Latest / Total Barnage / Harrison Walker - Yachting In Miami Is NOTHING LIKE Below Deck!

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Harrison Walker - Yachting In Miami Is NOTHING LIKE Below Deck! · Total Barnage

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Total Barnage.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Today is a very exciting episode.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: We are joined with Mr.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Harrison Walker.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Hello.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: Ex-Bond gym coach.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: Indeed.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: The best, as some say.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's coming on a year.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: Some definitely don't.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's coming on about a year now since I left.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: You've definitely got a legacy down here.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh well, that's very kind of you to say.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: The legacy is kept with the boxing bag, which people sometimes punch.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm sure they do after my very violent sessions that I used to bring down here.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: We had uh was it uh Clive and Mark uh Clive and Mark were punching it the other day as part of their workout.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: That was quite I was stood in here, I was watching it thinking some witchcraft going on, so I did feel some punches over the weekend.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's crazy.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well I've put some bits of your hair on and I'll put your t-shirt on there.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: So got the hat with my name on it.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, no, it's blown off in the wind.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: I need to get the wig and the hat back on it.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Once it's there.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: To be honest, it does.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for for reference, for those I guess we can insert a little clip here of the actual punch man himself.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: But it is a little bit freaky, like you walk you walk into the gym and just out the side you see some very kind of pinky-orange punch management.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always watching.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it did have a it did have a hat with your name on it.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it kind of looks a little bit like you as well, just a square has has been mentioned a couple of times.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: It does.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I was a bit short of hair now.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, exactly.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks very much.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: So Harrison, yeah.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: So t tell us, Harrison, you know, what's your affiliation with with this place and what are you up to?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah, so I guys obviously have been setting the barn up for a few years, and we've known each other quite quite a while now.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um it was over sort of that COVID period, guys started bringing everything up here at the barn.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so but I at that point I was it I was in Leeds at university studying sports science and um and just playing a bit of rugby up there.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: So when I finished and moved back down, this was like post-COVID and everything like that.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: I was looking for a bit of work, and um guy needed a bit of help just with this with a couple of bits and bobs around here, just trying to get everything sort of properly started after all the restrictions and stuff had sort of finished.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um so uh yeah, I came down, did some social media stuff for him, um a little bit of coaching here and there, but nothing, nothing crazy at all.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then he sort of after I don't know, it must have been six months or so, I um I'm still looking for this job that I was meant to get, because this was just meant to be me helping out before I sort of got something a bit more permanent, and then yeah, it just it sort of just went naturally, wouldn't you say?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: And it just was like I got my guy who wanted another coach, so I said, look, like just give me six weeks to go and do it, um, and I can come back and I can um sort of help you out in that aspect.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: So then um got all my got the right qualifications, and obviously everything that I did at uni sort of helped as well, so it was sort of like a natural progression in that sort of sense.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we did our PT course at the same time.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we did, with Ian, yeah.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: He's a great guy, um funny guy, very dry.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Very, very dry, but it's very it was like sort of in a humourish way.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: He's a good guy, and and I learned I learned a good amount um over those that six-week period.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, as I say, I came back and yeah, everyone sort of knew me before as well, like because obviously I've been around, so it was probably quite a nice integration because everyone already knew who I was, rather than people that are starting fresh and and things.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: So there as I say, I've known Guy for quite a while and and it's sort of just naturally sort of snowballed, and I was here for what must have been about two and a two and a bit years, yeah, and total, and um as I say, it was it was great.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: I loved being down here, it was and the and every all the members are great.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um the summer is the highlight, it's coming out.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Is it snow like now to like October where it's just actually exactly it's it's ri it's great, it's really great.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, you've got all the use of the fields and all sorts.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: So no, it's it's a really really good gym to be involved with and had been involved with, and it learned me a lot, especially in what I'm sort of sort of in now.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um as as I as I say, if that thing just never I always like to think that if like Neville naturally rolled um together like it did, I don't think I'd be in the position that I am right now.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um because sort of guys show me that you can make you can enjoy your job by doing this and also make a bit of money as well, which is great.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what was the what was the job that you were teeing up um in the means?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: What before coming here?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: Before coming here, so yeah, no, um I was looking into um going into apprenticeships at like a like a lower level at like a pro club, maybe second division rugby or um maybe even a little football.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, rugby was my main sort of aspect.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then also just in the meantime, even like working at just on the building site or something like that, just so I can just get a scramble bit of money.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because obviously I've still I I lived just ten minutes down the road, so I was living at my parents and stuff, and obviously once I've been, I was away from home for like eight years, so wanting to sort of not come back from uni and then have to move back in with my parents again, which was a big change.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um so those two years I was coming down here, and that was sort of one of the aspects why I sort of felt like it wasn't the right, well, it wasn't right for me anymore, it wasn't that it was always right for me here, but um I just wanted to sort of get out of the house and move away just for a little while.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, those are the sort of jobs it was just sort of it just as I say it happened so naturally, it just sort of was silly to turn it down at the time.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, I've always wanted to be involved in active sport.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: I could I'm just not a guy that can sit at a desk for hours on end, and I just think you two can probably relate in that as well.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's no way of me sitting at a desk doing nine to five and or stuff like that.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: So that it that was a big no-no for me off the bat.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, it was uh it was always meant to be active for me, and uh, hopefully it can stay like that as well, or practical being outside.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've always liked jobs being outside and yeah, so and it's always like ever changing and you know, conversation with different people, different clients.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, it's always a tough one.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: I've had such a similar thing with like wanting to get away from home, is like even my like undergrad uni choice going all the way up to the northeast.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you've gone up to Leeds, yeah, it's kind of like I never even considered maybe London as an option, yeah.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I was like, right, I'm then gonna go over to America, and then I come back, and it's only now so you're in a different, you know, we'll get into kind of what you're doing at the moment, but yeah, for me now, it's like I've kind of got loads of what I need back at home.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I wouldn't have had that if I didn't go far away for a little bit, see what it's like.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: Take that experience and sort of realise like maybe well, there are some benefits of being home, and then it's not like uh I don't miss being I love I love being at home, I love being here, I love being with my family and friends and stuff.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, as you say, like you need to get that experience sort of away, especially at uni, and you learn a lot of like it's quite hard nowadays, uh, there's a lot of pointless um uni degrees out there, and people just feel like they have to go for the sake of it, which I thought I think now people are starting to sort of retract on because you get being a practically good at something that you've done for X amount of years, maybe some people think a different route is is necessary, but as you say, it's it's important getting those life skills and those life lessons being alone, so then when you do come back, you have to realise actually maybe this isn't me being at home or anything like around here is probably from right for me at the moment.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but no, as I say, I learnt a lot at university and I learnt a lot here, which has sort of led me nicely into what sort of um I'm doing at the moment.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Can you elaborate on what you are doing on the moment?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, right, so yeah, at the moment why why are you back here?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so why why am I back here?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um no, so last uh September, well actually I could start when I left here, so um my mum sort of uh encouraged me to look at doing getting into um being a yachty, so going out and working on super yachts.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um I know um from other people that I've spoken to at the time that they do look at personal trainers as well because obviously if people are out partying or doing whatever on holiday for X amount of weeks, they do want a trainer on board just so they can feel healthy or less guilty.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, less guilty of whatever's going down.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: So um I took the opportunity, uh you have to go and get your STCW and this little just safety things you have to go and get, um, and you sort of just take the leap.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if people don't know already, it's quite a very it's a very saturated industry to be in.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: So if there's something that you doesn't make you stand out or you might have a little leg up with someone, it's very hard to get in, and because again, there's a lot of people all around the world trying to get involved with it.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I'm went to after I finished here last April, wasn't it?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: End of April last year.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: I flew to the south of France and managed to get some work.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: Well, they said a week and then it turned into three months, so I managed to use up all my visa.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um how was it a week and then well so they what I well from now I worked outside Brilliant a week.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's great.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I I met I met someone on STCW called Stu, and he knew um it's like his mum's ex-boyfriend's br like brother or something, he runs a um there's a little like fuel station down in Monaco where boats used to to fill up and and he spoke to her, he spoke to his best mate who owns a boat across the dock from the from the flat fuel stop, and then he uh he knew I was coming over and mentioned to them, look, I've got someone else coming over.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: Do you want any more dayworkers?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then that was it.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: They said yeah.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um went in, then they said they say a week, just because in case you're kind of sh shit, you can swear on this, can't you?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um in case you're shit, they they uh it's an excuse to sort of get rid of you.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: So what you find out, so they always say a week, and then they always like, oh, we need you for the next couple of weeks, right?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: If you come down once they've got a feel for you and you're not a complete tit, you can um sort of you can sort of get around it, and then yeah, it turned into three months.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: I had the best time.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um again, meeting you meet a lot of people in this industry, and it's quite important, weren't there?
