team

for like me and these like,

it was like me and one other white kid.

Yeah.

And that kid like ended up going to like,

uh,

the like Olympic trial.

What?

Yeah, like I look them up later on and he's like,

I mean, he's like,

yo, doing the ring things and stuff.

Dude, you grew up with some interesting people.

Yeah, it's wild.

And like the south will kind of breed,

you know, breed some interesting characters.

Some talented people out there.

Come out from a little bit, uh,

yeah, makes you work harder, you know,

yeah, talented musicians out there, talented cooks.

Yeah.

You guys, I mean like Kelly Slider that's he,

you know, came from Coco Beach.

I does not see like work harder, trying to ride waves,

try to have to work harder to make more of what you're given.

Yeah, and so it kind of makes you like,

builds a foundation and then you just like,

get hungrier.

You know, you're not like just saturated around it.

I can see that.

Like the closest skate park to me growing up was like two hours.

Holy shit.

Yeah, it's like Hilton Head Island.

I had to drive all the way around.

And um, my mom would take me and yeah,

just first time walking up to that.

I was like, oh my god, this can't be real.

It's like, I only saw that on like blue torch TV and like on TV,

you know, I'm like, oh, I just would skate for hours.

I'm going to be there.

So your mom really supported your,

oh, my mom was, is a saint.

She took me all the surf contests when I was a kid, you know,

up and down the east coast and she'd take me to,

uh, take me a skate park on the weekends here and there.

And then, yeah, that's how I got to California eventually.

Actually, I was actually visiting out here.

And then she's like, hey, I got a travel nurse,

uh, opportunity to travel nursing job in California.

Would you want to live out there while I was here?

I was like, are you kidding me?

I'm literally out here because it's like the mecca of

skimboarding.

We're going to beach.

And that's how I got out here.

My parents got divorced when I was like 15.

And, um, yeah, she, I could,

I actually can't believe that she went for that.

But I think at that point, we're just kind of,

she was down for a change and I actually looking back,

I can't believe that even happened.

That was crazy.

Yeah, what a big risk to take, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Because skimboarding is not like a big risk taking

you know, she probably did it mainly for you.

I'm sure if you asked her, yeah, you know,

I think that probably a lot to do with it for sure.

But I think she probably, it was probably a good paying job,

paid housing, you know, stuff like that.

So we got to come out here and, um,

finished my last year high school of Venice Beach,

high school in LA, which was night and day difference

from high school in Savannah, Georgia.

And, uh, yes, she moved back.

Um, actually, sorry, I moved back to Georgia because I was like,

Oh, I want my independence.

I graduated high school ended up working doc construction

in the middle of winter in Savannah.

And I'm like, what the hell am I doing?

Yeah, I'm sure you hate about that.

I was like, I was just in California, like surfing perfect waves

and all this stuff.

And then I drove back.

I was an old 1975 BMW.

My first car and then, uh, drove it back out to California.

That's a three day drive, right?

Oh, at least there was a week and a half since I got stuck

the third time.

Yeah, and I just went out had to find one I jumped yard,

had I get it shipped to this like little, you know,

Navajo town in Arizona and just waited for a week for that thing

to arrive and get it put in.

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Ended up that first car, man, 1975 BMWs,

like my first girlfriend.

It was just like been through so much with it

and then I try to keep it alive forever and ever.

And eventually, I was like,

if I want something that's going to get me to the beach,

I got to sell it.

Found it eight years later on Craigslist.

At the same time, we were looking to work

with this automotive company and bought it back.

The same exact car.

Same exact car.

No way.

Found it.

I texted the guy.

I was like, hey, what's your history on this car?

Because the guy I sold it to, I thought he restored it.

And yeah, I saw the Craigslist.

I was like, yeah, this can't be mine,

but they all have the same little quirks and stuff about them.

Like the same little crack in the dash or something.

And I was like, it's just weird.

And then I texted him.

I was like, hey, what's your story on the car?

I was like, is it still available?

And then I got a call from the same number,

like 15 minutes later.

And I was like, hello, and he's like,

yo, Austin, this crazy you're calling me.

And he had my number saved eight years later.

Wow.

I was like, shut the fuck up.

That's the first thing I said.

I was like, I'll be down there tomorrow.

Pick the thing up.

Holy crap.

What are the odds about three grand more than I sold it to him for?

Oh, he hadn't done anything to it.

He didn't even drive it.

He probably drove it.

He did some like weird stuff.

The guy like, yeah, I don't know.

It seemed like he was tweaking a little bit when I got down there.

He's like, looking for the registration and all this stuff.

Like nothing had been done.

Like he did the weirdest stuff.

And yeah, when I got out was just like, oh, what did I do?

