what is your relationship to surfing could you surf on active duty and what
does surfing do for you okay so my relationship with surfing
number one i was lucky to have a guy that when i was a kid up in maine
that said hey i'm going to teach you how to surf this guy was a lifeguard he was
a outstanding surfer and he said i'm going
to teach you how to surf you know i was a 10 year old kid nice
water in the freezing cold water and i said yeah awesome and so he gave
me an old surfboard and put me out there and taught me how to
surf when i was 10 years old and it definitely
you know surfing up in maine is a little bit different because it's dark and it's
cold and you gotta do a little bit of suffering if you want to
enjoy the benefits of it you gotta know the darkness
i don't know what they say anything about the darkness of surface yeah
it's not very yeah kawhi you didn't have to deal with that so
so that's how i got into surfing and surfing a lot of people will tell you
when you when you do it it's it's somewhat
addictive because it's a very a very you know kind of paradoxical
thing because it's very relaxing at the same time it's very kind of exciting
i guess is the word you get a little adrenaline but you get a little mellowed
out too so it's a very fun thing to do good for you it's good for your brain
it's good for the soul right and when i was on active duty and
you if you're on active duty in the hill teams
yeah you could surf and i definitely served
sometimes more more i was more focused on surfing than others
when i really went bjj crazy i wasn't doing anything else with
any free time other than jiu jitsu so
that's but yeah there's guys there's guys in the seal teams that
that actually manipulate their career around surfing because you can get
stationed and you can go on trips to great surf spots and
and all that and there's some there's some pretty amazing surfers
in the seal teams in the military as well but i mean i only know about guys
and sometimes there's a guy named ivan trent who's whose dad was buzzy
trying to famous old pioneer surfer in hawaii
and ivan trent there was a picture when i first got in the seal teams there was
a picture of ivan trent dropping in on a giant wave
at what mia bay the famous with mia bay so
there's some great surfers it's a definitely a little subculture inside
the teams and and you could definitely you can definitely surf a lot because i
mean you're you're living in san diego or virginia beach i mean virginia
beach has waves sometimes san diego has waves a lot of the times
and what does it do for me well one thing is it gets gets you
outside gets me outside and gets you out into nature and what i
like about nature nature what i like about nature is
nature makes you feel small that's what nature to me that's
what's good about nature that's what that's why
nature puts things in perspective because nature makes you feel
small makes you realize you know what look at the ocean i'm nothing
look at the giant wilderness i'm in i'm nothing so it just keeps you in check
and keeps you in perspective and that's one
of the that's actually one of the things that
the probably the only thing i don't like about jiu jitsu is pretty much the most
part it's inside it's inside the gym on the
mat right and so you know you can do it
outside but it's it's hard to do outside do this
the mats get super hot yeah it's just not it's just a thousand
times more efficient and convenient to do
inside it's novel outside it's a novel exactly it's cool
to do sometimes and at my old house i had like a full
outdoor jiu jitsu area which was cool and i had
a shade structure over it was good it was good but you have to have
something to that extent before it's not like you can just
do jiu jitsu outside and you can do it it's but it's novel and you know
if you do it in grass you get the grass itches
yeah yeah for some reason i don't know what it is when you do jiu jitsu and
grass you're all itchy yeah yeah but even that's kind of not
you know how like this is more when you're younger you
know when you first learn jiu jitsu oh yeah
and you know so i think i think with other people um
you know some people obviously you're not by the ocean but you know anything
outside running hiking biking swimming even playing
outdoor sports like soccer and shooting basketball outside just
whatever just get outside just get outside get out in the air feel
it and i'll tell you one more thing about
jiu jitsu and surfing there's a little connection there
there's a little connection between jiu jitsu and surfing i don't know what it
is i don't know what to do do you know what it is later well you
know you got like even kelly slater who's you know
what is either 11 time 12 time champion of the world in
surfing he does jiu jitsu you got guys like joel
tutor jt if you don't know who joel tudor is
he's just a legendary longboard surfer and actually he's from
san diego so we kick it with jt from time to time
and actually i see him on a regular basis at the at the longboard surfing
contest because both his kid and my kids surf in the long on
the long boards but joel joel tudor who's a who's a
literally one of the most you know many people consider him to be
the best longboard surfer of all time all day of all time yeah you
didn't even know he was that good did you
i knew he of all time i didn't know that but
i believe it and i'm not gonna make that declaration because then a million
people will say no it should be this guy but
there is many there are many people in the world who considered joel tudor to
be the best longboard surfer of all time
i met i met joel tudor in jiu jitsu yeah he just
started coming and he they were um shannon was like hey roll with him he's
good at jiu jitsu so i was like oh cool he was like a brown belt at the time in
a row and he's really good at jiu-jitsu and i was like okay cool
joel and i see him during the day it was like mellow group and he'd come to the
aid role with joe sometimes yeah he'd be like cool joel tutor he's this
kind of guy who's smaller than me we'll say
and he's better than me cool cool one day
you know who told me joel tudor was a badass longboarder who
cake nuts hey is that joel tutor in that picture right there
i was like yeah yeah you know he was bro that's a long booty so badass yeah
yeah and and and not only is he so awesome at
surfing he's jiu jitsu is sick too yes so gel tutors one and then you get then
once you go once you go brazilian in this scenario
then there's all kinds of surfing going on because that's a culture down there
you know i mean my first instructor fabio santos
he he's a he's a badasser for hoyler
hickson uh even kid pellegro he's
yeah so so there's definitely and and when you just meet
guys surfing there's like a decent chance that they train the jiu jitsu
right and so you said you know what the connection is i know
of some connections yes which major ones so educate okay so me
it's one of these things where kind of on the surface
it feels like you against this big wash of a challenge right both of them
but really it's not it's not like this challenge that you take on
it's more of a challenge that you kind of just ride with
and it's more you yourself so and and on top of it and that could be
that could be mountain climbing or whatever but this is
jiu-jitsu and surfing is it always changes it's not different
it may seem same in one way or another it's same but
every single experience is different yeah and it's not something you can just
take control of you know it's not one of those things
it's you have to you have to ride the wave yes and in surfing it's literally
in jiu jitsu it's you got to go with it you can't fight it
just like you can't fight a wave you got it
and it's um and they're both that yes so of course yeah they take balance but
those are just little small physical ads right because other sports take balance
yeah but yeah it's it's you i mean it's kind of a spiritual
type thing to say it's you against yourself right
but that's really what it is it's like you
have to improve yourself you don't it's not about conquering this
you know maybe psychologically it is but it's still within yourself
in it and it's constantly changing that's
getting philosophical it's true but i like it yeah no that's good
and my last comment on that was both of them
both surfing and jiu-jitsu empty your brain they empty my brain out
they empty my brain out and they they give me a nice clean slate to
do other things with yeah so that's that
all right for the record it come from kauai but
sorry to say i don't surf yeah but bro i used to shred
body boarding and body sponger yeah total sponger oh and by the way
um it's waimea not waimea oh i i'm not i'm correcting you because
you're my friend but i don't want to be a corrector
that's no correct correct correct okay yeah absolutely mia
i guess right it's just pronunciation yeah
but i'm a gringo what can i say white male
one man be hawaiian
if you be a corrector too much you become the guy that people are
tolerating so you don't want to be the guy at the party that people are
tolerating you don't want to be that guy no matter
how smart you want them to think you are well you just proved your your
intelligence you gave me permission