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: Lots and lots of South Africans, lots of South Africans, yeah.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um isn't it because their mums watch like below deck?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, I think yeah, it's it's probably a lot to do with that.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: I think it that like below deck is um not what it's like.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think other yachtis will sort of understand that it's it's and you get asked the question all the time is it like below deck, is it like below deck?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And even when even when I remember because the I basically took over from you and people would ask me how I knew Guy, and it's kind of like more I knew you, or like through my brother, and they'd always be like, Oh yeah, it's it's below deck, and like first of all, I haven't seen it.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know, but I don't know, I'm not the right person to ask, and second of all, yeah, it's probably not, it's not, it's completely not.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: They it's filmed over like a six-week period, and it's just it's not what it's like, and I've heard it's quite difficult once you've been on the show.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's quite hard to sort of get more employment after that.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because it's all meant to be quite hush-hushes around, like it's all very it's all very like I can't really go into much detail about who I which boat I work on and things like that, it's all because it's all very um, it's quite private, isn't it?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's very private, and yeah, I understand why they wouldn't.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um but we can go into that a bit in a in a bit.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: But I like as I say, it's nothing like um what is it, blow deck TV series.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um they film over a six-week period, and it's hard to get money, um hard to get employment after that.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: So what do you think about it?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: What's that what people think it's like?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I because I actually haven't seen it, but I just assume it's kind of so there's it's lots of like well there you obviously you can there's lots of like arguments, lots of booze flying around.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's it's like Geordie Shaw, as I say, like on a boat.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: Right, yeah.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's and and it's it's it's just not what it is at all.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: Thank goodness.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's all a lot of it's staged and cut into certain things, and it's just not really like some of it is accurate when they're docking and and doing things like that, then yeah, but um other than that, it's not really the same at all.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: They they've obviously all the people on there, they're not actors, they've worked on boats before, but it's not it's not what sort of I would be really that keen on doing.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh maybe towards the end.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: Towards the end of my career, but I don't think I don't even think they'd want me.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: I've I can I've got a bit of a loud mouth sometimes, so I'm not sure.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well there you go, that's exactly why they've got it.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, so the south of France, it was a good experience, loved it, and then I uh came back after my visa finished, and sort of again, once you've done those three months, it's good, but you're still next to nowhere in reality.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like how many people some people go over to France, they'll get they'll be there for three months, use their visa, and maybe get to three or four days of day work that whole time.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: So it's very competitive, very competitive.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I was very lucky in what I got, um, and that's why I'm saying it's very uh saturated because so many people think it's the people again watch lots of that TV show and just think, oh that's what I want to do.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: And mums watch it as a guy mentioned, and they sort of push them into it.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: In South Africa, it's it's very it's a lot of people do obviously there's lots of ways out of South Africa, and I don't want to say that, but a lot of people see it as an option to get out in the ideal situation to get out.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: Apparently they only have like two yachts that every single South African that wants to get into yachting will practice on or do their this like an academy system they've got.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: So they sell these big they sell like a load of um courses you can do, like because it's not just SDCW and ENG1, which is just a med um a medical screening to make sure you you're safe to work out at sea.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: You have to do powerboat stuff, which is the little tenders they drive around, the jet ski courses, the s the security courses, there's like hundreds that they try and sell, and then they're like, Yeah, you'll get a job for sure.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like cattle, you'll get a job for sure, and then they'll go, next load come in.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, yeah, you'll get a job for sure.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so they just keep saturating this industry with people going to France, and as I say, there's so many people there, they're only getting two, three days a day work and then having to go home, spend all this money, um, and then having to come next year.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Job search it.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you so you it is honestly when you're green, it is pretty difficult to get to get somewhere with it.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_02: It might take I as I say I was very lucky, some people have to go two, three times back to France to gain enough um uh experience there, um, so they can eventually find full-time work.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I was very lucky, as I say, and uh I got came home, was home for a month or so over last summer, and then my profile got found online from my captain now, and he uh he they needed a personal trainer and said, Look, like do you fancy coming out to America and and and working, becoming the coach on our on our on our boat?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I had to grab it with two hands, really.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: It was like you have to take it and take the big risk.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: So got my visa sorted and headed out last sept like mid-September last year, and yeah, I literally arrived back home last week, so it's been great.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm I'm looking pretty brown.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna go.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's what we covered our legs up today.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's about as many legs, I should not say.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, no, I think the tan's gonna go over the next few weeks while I'm home, but no, I'm it's glad but I'm glad to be home though.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's America's and well, all these other places that I've been to, it's it's it's not the same.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like when I rolled into the pub last week, it was just such a nice uh it was a nice thing just to feel home again.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um because it does get overwhelming, you feel like you're in a bubble, especially in this industry, and you want to try and uh get out and just try and get out of it for a little while and just come back to reality, really.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean it's literally kind of like cabin cabin fever.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: No, 100%.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: It is actually cabin fever you get um like sharing rooms and things, like you get used to it.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: I've been sharing a room for a little while, but you you get used to it and everyone's uh everyone's really nice on the boat, but it's just different, you're not having to even to like working and living with the same people the whole time.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: You have to try and keep it sweet with everyone.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: How how was it the first night back sleeping in a room on your own?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it was great, amazing.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: Get back, you have your own space, make as much noise as you want well within reason, and then um that that sounds so sick, isn't it?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: What sort of noises you make by exposing myself?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um But no, uh I can make as much noise as you want.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, you get what I mean.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: You're not you can't the meditation oms.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the oms.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um but no, uh it's you you as I say, you get into a bit of a bit of a battle with it, especially after six, seven months, you're just like, oh mate, I'd do anything just for a full English and there's nothing going on around here with it.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um you're based out of Miami, yeah.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm based out of yeah, Miami, Florida.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um West Palm Beach, Miami.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: They don't do full Englishes, in the world.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you they do, but it's like mate, the the thing what I have struggled in about America is just the amount of like I'd give this example, they the bread over there, just simply sugar.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: I've been around since the dawn of time, and it's three ingredients yeast, water, and flour.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: Over there, you get a slice of bread, you've got like a Bible reading's worth of just ingredients and shit in this in this loaf of bread.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: And obviously, you don't know what most of it is, yeah, but obviously I'm quite I'm quite food conscious, and I don't want to just put loads of random shit.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's not being a precious white girl or anything.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: This is just me being like, it's not like all these really long jumblish letters.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm meant to eat this, so yeah, it but it's just the quality, there's a lot of quality you don't realise until you're away for so long.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like the quality the food control that we have in the UK is like second to none, I think, compared to a lot of others.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, mate, we had we had the same like when I was out in the States, of course, you'd you'd know, as well.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: So even like we're we're in kind of almost like you know professional level athlete um accommodation and like the you know canteens and stuff, and like granted, you have athletes like discus throwers and people who literally just need to get cannabis in, but the breakfast choices were terrible, like the cereals so sweet, they'll have like waffles and syrup and they'll have like maple syrup on every single table, and it's just like I'm just there thinking as an athlete, like I I know I need to fuel as much as possible, but just the sugar content is so hard.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: It is abhorrent, mate.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: It is so you walk you walk past like in I don't know, ten o'clock in the morning and um walking down the street with a little breakfast cafe or whatever, and there's people having waffles with fried chicken and and stuff like with it and syrup and bacon over the toast, like come on.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: Come on, you get your head wobbled in the UK if you're having that.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's just it's terrible, it's terrible.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, so you do miss as I say, you do miss home and uh you miss being being here or being a friend.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, food, a a pint for sure, because the beer over food food or just food and drink.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: Food and drink, okay, okay.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: Pint, um, because the beer over in America is a bit light.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, light.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's not like you're not gonna get a Harvey's or or uh like a nice Cronenberg out there.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like you have your standards like Heineken and and things like that.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's mainly bottled though, that's a thing.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: So that's that's sad.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's I love it when Americans say they go out and they have ten beers.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yeah, but that's ten bottles of beer, yeah, not ten pints.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Not ten pints of eight.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: When their pints are smaller.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, American pints like hundred milshits for smaller.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's it's it it is very it's very different in that sense, but um just chicken.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Just your British classics, like I don't mind like a pie and mash.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: You struggle to find that out there.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um full English.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: Full English is I've said already, I've mentioned.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um people have their own versions of it, but it's just not the same at all.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um the bacon quality out there is poor.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, oh mate.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's nothing you don't even want to think about it.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um all the oh, what else?
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: I do miss I do miss MS.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: Bloody hell.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah like the wraps and the just the sandwiches and things.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: No meal deals.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Lunch is so.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: Lunch is so hard.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um to try and like if you're walking even at like without going into a restaurant, let's say you wanted to just go and get something to eat quickly, like you look at these you go to the petrol station and you just look, and there's like these sausages that have been rolling that looks like have been rolling since the dawn of time.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's just horrible.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: Like, and you have to if you if you ever hung over anything and you go in there, you can't look at it because you're gonna boot everywhere all over the floor, and everything's just so dried, and it's just disgusting.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that's that's another thing that I really do miss because people in and well I actually got told this the other day when one of my friends, one of their partners came to America um from the America to the UK, and they don't understand like the MS, the wild bean that you go past at the BP or something like they don't think maybe, yeah, you there's an actual cafe here what it makes sense because people have to come in and out of here the whole time.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like they don't have the same mental thought in that sense of of being in a other other than that big one in Texas or something.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: The Oh yeah, the the beaver or something.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: The beaver can't remember.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's gonna annoy me that it's something like that.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: The beaver.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_02: I know it's not the beaver, it's the I don't know.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, I don't know what it is.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: What is it?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a yell little yellow logo with a little beaver.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, with the little like beaver on it.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, we're gonna have to f we're gonna have to find that.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: I can't remember.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: Buckeys or something.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_02: Buckeys, I think that is it.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_02: Buckeys, I think.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, that brings it back.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: And it's generally the size, I don't know, like two of them massive ASDAs you'd see, like those spaceships that are just in the middle of nowhere.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely ginormous.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: Other than that, like I don't think it's and it's always fast food, and it's not there's not like a waitrous or anything like that around.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I think that's probably around it.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: The food, the food though is great.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: When you go into a restaurant, some really nice restaurants.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_02: But the also the other thing that I'm sick of is that you go into a nice restaurant, right?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: Really nice mood lighting.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it's really it's really cool.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: You go around the corner, there's about a thousand screens, just four but just pumped out everywhere, and it's just it is really distracting because I'm like sort of just want a nice dinner.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I just want a nice dinner, I just want a nice dinner, no no phones, TVs.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm that guy, you see a TV and you're like, you are gonna look at it, like especially when there's sport on or something.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: Even sport, I don't you like but that's in like a nice restaurant?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, mate.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_02: You see, you go into uh there was this one Italian restaurant in Clamadis where we've where we are in West Palm, and it's like you walk in a really lovely, like old-style Italian restaurant, and you go to the bar to get a drink, and then it's just who just screens everywhere, lighting up the whole room.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: And it is it's just the the culture over in America, I think, and that's just that's just the way it is.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: You're never gonna change it.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like um at the bell or whatever, like Richard wouldn't ever put a TV in the pub because it just it's not that's not what the pub's for.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like obviously there's a time and a place if their England football's on or or whatever, like of that, and that sort of aspect, then then yeah, it makes business sense to get a TV in.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they'll get a projector or something, then yeah, a projector or something, but in that is that is another thing.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they're ups they're obsessed with screens, and you'll probably had have the same thought as well.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean regards to it.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: The only benefit like going into sports bars where I was in South Carolina, like the only benefit of having loads of screens is that you know there's a lot to choose from for you to then ask to change.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so like if I want to go in and watch like the time difference was about five hours, which meant that all of the games were in the morning, all the football games, like Premier League games.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they're all the morning, afternoon, early after, but really early afternoon if you're lucky, yeah.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, I'll rock up going to town at like 11, I'll go in.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I have to say soccer, not football.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, um that wine's meant to be.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: The Premier League, yeah, the Premier League Don't get me styled on that, mate.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then like they'll say, you know, which screen do you want?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking around.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's probably I mean it's not much bigger than this room, it's probably like four times the size of this room, and there's you know 40, 50 odd screens.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh yeah, just you know, chuck that one up there, and then I can just have it, you know, as well as and it's great.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, that's probably the only benefit.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: But it's yeah, it is it is apparent.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: But culturally, it's it's very different, lots of guns, everything's very big, oversized, a lot of a lot of homeless people going around, especially it's a bad environment.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, you get it quite bad.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, London is probably pretty bad and Manchester and stuff, but yeah, there's not much there's not much help in that sense um over that way.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh a lot of drug use and things like that, but you you you sort of stay away from that sort of that sort those sorts of areas.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um but as I say, I think I do miss the UK a lot, um but I do like America though, I have to say.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't think you were gonna like it before.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think I yeah, you're right.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't think I was gonna like it that much.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um just the stereotypical American or or whatever it is, just stupid or fat, uh asking if you want cheese with everything.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: But I am presently surprised.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: I've had uh the uh they are all ri everyone I've met has been absolutely great.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Do you want cheese with that though?
