Latest / Adventure Sports Podcast / Ep. 1192: Kayaking Across TWO Oceans with Cyril Derreumaux

Transcript

Ep. 1192: Kayaking Across TWO Oceans with Cyril Derreumaux · Adventure Sports Podcast

0:06
[SPEAKER_01]: You're listening to the Adventure Sports Podcast.
0:08
[SPEAKER_01]: We talk with adventurers from around the globe to bring you the inspiration and motivation you need to get started in the outdoors or to keep you moving if you're already there.
0:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Now here's your host, Kurt Lindville.
0:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey friends, welcome to the Adventure Sports Podcast.
0:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Today, I have with us eight.
0:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, his name is Daramo, and I told him I'm gonna say that that means more daring.
0:30
[SPEAKER_02]: That's just a transliteration.
0:32
[SPEAKER_02]: He's a French-born American who loves extreme adventure, and he's done a lot of it.
0:39
[SPEAKER_02]: We're here really today to talk about ocean paddling, which is different than ocean rowing, but he's done both, but we're here to talk about that.
0:48
[SPEAKER_02]: But I caught a mid-adventure on a motorcycle in Argentina, so we have to talk motorcycles at the same time.
0:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, Cyril Daramo is known for being the, uh, the man to paddle, not row, paddle from California to Hawaii in 2022.
1:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And from the Canary Islands to Martinique across the Atlantic in December through March of this last year, so he finished in 2025.
1:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And like I said right now, he's an Argentina.
1:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Sarah, welcome to the program.
1:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for having me.
1:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so glad we made it happen.
1:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, I've been like, it's in the canyon.
1:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been riding for the last four hours looking for the one Wi-Fi spot.
1:33
[SPEAKER_00]: So I hope it works.
1:35
[SPEAKER_02]: I was so far so good.
1:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think the listeners will forgive us if it gets a little rough because that's the way it is.
1:42
[SPEAKER_02]: When we get a field report and I love it, what is the field report we need to share right now?
1:47
[SPEAKER_02]: What are you doing in Argentina?
1:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, so,
1:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, my adventure is of a very spontaneous and I like not to plan them.
1:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, you know, we'll talk about my ocean crossing and it took so much work like four years to make them happen in so much training.
2:01
[SPEAKER_00]: But now I just enjoyed the day to day and, you know, I used to live in Argentina for a year and a half, 20 years ago.
2:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just happened to come visit friends and I said, you know what, I'm just gonna go to motorcycle work and I rent one.
2:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, these areas nice, how about going first and north and they're next to Bolivia, these area called Salta.
2:20
[SPEAKER_00]: opinions that are like the like the crane canyons, but wow, you know, it's just amazing and I said okay how much is it 50 bucks a day or let's go I'm going to take a bus 18 hours from windows overnight I got there and I'm pretty much building the trip as I go like where should I go I meet people, what do I do tomorrow this way, but it's okay, it's been raining, so it might be ready.
2:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let's go.
2:41
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and I just want to get any of it all.
2:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
2:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that is so fun.
2:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And okay, I don't think we should go looking for trouble, Cyril, but sometimes we can overplan things.
2:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And when we're more spontaneous, and I think sometimes more adventure happens.
3:00
[SPEAKER_02]: When you don't have a strict schedule, when you don't know exactly where you're gonna go, when you meet someone who says, oh, you have got to see this, and you actually have time to go there and see it.
3:10
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I'm saying?
3:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's the reason.
3:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, because if you plan too much, you don't have time to go it, do you see it?
3:15
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we're just in our day-to-day, of course, our schedule is, okay, you gotta be doing this at 5 p.m. And then tomorrow there's this appointment, and the day after that, you have a meeting, you have to go to work.
3:27
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so for once in a vacation, let's just plan to trip there and the trip back.
3:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And in between, go with the flow, you know.
3:39
[SPEAKER_02]: So what kind of a motorcycle are you on?
3:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, it's a, it's a two 15.
3:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not a big, big one, but it's good for off-road, off-road, it's XT Yamaha, and it's pretty much as much as I can handle.
3:54
[SPEAKER_00]: That's slow, I'm not good.
3:57
[SPEAKER_00]: but I'm having a blast.
3:59
[SPEAKER_00]: There's something about motorcycle wear.
4:02
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if you go a little bit off road, you get off the beaten path where there's this sense of freedom.
4:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's the same biking.
4:08
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I did a tripping toggle for two weeks and it's much slower, but there's a sense of, yeah, you know, let's enjoy the moment.
4:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's what I need now.
4:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I love all forms of travel and adventure sports.
4:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I just think it's all fantastic.
4:24
[SPEAKER_02]: But there is a formula, which is the faster you go, the less you see.
4:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And the slower you go, the more detail you pick up, there's also a formula, which is the faster you go, the fewer people you meet.
4:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And the slower you go, the more open you are to the air, the more outside of stealing glass, and the more accessible you are, the more people you meet.
4:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I've talked to a lot of people who find that motorcycles are kind of the perfect balance because they're fast enough to really cover some ground, but you're still accessible, you're still outside and it's still inviting for people to come up and say, hello.
5:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Because people are curious, what are you doing on this 250 here in Argentina, right?
5:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
5:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Who are you telling me about your life and then you start, I don't know, sharing love, I love it.
5:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
5:14
[SPEAKER_02]: So how much have you ridden before we get into rowing?
5:18
[SPEAKER_02]: How much have you ridden motorcycles?
5:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Not much.
5:20
[SPEAKER_00]: My first trip was maybe 20 years ago.
5:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So I did this trip around the world when I was 25.
5:27
[SPEAKER_00]: One year back back in, mostly.
5:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I got to Vietnam, I met this French guy.
5:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, sir, I'm going to do that.
5:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, on the book, which is the big circle.
5:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So you go from Hanoi, you go with North.
5:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And then,
5:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we take this motorcycle, it's a mince, because it's a Russian motorcycle that is crappy, but everybody could fix it.
5:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's great to go.
5:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And I said, I never rode, okay, you'll learn along the way.
5:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And I did this trip for 10 days.
5:53
[SPEAKER_00]: That was just fantastic.
5:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I loved it.
5:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So then after a little bit further down the road, I was in Cambodia, I did another 10 day trip.
6:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And...
6:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's about it.
6:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I came back to the U.S., I got to have my license and so I've had the license forever, but I've never read it in a bicycle.
6:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And then suddenly it just came back to say, you know what, I just love it.
6:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's do it again.
6:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's been 20 years now.
6:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
6:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, take it easy and enjoy it.
6:18
[SPEAKER_02]: You'll have a blast.
6:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's fantastic.
6:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Man, one thing that I've noticed about motorcycles.
6:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm curious if you're experiencing this yet.
6:29
[SPEAKER_02]: When you're riding a motorcycle, you have to lean the bike.
6:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Your body becomes part of the action.
6:36
[SPEAKER_02]: When you're in a car, the car kind of throws you around and does its own thing.
