Ep. 1186: From Hungary to Avatar - Building a Life on Adventure with Szilvia Gogh

You're listening to the Adventure Sports Podcast. We talk with adventurers from around

the globe to bring you the inspiration and motivation you need to get started in the

outdoors or to keep you moving if you're already there. Now here's your host, Kurt Lindville.

Hey friends, happy Monday to you. It is, well by the time you hear this, it's March

the 2nd. Today is March the 1st. Something very strange happened yesterday. In addition to

being my birthday, I found myself remounting my ski bindings to accommodate my new ski

boots, which was really fun and getting those skis ready for the, are you ready for this?

Opening day of the ski season for me. At the same time, I installed a new Luch Cable for

my DRZ 400 motorcycle and I charged up the battery and I tuned up everything getting

it ready for a happy season of riding outside and I suddenly realized I was pulling my motorcycle

and my snow skis out of storage on the same day. Very very strange occurrence. There's

a reason for that. First, I decided I probably wouldn't need to ski until the snow is excellent

and the snow's been mediocre this year and I climbed Kilimanjaro, which also meant no

sense and risking getting hurt before killing, right? But we had abnormally warm weather this weekend,

which of course meant that I needed to get the motorcycle going. We live at 7,700 feet in the town,

which is the coldest town from Fall till Spring in the whole United States, lower 48 states,

I should say Alaska does beat us and I was riding my motorcycle on March 1st. Took it out today,

had a lovely ride, it's just very very very strange. Well, life is full of surprises sometimes,

but sometimes life is what we make of it and today's guest, I think, epitomizes what that

means more than perhaps anyone we've ever had on the show. Sylvia grew up in communist hungry,

in very very challenging conditions her father died young because of radiation poisoning from

Chernobyl and other members of her family have also suffered from cancers and early demise because

of Chernobyl. Sylvia wasn't willing to stay put, she ended up in the Mediterranean, she ended up in

the Pacific, she ended up in San Diego, she loves scuba diving and she built an amazing adventurous

life filled with water sports filled with adventure travel filled with grabbing life by the horns

and wrestling it to the ground to make something glorious out of it. It's so amazing so I've been

reading her book and it's it's fascinating, it's it's one part inspiration, one part confession,

one part, just an explanation on how we don't have to take what life gives us, but we can make

something of our own and Sylvia has done that in spades you're going to love today's program

Sylvia Goge, oh and I should mention you know those crazy blue monkey figures from Pandora,

yes we're talking about Avatar Sylvia was the safety coordinator for the stunt crew for the

underwater scenes that made Avatar what it is, but enough of that let's hear directly from Sylvia

as we enjoy today's episode boy every now and then we have a guest on the adventure sports

podcast and there's so many varied things to cover from a lifetime of living large and living

adventurously and I really don't know where to start today's guest is one of these people this is

Sylvia Goge and Sylvia is a professional scuba diver a stunt woman and she is a jewelry designer

she does a lot of adventure travel she lives on the beach in California and she works with inner

city kids she's written a book called diving into dreams and it just goes on and on and on and on

it she has a rich background I'm not going to waste time trying to explain it all when she can

tell us herself so Sylvia welcome to the program so glad to be here I love connecting with like

minded people and your show is is one that I love to listen to get inspired and try new things

that I haven't done before so I have to start people are gonna say oh wait a minute I hear an accent

but I don't know what that is that's eastern but what is it so Sylvia where are you from?

I know people always guess that I'm from Cuba or Colombia or friends I have a very mixed

mud accent because I lived around the world but I was born in a landlock communist country

called Hungary which is the central euro okay everyone's gonna want to know why are you living on

the beach in California how did that happen it was never the plan honestly I came here for a

two-week vacation 25 years ago and I have to be honest with you before I came here I briefly

lived in Mediterranean, Thailand and England and in England every people house the Jerry

Springer show is on pretty much all day while they are sipping their mediocre tea and I was just

convinced all Americans are like the people in the Jerry Springer show so I honestly never wanted

to come here I came to visit my cousin just briefly for a two-week vacation 25 years ago

when I landed in Los Angeles I realized that it's not reality you know the reality shows don't

always reflect reality people here in America actually are very diverse just everywhere I was in

the world there are nice people normal people crazy people and California has everything I ever

wanted the weather the palm trees the no winter and the ocean and I have to say it has the greatest

opportunities if you want to do something in America you really can't start a company in an

afternoon so I did I started like two three different companies I do the jewelry the professional

scuba diving teaching diving for like the past 30 some years and honestly if you can't make it in

America I don't know where else can you do it in the world you know I think it's easy especially

for people in the US to not realize the opportunity that we have and you mentioned diversity the

United States was settled from people from all countries all over the world we're not a people group

we're a mixture of humanity from around the globe and it's so exciting to meet so many wonderful

people from so many wonderful places just like yourself hungry that's fantastic yeah I mean especially