I can't put this thing back together.

We better get a deal with this company to,

and then they end up paying to restore it.

So now I got it.

My first car.

That's cool.

I'm sure it's very nostalgia to you.

Austin Keen 2002 has the Instagram page.

Yeah.

Oh, you got a page for it?

Yeah, I got a page for it.

Check it out.

Holy crap.

That's cool.

1975.

They don't make cars like that anymore.

It's probably got a little pieces from 74, 76.

You know, it's got some 1969 bumpers on there.

A little Frankenstein.

You still take it out?

Oh, yeah.

That's a garage.

Drive it around.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Runs great.

It's fully restored.

Rebuilt motor, same engine.

Rebuilt.

Five-speed transmission.

Cruze it down in the highway like butter.

That's cool.

Full circle moment.

Yeah, that kind of must have been shocked.

You hit them back up.

Oh, my eyes.

I had this thing sold three times.

Everybody pulled out.

It was like meant to be.

Plus your career took off.

So you were kind of known too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was a good time.

Yeah.

It was a good time for that to happen.

Damn.

Damn.

Because I always said if I won a lottery,

like that's the first thing I'd buy as a 1975 band

of restored.

What else would you buy, I mentioned?

Yeah.

I mean, that's changing now, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah, buy a house in Turks and K-Cos.

Turks and K-Cos?

Yeah.

Never been there.

Beautiful place.

Heard good things.

Yeah.

Dolphins, waves,

Kiting.

Sounds like your vibe.

Yeah.

Have you heard of island fever?

Island fever.

Yeah.

It's like a thing where like if you live on an island,

you get kind of like sick of it.

Oh, you get kind of stuck for sure, yeah.

You think you'd ever develop that?

Yeah, I mean, I would.

I don't know if I'd stay there like all year around.

I'd be there like, you know, four months out of time.

Yeah.

Just get out of the winter, man.

I hate winters.

I feel like.

Yeah, because everyone I know that makes a ton of money

move to like Puerto Rico or like an island, they get.

I got seasonal depression, dude.

I just like every winter, I'm just like distraught.

Yeah, you go to another country to surfer.

I mean, I tried to.

I tried to get out the Turks or get go to warmer locations

and where I can do my thing, but like California, man,

like it gets cold and rainy and stuff.

Like people think it's like sunny California,

but in the winter, it's like three and a half months

of cold and rain.

And then like you might have like, you know,

four day period where you're like, oh, this is amazing.

It's, you know, 74 and sunny on it in December, you know.

Interesting.

But then like a lot of winters are cold and rainy.

Yeah, yeah.

I never struggled with seasonal depression,

but growing up in Jersey, a lot of my friends did.

Because it would snow a lot.

Oh, the winters were cold.

Oh, I don't know how people do it.

I love the rain, dude.

The rain?

Yeah.

I like afternoon thunderstorms.

I love thunderstorms.

I missed that about the south.

I miss like the the summertime showers.

I like it when it's warm, but cold rain.

You know, like you don't even want to go outside and do anything.

Like, uh, it drives me nuts.

Yeah, I feel bad.

Like when I was growing up, we get surf in the rain, you know.

It's like no problem.

You ever surf in like a hurricane or something crazy?

We chased the hurricane swells.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Must have been nuts, right?

Yeah.

I mean, I was shooting my pants for.

There's people that chase tornadoes and shit.

I think my first hurricane swell in Florida.

I was so nervous.

I had to go on the beach and take a shit

because I was like so scared.

Damn, how big were the waves?

You think like 20 feet?

No, it wasn't 20 foot.

I wasn't charging that.

It was probably like eight, eight foot.

That's still no.

It felt like probably 10 to 12 foot to me back then,

which, you know, I would have said that back then.

But it was probably like six to eight.

But for like a 13 or 14 year old kid in Georgia,

that's fucking big.

Yeah, proper six to eight.

Not like, I mean, you'll take people to California from Georgia

and I'll put them out and like a two or three foot day

at and look at a beach.

And they'd be like, these are like 10 foot waves.

It's like a 10 foot dude.

Yeah, that's nothing for you.

Yeah, eight foot wave.

I mean, you missed time that.

It's a little sketchy, right?

Oh, yeah.

It's just like the swells in the East Coast,

like we'd go surf days where it's just like called victory

at CE, where it's just like,

it's just like little triangles all in the water,

you know, it's like super choppy

and you're just catching these little like peaks and stuff.

And so there's no time to organize swells coming in.

Right, so there's no time to recover.

But those are scary too.

You know, you come out here,

you get these long period,

like I'm thinking here as we're in California now,

but like you get long period,

really powerful swell energy in California.