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: You want cheese with that?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: No, I don't want cheese on my ice cream, thank you.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: But no, it's um no, I've been pleasantly surprised, and I've had a I've had a the best time meeting everyone, meeting meeting um meeting new people, especially in and out of the industry.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um and you and you become quite you become quite close with these these people because realistically you're all in the same you're in the same boat in that sense.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: For fuck's sake.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: You know, for fuck's sake.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um and you all just yeah, you're out there to look after each other and you'll you'll you do really have a good time.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um you're just all there to just save a bit of money and have a good have a good laugh at each other and you know.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm guessing when you're on a boat, right, you you're getting paid, but everything's for you.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like food, accommodation.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so food, uh accommodation, obviously.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm I'm I'm lit what a lot of my friends didn't understand was they're like, so how long are you out there for?
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like, where are you even staying?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like, do you stay in a hotel or it's like no no?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: I live on the boat, like I'm employed to look after this boat, live on it, make sure everything runs smoothly.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um she's quite she's an older boat, so she's 20, I think she's 2012, 2013, maybe a bit later.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um so obviously when you're exposed to the sea for that amount of time, there's a lot of bits that need sort of doing and keeping track of, like paint jobs and looking after the flooring and waxing and polishing.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_02: There's lots of things that need to sort of happen for it to keep as nice.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: She's we have done very well.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we m before me, they've they've all done really well.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: There's quite a high standard on the boat.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's quite a large boat, isn't it?
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's a large boat, 60 I think 63 and a half metres.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: Wild.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: So it's pretty it's what what did we say?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: It was like 208 feet or something like that.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: How many staff live on it?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so there's 13, 13 or 14 that were full-time on the boat.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um crazy maintenance.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the thing.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's then you go back to that show, like there, there's like what, maybe not even ten of them that are shown on this show, even though there's the engineers, you got officers, you've got the captain himself, and then you've got interior, you've got the deck hands and bosuns and whatever else.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: And that's I think that's quite compared to some, um, some boats, like you're thinking plus a hundred metres, you're dedicated to a certain area of the boat, and that's where you work.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, which I've from what I've heard, it's it's not the same.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's very you keep to your own groups, it's very clicky, and things like that.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: But I I I've yet to experience it, so I don't really want to judge anything yet.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, the boat I'm on right now is great, we've got a good crew, we all get on.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: There's not much animosity or anything at all.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we've got good cooks, food's great, but yeah, there's no nothing that I need to worry about personally in the sense of food or rent or yeah, paying tax or anything like that, because I'm working a lot at sea, so it's it's quite untaxable.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: But in the UK, um, we're one of some countries that don't worry about taxing people that are working abroad.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think it gets a bit more complicated than that.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I know there's some countries like Sweden and stuff that still will take tax from you if you're earning money abroad.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um so yeah, I'm lucky in that sense.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, most things are sorted out for me.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: If I need like my wash and my laundry gets done, there's a laundry stew, and there's this there's stewards that go and uh sort out all the food each week, and so yeah, it's it's it's I wouldn't say it's it's not I wouldn't say it's an easy life because it's not.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: There's this it's it's very high stressful at some points, and you're away from home and there's other things and aspects that you you take into consideration, but no, it's it's uh I've enjoyed it so far, I've had a great time, and um yeah, no, I'm I can't wait to sort of keep going and see where it sort of takes me, really.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: Where where's at what are your hours?
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: What's your shift power?
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I it's eight till uh eight till five.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: Eight till five, I get an hour break.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then at the moment I get weekends off just because we haven't had any um any guests on for a little while.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_02: There's the ship's in something called a shipyard period, so it's the engines are being sort of sorted out and serviced, and there's lots of things, so the boat can't go anywhere right now, but yeah, because of that we're we've sort of got weekends off at the moment, so they're pretty chill.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: But obviously that differs from boat to boat.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: If you're on a charter boat, not like me, um, you're gonna be working nylon round the clock for months on end.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but you'll normally have maybe you have a rotation or something like that, um, but which I'm not I'm not there yet.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but in the future I would I will definitely because that's when all you see on the that show where it's just like you get you get your tips and that's charter more desirable than what you're uh yeah, in some sense is some people go from what I'm doing now to a charter and then realise actually I'd rather work on a private boat just because it's less stress and and what have you.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, it's very desirable in the sense of um just earning a bit more cash.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um you're a bit more active in that sense that you're like taking people out more on jet skis and boats and whatever else.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: I guess people are there for a party mostly.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's it.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the thing.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: When the boat's getting charted out every other week, people are coming in there just wanting to have a good time and wanting to keep them keep them excited and busy, really.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: So you're gonna be active a bit more, you're gonna be out, you're gonna be training people a lot more for that instance.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: But no, it's it's it it's good.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: I do want to get in there at some point, but I'm I'm sort of happy where I am at the moment.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um just sort of chugging along and just saving as much money as I can, really, which is hard out in West Palm Beach.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, yeah, but it's what are you spending most of your money on?
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, just sort of drinks and big night.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, the nightlife is pretty good fun.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's as I say, you you you meet these people you that are in the same industry as you, and you never know that can lead to something in the future.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_02: So if you get on with them, and that's why it's quite important to keep um social with with people in the industry because you never know one day you might you might meet again and that might be a position opened on a really desirable boat, and there's your next job, or um well, yeah, it could just come from anything really.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um there's been some instances where people have like been in the same taxi, they've had to get the same taxi as each other, and then it leads to something else.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: So it's important.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um you don't just want to be sitting in your cabin the whole time, you want to try and get out and and speak to some people.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um but no, it's been great so far.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: I've had a great time in that sense.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm imagining if it's if it's kind of like a lot of people.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we're we were in uh we're anchored out in Panama Um and just waiting to go down the Panama Canal.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_02: And if well if no one knows what the Panama Canal is, it's the it's through goes through Panama, it's an easy ship links to get to the north of America rather than going all the way down uh Argentina and all the way back up again.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um it was built just I think it was during World War One.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um I know Donald Trump's trying to take hold of it again now or something like that.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_02: So surprise, surprise, but no, he um sorry he they we would we would wait out um just you have to wait at a turn.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_02: There's only two big boats that can go at a time and because it's so it's so old.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, I'd train out um out on the on the sundeck.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_02: There's some weights and stuff.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: There's a nice gym we've got on the boat.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: If you picture like a like a hotel gym, so it's got cross trainer, treadmills, seated bike.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: Is everything bolted to the floor?
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, everything's bolted to the ground.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um and what else?
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: We've got bands, lots of weights, pull-down bars, um cable machine, sort of cable machine.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh no, we haven't got a cable machine, but we've got um something similar to like uh it's like pull down, uh lap pull down and uh and and rows.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's so you can sort of like take the take the clips off and sort of make other things come out of them.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_02: You can do some gotcha, you know, it's just a multi-tool.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_02: Multi-gym type multi-gym type thing.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then yeah, anything else, medicine balls and yoga mats and whatever skipping ropes.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_02: So no squat racks, no squat racks, um just for the sense of having plates around, just on our boat.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: I know there's though there are some boats that you you can, um, but for our boat and our uh our owners, it's just not really that necessary anyway, so um it's it'd be pointless, and it's just a nightmare to have around because you've got to move things around all the time, you're constantly having to clean things or move things around, so it'd be more of a nightmare than anything.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but training on the boat itself, yeah, it can be a bit like while you're running on the treadmill and you're going, it's hard to keep centre aligned.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: I've nearly fallen off a couple of times.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've done it on a cruise before.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a bit stupid thing to this.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_02: It is, yeah, it is it is hard, it's hard to getting used to, but yeah, it's um there's there's enough to do, so you just do circuits, lots of ab workout.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you just have to sort of change the mentality because obviously you've got a guy would know like I I've always been sort of bodybuilding and I'm wanting to do as much weight as I can.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um but in that sort of sense, it's more just forget about that you're gonna have to do you want to do that.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_02: You've just got to try and keep fit and keep everything as strong as possible, maintain everything.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a lot of circuits, a lot of high reps, a lot of um things like burpees, box jumps, etc.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, just to make sure that you're ticking over because it's it's a very mental, it's a mental game in yachting, especially when you're anchored out for a couple of weeks.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's it can be very mentally challenging.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um not have it you can't get off this boat.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: Or so you give them burpees.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you give them burpees.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so um Does any of the rest of the queue not deal with it too well?