Los Angeles is a melting pot for my kids classmates are all over from India the Philippines China

I want I just love talking with people from around the world I love trying their food

their costumes it's just so eye-opening and I think everybody needs to have a little bit wider

vision of what the word is to be a more tolerant because it's very easy to just see things

through how everything you do and your family do and then think everybody else is doing something

strange but in reality I think there's the beauty in the word that we are all different it would

be boring if it would be all the same wouldn't it be if everybody would think the same agree with

the politics religion whatever it would be so boring you couldn't have conversations and

I love questioning everything and everybody oh that's great it how would you learn if everyone was

just like you it would be so boring it really would be it would and I think sometimes I it's easy

to fall into the trap of thinking that people that think differently somehow are on the other side

or the enemy or the wrong or but the reality is when you meet people with differing ideas

and approaches to life it's a great opportunity to find the common humanity and to learn from

each other and to grow and to stretch and it's it's lovely I lived on a Muslim country I mean

I'm sorry I lived in Thailand which is mostly Buddhist but I lived in an island that's majority

Muslim okay so much negativity I heard when I I told people I lived there that oh my god that

single woman 25 years old by herself in the word in a Muslim place oh my god what's gonna happen

to you and you know what happened to me I was invited by all the locals to their dinner table

I was taking care of I was offered shelter at a very good local price and I lived there for two

years without anything happening to me right and almost always that's what I hear on our podcast

when I talk to people that have done adventure travel around the globe it's all the things that

people fear that that it's just like the extreme minority of what happens in the world what really

happens is people find out that people are people and love is king 100% and if you think about what

is the strongest feeling that motivate people it's not love it's not curiosity it's fear

and I think fear stops people from living a most fulfilling colorful interesting life they fear of

taking off by themselves because what will happen they are afraid of leaving a job because

somebody will take it by the time they come back they are afraid of trying new interesting food

bit crunchy cockroaches or anything because oh they're gonna die I think fear stops people

from living life to the fullest and that is just the silliest thing if we could only just put that

outside and be a little bit more I mean just ask yourself what's the worst that can happen right

you can always go home you can always spit the food out you can always try a different thing if

you don't like whatever you are trying or a country if you don't like it there you know the tree

you can pack up and move to another country I mean that's what I did in my life right you're not

a truck you know that's great so Sylvia what does you've done so many adventurous things in your life

what does an adventurous year in Sylvia's life look like describe to us if you could live your

perfect year what would that be I think my perfect year wait are am I looking back of a perfect

year of my life or I'm planning a new perfect year well I had both I I had that perfect year when

I was 25 let's hear that one first all right so I I was teaching scuba diving in England where I

moved for a guy that seemed like a good idea at a time we were outside of Manchester running a dive

shop and in about an eight-month stretch the entire summer was three hours long meaning the sunshine

I'm like I can't do this anymore that's not why I became a scuba instructor and started

traveling the world and the boy kind of turned out totally different than when I met him and

decided to move with him from the Mediterranean to England so I'm like enough enough is enough

I can't go home and listen to my mom saying oh I told you so so I I got the globe out you know

the the one that yeah body has in their house so I I decided to spin it and where my finger stops

is where I gonna go next my finger stopped on Thailand quick weather check the season is just starting

there so I booked a one-way ticket to Thailand Bangkok and just headed south until I hit the seashore

and decided to get on the first boat that left Puket and it ended up on Copipi Island if you

see in the movie the beach with Leonardo DiCaprio right that's the island 20 years ago before it

became touristy actually by nice 25 years ago it was just white sandy beach only dive shops with a

cafes restaurants with pirate movies time assages and that's it so my perfect day every day on

the island was waking up getting on a dive boat working teaching diving swimming with whale sharks

turtles dolphins sharks meet new people from around the world have amazing conversations eat fresh

bananas watermelons do another dive come back have lunch take a nap play a little beach volleyball get

a time-assage and meet up in the bar with young people from around the world listen to good music have

great conversations make friendships that still last and I can go anywhere in the world and I will

have friends who say hey come and stay with us that I met through diving so for me that here was

the best year of my life being 25 on an island with really nothing to worry about we didn't really

have internet we didn't have cell phones there was one internet cafe where if you really wanted to

see what's going on in the world you could check the BBC or the CNN while you having your coffee

but if you wanted which I did you could live blissfully ignorant and just enjoy nature and the

Muay Thai the waterfalls the diving oh my god that was one of the best years of my life that sounds

fantastic and I love the idea that you spun the globe and your finger came down and you went

that doesn't always work out but I think it really can you're always going to have an

experience I quick story my wife and I when we went on our honeymoon 31 years ago we were in