So that's got its own vibe to it too.

You guys got riptides out there too, right?

Yeah, but that can be helpful when you're paddling out.

Oh, really?

Oh, yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah.

The hard spot though, right?

It's not good if you're a swimmer

and you have no experience.

Riptides aren't because what happens

is it just it slowly pulls you out.

Yeah, but if you're on a surfboard

and you're trying to get out there anyway,

it's like, you kind of look for that.

Oh, wow.

Use it to your advantage.

Yeah, why not?

Damn, it's like conveyor belt, right?

Yeah, I've never heard that angle.

Yeah, I'm such a normie.

I get scared when I see him, I'll hear about them,

but that's what I always be like.

You ain't pray to riptides.

I'm like, yeah, I mean, if you're if you're swimming,

like it's not fun, you know?

Even if like I'm experiencing swimmer or notion,

like I don't really want to get caught in a rip

because then I have to like swim all the way back.

You're supposed to swim with there, right?

Yeah, I mean, really the most,

like the scariest things are like when people are on beaches,

we're like, it's really powerful

and the water can kind of,

what happens?

It'll create these little berms down the beach

and the water goes up, say like there's a berm here

and a berm here and the water,

the water like on a set wave will rush up

and then it falls down into that little dip.

And then when it all falls into the dip,

it has to come back out somewhere

and that's what causes that rip.

Oh, wow.

It's like the waves breaking in like a certain area

and it all has to find its way back out.

And then you know, like water with like,

you know, the viscosity or whatever,

like, you know, siphons it's self out to the,

that's what creates a rip.

Damn.

And then people like just kind of get caught in that

or something.

Yeah, you ever have a really nasty wipe out

or a concussion from surfing?

No, I've been very lucky, man.

I'm really good at falling.

I think I'll owe it to the backflips

into the wall when I was a kid or something.

But yeah, I'm pretty, you know, knock on wood, you know,

anything can happen.

I think some of my worst stuff,

like injuries are just random stuff.

You know, like a warm up wave, you know,

I cut my heel really bad down to my Achilles almost

and I've had like weird like neck sprains, you know,

I've had like a guy fall on top of me

like in a really heavy like short break.

Yeah, I feel like I've sprayed my neck like twice

and then just like pulled muscles, you know,

cause like, you know, I was like skimboarding

just like nonstop for, I don't know, 10 years

and just like sand sprints, sand sprints

and not really like doing any recovery,

no concept of recovery stretching

or hydration or anything.

I was just like, I just drive myself

to the ground every session.

Yeah.

Which I think is why I got so good

cause I just go so hard.

I mean, I wouldn't eat for hours.

I wouldn't even have a sip of water.

Like I never brought water to like a session

and I'd be sprinting for four hours.

And you didn't get dehydrated?

Oh yeah, I got super dehydrated.

Yeah, and I think in one time in Cabo

I was in a contest and I had made it to the semifinals

and after my heat, I just like bent down

and I was talking to somebody and I got up real quick

and I just felt like my muscle just like tore.

Geez.

Yeah, like I think I got so dehydrated,

I probably had some margaritas the day before.

But yeah, that's when I started taking care of my body.

Yeah, as I've gotten older,

now when I drink my legs get dehydrated.

I don't even know if that makes sense.

No, no, yeah, that's the first thing I feel

when I have my legs.

Yeah, they get tight, right?

Yeah, you just feel like you feel like your skin get tight

cause your body's holding all that inflammation.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, the older I get,

the more I realize how bad alcohol is for your...

I pretty much don't drink anymore.

I get for you.

Yeah, I know in your lifestyle,

it's tough to avoid alcohol.

Yeah, but you know, as you know,

you just start, you know,

deciding the right times.

You know, just be a little bit more frugal with it.

Not like in my 20s,

but I was like pounding IPAs all the time.

You still love IPAs, bro.

The double IPAs are like,

cause all you need is one or two and you're good.

Yeah, you know?

I love the IPAs, but then I got fat and it got me slow

when I was like,

can't do this anymore.

Yeah.

Yeah, beer will put on some weight.

Yeah, I'm just like a, you know,

tequila guy slash hard iced tea guy, you know?

Yeah, it's good segue into a, you know?

But yeah, I have a lot of respect for anybody out there.

You know, if you're thinking about getting sober

or not drinking full support, it's not good for me.

Yeah.

When you were competing,

were you drinking the day before quite often?

Yeah, I mean, I was traveling like I said,

I had no concept.

You know, I was just like, oh, we're going to go to,

you know, travel to outer banks or Delaware or Cabo.

You know, of course, you just want to make

the most of the experience, you know?