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um that it again it depends.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: Some people are fine with it, some people are not.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's it is it is challenging.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_02: It is like I I've I've felt I've I'm quite mentally strong in that sort of sense, but after like 10 10 to 14 days at anchored out, you are just like you're going crazy, you just want to get off and just not feel the waves or just go for a run like a normal run just uh on the roads.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um is it easier when you're sailing rather than anchored because you know that you're headed somewhere?
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um knowing that you're gonna get you're gonna be somewhere soon, or um yeah, just having that, or you're gonna be you can go and have a beer out or something like that.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_02: It really does help you, um, especially when you're at a like you're a really good mariner like we are um in Rybovich.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's really really really good to be able to call that home for a little while.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, and being out at anchor sounds glamorous, um, especially on a multi-million dollar yacht, but someday it really isn't as I was I I explained to you the other day when we were we were coming back from Panama uh to get back to America on the final leg, and it was the that period of when Jamaica just got hit by that major storm.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um it was just it was around Christmas, it was before Christmas, wasn't it?
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: It was like yeah, October, November time, and we were trying to head back, and we'd been at this crap marine marina for two weeks, um, and we were desperate to get back, absolutely desperate to get back, and we were hitting on the way back like four or five metre waves on the way back, which is just four or five metres.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_02: Doesn't sound all that much to someone that doesn't know, but it is it's a lot of it's a lot of weight and a lot of water that's smashing against the boat, taking you up and down.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um you have your most avid sea traveller feeling a bit queasy on on that.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um what do you do in those situations like to stop yourself going crazy and to you know to tough it out when the waves like that?
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_02: Work out literally so that's what I would do.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's be my escape, and that's what sort of led me to keep training when well when I'm especially when I'm back in on um at the dock.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's just you've got to treat it as your only sort of proper time you can get off, just have a bit of time to yourself, um, and just try and improve yourself in some aspects, whether that's mentally just getting yourself there as your goal, or um trying to hit a certain PR, or whatever it can be.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that is really really important.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like for me, it's I've always kept a note on my phone on what previously I've done that past session with that past lift, and it's like, right, I'm gonna try and get half a kilo more, or I'm gonna try and get even a quarter kilo more.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_02: Just try and keep on improving and just let everything else take care of itself, as long as I just try and churn up each day.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it has really helped me a lot.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then if you can do it for me, if I can do it in the middle of the ocean and still have even though there's times where I just the last thing I want to do is wake up at half five before work and go to the gym, like it's just but you've just no you've got to do it because I know I feel like absolute shit later on if I don't.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_02: So I take that sort of mentality and and after you feel so much better after you've done it, especially when you're out at sea, it's like okay, at least if anything else happens today, I know I've I've still hit the gym.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_02: I can maybe feel like shit after, and wanting to well, just wanting to get off the boat for instance, or you miss being on land, you know that you've tried your best to try and ease yourself with it.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: Because it is difficult, you can't underestimate people people think it's just that's why it's so saturated.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_02: People just think, oh hop on a boat, we'll have the best time, we're gonna be drinking, this, that, and the other.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's not like that.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_02: They a lot of boats are not keen on you just using guest spaces and taking the piss a bit.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of the boats are just like, no, you're here to work, you're not here to party yourself, have an easy ride, just get money, don't pay tax, just don't pay rent or food.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's and they can see I'm sure they can see straight through that.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_02: Oh mate, and now you get found out you get found out quick time if that if that's the mentality you're gonna go with for sure.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you're there to help the client or help the owner have their best.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Time that they can.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you're not there on a jolly just smoking and drinking or doing whatever you want to do, you're there to work, um, and then when you do get given some time off, that's when you can go and enjoy yourself and and enjoy what's around you because it is important, like one of the reasons that I did want to do this was because of the travelling.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not like they're gonna keep you like hostage on a boat, they'll let you go out and travel and do whatever within reason.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but you you are there to work and um and and sort of look after whoever's is on the boat themselves, whether that's charter or private, really.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_02: So um no, but as I say, wanting to just get in finding an escape that could be reading a book or going to the gym or whatever, playing video games or whatever it is, people have their own men, but that's sort of that's my way of sort of getting through it because it is tough, yeah, for sure, especially those first few weeks, first few months.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was like it was tough, especially once the novelty wears off, and yeah, and it's really it it does sound like you know, the charter boats is very much like you're gonna get an intake of people this time's like adding more energy, yeah.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: It does sound like more real life, yeah.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_00: People join the gym, they get a bit of motivation, and then after a couple of weeks, yeah, you're like, okay, this is just new, new 100% hundred that is that is exactly what it is.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, especially when the novelty rolls off.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's you're like, fuck, I've got to go, I've got to go and do it again.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: I've got to do it, I've got to serve this person again, or I've got to coach this person again.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_02: It is it can be very mentally draining, but you just gotta know when like I am now, like I'm on holiday now, I've worked hard for seven months, and now I can just enjoy my time off and just see my friends and and enjoy myself a little bit.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: What is the um I'm interested in the the kind of negotiation you have in your head at 5 30 in the morning when when it's when you're kind of like so you you probably got an option maybe to do it in the evening?
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, I do.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_02: What's your so my mentality of it is one, I've always been more of a morning person.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I've always had that in me of just wanting to get get out and do it rather than have all day just to long it off at the end of the day.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um I don't I like I like the gym, but it's not something like I'd wanna um I'd wanna say wake up at 2 o'clock in the morning, but I do.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um when I'm there and I've finished the session or finish a certain lift, like I always I I'll go into a leg day, I'll go and do some quads or something, and I've got um uh thick plate squats or what have you.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's all every I'm just like I cannot be fucked to do this.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it's just something I know once I've done a long day's work in the heat and I'm tired, I'm not gonna do it later, and then I'll live in bed, I'll feel like a I'll feel awful that I haven't done anything.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll wake up, my alarm will go off, I'll just lay in bed, and I'll just count to three count down from three, and I'll just go three, two, one, just sit up.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_02: You just sit up.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that works for you, is it?
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_02: That works for me, just sit up, sit up, get out of bed, brush my teeth, um and just get out, maybe have a coffee or a pre-workout, depending on, and just go.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_02: There's no no thinking about it, just do it, and then when you get there, it's already too late to turn around.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_02: So it you might as well just get on with the session and just try your best.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um days where I'm really tired, but as long as I'm there and I'm I'm making an effort, that's that's all I can ask for.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_02: I might not hit PRs every time, I might not even get close, but as long as I'm working my hardest, that's all that really really matters for me in the sense and let everything else just sort of take care of itself.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's so good.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: Is it have you ever gone to the gym and then cut a session short or literally gone there and then gone back to bed?
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: Not gone back to bed.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like as soon as you're out of bed.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_02: As soon as I'm out of bed, I'm there, I've had a coffee.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, and as soon as I have that coffee or something, it's like, well, I'm not going back to sleep now anyway, so I get up.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, there's been times where I've been maybe uh running slightly late, or I've um I've had to end the session early, but no, I I just try I get in my head that I just I always just want to try, try my best and try and improve.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_02: You see that whatever number it is could be 20 kilos you did the week before, it's like just let's try 21 or 22 and a half or whatever, just try and get better.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_02: And if it doesn't matter, if it doesn't work or you can't do it, it's it's it doesn't matter.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_01: Does anyone else on the boat get up that early and train?
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_02: There's some there's some that do.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think since I've got on um a lot more people have been a bit more conscious.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's not like it's not like they're never conscious about fitness beforehand, but I think um some people see that I get up every day at that sort of time um and feel like I think they feel a bit guilty that they don't.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_02: So it doesn't stop them going, like some some of them go in the evening, which is which is fine as well.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_02: Some days I will go in the evening, sometimes I'll do two sessions, sometimes I'll do just do one in the morning, like it's all very it all it's all very different for different people.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um and and even when I was here coaching, I always said if if you because some would just come for maybe a couple of sessions a day um a week and then go to another gym that they have got a membership or whatever, just when they're on programme, just try and get there in the morning.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_02: Just try and get there.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_02: I know some people it doesn't work, but getting there in the morning, making yourself feel amazing 110% before you've even stepped into work or whatever job you've got will have will help you massively, not just like in the short term, but long term, you'll feel so much better, you'll have so much more mental resilience and making yourself do that.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's I just for me it's just because some people have really hard jobs.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_02: If it's not physically, it's mentally just sitting at a computer screen for eight hours of the day, the last thing you want to do is go to the gym, but you know you have give it you have all that day to sort of as I say long it off and not go, so that's why I always recommend to try and get people in go as early as you can.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_02: And also the benefit is is that like evenings, especially let's say like a Monday evening, it is it drives me it drives me crazy, um, especially when people are just sitting there on their phones or whatever, it will that rouse me up.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_02: But no, it's um it it it it is that it's so busy, um, especially in the gyms in the UK.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's and you see them videos online and it's just all people are at school still and just standing around and doing nothing.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_02: There was that pure gym video I saw that not so long ago, and it was like people queuing, cueing to you certainly so you don't ever get that in the in the in the morning, but in that sense, just I've I've read a few they've read I've read a couple of studies that you're always going to be slightly stronger in maybe mid-afternoon just because your body's more awake and you've had a bit of food.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like I normally fast, so I'll wake up, have a coffee, and I won't eat before I might have a banana or something or a kiwi or something.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I just find I train a lot better when I'm sort of got an empty stomach or maybe I've had a coffee or or something like that.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_01: You quite often get a bit sick when you train.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_02: If I yeah, for sure.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um especially if you're yeah, like again, I'll bring up squatting or what have you, you just don't want when you've got 150 kilos on your back, the last thing you want is a big chili con carni in your stomach, because that is just going to be projectiled all over the gym floor.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_00: You eat it at 6 a.m.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, yeah, chicken and waffles.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, chicken and waffles.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, chicken and waffles.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, with my waffles, bacon, syrup.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, oh no.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but no, uh so yeah, I've always I've always tried to stick to an empty stomach.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_02: Even like even before, I'm sure we'll get onto the bit of rugby as well, but uh even before games I'd struggle to eat, but when even when I was younger, um, but no, it's uh for me it works better in the morning, fasted, with a bit of coffee or or a banana or something, and just get down and just work hard as for an hour, hour and a half, and that's and and and that's all you can really ask for.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_02: And then when you get those days off of rest, which is is also important, I'm not doing that every single day, um, because rest is just as important, but um you you deserve your rest days, you know, and you feel good that you you know what I'm not getting up at 5 30 this tomorrow, I'm getting up, I'm getting in it's I'm getting up at 7, 7 30, or whatever it is, so you enjoy it, you know, and you it feels rewarding in in that sense for sure.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's talk let's talk a bit about uh bit of rugby.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_00: Is that how you two met?