Europe and I hadn't planned a lot for the honeymoon I just wanted to explore but we were exhausted

the hotels we were staying in were too expensive and my wife looked at me one morning and she just

said this is not a honeymoon we need to slow down we need it and so I said okay so we pulled out the

map and I said we're gonna go and I close my eyes and drop my finger on the map and it was a

village in Austria that was on a lake in the mountains and I said that's where we're going so we packed

up we jumped on a train we got there got off the train there was no village no nothing no taxis

we're just standing in the middle of the woods where the train stopped but a lady walks up to us

and Sylvia she was from the US she heard us speak in English she invited us to come and stay

in some apartments that she had she actually taught semesters overseas for Bervard College

we stayed there for several days we skied with an Austrian ski champion heliputs we had amazing

adventures all over that part of Austria exploring such beautiful just wonderful places

it's like our honeymoon was completely restored because we dropped a finger on a map

I honestly everything in my life that turned out the most amazing was unplanned I'm actually

putting a trip together my sister still lives in Europe and once a year we decided to meet up

at random places around the world and spend a week to two weeks together so we can actually have

conversations without our husbands our kids like you know when you really can just connect and focus

because we are on different time zones so we can't really talk when it's morning for me it's already

dinner time for her so it's really hard to have a conversation when you live on the like nine hours

away from nine hours of time change so we're gonna go to Sri Lanka this January end of the month

and my sister and I have the same travel styles what we do we book the first two nights when we

get in to Colombo the capital where we both land and meet up and then after that we just

gonna go with the wind my theory if I can find it online to book it on Agoda or bookings it's already

too crowded and too popular so we love traveling just going with the wind off the beaten path

and talking with the locals or fellow travelers find out what's the cool

under the radar destinations to do and that's how we travel last year we did the the country Georgia

rusea nice you won't believe that's like that's like an adventure paradise you have seven different

climates there from the forever snow up in the Caucasus mountains and then you have the summer

beaches it has the mountains it has the Tundra in one tiny country you can experience so much

and what we did same we didn't plan anything we found a local driver we were just gonna hire him

for the first day to take us up to the mountain where otherwise we couldn't really drive up ourselves

and then we ended up hiring him to take us for the rest of the week everywhere he took us to his

mother's house who taught us how to make cheese from the the cows milk that cows that were outside

the garden I mean these are the things you can't pre-plan you just have to go with the flow

and it's beautiful it's not everybody who can do that and I can't do this with everybody when I

travel with my husband and son we pre-plan things we pre-book the hotel the transport

activity is mostly but there are a few people and even if there are no people I honestly had the most

adventures traveling solo because when you buy yourself you are open to meet people you know when

it's two people talking talking in a bar or anywhere in the restaurant you kind of closing yourself

off to meeting new people because you are in your bubble but when you travel by yourself

you are really a magnet to meet people and start conversation whether if you just sit next to

somebody in a bus stop or on the train and that's how you can hear about all these hidden gems I

love traveling and just going with the flow that's what I did for the first 10-15 years of my life

after leaving finishing college and starting to travel as a professional scribe driver

Silvia so many people right now are thinking oh she is so brave that sounds terrifying

were you always that brave or did you learn it by experience say that I'm brave I just know what I

want and I just know what I don't want I did not want to live in hungry that is landlocked it has

really depressing winter weather that comes from Siberia it has very um structured

way of living with a lot of bureaucracy and I'm more of a free spirited girl ever since I was born

so I knew that I did not want that I didn't know what I want but I I just started to take off

after college before getting the job the husband the mortgage and I said I'm just going to travel

for three months okay I'm just going to go to the Mediterranean do my instructor training

become a scuba instructor and just spend the summer there then I come back and I gonna start

you know what everything everybody's expecting from me the normal life then that three months

turn into six months to a year then I move to England with that guy like I said that seemed

like a great idea the time until it turned out he had six children from four different women he

forgot to mention and you know the Manchester weather and I'm not the type who likes to go back and

hear my mom say I told you so so I just kept going and I always had in my mind that I'm just

gonna do one more place maybe I go to Thailand then maybe I go to Cambodia and I go home okay maybe

I just gonna go and see Indonesia because that looks really cool all right if I'm already in

Indonesia maybe I just gonna see Malaysia and you know the year started stacking up and my mom still

had the belief that maybe one day I still gonna go home but it all changed when I got married and

had a child in California so I wasn't brave I just I just I think it's like a breakfast buffet

right some people know what they want exactly and it's easy I'm someone who needs to sample a lot

of things to figure out what it is that I don't like until I can narrow down what I do like

wow so we could do an entire show on travel we could do an entire show on your scuba diving we

could do an entire show on being a stunt woman we haven't even talked about that yet I don't know

how we can cover it all but I want to hear about the stunt woman bit guess we've not even touched it

okay that's another thing that's entirely because of fate so when I came to America for that

two weeks to see my cousin in Florida it was right after 9-11 so from Bangkok I could not fly

to Florida but I could find a flight to Los Angeles California and I figured once I'm in America

it's gonna be easy to just hop over to Florida so I called up one of my students from