6:40
[SPEAKER_02]: You tell
6:43
[SPEAKER_02]: It's more intimate.
6:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's something about that that people aren't through amorphys.
6:49
[SPEAKER_02]: I think people like to name their motorcycles.
6:52
[SPEAKER_02]: I've seen people pet their motorcycles.
6:54
[SPEAKER_02]: They feel like it's a part of them somehow.
6:57
[SPEAKER_02]: They talk about the soul of the whole thing.
6:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Are you experiencing that?
7:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so what I actually caught myself thinking today was, how, so I'm imagine, I mean, this, it's called Kibrada, the last concess, all right.
7:09
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's, it's like, like, if the whole world had broken, you know, and it's like the,
7:16
[SPEAKER_00]: the mountain that's slide to its side and it's all broken like this.
7:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so I was trying to say, oh, how can I film this?
7:23
[SPEAKER_00]: How can it take a picture of this?
7:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's a 360 thing, right?
7:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
7:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought about how it in a more, you know, in a car, you're just looking by the window, you're looking, so you're not really part of it.
7:35
[SPEAKER_00]: in the motorcycle you see the 360 like you just turn your head and there's really no way to explain that though so I do have this camera which is 360 degrees but even that when you render it on a screen you have to go for one way to the other right it's not like living it there's nothing else them living the thing and I can describe it in the best way in you know podcasts this crowded best way in a book anything you want in the end adventure is to be lived
8:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Hmm, I heard Robin Williams quoted once and I'm going to miss quote this, but I loved it.
8:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll give you the just of the quote.
8:09
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, people are always talking about how to be safe or how to save a life.
8:14
[SPEAKER_02]: He goes, no, no, no, that's backwards.
8:16
[SPEAKER_02]: We need to know how to spend our lives.
8:18
[SPEAKER_02]: to spend their lives well and like you just said adventures to be lived and i i think it's yeah i totally get it by the way um sirl has two different websites i want to mention but i want to mention the this most recent one first because it's easier to remember and i just think it's fun he has a website called the crazy french guy dot com
8:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And he says that's a lot easier to remember than cereal, Daramo.
8:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
8:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I think crazy French guys pretty good, but he also has the website, which is solo kayaktheethelantic.com.
8:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And the keyword there is kayak.
8:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So, several different rowing teams have rode the Atlantic.
9:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I've interviewed people that have rode the Atlantic.
9:04
[SPEAKER_02]: You're the first person that I've ever talked to who kayacked instead of rowing.
9:08
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're not talking about sea kayaking around the coast.
9:11
[SPEAKER_02]: We're talking about open water, ocean crossings, and a kayak.
9:16
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you've done both.
9:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Why did you opt for the kayak and how is it different?
9:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you're right.
9:23
[SPEAKER_00]: So in terms of scale, let's give you a few numbers.
9:27
[SPEAKER_00]: There's been maybe across a history of Ocean Cross in 800 growing boats that have crossed, right, whether one, two, three, four people, maybe even more.
9:37
[SPEAKER_00]: One person crossing on a rowing boat that there's been 230 of those.
9:43
[SPEAKER_00]: One person crossing in a kayak, there's been five.
9:47
[SPEAKER_00]: The reason is because you have oars on a rowing boat that are really long and it uses your legs and you push and you go backwards because the oars are so long that you can have a bigger boat, you could hire on the water, you could reach out further, so the boat is going to be wider and you could carry more things and safer overall.
10:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Now kayak, because I use kayak paddles, you know, you were right, left, right, left and you go forward.
10:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I need to be able to risk the water.
10:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So that means the width of the my kayak, even though it's super safe, and it's ocean worthy for any kind of...
10:21
[SPEAKER_00]: storm you could have.
10:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I could still touch the water on both sides when I'm sitting down in the cockpit.
10:27
[SPEAKER_00]: That means, because it's narrower, it's tippier and it gets swamps right away.
10:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, because it's so narrow, then you can't have a big cabin, right?
10:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do create a cabin so that you could go in and out safely.
10:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And what happens in the storm?
10:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, how do you build all the weight at the bottom?
10:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's safe.
10:45
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't capsize.
10:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And if, you know, you could carry
10:49
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, like for three months at sea, you need to be able to have a water maker.
10:54
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to be able to have two batteries and solar panels.
10:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So what kind of kayak do you build for this?
11:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was the big challenge at first.
11:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So how do I make it super safe?
11:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I love adventure.
11:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I love life too.
11:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Better be more.
11:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So.
11:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I did the Pacific crossing back in 2022, 90 days.
11:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Atlantic was actually longer and distance, but it took me three weeks less because the current and the winds were more favorable.
11:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So it took me 70 days in the same kayak.
11:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So I guess they're too different.
11:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess you're talking between a motorcycle and a mountain bike.
11:31
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so small that there's not a lot of people that want to do it.
11:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess that maybe that's why I want to do it myself.
11:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I've talked to a lot of people about white water rafting and kayaking and one thing that I always said about white water is if you're in a raft, it's kind of like you're in a school bus.
11:46
[SPEAKER_02]: It's ton of fun.
11:47
[SPEAKER_02]: You have a great time.
11:49
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're in a kayak, then it's more like your on a motorcycle.
11:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I translate that into salt water into the ocean and open water.
12:03
[SPEAKER_02]: When I saw it, I did look at your kayak.
12:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And people go to his website and look at this thing.
12:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's substantial, but at the same time, I was looking at it thinking, ooh, what is that like at a storm?
12:16
[SPEAKER_02]: When the waves are big, I like wolves.
12:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Did you experience any bad weather?
12:23
[SPEAKER_02]: What was the worst of it?
12:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, no matter what boat you're in, if you're in the middle of the storm, you feel small.
12:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so this kayak for sure.
12:31
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a big kayak.
12:32
[SPEAKER_00]: It's as long as a double kayak.
12:34
[SPEAKER_00]: It's as white as a white kayak.
12:36
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's it's a it's a small boat and any storm is you're going to feel so tiny and part of the success is actually to embrace that vulnerability knowing that your boat is built for this and it takes time it takes experience and and and time and and time on on the boat on the water.
12:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, yes, I've, you know, my first attempt to cross the Pacific had to be rescued after six days because the water was so big and the the wind was so strong.
13:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, my boat was so see worthy that when I abandoned the boat, I went back three days later to get it.
13:11
[SPEAKER_00]: It was fine.
13:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was like a key moment to say, okay, how do I build my resiliency and my trust in that cocoon of a boat that I built?
13:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's self-rightening, right?
13:24
[SPEAKER_00]: If it capsize, it'll self-rightening.
13:26
[SPEAKER_00]: If it's inconcable, if it's swamped, it will never sink.
13:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So how do I build this in my head so that I will feel safe in it?
13:33
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was part of the challenge.
13:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I did 90 days across to Hawaii.
13:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So then the Atlantic, although the waters were bigger and stronger winds consistently for a month and a half.
13:46
[SPEAKER_00]: then I still fell safe because for me it was not day one.
13:49
[SPEAKER_00]: It was day 92 when it started from the Canary Islands, right?
13:54
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, that boat is amazing.
13:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I built it for this and it did the trick.
13:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, amazing boat.
14:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And people that are going to California, I welcome to go see it because right now I put it in little museum in South Florida so anybody could go and check it out.
14:08
[SPEAKER_02]: on ice in sosolido california well you know i was looking at the layout on of this kayak and i was thinking about sleeping
14:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was thinking about dealing with ocean traffic, which is real.
14:26
[SPEAKER_02]: There's something you have to think about.
14:28
[SPEAKER_02]: The oceans are big, but you still have to watch out for traffic.
14:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And you're small enough that you could be overlooked.
14:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I was thinking about things like waves coming on broadside.
14:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I, oh, but the one advantage that I thought, well, if you're dealing with wind, the kayak is actually a better profile for that.
14:51
[SPEAKER_02]: I would think, am I right?
14:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and no, depends on how it's built.
14:57
[SPEAKER_00]: You want the kayak to go downwind automatically.
15:01
[SPEAKER_00]: So that means if you stop paddling, which is as soon as the sun goes down to sunrise, because I'm alone, it's just safer to be inside the cabin, which is waterproof.
15:09
[SPEAKER_00]: You want the boat to go downwind right so because I have a big cabin that is in the stern, which is the the back of the boat How do you make it so that the boat goes downwind and it's very well bit so that okay?
15:23
[SPEAKER_00]: The only thing that is in the water at night is the broader and the rarer is that the very back during the day I can use a dagger board which is
15:30
[SPEAKER_00]: this plank that you put in the middle of the day just between my legs that helps me go cross winds, right?
15:36
[SPEAKER_00]: But at night I'll remove this.
15:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you picture the you have the kayak that is very long, seven meters long, but only thing in the water is at the back.
15:44
[SPEAKER_00]: That means if you imagine the wind blowing on the boat, right, then what happens is the
15:50
[SPEAKER_00]: So the thing in the back is going to drag in a resisture.
15:54
[SPEAKER_00]: So that means it's going to rotate around that point, which is back of the boat.
15:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's how we create a boat that goes downwind and down the waves.
16:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Now those crossings that are doing on those oceans are always downwind.
16:06
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to go with the trade winds.
16:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And like it would be so hard to do something that is different.
16:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Like for instance, people that have done the Tasman Sea, Scott Donaldson, cross the Tasman
16:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a downwind run, so that makes it so much harder to do, but now for traffic, I mean, there's so many containership.
16:29
[SPEAKER_00]: If you go online, there's a website where you can see all the bullets on the water at that point.
16:34
[SPEAKER_00]: It's crazy.
16:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So I've got without trying to go to technical, there's two ways that it protect myself.
16:40
[SPEAKER_00]: There's one way, which is
16:41
[SPEAKER_00]: called AIS, automatic identification system.
16:45
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a system that is electronic that broadcast my position around me.
16:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And it broadcasts up to $20,000, okay?
16:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So when a container ship comes into those $20,000, it's antenna is going to catch it and say, okay, well, there's the border there.
16:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, my, yes, it's the same as any other cell boot, so that he, on the, on their radar, there will see, okay, well, there's this boot, it's seven meters long.
17:07
[SPEAKER_00]: What the heck is he doing here?
17:08
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a kayak, you know?
17:11
[SPEAKER_00]: We're 40 days in.
17:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And, but it's still gonna go around because they don't want to have any hit, right?
17:15
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's one safety.
17:16
[SPEAKER_00]: The other one is me.
17:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I can, it was the same system.
17:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yes, see them.
17:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So when they're within the 20 knockout miles, I see them on my GPS.
17:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can see if they're coming towards a collision or not.
17:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if they're coming closer, I can take the VHF with a radio radio and I call them and I say, hey, you guys, do you see me?
17:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Could you go around me?
17:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm very slow.
17:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm very slow.
17:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a kayak.
17:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so yeah, they're safety protocols, but that's night.
17:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, it's a partnership that is 300 meters long.
17:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm seven meters long and I go half or not they go at 20 knots, right?
17:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
17:51
[SPEAKER_00]: So I do have this protocol where because I can only detect them up to 20 knots come out and they go 20 miles an hour.
17:58
[SPEAKER_00]: If I have a radius in my GPS where I don't see anything that means I have one hour to sleep and where I know I'm going to be safe.
18:04
[SPEAKER_00]: So my protocol is, I just wake up every hour and I look at any potential collision.
18:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And if there's not, it's go back to sleep.
18:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the same time, I kind of look outside and my drifting the right way, and I'm actually in a wrong way, do I need to add a sea anchor?
18:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So now we talked about the boat going downwind, but if the wind is too strong, or kind of like a weird shape, or sometimes not strong enough, I can add this kind of parachute that's called a sea anchor,
18:32
[SPEAKER_00]: or drogue at the back of my boat and that would help put the boat pretty close to the waves.
18:37
[SPEAKER_02]: That all makes sense.
18:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I, how long does it take to get a custom to waking every hour or slightly less than every hour for days on you know I don't think you ever get a custom to you just get
18:51
[SPEAKER_00]: It is what it is.
18:52
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, when you have a baby, it's just in the first few days that wake up in the top right.
18:56
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't get used to it.
18:57
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, again, you gotta get used to do this thing.
18:59
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, now, the first two weeks is what's hard.
19:04
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really getting to the flow of things because you changed from.
19:07
[SPEAKER_00]: A to Z in an instant, right?
19:10
[SPEAKER_00]: From one moment, you can walk on land to, you're not walking for three months, to eat anything you want fresh fruits, French fages, and warm things, and call it to eating freeze-dried meals, you know, and bars, and electrolytes, and you, uh,
19:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you start from pretty much doing two or three hours of workout, right, because you train all the way to the departure to doing 12 to 14 hours of paddling like your buddies like what are you doing?
19:36
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so it's, you get into that groove where it's kind of survival plus I always get to see sick the first five days.
19:41
[SPEAKER_00]: So I puke and I feel better and I start to feed myself so I don't lose tranks.
19:48
[SPEAKER_00]: and then you have a little bit of hallucination because you have to sleep deprivation and worry wake up.
19:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, so I guess the the expedition like this, they usually in the same for a rowing boat, they're make or break the first two weeks.
19:59
[SPEAKER_00]: If you go through the first two weeks and your watermakers working, your GPS working, the electronics of work, you get into a groove, your body gets into a groove.
20:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like,
20:09
[SPEAKER_00]: The mental side is, I'm going to go through this no matter what, you know, I'm okay for sleep deprivation, pain and vomiting, I'm okay, we're not sleeping at all, you know, this, yeah, it's kind of for adventure and not for everyone.
20:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that was kind of my next question.