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is that how you two got to know each other?
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_02: We used to play each other when we were line.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we used to play each other.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_02: You're at Quinn's as well, weren't you?
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um so yeah, we both played Quinns for a while.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then um We played against each other county.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, county.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um you played for Cranbrook, I was at Heathfield, um Heathfield Rugby Club.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, so you I think you met Sam, didn't you?
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's how it was, and I've known Sam for for a long time.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um since maybe we were like seven, eight years old.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't know how you and Sam actually met, actually.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_01: I I I don't know whether it was through someone else or I think we just started training Impur Gym and Tumidge Wells together.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_01: I can't remember how that even started.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_01: Sam might know.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think it was probably just some mutual friend or something.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I Sam Sam actually um he he sort of I I remember going to the gym like properly for first time with Sam, which sort of got me on the on the gym trail.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um but you met Sam and then we you got introduced because then we both joined Tunbridge at the same time, didn't we?
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um before we won that national cup.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_02: And um against Lyd.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_02: Against Lyd.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_02: Lyd, Lyd the Lynn, that was Lim, uh I can't remember what that full name, yeah.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_02: But it's Lim Rugby Club in Manchester, their base.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_02: So um we we we won that, but we yeah, we were coming back from training one day, it was like one of the first training sessions, and Guy needed a job, so I was working at the reclamation yard in Stonegate.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right, full circle.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so do you think I could he were like, Well, yeah, what what what do you do?
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, I clean bricks, I'm cleaning bricks, and then so I um I emailed Mark, the owner at the time.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um not the owner, the he sort of ran it, and yeah, he said, Yeah, guy, guy can come in as well and help clean bricks, and then that was it, really.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_01: We cleaned bricks for like three summers, yeah.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_02: It was like three summers, and then you and Sam started working there full time at one point, didn't you?
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, and then Jamie joined.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then Jamie, yeah, Jamie Pride joined.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_01: There was like four of us all working there, as like, and you just clean bricks all day.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it was so you got paid like five p a brick, and you'd get and you're ripped.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_02: I just remember my wrist.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_01: But no, there were some bricks with like 20p.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, some p bricks, like some were more complicated than that.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_01: What were you cleaning them with?
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_02: Just it was like a paint scraper or a chisel and hammer, and I just remember having like heart or radio one on like the whole day playing the same songs, playing the same stupid songs.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_02: We had some interesting guys.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we had some interesting fellows.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_01: We came out of prison and he was proper sketchy.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_02: Can you remember him?
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh oh yeah.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um I can't remember his name.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_02: He was he was weird guy.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_02: Weird guy.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_02: I was in prison.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_02: I I can't remember I dread to think.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_02: I can't remember.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_02: Looking at the state, remembering the state of it, I would dread to think what he was in for.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_01: He was a real anxious wreck.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, we would just because it would be me, Jamie, Sam, and the house, and we were like mates, and we'd kind of like we had the shit job at the yard, right?
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_01: With the people cleaning the bricks, moving the heavy things, yeah.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and he did it with us.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_01: He kind of just made like, well, yeah, he was very he was very private, yeah.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_02: He wouldn't but you'd be like, well, them psychers you just don't know what they're thinking, like they could be thinking you could he could have a kill list or something like that.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_01: Weird eyes, yeah, didn't he?
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_01: He had these weird eyes where you kind of look into your soul.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and he'd never tell you'd be like, What you got this weekend, mate?
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_01: And he'd be like, Nothing much.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, mate, I've been up for four days.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't slept yet.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, that's how we sort of met, and then yeah, we we won the we won the national cup with each other in what was that, 2017?
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_02: Bloody hell, that's nearly 10 years ago now.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then went awful, and then yeah, from there sort of kept in kept in contact on the fact that you're just down the road, and obviously Sam was um Sam was with us as well.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, that was that was sort of how we sort of met in that in that rugby space.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um but no, it was rugby was it was class, especially at Tunbridge, it was it was great, and it was still oh well obviously I was playing there only till recently um since I started doing this job.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um but no, we like the rugby, I've always been I've always played rugby, and which sort of go went hand in hand in the gym.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um so that's sort of especially when we were at Queen's and we were we do you did some bar uh gym sessions at uh Brighton College and stuff, didn't you?
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, it was we were doing that and up at the um up in uh Surrey as well, um at Surrey University.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um so it it that's how I got involved with the gym and and and the rugby sort of like a natural progression almost, so you had to sort of train and you had to go to the gym if you want to play a high standard rugby.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, old mate, 100%.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_00: Was this and this was when you're around like 16, 17?
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this was yeah, we were like what well that was before then.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_02: I think I was I was at Harlequin's till about under I think it must have been under 16, under 17, or something like that.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then um played, oh but I played at county level, um, and then yeah, played at Tunbridge, played at uni, played at uni, played, yeah, played Super Bucks at at Leeds.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um How was the uni experience of rugby health to it was it was TJ itself?
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_02: It was it was there's a lot obviously to TJ's is the in rugby flat out you you get quite close with the other the the other players on your team because you're all in it together almost when it's sunny, rainy, cold, like you always turn up to training, you always um if you if you're losing, if you're winning, like it brings a lot of camaraderie, and and that's why like it's I think it's important to have the social aspect of rugby as well, and I think it sticks around like you're all it's like a bit of a drinking culture, um a bit, a bit a bit slight.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but comparing it to football or anything like that, well other than like probably cricket or something, like with a good drinking culture is just as much, or golf or whatever it is.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's it's important, um, especially as you're young, um learning because that obviously the everything that's going the way it is now with health and safety and things like that.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of a lot of parents are getting put off with the the aspect of of throwing their kid into rugby, uh which I think is quite sad.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_00: Is that mainly on the concussion side of things?
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think it's there's a lot of reasons, it's not maybe not just concussions, um, even though that is really important.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um the the the whole just being injured or just the thought of someone hurting themselves, it's a bit scary to people, but it sort of makes you as a person, you know, and yeah, and it I think I I'm a strong believer in it if it it happens for a reason, you know.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_01: How was your mum watching you?
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_01: Did your mum used to be able to watch you?
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, my um My mum hated watching Yeah, I think my mum my mum didn't come too much, but she she was there a lot, don't get me wrong, but my dad loved it, like my dad was all over it.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, my mum I think it affects you more, yeah.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think they get more, I think they're yeah, they get a bit more um scared in that sense.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, my mum was always very supportive of it.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_02: She it's always about having a purpose, it's all about just having a purpose, and rugby was my purpose.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um and that was just with as I say, I'll get onto it with at uni, but even as a kid, we were when we're in in um at Heathfield, just going on tours to Isle of White or tours wherever we went, like you make friends for life in in that space, and it's kind of sad that that that it's going the way it is, um just because it it it just makes you as a it makes you as a person, it makes you as a as a as a as a young lad.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know people are gonna be bigger and stronger than you, you know, well, more when my brother was playing, they changed the rules that no one could win.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_02: So how how old's your brother?
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_02: So my brother's now 18.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, right.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, so yeah, so so so yeah, so at any tournament, so when my brother was I don't know, he must have been must have been from the ages of like seven to like thirteen.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_02: You go I bought when I was a kid and you as well, you go to these all-day festivals and you try and get to the the the final and win it.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're in the cup, you're in the cup, you're in the whatever, yeah.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um they scrapped all of that because too many kids were getting upset that they were losing, so now they go to these tournaments and no one keeps score.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_02: So you don't keep score, there's no winners, it's everyone's a winner, no one loses, and I just think that's absolutely ridiculous.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I understand why they're doing it in the sense of it to keep the popularity and keep people playing in the sport, just because it is it is a bit shit, and we've all been there.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, like we go to teams and absolutely pump them because we were so good, and you're doing them like I don't know, like hundred and five to like five.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, should stomach no, yeah, no one gets uh no one gets anything out of it.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I sort of understand why they did they did it, but you know, you've got to learn how to lose in life, and for my brother to not go through that, I find it a bit he's he's sound anyway, but you know what I mean.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's it's it's all about getting to the final, and then if you lose, it's like you've spent all day, but at least you know you you've got something out of it, and it is kind of sad the way rugby's going.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'm not obviously the concussion things is so important, obviously, over everything that's sort of changed over the past 20 years, especially with professional rugby.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, it's vital that they get it right, and all the high tackle stuff is important, but you don't want to lose the essence of what made rugby rugby, yeah, really.