Thailand and said hey do you remember offering me a couch when I ever come to America so I stayed in

his apartment and his family is from San Diego if you have been there it's the most beautiful

ocean side with the the most perfect weather in the planet it's actually proven scientifically

that if you look at one year's weather the most ideal place with the best weather to live is

is San Diego yes it's always sunny around 20 sazis like 70 80 Fahrenheit hardly ever rains it's

very lush palm trees it has the ocean perfect for surfing and scuba diving with the underwater

forest and on land there are horses there's a bunch of really really cool adventure hikes so

I stayed there with my friend and I'm like get here if fate wants me to stay here I will get a job

at the first place where I ask for it I opened up the yellow pages back in the day we didn't

really google things we just looked through that phone book and I caught up the first dive center

called aquadventures and this captain hook type guy in his fifties picks up the phone and gives

me a lecture about how girls cannot scuba dive but if I really have to send him my resume

well my resume has ice diving rep diving cave diving living in England teaching in the Mediterranean

by that time I had about 2000 scuba dives under my belt experience in marketing because that's

my college degrees marketing management and I really thought this is like a dead end and I was just

ready to look for flights to Florida when he calls me back and says do you want to start on one day

nice I worked for that same guy for seven years managing his dive center in Burbank which is

conveniently right next to all the studios ABC NBC Nickelodeon Disney so we had a lot of stunt

coordinators directors actors coming for training renting equipment fixing equipment

needing water safety and it was only a matter of time for me to get into the stunts because

it's just not that many women who is the size of an average leading actress and can do the ice diving

the precision diving that the movies require but getting into stunts is not as easy as just being

in the right time in the right place right it's a it's a catch 22 to work on a Hollywood production

you need to be in the screen actors guild sag but to get into the screen actors guild you had to work

three days on a Hollywood production a major Hollywood production so you see it's kind of hard

right so it's only either incredible luck or talent that can get you in and I was lucky enough

to get casted for a commercial where I had to swim in freezing cold February in bikini for

all day long jumping off a boat it was a commercial for ex de ordan a skinny dude puts this

deodorant on himself on the beach and armies of women come to tear him up hard because he's so

attractive the red bikini women like the bay watch type are running on the beach towards him

the green bikini women are climbing over the mountains and the hills running towards to get him

and the blue bikini quad is swimming through the Pacific to try and get on shore and get him

and the first time we did it it was like 50 women jumping into the ocean and swimming

ferociously the second time it was dirty and by like take 10 high potermia and sea sickness started

taking all its victims it only was a lifeguard junior lifeguard girl and myself on the deck of the

boat and I overheard her asking the stunt coordinator so it's definitely gonna get me into sag right

it's gonna give me the tough hardly and I get inside and the stunt coordinator said yes

and I'm like wait wait if she's getting in does it mean that I'm getting my second

and the the stunt coordinator looked me up and down and said go you've been here all day freezing

your ass off you bat so basically that got me into the screen actors guild and after that all the

stunt coordinators could hire me whose families I trained I got to double drew Barry Moore

for a big miracle up in Alaska saving the whales who got stuck under ice I did all the ice

diving double for drew Barry Moore I got eaten by piranhas in piranha 3d in a cave underwater

I got to work a lot on dexter all the NCSI Miami and all those kind of shows and of course

the highlights everybody wants to hear about is avatar I I got a call to work on the water safety

and the teaching the actors scuba diving for the avatar way of water and the one that just came

out the fire and ash hmm that had to be interesting

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that's outdoorsy dot com promo code ASP wait sure was I mean it started off as a two-month project

which is a really really long project for a movie for a water job usually we work one to two days

a week or two week is a long long water work but two months it's like a really long like pirates

of the Caribbean type long job this job ended up being two years we just kept good James James Cameron

has so many amazing ideas and we just kept doing more and more water stuff and exploring

with creatures underwater with the sea do's underwater he built a 650,000 gallon tank in Manhattan

beaches studios which is an eight-minute drive from my house so I got so lucky this is a sturtore

building it's like a hundred feet by I want to say 60 feet by 30 feet deep and we could change

the depth of the tank so we could make it shallow water or really deep oceans we could turn it

into a beach so like 30 45 degrees where you know a lot of times they land on the beaches so we could

do that we could create waves like really big stormy waves 10 foot waves that you could serve

we had a current machine that could swipe you away it's really strong I mean we could do anything