And I just didn't, I wasn't really conscious

of how much it affected me the next day.

And it probably didn't affect me.

It probably did.

You're just like, you're just ignoring it.

Easier when you're younger.

That's what people are like,

all you're getting older, you feel it more.

It's like, no, you just been alive longer

and you're more coherent about how stuff affects your body.

That's how I see it.

I can see it.

Because if you get yourself in that mindset of like,

oh, you're getting, like, you're feeling stuff more

so you think you're getting older

and your body's breaking down.

Like, it almost puts you in a negative mindset

that you're like already downhill.

But as we see now with like more like present day science

and more people who are into the, like,

giving us more biohack knowledge and stuff like that,

if you take care of your body,

you can continue to like increase your longevity

of your prime up until who knows when.

I mean, there's guys in their 50s

that are in better shape than I am.

Yeah.

Like, so those are the guys I draw my inspiration from.

I agree.

Yeah, look at LeBron James, he's 40 now.

Yeah, exactly.

And he's still top 10 in the lead.

That's just comes with like the knowledge of, you know,

the new knowledge and science of health and wellness

and optimizing the body, you know, there's, yeah.

Does people reversing their aging right now?

I know, man, it's crazy.

I want to get on all that

because I want to be like crushing it when I'm sick.

Yeah, there's levels to it too

because like technically I'm 22, 23, if you take the test,

there's like a test that test here.

I know I've been wanting to do that.

Yeah, you should try it

because then you could kind of benchmark where you're at

and see how you can improve.

Yeah, and it kind of almost becomes a game

at that point that like get a better score.

I think your age is probably under your real age.

I would hope so.

Because you've been pretty athletic your whole life.

I'm 35 now.

I feel like I'm, yeah, I don't feel 35 at all.

You don't get sore.

Well, I'm sore now.

I worked out legs yesterday.

So my ass is definitely feeling it.

Good old squats.

Yeah, my least favorite day.

Oh, man, leg day.

Yeah, I was kind of been collecting leg day

because I try to keep them fresh for what I do.

Yeah, but then I realize I'm like, that's a dumb way to think

because honestly, like, not keeping my leg strong

is gonna make me perform less good at those things.

Right.

Yeah, and I'm doing, I'm doing those things

a little bit less than I used to do back in the day.

Like I was skimboarding for every day, almost.

Just sand sprints, every cheese.

I mean, if I would have like been taking in

the proper supplementation back when I was doing that,

like I could have been even stronger

than I would probably performing even better.

Holy crap.

I wish I would have been.

You were already an animal out there.

I mean, you were one of the best.

Yeah, I think that's just like mindset.

Yeah.

I was living off mindset back then.

That's what you think your actual mindset?

For sure.

Yeah.

I could see that.

Yeah, the mental side of sports is undervalued, I think.

That's everything.

Yeah, it's like at least half of it in my opinion.

Yeah, I mean, that's actually the one thing

that allowed me to like, I feel like win competitions

because I've always been in this mindset

like the closer I get to like completing something,

like it just right there just becomes impossible.

I feel like I felt that in competition a lot.

Yeah.

And once I just was able to kind of center my mind

a little bit better, the year I won the tour

for skimboarding was the, I don't know if it has any,

if it's coincidence or if it's results,

but it was like the first year I was like dedicating

to like yoga and like the most like meditative practice

I had outside of anything I was doing.

Yeah.

And that was the year I won.

And I was, I got in that mindset

because I got that bad back injury.

Yeah.

I was like, I got to take something seriously here.

Like I got to start stretching

and I kind of did it for the stretching benefits,

but I didn't realize that it was actually like

helping me keep my mind and my body all together.

And I think that's ultimately like

what helped a lot with my competition skill set.

Wow, yoga.

What type of yoga was breathing?

All kinds of I was working with my buddy

and his wife, they created like an audio library.

This is back, you know, a while back.

Yeah.

Over 10 years ago, but they had an audio library

called Hit Play Yoga.

And yeah, I just started doing a lot of it.

They would kind of have little gatherings

and I started doing that.

So it was all kinds of different like vinyasa flow.

And I realized I really like the yen

because it was more about stretching.

But I think it was a by the,

where they caught pharmaceuticals

like the off label purposes or something like that.

Oh, I know what you mean.

It was like the off label benefits were actually connecting

my breathing.

It was the first time I actually did any like solid meditation.

It was like focus on my body and my breathing.

And then like that allowed me to hold my shit together

during like skim heats and not like get all nervous.

Like, oh my god, I'm in the semifinals

or I'm in the finals, you know,

it was a lot to get to that point.

You can make it through all these rounds

and get to that point.

You're like, I'm almost there.

I'm almost there.