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's very difficult to make safe as well.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is like when they started to get people to tackle really low, but I think they brought it in for a season in in the school season in South Africa or New Zealand, I can't remember.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_01: And they basically they brought in the law where you can only tackle from the hips down or like the belly button down.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_01: So they basically wanted people to tackle really low.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then the problem was the concussion rate went up because there was more head on hip and head on knee and head on shin.
• 1:04:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um so really like the safest place to tackle is like just above the knee to like the bottom of the rib cage, like that's for sure.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's the safest place to hit.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_01: But so as soon as you start going towards the knees, someone's running full blast at you.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's so dangerous.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'd rather take a shoulder to the head than a knee to the head.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_01: And you get those lanky lanky fuckers that run with all their knees.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, run knees up.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_01: Tackling a bone.
• 1:05:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's yeah, I've had some pretty gnarly indu injuries, um, but as I say, it makes you I'm not scared of it, you know, it happens and you sort of learn from it and you move on, and it's just so people are so scared nowadays.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's it's difficult for parents to sort of let their kids get involved.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um and especially that's why the school level in other countries is just so high.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like, obviously, I well I lived in Australia for a while, but the the the private school level with Joey's and and Scott's College and and Riverview and and and all them sort of schools.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_02: Is so high because they sort of let their they let them start tackling at a sort of young age, especially in South Africa, like it's your you're tackling from the ages of eight years old.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_01: But they're getting like 10,000 people down to spectators.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_02: Kids have to go to school on a Saturday just to go and watch the first team play, which wouldn't even be dreamt of in in in what's going on here.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um so it makes it a bit of occasion, it gives that purpose to be involved in a sport because other people are relying on you and and that's sort of I want to say it's sort of disappearing, and people are just not really caring as much, especially towards like the England team, the England set up.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_02: When I was younger, you'd had all the remember you could get England tickets through the rugby club, yeah, and things like that.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_02: They don't do that anymore.
• 1:06:57
  SPEAKER_02: You just they're selling corporate tickets, so people are out there just for the days.
• 1:07:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's just not it is just it is so yeah, it's it it's so out of touch, and yeah, the the the corporate side of the whole rugby sort of thing, um, it's just changed the whole dynamic of it.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um like Twickenham, Twickenham isn't the place it used to be anymore, it's called the Alliance now, isn't it?
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's such a shame.
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_01: I have to admit, it was better the last time I went to Fiji game.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want to watch top team play, I was looking for for dad's birthday, I was gonna get him tickets, and I thought I'll get English England, New Zealand, and each ticket was like 450 quid.
• 1:07:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's right.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's right.
• 1:07:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like 900 quid once you factor in trains, and you know, well over a grand day out and food, etc.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_00: So just any seats pretty much.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_01: They would they're alright, but if you wanted to be right up, like the cheapest seats you're looking at 300, but you're so far away, do you know?
• 1:08:01
  SPEAKER_01: But then but then for the same cost, I got five, not even the same cost, like less.
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think it came out at like 600 quid, but I got five tickets to England Fiji.
• 1:08:11
  SPEAKER_01: But the thing is, it's it's the big games like go and watch New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, where you know that you go watch big fixtures like that as a kid, you're like, I want to do that.
• 1:08:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh exactly that.
• 1:08:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's it's becoming more expensive, less accessible.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then the premiership's gone down from like 14 teams to to what like is it 10 now?
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's 10 or 12 or something like that.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's it's it's ten now.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_02: Is it ten?
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so they've they've lost lost teams in the Prem.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_01: And um I I I one thing I always think is is like the South East, it's it's one of the most amount concentrated private schools and grammar schools in England, and where so loads of rugby played down here, and you don't have a professional club, which is really like the closest thing you've got Harlaquins.
• 1:08:59
  SPEAKER_01: You've got you've got Quinn's, it's a slot to get there.
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's why like a lot of people don't like going to the club.
• 1:09:04
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's not going to Took in a minute, it's just down the road, and it's just such an effort to get to, especially from down here.
• 1:09:09
  SPEAKER_02: It is it is it is mental.
• 1:09:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think if there was a massive club in like Seven Oaks, or you know, if Judyans end up, you know, really progressing and getting investment, like they would pack that stadium out week by week, but just locally here, there's not there's not enough high-level, like really high-level rugby to go and watch.
• 1:09:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um what would you put that down to?
• 1:09:33
  SPEAKER_01: The RFU, perhaps, poor management.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_02: I think, yeah, it's just so ancient up at the top of uh the RFU, like it's so old-fashioned.
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_02: They're already set.
• 1:09:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's just yeah, they're just set, they're set on it, and obviously there's not as much financials as there are in obviously football or anything like that.
• 1:09:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and there's a lot of probably a lot of things that sort of coher to cohere to it in the sense of that that whole safety aspect with it, with the parents as well.
• 1:10:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like, there's not as many kids going through.
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I I I don't know why there wasn't a professional club closer in this area.
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_02: As you say, as Guy said, it's like there's loads of private schools, you've got you've got the facilities.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, why there isn't, I don't know.
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I Tunbridge is one of the most well one of the best schools for for rugby around, for sure.
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um obviously you've got Brighton College, who Seaford College, my old school, in it really good at the moment, Hearst, Pier Point.
• 1:10:39
  SPEAKER_02: They're all very good rugby schools.
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um you get a couple people coming out of it.
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like obviously, yeah year above you guys was Ben Earl.
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Ben Earl.
• 1:10:48
  SPEAKER_00: That Tunbridge school year was was incredible, and then as soon as they left, um then your your year comparison was uh atrocious.
• 1:10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was solid players.
• 1:10:57
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, well there was it was and then well there's Marcus Smith, obviously went to Brighton College, but he's the year above us.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then yeah, there's uh from from our year, well you got Ollie Langridge Ollie Langridge, sorry, Ollie Lawrence, Ollie Lawrence um coming through, he was our age.
• 1:11:17
  SPEAKER_00: But other than that, yeah, he was the same age as Ollie Lorce Tackle.
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, mate.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_02: I don't remember I remember playing when he was at Bath Pride.
• 1:11:25
  SPEAKER_02: He was at Worcester.
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he was at Worcester, sorry, sorry, he's at Bath now.
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_02: He's at Worcester, yeah, and I I remember playing him a couple of Jesus.
• 1:11:32
  SPEAKER_01: But I've got I've got at my school we had a couple lads who are now starting Sarys like Harvey Beaton and um Brandon Jackson, and there's another lad, but he was he joined just after I left.
• 1:11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um but they're you know they're starting week in, week out the Saracens now, which is quite cool to see.
• 1:11:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's but yeah, again, like Saracens, it's just it's North London, so like you're playing Academy stuff there, it's a it's a long drive.
• 1:11:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's a hell of a track.
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_01: They're thinking about maybe opening like Hundred Wasps, were thinking of maybe opening up in Seven Oaks area, which would be great.
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um whether or not that actually goes ahead and they get the planning permission for it, and how they'd fit back into the premiership, would they have to get promoted and all sorts because they're kind of set on 10 teeth?
• 1:12:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's the thing.
• 1:12:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like I the reason why I didn't I didn't I obviously I liked playing at Quinn's and it was good fun, but it just I realized like everything was just so serious at the level and like everything you did was just analyzed, and that's where I'm just not in my my comfort zone almost, which is something I'd have to get over if I would wanted to go further in in rugby.
• 1:12:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I just hated like not being able to just play the game and not feel judged at all, and everyone's sort of there in that in that sort of situation, everyone's there for themselves almost, like you've been you're a good load of players individually, and they just put you together, and you're expected to sort of just train maybe every week, once a week or once every couple of weeks, and get it right.
• 1:13:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, where I preferred the whole going to training twice a week and getting to know people really well, becoming friends, and learning how each other play, um, and doing it sort of together, where instead of when we were kids once every month or something, you're playing at Harlequins, and it was a weird culture, wasn't it?
• 1:13:28
  SPEAKER_02: It was weird, there was a click, there was a few clicks with people, and like the lads you've been in since they were 30, yeah, but lots of lads that have been there a long, long time.
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_02: Some of them are pro now, I think.
• 1:13:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, well, George Hammond, he's playing at in Japan at the moment.
• 1:13:43
  SPEAKER_02: And Hugh Tizard.
• 1:13:44
  SPEAKER_02: Hue Tizard, yeah, Hugh Tizard.
• 1:13:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then there's that that ginger lad.
• 1:13:51
  SPEAKER_02: Who's the nine of Sonny Jardine?
• 1:13:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then there's that other sorry, that ginger lad, that ginger nine who plays for Gloucester now.
• 1:13:58
  SPEAKER_02: I can't remember his name, he kicks for him as well.
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's a good player.
• 1:14:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he was a good lad.
• 1:14:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's always interesting to see who makes it proad because it's it's such fine margins.
• 1:14:07
  SPEAKER_01: It is fine margins.
• 1:14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um the centre, what was he called?
• 1:14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um big dude.
• 1:14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um he's starting for Quinn's week in, week out.
• 1:14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, what's his name?
• 1:14:18
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, fair few lads who made it pro.
• 1:14:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and and they got it, they they sort of liked it.
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_02: I was just the opposite.
• 1:14:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'd sort of when there are players that I knew that were better than me, I'd sort of go into my own shell and just feel like it's not it's i I I hated the pressure, but it's something with age you sort of realise and you sort of regret in that sense, like, because you were you were meant to be there for a reason, but you didn't take the opportunity.
• 1:14:48
  SPEAKER_02: But as I say, like this when it whole lead lead this leads back to everything happens for a reason, and like the fact that like Guy got his shoulder injuries and back injuries, so he didn't join the military, or and now you're doing what you're doing now.