Jim called it his Swiss army knife I mean with a push of the button we could change the terrain

into anything from a calm shallow water into deep sea to violent oceans like crossing to

ontartica type weather anything and it was so much fun because we were doing things that

never been done before right nice we were experimenting with underwater creatures with sea do's

the the jet evader you know that the things that they use in Florida with the jet skis and

super high pressure water puts the people up yes go super high yeah now we did that underwater

we did that all those uh breakneck chases that you see in avatars two and three were done with

dose and my job as a water safety you can only imagine I have two guys using the jade

waders chasing each other a bunch of other ones are using sea do's to chase each other we have the

obstacles that they have to over go in a 650 thousand gallon tank with glass windows what could go

wrong right how did nothing go wrong I mean how on earth it sounds like a catastrophe because I

have to say we had the best water safety team I've never worked on a movie set where safety was

as paramount as an avatar our team had a plan for everything if somebody has a spinal injury we had

a whole lift practice with a crane setup we and we had time to actually practice it I mean I've

never worked on movies where you have time for the safety team to to work together go to every

scenarios that can happen and practice over and over it's it's it's it I don't even know how to

tell you how good it feels to have uh Jim being so safety conscious because there were a lot of

hazardous things in in that tank that could have injured people so here's the big picture I'm

getting you decided to leave home for a brief period you spun the globe you had experiences you

tried things you went places you made decisions like if I don't get a job on the

first person I reach out to then I'll go to Florida and it's like serendipity all these things

grew into bigger things and other things and ultimately I mean you're working with James Cameron

on one of the biggest films ever and it's like wait a minute here's a here's a gal from hungry

who didn't want to spend the winter at home my thinking has always been dream big work hard

and never give up and yes through my life I had a lot of obstacles a lot of dead ends but the way I

look at life is if something is not meant to work out it's not meant for me let's try something else

that's actually what my book is about I wrote uh now that I'm turning 50 years old next year

I figured it's it's a good time to recount all that happened to me I mean starting with my father

dying at when I was 13 years old we had Chernobyl happen and at first it everybody was saying oh

it's all okay you can go outside but the next year my father died because of cancer boy yes

and so my book basically starts when I'm 13 years old and I I start thinking about

what makes me happy and that's when I actually started scuba diving I did a sport called

orientering diving in lakes and quarries that it's very much like orientering running in the forest

you have to find objects underwater using a compass and a distance accounting device

and once I went underwater for that very first time I felt happy like that that where you feel

you belong to somewhere where you find your shangrila where oh my god I can close off that

chatter everybody talking to me telling me what to do what should I wear what should I think what should

I eat underwater I was so at ease at peace and I was happy and that's where my life really started to

alter or open up or or I don't know but basically that's where my story starts and in this book

takes you through my awakening to what I really want to do being a scuba instructor and

travel the world that my entire family was super skeptical to hear because you know one

a girl being a scuba instructor that's a hobby right scuba diving is not how you make a living

but when you know deep inside what you want I think you just have to find a way and

don't listen to everybody telling you why you shouldn't be doing that and why can't you do that

so I learned early on saying when the naysayers told me you can't do that just watch me and just

don't listen to people who tell no but you can because they are in my mind very shallow mind it

closed never trying fearful people I mean I think I totally trade off from your question

no that was beautiful you started talking about the idea behind recounting your life's adventures

in a book for people and all the things that have happened because of your attitude of just

leaning into what makes you happy and one thing I want to highlight there is you did a lot of pivots

there are a lot of times you said nope this is not it I'm moving on and I think that led you places

it sure did you know I come from a family that is not rich by enemy so I never had parents who could

pay those vacations that my classmates did jetting off to Paris and doing stuff so I was very early

on starting to make my own money and own opportunities I was tie-dying t-shirts tutoring math

working in an ice cream shop because I didn't want other people telling me what I can and can't do

and I found nobody will hand me anything on a silver platter if I want something I have to take

the chances and the opportunities so it's all started in the Mediterranean when a friend of mine

who is a chef offered us all to go and spend the summer with him in Malta that was right after the

iron curtain fell and we could start traveling to the west as I mentioned I grew up in communist

hungry until 1990 when I was 14 years old the Berlin wall fell and a couple years later I had this

opportunity to spend the summer in the Mediterranean and work as a waitress and I walked by a dive shop

every day to the restaurants from my friend's apartment and I always was just oh my god I want to

try that but it's so expensive it's a hundred dollars a day to go scuba diving and I don't have a

hundred dollars and after about a week or two I worked up the courage to walk into the dive center

and with my very broken English I asked to see the owner it was a middle-aged woman