20:26
[SPEAKER_02]: There's some people here that and they think, oh man, it would be so cool to try to see if my body could hold up.
20:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And if I could do that and what would it be like to be in the middle of the ocean and be all alone out there and some people that's that's the vibe.
20:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Other people are like, what, why?
20:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And so why, why the heck would you want to do it?
20:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's people that say I would love to do it, but once you put that idea to try,
20:51
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's like, okay, well, just go home and in your bed wake up every hour and go around the house and come back, just do that for three days.
20:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see if you like it, right?
21:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Or, oh, you think it's great to be on the water.
21:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's just go on your kayak and try to sleep overnight in the water.
21:05
[SPEAKER_00]: It may be a touch your boot and just try it out.
21:08
[SPEAKER_00]: There's so many people that call me the idea of the adventure is more seducing the actual adventure itself.
21:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So, uh,
21:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, then you bring it down to even less people every time you do this, you know, because every time you have a difficulty, like there's less people who want to do it.
21:27
[SPEAKER_02]: My mind is going 12 different ways at once.
21:29
[SPEAKER_02]: I have so many questions for you.
21:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe ignorance helps for that first adventure, you know, you don't really know what it's going to be like until you're in the middle of it, but then hopefully you have the fortitude to do it.
21:48
[SPEAKER_02]: But do you think that there's any wisdom and ignorance in that case?
21:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like if you knew everything, you're probably wouldn't start.
21:57
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think ignorance is a place in the way that you say, okay, I'm gonna do this, right?
22:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I think the right path is to actually do it the right way, which is first, I did an a four-man rowing boat because I didn't know what open ocean would be.
22:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
22:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So then I did this first and then I still studied everything I could safety at sea survival at sea VHF radio.
22:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything I got my training was good.
22:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I went to see all the people that I think could be the best to put in my team.
22:27
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I had the professional weather router.
22:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I had the amazing medical team, amazing land support, everything.
22:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And still, my first attempt had to be rescued.
22:39
[SPEAKER_00]: because I thought I was prepared.
22:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I really thought I was, but there's nothing you could do.
22:43
[SPEAKER_00]: You could read all the books, listen to all the podcasts, to talk to all the people that have done it before, and even have done it in a rowing boat until you have your ass, excuse my friend, on a boat, on a, on this little kayak in a storm, you don't know.
22:57
[SPEAKER_00]: So in the end of the day, it's just go do it, and if you fail the first time, the second time, it's okay, it's part of the learning experience.
23:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Once you hit the storm, yeah, re-evaluate, and then get better again and try to get never give up.
23:16
[SPEAKER_02]: sure.
23:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I've seen it go both ways in the mountains.
23:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I am a mountain guy.
23:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm really I've been landlocked most of my life.
23:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I love scuba diving.
23:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I've been out on the water in small craft, but I can't even imagine what it's like to do what you've done.
23:32
[SPEAKER_02]: But in the mountains I've taken people on adventures, especially like big adventures in the winter time, hiking in the
23:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Some people, they feel alive and they experience it and they're just like, wow, that was great.
23:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Other people, they start looking at me like, are we going to live?
23:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't want to be here.
24:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Why are we doing?
24:01
[SPEAKER_02]: And then often they never go back.
24:05
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it takes
24:06
[SPEAKER_02]: It takes a certain amount of, like I said, fortitude to go through the hard thing and to make it happen.
24:14
[SPEAKER_02]: What were some of the hardest things that you endured on these ocean crossings?
24:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And by the way, I want to point out or clarify, in 2022, when you did the kayak across the Pacific from California to Hawaii, you were the first person to ever do that, right?
24:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yes and no, Ed Gillette, it's an American adventure, kayaker.
24:37
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the first one to kayak to Hawaii, okay?
24:40
[SPEAKER_00]: He left Monterey and he had a double kayak, but he did it back in 1987.
24:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so he's the first one.
24:47
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like my hero.
24:48
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, I'm not even reaching his ankle.
24:50
[SPEAKER_00]: The guy's such a legend.
24:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, right.
24:53
[SPEAKER_00]: He left and then he got there and was at any seven.
24:57
[SPEAKER_00]: He did 64 days.
24:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So he did it.
24:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, you know, first of all, we didn't know how long it would take, right?
25:02
[SPEAKER_00]: He thought it was going to take 50 days.
25:04
[SPEAKER_00]: He calculated and so he did it also was the help of a kite.
25:08
[SPEAKER_00]: That's only difference.
25:09
[SPEAKER_00]: He was pulled by the kite and there was not much wind that year, but it still helped him a bit.
25:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And I met Edgy Led.
25:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I read the book.
25:16
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called the Pacific Alone for all the readers,
25:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would be the first one to do it human-powered.
25:24
[SPEAKER_00]: That means no, no such, no kite.
25:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm the first one to have done it.
25:28
[SPEAKER_00]: But I did it back in 2020, too.
25:31
[SPEAKER_00]: He did it 40 years ago, where there's no GPS.
25:34
[SPEAKER_00]: He used a sextant to know where he was.
25:37
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you mentioned the guy, the guy, the legend, and we have to be thankful for these traybladers that those maverick that, you know, open the past to think, yes, it's possible to kayak there.
25:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the winds, here's the things, and I think he not done it.
25:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I probably wouldn't have done it myself, right?
25:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I think you qualify Cyril as a legend as well now.
26:01
[SPEAKER_02]: You've done the hard thing.
26:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's where the question started.
26:06
[SPEAKER_02]: What were some of the hardest parts of it in these crossings?
26:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, there's so many.
26:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I look at it this way.
26:13
[SPEAKER_00]: You started with a certain potential, right?
26:15
[SPEAKER_00]: You have the potential of the boat.
26:16
[SPEAKER_00]: You have the potential of the person.
26:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you have potential maybe of the weather and the ocean.
26:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Every time like something happens, you decrease that potential.
26:25
[SPEAKER_00]: If you break the water maker, you have to go with decreased potential.
26:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe there's a storm, but you don't really cope with it.
26:33
[SPEAKER_00]: You decrease your potential.
26:34
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think to be successful, you have to be able to manage all those little risk at a time.
26:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes you could have three little ones.
26:42
[SPEAKER_00]: It's as hard as a big one.
26:45
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so I don't think it's really the size.
26:47
[SPEAKER_00]: There could be the loneliness, right?
26:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I never felt lonely.
26:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I was alone.
26:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't see the land or he used to be human being for three months.
26:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I never felt lonely.
26:55
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm alone.
26:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's challenges that come to that with, okay, maybe you talk to yourself, like I could catch myself.
27:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm very self-aware.
27:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I could catch myself.
27:05
[SPEAKER_00]: speaking aloud for two hours at a time, you know.
27:09
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not it's really me myself and I and okay I've got to stop it and I'm very emotional that's my superpower but that could be my weakness.
27:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you start to be emotional and start to cry for two hours in a row, not because I'm sad that because maybe I'm super happy, okay I've got to snap out of it, right?
27:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So obviously, I think the biggest threat would be a storm.
27:29
[SPEAKER_00]: The ocean,
27:30
[SPEAKER_00]: is mighty and doesn't care that you're on it.
27:34
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't care.
27:35
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just going to do his thing.
27:36
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a hurricane coming through it.
27:38
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't care that you're there.
27:40
[SPEAKER_00]: The only way for you to go through it safe is just to try to pass.
27:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I talked about vulnerability earlier.
27:49
[SPEAKER_00]: There's another one.
27:52
[SPEAKER_00]: You're humbled that the mighty ocean is the biggest, and it's kind of goes against, I guess, where we fill up at the ocean once we're on land.
28:00
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we think the ocean is beautiful.
28:02
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so well, you know, organized creatures on it are pretty.
28:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, out there, it's narrowly.
28:08
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't give it.
28:10
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't give it, it doesn't give it to your audience.
28:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So do you have to be prepared for it?
28:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, and eventually, I think if you have the right things, which is managing all the little problems, one thing at a time, then you feel like, okay, the ocean tested me.
28:27
[SPEAKER_00]: It are responded the right way.
28:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I would give it a path.
28:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And then that's how it felt last three days when I got to Hawaii.
28:33
[SPEAKER_00]: The ocean had tested me to my ultimate limits.
28:38
[SPEAKER_00]: for the last three days we're just rolling the red carpet and it felt just amazing.
28:44
[SPEAKER_02]: How are you tested?
28:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, the emotions, I guess.
28:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so my first crossing on a rowing but we were a team and you feed off each other's energies, right?
28:53
[SPEAKER_00]: You're feeling down the guy, see, come on, let's go, you know, it's okay.
28:55
[SPEAKER_00]: We're making half way, it's 20 days and we retalf way.
28:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So my halfway on the rowing but was okay, every day is one last day, you know, so it's
29:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, okay, it's downhill from here.
29:07
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you feel the bar and it's just going to go the day.
29:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
29:10
[SPEAKER_00]: My halfway alone was mind-breaking.
29:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of the 35 days, because I had this, it made it my whole crossing, 70 days.
29:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of the 35 days to reach halfway point, it took me 50 days.
29:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And I reached halfway point.
29:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I was really like, broken, like, I lost maybe 8 kilos, like, you know, maybe 16 pounds.
29:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And,
29:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I just did halfway, how am I going to get to the other half?
29:35
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no way.
29:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And the mentally was so hard to, I kind of reframe my mind how to make it okay so that the next 45 days are going to be good.
29:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was a really hard thing for me.
29:47
[SPEAKER_00]: But it took me two, three days to finally find a little trick.
29:51
[SPEAKER_00]: that would make it okay to to finish and let me tell you about this.
29:55
[SPEAKER_00]: So by my land support Dave said, sir, all you got to be in the moment, don't focus on the future.
30:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Like like, you know, this thing like it's to journey, it's not the destination.
30:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, everybody knows that or everything they could read on the book are true.
30:08
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the buddies that say the future doesn't matter because it's not here yet, the path doesn't matter because it's on the young, you have to now.
30:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So focus on the doubt.
30:16
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's just the
30:21
[SPEAKER_00]: But that was the solution, and the solution that I found is, is very easy to be framing my whole concept of what was I doing instead of saying, I'm not in a kayak to cross to Hawaii.
30:31
[SPEAKER_00]: In my target is not to get to Hawaii, so I'm going to reach my goal only once I get to Hawaii.
30:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So that means
30:38
[SPEAKER_00]: The next 50 days are going to be held because I'm not where I want to be.
30:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be happy only once I get to Hawaii.
30:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Get the idea, 45 days of pain, right?
30:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So the reframing was a little bad at the journey.
30:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, okay, I'm going to an adventure on a kayak on the ocean across the Pacific to Hawaii.
30:57
[SPEAKER_00]: But the adventure
30:58
[SPEAKER_00]: The day to day is why you do this, right?
31:01
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not the destiny to journey.
31:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And then certainly I thought, okay, I'm just going to enjoy that bird that comes here and comes to see me.
31:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to focus on the waves and try to understand the wave pattern and get it better as a cement ship.
31:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to look at the patterns of the cloud and try to read them and be better.
31:16
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm going to try to feel the waves and push me and try to see if I can sync my breath with it, right?
31:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So all these little things that it was just about
31:25
[SPEAKER_00]: being in the moment.
31:27
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that little thing that I said to myself was, I'll get there when I get there.
31:31
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no, of course, I got to manage my food.
31:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to have been a food.
31:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to manage my effort.
31:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to manage my mind.
31:38
[SPEAKER_00]: But in the end, it's just a day-to-day.
31:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, you know, going back to the very beginning of this podcast, I'll get that's what I apply in my day-to-day.
31:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what I'll do tomorrow, and that's okay, and I'm enjoying the presence of the moment.
31:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just, you know, it's funny, a lot of people ask me, so what did you change?
31:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I changed so much, but I guess there's some minute, many, many little things by my mind that make me live the way I live now, differently than before.
32:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, sometimes it's not that we're a different person at the end.
32:13
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so much more just a matter of now or the same person with a different experience or things that we learned that help us, you know, each step of the way that I'm trying to imagine in my mind what it's like to be alone in a kayak.
32:31
[SPEAKER_02]: day after day after day after day after day, losing.
32:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me give you an idea.
32:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
32:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
32:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine you're in a van.
32:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
32:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a camper van.
32:42
[SPEAKER_00]: A small van.
32:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And then take a no one to expect it.
32:44
[SPEAKER_00]: You remove the roof.
32:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're at the air.
32:47
[UNKNOWN]: Okay.
32:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
32:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you have to do is, instead of paddling, you go driving 12 hours a day and then you stop.
32:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
32:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it rains, you're wet.
32:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're, if it's cold, you're cold.
33:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And only when you think you do it, when you stop is, you could stay and maybe lay down on the back of your van, but you can't put your food on the floor.
33:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, and by the way, there's going to be a guy who throws a bucket of water once in a while, but it's not just water.
33:13
[SPEAKER_00]: It's salted water.
33:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
33:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, you have to find a way to poop in your van.
33:19
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't go out.
33:20
[SPEAKER_00]: You have access of water, but it's salted water.
33:23
[SPEAKER_00]: So you'll have to find a way to design lies.
33:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And how to put solar panels so you can have batteries.
33:28
[SPEAKER_00]: But you can't see people.
33:30
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't talk to people.
33:31
[SPEAKER_00]: All you can do is get like clean messier in the desert.
33:34
[SPEAKER_00]: They
33:35
[SPEAKER_00]: or for 90 days.
33:36
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like what it is, but you're on the ocean and actually if you step out of that ocean, you sink.
33:43
[SPEAKER_02]: There's no way out of the van.
33:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, man.
33:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that paints a good picture.
33:50
[SPEAKER_02]: That's kind of crazy.
33:52
[SPEAKER_02]: But okay, I've had times in my life several times and I won't go any needy detail, but I've had times when I thought, I don't know if I'll survive this one.
34:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And those moments are like, oh man, if I tried something I should knew tried, did you have moments like that for you're like, I don't know if I'm going to make it.
34:13
[SPEAKER_00]: On my kayak expeditions, I did not.
34:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I felt that I was gonna be okay every time.
34:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I felt at the first time in my life that was the ocean rowing crossing.
34:23
[SPEAKER_00]: We were gonna be 20 days in, their storm came in, and it was 40 knots so we had really big waves, and I really faced what it meant to to potentially lose your life, right?
34:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And that taught me a lot, that taught me that
34:39
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a difference between theory and reality.
34:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And because we're smart people, we think we know, right?
34:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you're going to die and what a die.
34:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to die, we know that for it to be truth, because that's true, that we're going to die.
34:51
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's only a theory until you have a near-death experience.
34:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And that moment, I've felt I can die, like this is real.
34:59
[SPEAKER_00]: like I can die and I'm meeting my own mortality with such a teachable moment to me and there's people that go through their deathbed without having felt that.
35:09
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I don't say that you have to go into dangerous situation, but I think it's like understanding that we're moral.
35:15
[SPEAKER_00]: just gives you a different perspective, very different perspective.
35:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And it can be true for everything like the difference between theory and reality.
35:23
[SPEAKER_00]: For instance, I say, I say it also for protecting the environment.
35:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Now you could say, I love the environment, I love the ocean.
35:31
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I walk on the beach, I'm going to pick up everything that I see.
35:33
[SPEAKER_00]: We get a recycled plastic, we have to reuse our product and all this.
35:39
[SPEAKER_00]: All this is great, but
35:41
[SPEAKER_00]: The real meaning of it, like, only becomes real once you've done something where you feel to your core that's a right thing to do.
35:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you see what I mean?
35:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, that's a theory, but once I was in the ocean, I could see like they have to do a plastic drifting nearby and see what?
35:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
35:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you see those birds that are flying, I saw a different kind of bird
36:09
[SPEAKER_00]: With the ocean, they could be stormed, they're so vibrant, like they're going to find food, they fly day in and day out in storms, and then I see another piece of plastic.
36:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So then my idea of protecting the environment that was just a theory until then comes to my core and I see
36:25
[SPEAKER_00]: like us, human art, like we're doing so much damage to that environment.
36:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And then to my core, I feel now I need to protect the environment.
36:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe I'm gonna do the same thing as the other guy who's going on the beach and cleaning the plastic, but it has a whole different meaning, right?
36:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think adventure is entraveling and going overseas is are teaching you these things.
36:46
[SPEAKER_00]: that it could be even more relevant nowadays, that the new generation, they're gonna think that they know everything, you just ask AI to tell you the answer and then you have the answer to your question, but you don't know it to your core, right?
36:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's the value for my expeditions is this, is creating things that are to my core that I own in US a few or before.
37:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's the same for God, right?
37:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Or you could, I call it the oneness.
37:16
[SPEAKER_00]: was the universe, and Earth, and that only that trip could teach me that.
37:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Hmm, I'm going to pause for just a minute and soak that one.
37:26
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so good, and I know what you're talking about.
37:28
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's probably maybe it's the driving force for many people, maybe it's the main driving force, once people have experienced it, to go do the new thing and the hard thing.
37:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it becomes a part of us in a way, and it's real.
37:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I, as you were saying that, I don't know how many other people are like this, but I look at maps and their wishbooks for me, you know, I see the map and I try to imagine what it looks like there and what does it taste like and smell like and what's the weather and who are the people and, but it's just an imagined experience until you live it.
38:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And then when you come back, it's so different because you look at the map and instead of seeing all the things that you imagined it might be, you have the memories that you've collected.
38:15
[SPEAKER_02]: It's what it is.
38:19
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think, I don't know who said that, but life is either either daring a adventure or nothing.
38:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've lived it so far.
38:27
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm turning 50 at the end of the year.
38:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've got another 45 years of this pleasure of life.
38:34
[SPEAKER_00]: to go enjoy, and how the world is so small.
38:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Wherever you're in the US, you take a 10 hour flight.
38:40
[SPEAKER_00]: You could be an India, you could be in Fiji, you could be in Tahiti, you could be anywhere you want, do it.
38:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can't imagine, like, I don't just don't understand how people say they're bored in their life.
38:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's because you work too much, like take a break, stop watching freaking Netflix every night, and just go, you want to, okay, you're going to look this,
39:00
[SPEAKER_00]: this real about the guy who's in Argentina on his motorcycle, why about you do it yourself?
39:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Go there and rent this motorcycle.
39:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're not into that, well why don't you go somewhere and and sail a boat or do a kayak or go walk?
39:14
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to do anything.
39:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Just take your ass and go to Camino, you know, whatever Camino in Europe and just walk for a week.
39:21
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
39:22
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't need to learn anything.
39:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Just do to leave life.
39:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, my call is just to people and just do it.
39:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Seriously?
39:34
[SPEAKER_00]: how many people do you think have heard you say something like that and I've said okay I'm going to I'm going to go do it whatever it is I'm going to go do it oh oh it would be my dream to know you never know you know life is like this you just throw an energy out there and then whoever hears it hears it and I wish I knew I mean I'm I'm tirelessly I will continue doing it and that's why I guess you know I always
40:02
[SPEAKER_00]: The first one is daring myself to do it.
40:05
[SPEAKER_00]: The second one is leaving it.
40:08
[SPEAKER_00]: The third one is learning from it.
40:11
[SPEAKER_00]: The first one is sharing.
40:12
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we're doing right now on the podcast.
40:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And the fifth one that's a constant possibility of all this is maybe inspiring people to do this.
40:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, but people have busy lives.
40:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, of kids, they have a mortgage, they have a job.
40:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And I guess it's a superpower that I have to say, you know what, I'm just going to do it.
40:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And it takes sacrifice, I'm going to do it.
40:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Just because that's their life I intend to live if you know I intend to live the best life I can imagine for myself Now if any of those listeners are saying, hey, can you help me sure call me baby?
40:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you want to go to Argentina.
40:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go.
40:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you speak Spanish?
40:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay to learn now.
40:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Download do a lingua to learn it You know I've got to be good, but you're gonna say oh like it that's it
40:51
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you want to do a triathlon, they start to do it.
40:54
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to lose weight, you want to do photography, get it, your phone, and take pictures on the butterflies.
40:59
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm going to help you do it, but now you're going to be the one who has to do it.
41:03
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you want to do it, I could tell you how to do it.
41:06
[SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty easy.
41:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Just do it.
41:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Hmm.
41:09
[SPEAKER_02]: So many people are afraid of failure.