• 1:15:02
  SPEAKER_02: So everything sort of happens in that sort of sense of in that sense.
• 1:15:06
  SPEAKER_02: But like when I finished at Quinn's and with the whole rugby thing, um I started playing at Tunbridge again, they're good level, they're Nat 1 now at the moment, um, which is the what the third division uh premiership championship, nat one, yeah.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I was playing them last season when they got promoted to Nat 2 and years before that.
• 1:15:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I just it I just realised like if you wanted to go pro, like you'd have to get a championship position, then you're training twice a week without fail, maybe with a job on the side if you're luck if you're not if you're not lucky enough to get like a pro contract, which is very rare in the championship anyway.
• 1:15:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then maybe play X amount of years in the championship with all these injuries and so on and so forth, and then you maybe even get to the premiership, and you're making good money, I guess, but not still gotta be top.
• 1:16:04
  SPEAKER_02: You still gotta be top, and you still and if you're playing for England, then there you go, there's another leap you've got to give, and you've got so it's it's a lot of sacrifices for something that like don't get me wrong, I love playing, but especially at the moment watching, I watched the England games.
• 1:16:21
  SPEAKER_02: I I don't think I don't think I've watched a premiership game in a whole premiership game was probably maybe the final last year, if that maybe not even watched the whole thing.
• 1:16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Was that was that what it was with the guys that you know were the ones that that kind of thrived under under the kind of competitive aspect.
• 1:16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like I say, you kind of went into your shell under under pressure and they might rise straight through it and they fuel off of competition to the city.
• 1:16:47
  SPEAKER_02: 100% Lennox, that's it.
• 1:16:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's it, that's it, yeah.
• 1:16:52
  SPEAKER_02: He was yeah, he's yeah below us, isn't he?
• 1:16:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, he's still he's doing well now, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:16:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's so interesting because it you know what at that teenage level, it's you do kind of look at it, and once you get to that academy level, you can see okay, there's a kind of maybe a clear ish line between academy lads and maybe county level.
• 1:17:14
  SPEAKER_01: But uh once you're in that bracket, I was I was talking to Andy the other day, I was like, How do you tell who's gonna make it pro?
• 1:17:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it he says the biggest thing is the kind of like the hunger to learn and and keep improving, and it's generally the lads that are talking to the coaches, how can they improve their game, speaking out in groups and things like that, speaking out and and also just hungry to develop and but that they don't teach that culture, it's kind of expected, yeah, which is I think for when you're young and in the C Academy setup and thinking, oh, maybe pro rugby is an option for me, um you're quite confused because you finally got the thing you've been working so hard to get.
• 1:18:01
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, shit, I'm playing for Quinn's, you know, this is cool.
• 1:18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um but there's a there's a lot of pressure on you, and and it is very difficult, like talent-wise, you look around and you think okay, how has he made the England team?
• 1:18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Is he that much better?
• 1:18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it's very difficult to tell.
• 1:18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think as players mature and uh it thins out, people get in like get into good universities and get good careers, and then there's a natural thinning process, but yeah, the talent difference, you know, you played with some people who are playing pro at the minute, and you're like, Yeah, were you that much better than me?
• 1:18:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 1:18:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's it, but that's it though, and and and pressure makes diamonds, you know, and some people got it, some people don't, and like let alone let alone being in that high pressure situation in a natural professional manner, like I wasn't probably I wasn't cut for it, but realistically, I'm that's okay, like it's it's fine.
• 1:18:58
  SPEAKER_02: I just enjoyed rugby for playing it, you know.
• 1:19:01
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't do it for I didn't do it for so many years.
• 1:19:04
  SPEAKER_02: It was maybe when I was younger I wanted to be professional, especially when I was at Harlequins and things like that.
• 1:19:09
  SPEAKER_02: But then you just as you get older you come to realise that there's more to life than just should we go have a runabout for TJ's too next week?
• 1:19:16
  SPEAKER_01: That'd be a laugh.
• 1:19:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that would actually be quite fun.
• 1:19:19
  SPEAKER_02: We could actually do that.
• 1:19:20
  SPEAKER_01: Have a little runabout message.
• 1:19:22
  SPEAKER_02: Who who's the who's the but the Caesar might have fit oh yeah, um yeah, Mudger.
• 1:19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Just see if he's got if there's one more game that's gonna get me, you and Sam for a runabout.
• 1:19:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's hilarious.
• 1:19:33
  SPEAKER_01: We I was we I'd come and watch that.
• 1:19:35
  SPEAKER_01: I made a handful of games for them, and I forgot to go to the award ceremony and the panic.
• 1:19:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, you won't you won't like drop top try score, I don't think you played like played like four games for the dickhead.
• 1:19:47
  SPEAKER_02: No, that was it.
• 1:19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um but no, it's yeah, you're saying about kind of the you you more to life.
• 1:19:54
  SPEAKER_02: There is more to life.
• 1:19:55
  SPEAKER_02: There is more to life than it and like especially I'm an avid sportsman, I love I love sport, I love football.
• 1:20:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to some football tonight.
• 1:20:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um Brian Haval being a supporter.
• 1:20:05
  SPEAKER_02: I love um just the camaraderie you get with people.
• 1:20:09
  SPEAKER_02: But as you say, it's more to life than just getting injured and getting smacked about and playing rugby the whole time.
• 1:20:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a proper value judgment because I'm kind of going going through it at the moment after a couple of years of injuries, and I understand wholeheartedly why people would drop out of the sport at or stop aspiring to be at a really high level.
• 1:20:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's it's almost down to And it's a thing within running now, like slightly different with rugby because you might it's probably more necessary to have that continuation from teenagers because of the amount of strength that you need, because the amount of skill that you need.
• 1:20:46
  SPEAKER_00: You need to play all the way through, right?
• 1:20:48
  SPEAKER_00: So you might need to play through injuries.
• 1:20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas there are runners now, like one of our best uh GB like middle distance runners, Georgia Hunter Bell, she took time out of the sport in her 20s for four years.
• 1:21:00
  SPEAKER_00: She's come back, she won an what was it, world world silver medal over the 800 at the age of like 31, 32.
• 1:21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And she's now coming into her prime.
• 1:21:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's insane.
• 1:21:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like the the the type of the sport for as runners will afford you that because you probably you know you can take the time out, but then you can come back into it with a more like a fresher perspective and less pressure.
• 1:21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like you realise there's more to life, which means there's less at stake if you do lose.
• 1:21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 1:21:28
  SPEAKER_00: But then, as you know, if you are I can imagine like the times when I've had the most pressure is when I've just been focused on running as a sole thing for like my identity, which is a benefit because the ego is really helpful, right?
• 1:21:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you've got lads, if you've got lads that come into Harlequins and they've been told they're the best at their school, they've been told by their parents that they're the best, they're going to make it to the top, that is really beneficial.
• 1:21:52
  SPEAKER_00: For then they go into that, they've got the ego, they're not going to go into their shell, they're going to kind of like speak up, they're going to want to learn, they're going to be the person, and that's going to get them to the next stage.
• 1:22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, you get to a point where if that's the only thing you got going, you might get to a point in your career where if everything's pinned on that game, it's a bit of a knife edge.
• 1:22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Where it's really, really good, and it's shown like you know, studies and anecdotally and stuff I've experienced is identity, more attachment to the sport with your identity makes you perform better.
• 1:22:26
  SPEAKER_00: But then also when you lose, it's double as well.
• 1:22:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's just as bad.
• 1:22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 1:22:32
  SPEAKER_01: The thing is with Roger, I think you'll you'll probably find it is like when I got back into it kind of post-Covid, me and all my mates joined Cranbrook, and you know, we bet pretty much restarted a new new first team, and it was like ten of my mates came in, and we got like double promotion two years on the bounce.
• 1:22:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it was good fun because there was a good it was actually playing a decent standard.
• 1:22:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think we went like a whole season without losing the game.
• 1:22:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um it was probably quite unfair because just went there to like just kind of went into the water.
• 1:23:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then we kind of got double promotion, and then everyone left, and then that was quite fun.
• 1:23:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then I kind of went over to TJ's, and it's like the sacrifice, right?
• 1:23:12
  SPEAKER_01: You're putting your body on the line week in, week out.
• 1:23:14
  SPEAKER_01: But as well as the training, yeah, and the training on the Tuesdays and the Thursdays, and then it what it was is just if I wanted to make the commitment to play for a really good club, or or or go push for ones, right?
• 1:23:28
  SPEAKER_01: The time commitment it takes, there's there's so much commitment that goes into it, it wasn't wasn't really possible for me.
• 1:23:34
  SPEAKER_01: But at least you get to play at a standard that you're used to, where there's not drop balls all the time, people aren't just making silly penalties, and there's a flow to the game that you understand.
• 1:23:45
  SPEAKER_01: When when I was like, okay, I just want to play the occasional game, you can't play for those good teams, so you kind of take a step back and you start playing for clubs, and maybe it's a bit of the ego, but it's sometimes it's a bit frustrating when you're used to just slick phases and non-dropables, and it it can be like oh right, okay.
• 1:24:04
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's it's a bit you for sure, no, a hundred percent.
• 1:24:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um and as well, it's like if you bring on all the travelling and the commitment, um at at at uni, like we were we were going to from Leeds, we were going down to like Cardiff for the day, play a game and then come all the way back, or um like the travelling is just midweek insane midweek, most of it's Wednesdays, and you've got lectures in the morning and things like that.
• 1:24:34
  SPEAKER_02: But at the time, like it I didn't really mind, but then you go into especially what the division that Jays are in now, like you're sacrificing, yeah.