I looked her in the eye and I said do you do internships and she's like what I don't have the

money to go scuba diving but I have a lot of experience I have about five hundred dives under my

bat by at that time I did a lot of search and rescue type diving I did a lot of team diving and I

offered the lady hey I will sweep the floor I will wash the peed in wet suits I fill the tanks in

exchange that I can go scuba diving in the Mediterranean and learn to become a dive master

she looked me up and down and she gave me a chance I mean she gave me the chance that started

something that just led from one adventure to one country to another one thing was always

constant from that moment on scuba diving in my life that is my deepest passion is to be

underwater where I feel the most free the most meditative some people call it a religious experience

or a meditative experience I don't know have you been scuba diving yes I love scuba diving

it and I agree with you that's the experience you're flying you outside of space can only feel

that experience of total weightlessness underwater when you can just walk for example at the edge

of a drop off and there is the big blue there's nothing when you see out if you put your buoyancy

to slightly negative at that point you can just jump off that underwater cliff and fly through the

water and see the fish swim by you the dolphins bus by maybe hear the whales singing and you do

nothing about your chores your homeworks who pissed you off what you need to do nothing your brain

becomes totally blank empty and this is where you can really live in the here and now

hmm when you describe that I thought again of avatar it's like no this is the real deal it's like

it's like what you see on avatar but for real you know everything you see in avatar is real I mean

yeah all the the underwater forest that where they do the chase scenes that's based on the

California club forest all that crazy looking underwater creatures if you scuba dive you you

notice you have seen those mock diving in the Philippines all all over the world like all these

like really crazy out of these world creatures that Jim has in the movie are really inspired by

scuba diving he's a huge scuba diver and I feel that his movie is undoing what jaws did to the

diving industry I feel because of jaws so many people are scared of going into the ocean but because

of the scenery that avatar has I I really noticed a shift how people are intrigued and interested

again to go and see what's below the surface but yeah that's that's fantastic yeah jaws was

extraordinarily scary and entertaining but I think it it scared a generation at least you know

maybe maybe more than a generation people just are like oh I can't go near the water and it's

that's that's really regretful really really I mean if you think about it most of your body

is made of water so it's only natural that you feel this pool at least that I feel this pool

to be in the water in any form whether it's rafting, kayaking, spend, send up paddle boarding, swimming,

snorkeling, freediving, scuba diving any form of the water just makes me happy

I got to tell you something that I just think is hilarious and we actually have an episode coming

up soon Sylvia actually by the time this one is posted it will have already aired so we had an

episode that recently aired where a friend and I went river snorkeling so we did a float trip down

the river but with snorkels and wet suits instead of the raft and we had the greatest time but

people in our local area were laughing about it they found out about it and it kind of became a meme

but you you're the guy that snorkels and rivers united just so for Christmas which just happened

my wife actually made everyone in the family t-shirts to say river snorkeling and a bunch of

stickers so we have stickers that now say adventurous sports podcast river snorkeling

it was a crazy fun event but one thing I love about scuba diving or snorkeling and rivers

is that not only are you weightless but the current takes you places

so you fly and soar with the current and the things you see and the experiences you have

but I have to admit we went down the river for two or three miles and when we got out

I was just all discombobulated I mean I felt car sick because I had been soaring through

the rapids you know for sale anyway that's a total aside but it kind of illustrates another way

to enjoy the water like you describe it it's amazing so water to me is medicine yes I don't know if

you knew but I went through breast cancer at age 39 which is like oh it's like the you know gym

Morrison Jimmy Hendrix Chinese job playing they all died at 27 in my family 39 is that magic number

my father died of cancer at his age 39 my cousin died of cancer at age 39 breast cancer

who's just an older than me and at age 39 I was diagnosed with breast cancer no yes

and I'm like I'm not gonna die I just had a two-year-old baby I finally have a husband a

home a cool job and a kid I am not going to die so I went to see my oncologist

because I had a very aggressive cancer I ended up having what Angelina Jolie had the double

mastectomy where they take both your breast off yes I had a total hysterectomy

basically taking your ovaries your womb everything and it was a two years or deal of recovering

going through chemotherapy I lost my hair I had after the surgeries like tubes hanging out of me

I did everything my doctor told me I took the pills the chemo everything but what really

kept me sane and giving me my life back is the water even when I couldn't swim or scuba dive

because of the surgeries I had I was out paddle boarding just sitting on my paddle board or

standing on better days and paddling in the marina where the water is calm and for sure I

won't fall in and once my wounds healed up enough I went back swimming oh that first day in the pool