Oh my god, I'm in the finals.

Yeah.

All I got to do is hold together and just do what I've been doing,

you know, a lot of pressure.

Yeah, you can start to, and then you only have a certain amount

of time and you hope the waves come and you're like,

it's not like a skate park where the waves just going to be there

and you just got to perform.

It's like, I hope the what wave is going to be there.

I don't know what that wave is going to look like.

But when it comes, I have a split second to decide

what I'm going to do on that wave.

And you just don't want to be too giddy.

And you want to be too, too like overly like stiff or relaxed.

You just got to kind of be in that, that flow, you know,

and that's the hardest thing.

Yeah, that is an interesting part of the sport

I didn't even think about.

But the waves are kind of out of your control.

Out of your control, you have a certain amount of time

to pick the right ones.

And you got like the priority stuff that comes in the play.

But then, you know, like you might go for one that ended up

sucking in the next one.

Now this guy's got priority.

And the next set that comes in, it's like up to him,

which one he takes.

So you can get on like that bad rhythm.

Yeah, so that's a whole part of the sport.

Yeah, there's a whole like strategy.

I mean, if you get any of me, watch this like WSL, you know,

like World Surfer League, they're live broadcasts.

You can kind of see there's a lot of what people don't notice.

And there's a lot of like, that's part of surf contests.

That's the controversy of like wave pool surf contests

that they've put like one sort of artificial waves.

Yeah, they put like one, I think one stop on the tour,

like the Kelly Scyther Wave pool.

But it takes like a whole, a whole strategic, like,

chunk out of actual surfing.

Right.

So you don't like the articles.

It's just the same wave.

And then they're just there to perform as good as they can

on that one wave.

And they're like picking the right one.

There's no like positioning yourself correctly.

I mean, overall, most of the breaks they go to,

it's the world class break.

So like they're breaking it pretty predictably.

But it's still still picking the right one.

It's mother nature, you know?

Yeah, that is very interesting.

Yeah, there's a lot of skill that goes into it

that people don't realize.

Oh, man.

Yeah, I mean, people always like,

anybody that tells me like, yeah,

I want to learn how to surf.

I'm just like, you better want to learn how to surf.

You know, like the closest thing I can get

to getting my mind right in skimboarding competitions

is what I'm doing now is golf.

And I mean, it is like such a mental game, you know?

And then it is like a physical thing.

It's like control it.

Getting your mind and your body in the same, same motion.

Yeah, a lot of patience and golf required.

And it's the same thing.

Like someone's like, oh, I want to learn how to play golf.

Like anybody's probably like, oh, you have a journey ahead.

You know, because it's so frustrating.

Yeah, the swing is just one part of the game.

Exactly, and then surfing is like, oh, you want to surf.

You want to ride a wave.

But like, there's this whole part of like paddling out,

positioning yourself in the right spot

and getting comfortable with the water,

learning how to hold your breath

and keep your shit together when a wave holds you down.

Like, there's like all this that goes into surfing

that people don't realize.

That's why I tell them, let me just take you behind the boat

and get the sensation of surfing

if you're not ready to put in all that work.

But do you want to get to a pretty serious level of golf

or are you treating it more casually?

You know, my goal is just to get to a single handicap.

Be able to go out there and consistently put up

like a high 70s low 80s score every round.

If I can do that, if I can have my bad rounds

be like mid 80s, like the bad bad rounds.

And that's when I feel like I've done as good as I can do.

You know, I say that now, but I'll get there

and I'll want more.

But yeah, you're good at it.

I'm getting pretty decent.

I still have my terrible rounds,

but I got my handicap down to like a 10.

I've gotten to golf some amazing courses.

Like I feel so blessed for that

and worked with some really cool golf brands

and golf with some cool people.

It's just like, been this like, I'm so glad I'm obsessed with it

because it's just like adding so much fun to life.

You know, it's like when I go somewhere

and now I have something else to do

rather than being like, when are we going to get on the boat

or when we're going to go to the beach?

You know, it's like, ooh, maybe we hit this golf course

and all the golf courses are so beautiful.

Yeah, it's like, it's a valid point

because when you're traveling to major cities,

likelihood of a good golf course nearby is pretty high.

Yeah, Vegas has a few, right?

Oh, yeah, I've got some amazing courses here.

Shadow Creek being one of them.

It's like one of the nicest, most exclusive public courses

in the United States.

I heard of it.

Yeah, I heard the win one, Shadow Creek.

There's one other one.

I forget the name, Dragon Ridge.

Is that one?

Dragon Ridge?

Is that a golf course or no?

Yeah, I don't know, probably.

I think so, yeah.

I don't know all those things.