• 1:24:43
  SPEAKER_02: You're sacrificing your training Tuesday night, Thursday night, and then you're going up to sale on a on a Saturday, and you're there all day, and then you come back and it's Saturday, maybe Sunday morning, and you've got one day, and then yeah, and then you're you're beat you're beaten up to shit and you're going home on a Sunday, um like early Sunday morning, um, maybe after having a couple of beers, and then that's it, and then you're back to work on Monday.
• 1:25:10
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a bit it is a lot to sacrifice to.
• 1:25:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's all your free time in the season.
• 1:25:14
  SPEAKER_02: It is, yeah.
• 1:25:15
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have any bandwidth for anything else.
• 1:25:17
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's and some people like our good mate Tom, Tom Kendrick, he's still playing now.
• 1:25:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um obviously you're all you are yeah, great, right mate.
• 1:25:25
  SPEAKER_02: That he's he's the definition of a sportsman, him and him and Toby Seal for sure, but him especially like number one cross country runner or something.
• 1:25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Tom was the I reckon he is the best runner that and I see lo you know loads online now.
• 1:25:39
  SPEAKER_00: You have kids that are training like pros, um, and his dad his dad really put him forth with Ed did a lot.
• 1:25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Ed was a lot in rugby, like taking over a lot of places, some people bit unhappy.
• 1:25:50
  SPEAKER_00: For sure, for sure.
• 1:25:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Ed got a um he got banned from the track for one of the meets because he was basically you're it's very different to is he scouting other people out.
• 1:26:01
  SPEAKER_00: No, it was well no, it's all about Tom.
• 1:26:03
  SPEAKER_00: So Tom was 11 at the time, and he wanted to run a it was a 600 metres you run when you're or under 11, so you must have been 10 years old.
• 1:26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um before you go to under 13s, you run a 600, which is the equivalent, like you know, younger lads and girls equivalent of your 800 metres.
• 1:26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and Tom was going for the fastest time in in the UK at the time, and Ed basically there's electronic timing, right?
• 1:26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so you can't really dispute it.
• 1:26:28
  SPEAKER_00: So a lap on half of the track.
• 1:26:30
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, Ed was on the inside of the track, which you're allowed to be, but you're not allowed to cheer from the inside of the track.
• 1:26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like in America, you have people on the inside and it makes the atmosphere so much better.
• 1:26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Bit of a silly rule, but it's like you're not allowed to do that.
• 1:26:43
  SPEAKER_00: But he was also why is that though?
• 1:26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know, but I think it's just interfering with some I it doesn't make much sense.
• 1:26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it was um not really allowed to cheer from the inside of the track, but he was also calling out times, which is already there's already a timekeeper, but he's specifically calling out times for Tom on the inside of the track.
• 1:27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Tom's also 10 years old.
• 1:27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Ed's got two stopwatches, right?
• 1:27:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's got two, one in each hand.
• 1:27:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's so Ed though.
• 1:27:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's so I'm acting surprised, right?
• 1:27:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's just exactly what Ed's like.
• 1:27:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Tom crosses the line, he runs across the line runs 143.2, which for a 600 meters at the age of 10 is an unbelievable time.
• 1:27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it's a club record, it's the fastest in the UK, you know, like by a good few seconds.
• 1:27:35
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic, great.
• 1:27:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Tom's like, yeah, brilliant, you know, class.
• 1:27:39
  SPEAKER_00: His dad, Ed, comes over.
• 1:27:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's comes over to all of the officials who are they also timekeep up on like the little steps by the finish line.
• 1:27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because if the if the timekeeping, like the electronic timing fails, it goes to them.
• 1:27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he's showing them his two stopwatches and he's got them at one forty two point eight eight and one forty two point eight seven.
• 1:27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:27:59
  SPEAKER_00: So like three.
• 1:28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Three tenths quicker than what the electronic timing is, and he's disputing the timing.
• 1:28:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying, like, look, I've got these, I've got these two times, and they're exactly they're one hundredth out, and this is what he's run.
• 1:28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Clearly, the way that time works is yeah, I could have two stopwatches and it says a like 1.4 seconds.
• 1:28:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like it's got nothing to do with it.
• 1:28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 1:28:18
  SPEAKER_00: But he then I think gets banned for the next meet which is interfering to the big thing.
• 1:28:26
  SPEAKER_02: Tom Tom is uh an absolute freak.
• 1:28:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but no, he's always been a good sportsman.
• 1:28:32
  SPEAKER_02: Same as I saw Toby the other day.
• 1:28:35
  SPEAKER_02: No, yeah, he's still starting winger.
• 1:28:37
  SPEAKER_02: He was playing, he started at um centre the other the other week.
• 1:28:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but no, um, yeah, but as I say, pressure makes diamonds with like people like Tom, like it's great.
• 1:28:48
  SPEAKER_02: He hasn't gone the whole way as we as much as he wishes he he he he could, I'm sure maybe one day he will.
• 1:28:54
  SPEAKER_02: But um for me it was just the right time for me to sort of step away.
• 1:28:59
  SPEAKER_02: I've done 20 years, 21 years.
• 1:29:02
  SPEAKER_02: I played since I was like four.
• 1:29:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um every season without fail, I would play.
• 1:29:08
  SPEAKER_02: It was just I think I'd my my sort of time is up.
• 1:29:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna play while I'm home, I'm gonna play sevens tournament.
• 1:29:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think it's neck not neck not this weekend, next following.
• 1:29:19
  SPEAKER_02: Just the local pub sort of sevens just for a bit of a run around.
• 1:29:23
  SPEAKER_02: But I've I've missed the when is that?
• 1:29:26
  SPEAKER_02: When?
• 1:29:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh second of May.
• 1:29:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, long weekend on the Sunday.
• 1:29:32
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I'm uh as I say, when I'm on the boats and sort of like I miss just giving someone the old the jab or whatever, like just you miss that that contact.
• 1:29:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I need to try and find something else to because you do go crazy sometimes.
• 1:29:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard to replicate.
• 1:29:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's hard to replicate for sure.
• 1:29:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, don't don't be doing it out and about, yeah.
• 1:29:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, just yeah, don't be tackling random people, especially in America.
• 1:30:00
  SPEAKER_02: You you you don't you could be dead.
• 1:30:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:30:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um so but no, uh yeah, the rugby the rugby uh dead pretty well into me being me being um in well gym savvy and and so but what I what sort of clicked it was um I I was always into the gym but like not as much as like I am now at all um I I used more gym towards to help me play rugby where then then when that sort of started to fizzle out I would use I'd use a gym quite a lot um to sort of take it over, use my time a bit better.
• 1:30:42
  SPEAKER_02: But I came here must have been 20 23 January or something.
• 1:30:48
  SPEAKER_02: I was going through a bit of struggles at the time with ex-girlfriends or what have you, and um guy helped me out with a program and sort of dialed me in for three months, wasn't it?
• 1:31:01
  SPEAKER_02: It was something like three months or something.
• 1:31:04
  SPEAKER_01: You've seen the progress photos.
• 1:31:05
  SPEAKER_01: I've yeah, I had the progress photo, yeah.
• 1:31:07
  SPEAKER_02: That was I was yeah, the sad I was that was it, like like I was like the day after everything has sort of happened.
• 1:31:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, so it wasn't even like you take a photo and you're like right, act sad.
• 1:31:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, no, I was actually like sad and um yeah, I looked a lot more gritty in that second one.
• 1:31:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um but no, it was and then from there because then I finished uni that later that year, and then that's when I ended up coming down here to start to start working.
• 1:31:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then as we were talking about rugby, I was playing rugby and working here at the same time, semi-professionally, and then um yeah, so that's just sort of caught me right up to where we are sort of now with all the previous conversation we've had, but no, it's um it was a good way to meet guy anyway, it's natural, it's just all it's everything happens very naturally.
• 1:31:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, us loving rugby and sort of loving fitness and things, and the people that you've met over the years is just just insane.
• 1:32:06
  SPEAKER_02: Even people like Will Diaz and and people that like I'm never ever gonna play professional rugby, like you you meet them and enjoy their company.
• 1:32:13
  SPEAKER_01: Hey Diaz might have had a shot.
• 1:32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Will, no way Will Diaz has listened to this podcast, it's got reach, yeah.
• 1:32:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's got reach.
• 1:32:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that's he's doing that Bevi thing in a couple of weeks, isn't he?
• 1:32:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, I might make an appearance of it.
• 1:32:31
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't even sure if it's still going, and then they've done another marketing.
• 1:32:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, they they've got a pot they've got a party in in May.
• 1:32:38
  SPEAKER_02: Second week should go.
• 1:32:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we'll speak about off this.
• 1:32:42
  SPEAKER_02: But no, um fantastic.
• 1:32:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, just check in.
• 1:32:45
  SPEAKER_01: We've we've been chatting for about an hour and a half.
• 1:32:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's pretty good.
• 1:32:49
  SPEAKER_02: Harrison, thank you so much.
• 1:32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:32:51
  SPEAKER_02: No, not a problem, not a problem.
• 1:32:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um I appreciate the invite.
• 1:32:55
  SPEAKER_02: I hope this isn't too boring for everyone.
• 1:32:57
  SPEAKER_02: But no, no, it's interesting.
• 1:32:58
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 1:32:58
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's interesting.
• 1:33:00
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, it's it's it's I love being back and um yeah, no, it's it's it's nothing like home, I tell you.
• 1:33:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um you appreciate, especially where we are now, a lot more um than just being in Sin City, but it's it's yeah, it's you're in that bubble.
• 1:33:18
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, mate, for sure, 100%.
• 1:33:20
  SPEAKER_02: But no, I appreciate the time.
• 1:33:21
  SPEAKER_02: Cheers.
• 1:33:22
  SPEAKER_02: Amazing, thank you.
• 1:33:23
  SPEAKER_02: No worries.
• 1:33:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening, guys.
• 1:33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Catch you on the next one.
• 1:33:26
  SPEAKER_01: See ya.
• 1:33:26
  SPEAKER_01: Bye.