I felt like someone was holding me down with metal arms and their rubber ring and it was hard

and painful but lap after lap I started to feel my whole body stretching again moving again

and the water carrying my weight it was oh the best medicine and finally I could go out to the

ocean and do snorkeling and freediving again and once I got my strength back I could go scuba diving

again and I have to tell you that just being in the water to me is not just the meditative experience

that I explained earlier but it's also the best medicine so anytime I feel hurt pain sorrow I just

head out either swimming or surfing or diving and I come back as a change person have you ever

experienced that so many times in so many ways not always water sometimes water but that's what

adventure sports are for me they're healing yes they're healing just to connect I I can say last

summer I I had a really really rough day and I was just undone I thought man I do not know what

to do with myself I was in such a pickle and I jumped on my motorcycle and I wanted to a back road

and I just rode the motorcycle and saw the scenery and and I shook my fist at the heavens

by the time I I got back home again I was a new man it's amazing how fresh air or the water can

just cleanse your soul your mind your lungs and I really find myself being happiest when I'm in

nature when I'm feeling that I'm one with nature you know you're not overtaking it or

using it but when you really feel you can just blend in but being part of nature whether it's

a hike in your cemetery or swimming in the ocean or being in my garden and gardening and the

hummingbird comes by to say hello nature to me is so important and over COVID I found that finally

everybody had the time to slow down and being a little bit more open to to being in nature that

it seems like after COVID everybody forgot again you know the funny is part of that I know

several people that work in the outdoor industry of course and they had the supply chain disruptions

and everybody wanted outdoor gear at the same time and no one had any and so they ordered all of

this gear and when it finally started coming again then the lockdowns were done and everyone

forgot everyone had too much inventory and all the it was a boom and bust cycle for the outdoor

industry but I wish it wouldn't have been I wish that people would just say there's something

there worth spending more time on you know yeah it was such a great opportunity that nature gave us

I really don't understand why why people went back to where they are unhappy and putting up on

well no that's for sure not but I just see very little I go on social media I do it for my work

for the jewelry company but I really want to live my life in real life but when I go on social media

I see a lot of these happy pictures in the most stunning places but then I know in reality those

people who take those really happy pictures in those places or their foods somewhere they didn't

really enjoy those moments as much as they could have I really wish we could go back to

instead of like showing everybody how happy and amazing lives we have to really feel that

without the need like yeah documenting it it's it's I want to share this Silvia I've shared this

before on the podcast but it's been a while and I think you'll understand when I was 10 years old

my family took a trip through the American West and it was the first big trip we'd ever done

and it was a car trip and my my parents gave my sister and I just a tiniest little bit of money and

said go get something for the trip so she bought a tiny little camera and I bought a tiny pair of

binoculars we took the trip and when we got home I was saying to my sister oh do you remember when

we saw this do you remember when we did that do you remember what this looked like and she said no

when her pictures came back from being developed and she goes oh that's what you're talking about

she was documenting I was experiencing exactly right and nothing's wrong with taking a picture

folks yeah hopefully take the time to experience where you are make it real make that's the

priority of your trip to be in the moment rather than document it and put it up on Facebook

Instagram tiktok and everywhere right yes absolutely man Silvia you've lived such an amazing

life and diving into dreams is the name of your book and I would assume that if people want to learn

more these amazing stories that would be a great place to go it is if you ask me to describe it in a

few sentences I would say it's a eat pray love type book and the wild soul searching through travel

so you will find me in Africa and Antarctica like I travel to 57 countries worked on 27 Hollywood

productions so you're gonna have a lot of behind the movie scenes of the beaten track travels it's

gonna be a lot of hitting dead ends lessons learns overcoming obstacles the message of my book is

dream big work hard and never give up if you if you want to hear a story of someone coming from

less than ideal places and living her best life and feeling that she has enough I mean it took

me 50 years to get to the place where I can say that I do have enough I don't want more of anything

I don't need more money I don't need fame I don't need career I'm happy where I am with my life with

my my family with the ocean here next to me where I can go surfing diving I'm creative I do volunteer

work and I'm present to see my kid my kid grow up he's 12 years old in middle school so it's only

a few more years that I feel that we have this opportunity to bond and in this 12 years he's

already been in 22 countries with us nice you know we need to go another hour but we're not

gonna be able to I want to touch on a couple of things that I know about that I just want people

to also know about you take inner city kids scuba diving who don't even know how to swim I work

with the charity called a chance for children and it was started by the Baywatch creator Greg Bonan

and his wife take Collins and it is all because Greg who is a real life lifeguard rescued two kids

who were drifted into reptiles and almost drowned and that's when he realized that these kids

who live in Los Angeles only 20 minutes from the ocean can't swim so he started this program the

Baywatch camp and the chance for children where we work with these kids who are in a most vulnerable

area in the Watts and in the Los Angeles area where gang violence is very prominent where kids

parents either drug addict or in gangs I mean not everybody's but it's it's it's very much

prominence there so we started taking their these kids and do activities with them they go

fishing they learn swimming they do surfing and I started taking them scuba diving and these kids

I'm telling you are terrified by the idea of going scuba diving and they can't swim most of them

never even had a bathing suit but they do it anyway and when they come up they have the biggest

smile on their face and they have their mind open to the possibilities that they can do anything

and everything they don't have to do what they see in their neighborhood and I do a lot of

public speaking as well in these schools and we talk about let's say at career days that I make a

living of things I love like scuba diving doing crazy adventures and making jewelry of gemstones