I don't know, but yeah, I hear good things.

It's a great sport, man.

And it's cool because like all these other athletes

are getting into it, like we did a celebrity surf series

with Justin Gagey, and he just got obsessed with golfing.

And that's like the argument I've heard people make,

like, oh, it's too slow of a sport.

It's like, you got Justin Gagey, UFC champion, right?

Multi-UFC champion.

If he's willing to be like put in the work,

and then he's obsessed with it,

I'm pretty sure it's not too slow of a sport.

Steph Curry's playing it, LeBron, Michael Jordan.

Well, these guys doing high-impact shit.

Yup.

I think it's a great transition after high-impact sports, right?

Yeah, because it hits all those things in the brain, you know?

Like that an athlete, a true athlete, like requires, you know?

It's challenging, it's satisfying.

You know, it's, yeah, I don't know.

You can play it?

Yeah, you can play it into your 50s, 60s, 70s, no problem, man.

That's cool, too.

Most sports you can't.

Yeah.

That's why I think Pickleball took off, too.

Yeah.

You can play that shit out here.

Well, I got, I had a Pickleball phase, and then I remember me and my buddy got challenged

by these, because we're just trying to get on the courts, and then so these older women

there are probably in their 70s, we're like, oh, I guess we'll play with them.

We'll give them the time of the day, or we'll play with them, and then we start playing

and we got smoked by 70-year-old women.

I mean, they might have been their 60s, but either way, do they smoked us?

And we're like, we both looked each other like, we're not going to talk about this again.

Let's play one more.

We're going to match.

And then they smoked us again, and I don't think we, me and him, have ever played Pickleball

together again.

Wow.

You got humble.

I got so humbled.

I played Pickleball again since then, and I still enjoy it, but oh, man, that's like

a mental game, you know?

It's more of a level playing field, not as much movement.

Yeah.

It's not as much movement, too.

It's a lot of movement when you play solo, but it's too much like fast-thanking for

me.

I got into tennis for a while because there's a lot of movement, but tennis is like golf,

too.

You got to learn how to hit the ball.

Yeah.

You had to learn how to strike the ball right before you can even think about strategy.

Tennis is a lot of movement.

It's tough on the joints, you know?

Now Pedels getting really big.

Yeah.

They just opened up the first one, Vegas.

I really want to play with Pedels, because you would love it.

I'm here.

I lived in this apartment complex one time, and they had racquetball.

That's a fun one, too.

It's kind of similar, I think, and I love that, like I loved it, but it wasn't popular

enough at the time for me to go find somewhere that had it.

Yeah, but Pedels is blowing up, especially in Miami.

Yeah.

Man, I think it's going to take off.

It's already big in Europe, I believe.

Yeah, it's grown here.

Yeah.

Yeah, I love sports, man.

I've always changed my life to, I developed a lot of mindset that I have success in business

because of sports, basically.

Oh, for sure, man.

I've been able to translate it.

I always say that it should be a requirement.

We have like PE class, right?

So we try to get kids into it, but when I was growing up, PE class was so lame, you know?

Like there's so much I wanted to do, like the simplest stuff, like I thought it was

a coolest thing ever when I could just climb up a rope, like that rope and gym class.

I'm like, oh, that's sick.

Look back, like my school has had nothing, you know, like now schools, like they have

like surf teams and skate parts and stuff, like, I don't know, like skate camps and stuff

like that, but yeah, they just didn't have anything cool like that, like all the simplest

stuff, like, you know, gym gymnasium type stuff, they didn't have that when I was in school.

They went to Wokeman, higher member gym class used to be fun and then they removed dodgeball

because people are getting hurt.

That was the only fun they had was dodgeball.

They took it away.

They took it away.

That was the best, like that was the only thing I remember like from gym class that was

like fun.

So fun.

I still like look for dodgeball leagues in Vegas, like to participate in because it's

so fun.

I haven't played.

Yeah.

If anybody told me, like, hey, let's play dodgeball.

Yeah.

There's a kickball league here.

I'm enjoying kickball.

You could be fun.

Yeah.

But I think it should be a requirement in schools to make kids learn how to do an Ollie

on a skateboard and drop in on a small quarterback.

Wow.

Yeah.

Because there's two things.

Ollie teaches you how to, like, like, body coordination, how to sneak up your body

to get that board, like, in the air and stay connected to it.

That should be one.

But I think even more important than that, dropping in on a quarterback.

Any kid can do that.

Any able kid can do that.

Um, it basically teaches you commitment, you know, because I'm really dropping in for

the first time.

It's like the scariest thing ever because you have to fully commit to dropping in because

you can't, if you halfway do it, you're going to slip out.

Yeah.