I gather through my travels and I ask these kids what do you guys like doing video game taking

pictures doing hairs and by the time we are finishing the sessions they realize that you can actually

make a living of anything in today's world right you you can be a video gamer you can be a

hair stylist you don't have to follow what your neighborhood and your your parents your brothers

are doing and I find it the most empowering thing is to open a kid's mind to the possibilities

so I love working with the chance for children and take all ends I love it that you do that I love

it that you're giving back that you're using your life experiences to give hope and dreams to the

next generation thank you you know someone gave me a chance the lady in the Mediterranean yeah and

I'm in a position now where I feel obligated to to give it back to have others to to get started

to to live out their dreams I also want to touch on your jewelry I'm going to comment right now

you have on these these beautiful kind of aqua green ear rings and you have the most beautiful

blue eyes too that they match I'm just telling everybody it's amazing so you make this jewelry

inspired by your travels and inspired by your scuba diving by the ocean right yes I basically

when I travel whether it's tracking through the Himalayas in the Paul or the earrings you see is

actually turquoise from Egypt or the pearl I found when I'm in Indonesia I buy a lot from local

artists to bring it back to California where I turn them into one of a kind or sometimes a series

of of a jewelry that I sell in my online web shop and the whole message of my jewelry line is to

live life to the fullest to experience to be open-minded to be daring and not only do I make

these gemstone pieces from the treasures I found along the way like shark tut also inside

Africa I have a lot of ocean inspired jewelry but I also make silver hammered uh

affirmation bracelets and necklaces that say I am enough I am who I am she believes she could

so she did because every now and then we all need a little reminder that we are braver than we think

and just give a little push so my jewelry has been received really well I have a lot of followers

in the yoga community the mindfulness community the travel ocean community as well as I have a

monthly subscription called manifestation box where together we have a story meditation cards

a bracelet on necklace and the gemstone each month that helps us work with a with a team for the

month and each month we either work on open-mindedness, self-confidence things like that so I find that

I'm not the only one who finds this beneficial uplifting and happy me living an optimistic life

but a lot of other people are telling me that it resonates with them so yes

I love it I also love the idea that it's not just a decoration you have a bit of jewelry it becomes

a reminder for the pursuit of that period of your life and by wearing it it serves as a daily

reminder that this is an area where I can I can grow more I can become more and you know I used to

wear a bracelet made out of swivel hooks for fishing yeah that not hooks just the swivels but I

used to wear that I wore it for years and it reminded me of important things in my life and people

would ask questions about it and then you you could share with people what the inspiration was

exactly it's so fun it's a great conversation starter I also have a zero waistline where I use

stupidiving equipment parts mixed with gemstones to promote the the zero waist lifestyle I live

that in my life I try not to use any single use plastic in my life I try and use glass metal things

when I travel to I pack in pack out only take as little as possible I try not to buy a lot of things

and teach my kid also take his lunch in like a reusable lunch bag so I figured with my jewelry

instead of throwing away some parts that are no longer needed in the scuba equipment where we have

to change out filters and washers every year I turn them into jewelry as well I have it both for guys

and for for women we also use a shark suit you know when you diving with with the sharks we have

the chain mill suit that also looks like the night's shiny armor I I use a lot of the discarded

materials that that that company who makes the shark suits don't use anymore I combine that

with gemstones and make jewelry out of that as well nice I love it wow what a fun hour we've just

enjoyed that so immensely hearing about all the the ways that your life took new directions found

new purpose new experiences and it grew into a lifestyle it grew into a book it grew into helping

inner city kids it grew into having a family it grew into being able to spend a lifetime

doing the thing that really seemed to give back to you which was being in the water scuba diving

all those things working on movies being a stunt woman a safety coordinator

fantastic Sylvia thank you so much for your time and for sharing the adventure with us

thank you so much and I hope that the message that you have a choice to live life happy resonates

with your listeners and they all can think of what could they change in their lives to live life

happy yes hmm maybe I don't want to overstate this but maybe a little less should and a little more

could 100% or a little less of oh my god you're so lucky turning into I could do that too

that's that's so cool I want to do that let let I'm going to do that nice so how can people

find you your book your jewelry what's the best way the easiest way where everything is centralized

is Sylvia gok.com build that for us okay my name is so it's S-Z-I-L-V-I-A-G-O-G-H.com

okay so S-Z-I-L-V-I-A-G-O-G-H.com yes and then from there you can go into look at my stunt work

my scuba diving work my jewelry my book that's a good hub very very good well Sylvia I'll put

that in the show notes of course and thank you again for being on the adventure sports podcast

and sharing all this with us I'm inspired tons of fun thank you for your time thank you for

having me y'all you bet and everyone out there make sure that you figure out what your thing is

pursue it and get out there and have some fun

you