You can't change your mind.

And it's really not that hard of a thing.

But like, every kid should know how to drop in on a quarterback and doing Ollie.

Hmm.

Respect.

Yeah.

I've never done either.

But I could see the thought process and the logic based off what you're saying.

Like when I have a kid one day, like, they don't have to be a skateboarder.

You don't have to do that, but they will, I'm going to make sure they learn how to

Ollie and drop in and after that, they're good.

Yeah.

It should be as important as like finishing the fourth grade.

Yeah.

Sounds important.

Yeah.

I think learning hand-dye is important.

Hand-dye coordination.

Yeah.

You know, because you need that in everyday life.

Totally.

But like the dropping in on a quarterback thing, it's like a lot of mental battle going

on your head.

Like this doesn't seem right.

Like when I go ahead first down, like you're not normally trained to do that as a human

off a cliff.

Right?

Yeah.

They need to change PE class, man, because my teachers were fat.

No one took it serious, you know what I mean?

It just wasn't like, it had so much potential to be a good thing.

Yeah.

I feel like PE classes now.

It's either like some dude that's ripped or some chick that's like a hotplotty's teacher

or something.

Yeah.

Like back in my day, it was like the PE teacher looked like they worked at the barbecue

or something.

Yeah.

In fact.

Well, it's not the same, man.

I think they should just let you have the gym and you could pick what you want to do.

Yeah.

Like have a lot of things.

A lot of options, yeah.

Kids, kids, dope.

And instead of forcing you all to do one task, you know, I don't know.

But dude, what's next for you?

I know you're starting a hard iced tea lemonade company.

Yeah, man.

I've just like, it's been a crazy transition period.

Like in my head, psychologically, I'm just going just this long journey of being an

athlete and putting so much into social media, you know, like I saw it from the beginning

before businesses were even on social media and it was going to beat my path to any sort

of like audience.

And I didn't really at the time to see it as like success.

You know, I'm just like, hey, I've always been an entrepreneur at heart and I was like

worst case scenario, like I'm going to build this like Facebook following or Instagram

following and it's going to be a way I can show people like what I got going on.

Whether it's so my product or whatever.

And I found out that like posting my action sports stuff was getting engagement.

Well, we didn't even have that word back then when social media started, we didn't

really call it engagement.

I don't even know.

Just got likes.

Yeah.

And but at the time I noticed I was getting more engagement.

So I kept building it by doing that, just what I love to do.

And I remember when I was like when I won the world title, I was working full time.

I was plumbing and bartending and serving.

Holy crap.

Yeah.

And that was the first year I was like, I'm going to do every stop on the tour.

And I just chose like odd and end jobs because it's what gave me the most freedom.

Like I've always been on a trajectory with grandiose plan in mind, you know, but I knew

that there was going to be a lot of, you know, shitty jobs or things I didn't want to

do along the way just to get me there.

So I chose things that just gave me a lot of freedom.

And you know, bartending and serving and, you know, working a little part time plumbing

jobs, like that gave me lots of freedom to just go skimboard what I wanted to.

Wow.

And I won the tour, had like 7,000 followers back in 2013.

And I went back to work.

And I was like, still feeling it wasn't like Disney where, you know, the Disney movies

where they came up to you with contracts.

I was like, oh, yeah, I'm a world champion, but I'm still a skimboarder.

So I was like, if I'm going to be able to do this at any point in my life, I'm going

to say I did it for at least one year because I'm a world champion now, you know, I might

not get this title the next year or the next year after that.

I don't even know if I want to keep going after it.

I had like 7,000 followers at the time was a lot.

So I just leveraged that, got the sponsors who weren't paying me, just to toss me a little

bit of bones.

And I made a contract felt weird for me to ask for money.

I felt like I was asking for money, but a guy that meant to remind kind of put it in

perspective that like that contract was my product.

That's what I was like selling to these companies, you know, just like you have sponsors.

Attention.

Yeah.

And I didn't think of it that way as an athlete or what I was doing.

And I did that and it worked and I was like, well, it's shit.

I'm actually going to be able to like, like be a pro skimboarder right now.

And then got a manager eventually read who I met that that year.

And he was just kind of helping me like kind of be a middleman for companies I was trying

to leverage.

Yeah.

He was just kind of helping me for a couple of years.

And eventually things started doing better and better.

And he had long story short, other people asked him to kind of manage him.

I was like, dude, you need to quit your job.

Do your own thing.

He's so valuable, you know, and so sought after for like just just a relationship guy, you

know.

And so yeah, just leverage that.

And you know, my original goal back in Georgia was just to make a living doing I love

to do.

You know, escape that box that I lived in, you know, I lived in this like, just kind

of felt like a dead end.

Yeah.

I grew up very religious.

I grew up around blue collar, just kind of grow up doing the same thing everybody else

is doing.

Go to college.

Find a college we are, get married, get a job from your degree and just live in the

same place.

And I was just like, there's got to be more than this, you know, like, and then like all

these people I looked up to on TV, I saw them as fictional characters.

You know, I didn't really see that as like, oh, this is a path you could take.

But I just kind of like, it was kind of like a spiritual just journey, you know, like

the, the last 15, I guess, yeah, 15, 20 years of my life, just like following my intuition

and just really leading by what I'm passionate about and just leading by what feels right.

And yeah, it's got me where I'm at now.

It's helped me carve a path for other athletes and not just one sport of skateboarding

but also wake surfing.

Yeah.

Because when I got it, I didn't get an awake surfing until after I won a world title

and a year before I won my second world championship title.

And yeah, like nobody was making creative content on social media for wake surfing and that's

how I built such a name so fast in that sport.

There's never been on a wakeboard about my life.

It was the craziest thing.

Just like something I saw that I thought would be super fun to do.

And within the first three months of doing it, I had like a video on the Ellen show and

then like all these crazy viral reposts, you know, back when Instagram was a free for

all people just reposts in your shit and I had so many videos go viral and I was like,

damn, like creativity is how I'm going to help keep building my platform.

So I did that.

And thank God, like even when I wasn't getting paid by leveraging my social media, I treated

it like a job.

And as soon as like I was getting anything for it, I was like, this is my job now is to

make content, always be posting consistently, just keep growing this audience.

And I've always been very authentic about how I do that, like try not to like get too cheesy

with anything, but kind of like still be creative.

Never promoted any brands I don't believe in.

Any, you know, I've had a lot of offers for like one off post for super products.

Only promoted stuff.

I've been very authentic about the path, never done any paid followers or anything like

that and very proud of that.

But it is frustrating too when you work really hard and you see people that have like one

video pop off and then like the hot tour drill and she's at 20 million overnight, you

know, you're like, what the heck, man?

But then you just remember that's what reminds you your skin border, you know, you're just

like, you know what, just going to do the best with what I got.

And I think that's kind of been like the, the, that's probably the sole ingredient to

like demotivation and non-happiness is like comparing yourself to other people because

everybody's on a different path.

And you just got to do the best you can with what you got.

And now I'm kind of on this next chapter where I'm like, still trying to be like a great

athlete, which I am, I feel like I'm as good of a skin border as I've ever been.

And I feel as able to have a skin border and a wake surfer as I've ever been.

But now I'm also trying to manifest and put energy into these other business ventures.

We got vitamin bars back bar company, which, you know, we want to hopefully get in every

store, every arena, every hotel we possibly can.

And then I'm launching, which I haven't been public about up until now, but I'm watching

a hard iced tea and lemonade company in Georgia called Marshwater, where my two brothers,

let's say, yeah, we've all, me and my brothers have always been close.

Always wanted to work on something together, but we've always lived so distant from each

other.

And we're just, every time we meet up, we're just like, we got to do something together,

you know, so I just, I saw that this category was exploding.

I enjoy it.

It's going to be a crushable little boat drink, you know, and from the south.

And yeah, I'm really excited about it.

So hopefully come January, February, we'll, we'll be hitting some stores in Georgia and

South Carolina and restaurants and Marshwater, baby.

Let's go.

I tied somewhere.

Stay tuned.

That's our slogan.

Let's go.

Well, we'll link your, uh, your socials below anything else you want to close off with

here, man.

Thank you for sharing your story.

That was really cool.

Yeah, man.

I just, anybody out there just, you know, keep doing the best you can and like, you know,

no matter where you start, launch, you got that goal in mind, it doesn't have to be a

specific goal.

That's another thing too.

It's like, people are always like, you gotta have your goals and check them off.

It's like, I never had any like specific, like goals because I was carving my own path.

There's like no goals to be had.

It's just like, I kind of had a vision of where I wanted to be.

You were in the present.

So it was more just like chasing after the vision, the grand vision, more than any specific

goals because one thing I've learned this year and over the past two years, really

is just, you can have a vision, but how the God or the universe gets you there is going

to be up to, up to that force.

You know, you're never going to have a blueprint, so you'll get there, but it's going to be,

it could be take a lot of twists and turns along the way.

I love them on.

Well, thanks for coming.

He's got to ride the wave, man.

Ride the wave.

Thanks for coming on, brother.

Thanks for having me.

It was good to meet you and we'll link your company as well.

I've been barred.

Check them out, guys.

I'll see you next time.

I hope you guys are enjoying the show.

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