41:11
[SPEAKER_02]: They think, well, if I try that, and then they think about all the headwinds, you just listed, right?
41:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
41:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I've got a mortgage.
41:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have enough vacation time.
41:20
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just going to cost a lot of money.
41:22
[SPEAKER_02]: What if I get sick?
41:24
[SPEAKER_02]: What if it and they go down the list of all the things that could go wrong and all the challenges that they all the headwinds?
41:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, and you say no, no, no, no, no, do it.
41:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
41:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, yeah, I mean, it's old mental, right?
41:39
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, it's your perspective.
41:42
[SPEAKER_00]: First we think we're gonna die in 50 years no matter what, you know, so you think you have all the time to do all the things you wanted to do.
41:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna, when I'm retired, I'm gonna do it.
41:49
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all right.
41:49
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know, you're not gonna do it when you're tired.
41:52
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not true.
41:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, here's, here's the philosophy I've been embracing the last year.
41:58
[SPEAKER_00]: What if I were to convince myself,
42:01
[SPEAKER_00]: that I just had a year to live, right?
42:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what if now I've got 300 days and obviously it's not true.
42:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope not.
42:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And but what would be the decision making that I would do if I really knew that he was going to have, right?
42:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that champagne that is or that old wine that you're waiting to just drink it now, right?
42:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that job that you don't like, like, quit it.
42:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you're going to die in a year.
42:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Or that's true that you've been wanted to go to see your friend you haven't seen because he lives in Australia.
42:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Do it now.
42:33
[SPEAKER_00]: That creates a sense of urgency to live the things you've always postponed.
42:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I think if you're healthy, you could do anything you want.
42:44
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem comes when you have the actual problem because you live in fear of losing your job, but if you're losing your partner, you're losing your health, right?
42:54
[SPEAKER_00]: What if these actions happens, then you can't make any of those dreams happen?
42:59
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to do it now when you're healthy, you have a job, and you just have to make it work.
43:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know, man, I wish I could convince people
43:08
[SPEAKER_00]: that it's the right thing to do.
43:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's not.
43:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it just won't stay at home and in front of you watching the Super Bowl.
43:14
[SPEAKER_00]: That's great.
43:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Do that.
43:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm here in Patagonia.
43:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, watch the Super Bowl and by the way, I'm in Patagonia.
43:26
[SPEAKER_00]: That's exactly doom, do both, that's, so here's one thing to actually start to make it happen because the biggest hurdle is mental.
43:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the way you who you surround yourself with is a good start, I think you're there average of the five people you spend the most time with.
43:46
[SPEAKER_00]: If you were to be my friend,
43:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe I have two or three that are like me.
43:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm telling you in six months, you're taking that treat to Canada and see what it is to be in minus 30 Celsius.
43:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So start to, I mean, it's to try to find your crowd.
44:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm speaking to the adventure podcast.
44:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So people that are listening to this already do this, right?
44:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they'll just inspire them to do more.
44:07
[SPEAKER_00]: But I can find the right crowd, the guy that says, okay, let's put our bike in, you know, drive two hours.
44:13
[SPEAKER_00]: There's this thing, like you could just go downhill with it.
44:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let's go, you know, and that's, okay.
44:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is the American spirit.
44:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is what it is, like in California where I've been living for 20 years, that's how it is.
44:26
[SPEAKER_00]: People are like that.
44:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've found, if my, Mark Terwar of people that are around me, there is, say, yes, there's, yes, people.
44:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to do this?
44:34
[SPEAKER_00]: But yes, sure.
44:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
44:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And now I'm became a, yes, guy.
44:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Hmm, so you credit your friends with being the guest guy.
44:42
[SPEAKER_00]: They probably credit you as well, you know So the problem we have among each other is that I'm the spark guy, right?
44:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So I create a spark about this.
44:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, there's this race up in Canada.
44:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing this here
44:56
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called the Yukon River Quest.
44:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I've done it three times already, and it's a like 44 miles canoeing.
45:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've got this gift of convincing people that it's a good idea to go and adventure.
45:09
[SPEAKER_00]: They're usually very, they're better, paddlers, and they're like, okay, let's go, you know.
45:17
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
45:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
45:19
[SPEAKER_02]: I've said so many times and I'm I'm taking lessons from you.
45:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm taking mental notes here, but I've said so many times.
45:27
[SPEAKER_02]: You won't have the experience until you do until you go.
45:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you just step out the door.
45:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, if you're trying to decide whether or not, then you're already kind of behind the eight ball.
45:38
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, no, no, no, no, don't decide whether or not.
45:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Just go experience it.
45:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Just say, no, this is who I am.
45:45
[SPEAKER_02]: It's what I do.
45:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
45:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we're back to a mental thing.
45:51
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you become a, that guy who says yes to, and it could be, you know, starting with this idea that you have a year to live so that that friend's going to tell you how will we jump in the bay like a midnight?
46:02
[SPEAKER_00]: No, what are you talking about?
46:03
[SPEAKER_00]: It's cold.
46:04
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know,
46:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm going to die in a year.
46:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go.
46:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So what don't you try this for a little bit?
46:11
[SPEAKER_00]: If I had a year, yeah, I would do that.
46:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I would do it like, why not?
46:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you would stop things too.
46:16
[SPEAKER_00]: You would stop maybe that job that you don't like.
46:18
[SPEAKER_00]: You would stop taking pictures of that church that is pretty, but who cares?
46:23
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to die in a year.
46:24
[SPEAKER_00]: So don't do that.
46:25
[SPEAKER_00]: You just stop crawling, scrolling, Instagram, and stuff.
46:28
[SPEAKER_00]: You're just going to start doing.
46:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So now,
46:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow, you know, this is a crazy example that just popped in my mind.
46:35
[SPEAKER_02]: We, a group of us were staying near Lake in the winter time.
46:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And someone said, we should jump in.
46:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And some of us jumped in.
46:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
46:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And I remember it so clearly.
46:47
[SPEAKER_02]: It was an amazing experience, right?
46:50
[SPEAKER_02]: It was, it was so cold.
46:51
[SPEAKER_02]: It was in the middle of the night.
46:53
[SPEAKER_02]: It was so much fun.
46:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And I have just such a great fun memory of jumping in the lake.
46:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And then there are the people who didn't jump in.
47:01
[SPEAKER_02]: And I would wager, they don't remember it.
47:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, of course.
47:06
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I'm saying?
47:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
47:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So you kind of got this be that crazy little guy.
47:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why I'd like to be called a crazy French guy because in the end, okay, so let's say you die, right?
47:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Or your friend's gonna be at your remember and stay.
47:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And they kind of say the crazy things that you've done.
47:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're gonna say, you know, he was great.
47:23
[SPEAKER_00]: It worked really good.
47:25
[SPEAKER_00]: He did, you know, we watched the series
47:30
[SPEAKER_00]: No, he's going to say, I remember his guy Curtis, so one day he took his shoes off, he ran a marathon, like put the head, you know, like, there was midnight in the lake and it was kind of frozen and he jumped in, you know.
47:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So these crazy little things is what these are the spices of life.
47:49
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
47:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Man, is doing more of your own load bait.
47:54
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll speak her, obviously.
47:56
[SPEAKER_02]: You're motivating all of us right now.
47:58
[SPEAKER_02]: What if people want to bring you in to motivated a team or a group or a company or a school?
48:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you do that sort of thing?
48:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so for schools and kids, college, university, I do it for free.
48:12
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's part of my sharing thing where I've learned so much through my experience that I wanted to do it for free.
48:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, as a professional speaker, I actually go on stage.
48:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I went to moderates 2000 people.
48:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I went on the East Coast, it went 1000 people.
48:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's an opportunity for me, but I do it for work because nowadays companies need that spark, you know, the need to feel it, and indeed they want their employees to do that.
48:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, in the country internationally, there's a lot of uncertainties, there's difficulties that are happening.
48:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And people...
48:41
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, don't know how to manage the uncertainties.
48:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And most of them are just for the mental side.
48:46
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you manage?
48:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'd have talked about reframing.
48:49
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you reframed so that it becomes okay to do the things that you don't want to do.
48:54
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's just a moment.
48:56
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you adapt to the change?
48:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's changing all the time.
48:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So how do you adapt?
49:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So all the things that I do when I talk is I really talk about my own experience.
49:04
[SPEAKER_00]: and very authentically, you know, this is me, who you see is who I am, right?
49:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm down to earth, I'm not going to be led by James, so you had to be a basketball player, and how you did it, right?
49:15
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm like, here's how I take on life.
49:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It's challenging.
49:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got my own challenges to have to do.
49:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's how maybe you should at your kickoff, on January, try to infuse your company and your employees with the realm of possibilities and ambition and taking risk and going forward.
49:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it doesn't work to re-adapt and change that, so, as a speaker, you know, I'm being paid, but my reward is that those 10 people that come back in this day, I need to hear this, thank you, you know.
49:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Allah, my wife has started saying frequently, and it's helped me so much.
49:49
[SPEAKER_02]: She says, what's the point of life if not to live?
49:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah.
49:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So simple, but so real.
49:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So real.
49:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Man, and it strikes deep right to the core.
50:00
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it really does.
50:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I've interviewed a lot of people where I feel like they do adventure for distraction or and maybe that's what they need.
50:07
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, they do adventure to try to be somebody.
50:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And I always say, well, you're already somebody.
50:14
[SPEAKER_02]: You're already there.
50:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Do it because you'll love it, you know, and I can see with you that it's not that you're trying to prove something to somebody It's like no, I love the challenge.
50:25
[SPEAKER_02]: It's who I am.
50:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and people should do that.
50:28
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to find your passion for find what makes you vibe You know
50:34
[SPEAKER_00]: a lot of people don't know what to do.
50:35
[SPEAKER_00]: What is my passion?
50:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
50:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, well, what was the last thing you felt alive?
50:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Like this take for a second.
50:41
[SPEAKER_00]: It could be having 10 people at home and cooking for them.
50:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And you felt a great vibration.
50:46
[SPEAKER_00]: It could be throwing the bolt to your kid.
50:48
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it could be something more fancy where you start painting or you start, you know, traveling around the world like.
50:54
[SPEAKER_00]: But it doesn't have to be.
50:55
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the lasting that makes you vibe and feel alive?
50:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, truly happy.
50:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not about money.
51:00
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just about the moment.
51:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, do more of that.
51:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And more and more of that.
51:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's it.
51:05
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it could be about taking care of people and walking in the street was that grandma that just, like little sense of just feeling useful to somebody else.
51:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever it is, just find that and do it.
51:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I just think, you know, this is what it works for me, but let's say your passion is to play music, but you don't sing well, but just play music for yourself.
51:29
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, this is meditation, this is being in the moment.
51:32
[SPEAKER_00]: You love to paint, but you're suck at painting, paint nonetheless doesn't matter, you know?
51:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Just do it like a kid, like I'm pretty much you could go back to being a kid.
51:41
[SPEAKER_00]: A kid is going to drew drawing, it doesn't care if it looks good, it just likes to draw.
51:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm a kid, I'm a big kid, you know, a lot of people have been saying, like, I'm pretty much stuck at 20 years old in my head.
51:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Mm-hmm.
51:56
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
51:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I always do everybody on 23 and you can see me right now See you know that that's not quite right But that's kind of where I got stuck in my head, you know, it's like that that's 23 Yeah, 23 was when I I guess my adult life, I've post college and actually began and for some reason You know, that's the place where I've I've always been ever since
52:19
[SPEAKER_02]: What's your next big adventure?
52:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I know you have one planned.
52:22
[SPEAKER_02]: You're thinking about the screening about it.
52:24
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you want to do?
52:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure yet.
52:26
[SPEAKER_00]: There could be an ocean crossing but I'm waiting for the sport to come in.
52:31
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a big dedication for two years, training, finance.
52:35
[SPEAKER_00]: It has a big implication for my life.
52:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, the other last crossing was a year ago.
52:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm still enjoying the fact that I'm back on land, getting a full-time job and
52:47
[SPEAKER_00]: sharing my adventures and right now I guess I guess for this year it's more about the smaller adventures that I can do.
52:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm planning to go to San Miguel for a couple of weeks.
52:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I really want to go to Africa.
52:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the musical of the people.
53:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to feel that continent a little bit more.
53:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been took to go in the past and South Africa, but I want to go to San Miguel.
53:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to do this canoe race.
53:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess I'm turning 50 so I'm going to use my buddies.
53:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So this year is more about smaller adventures but full of fun.
53:15
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, this is things that I always said that's come from my another friend Dave who said, you know, it's all about doing cool things with cool, playbook people in cool places.
53:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's my formula right now.
53:26
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't have to be big.
53:27
[SPEAKER_00]: There could be a big one.
53:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Who knows.
53:31
[SPEAKER_00]: When I feel it, I'll feel it right now.
53:32
[SPEAKER_00]: It's more about those small ones.
53:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm glad you said that because people need to know you don't have to paddle across or roll across an ocean.
53:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Damn the adventure.
53:43
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, adventurous lifestyle and all the benefits that come with that to live life in a larger bigger way.
53:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And wow, how can people learn more, sir?
53:52
[SPEAKER_02]: If they want to say, now I want to, I want to switch this guys up to, I want to see if you'll come and talk to my company.
53:58
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, that kind of thing.
53:59
[SPEAKER_02]: How can people reach you?
54:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I guess my first and last name is so hard to write that if you spell it right, you'll find me.
54:06
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I guess if you're good at the crazyfriendsguy.com, there's a link to everything.
54:12
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a link to him.
54:14
[SPEAKER_00]: There's going to be Instagram, Facebook, all these things.
54:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And you'll probably find my email for the crazyfriendsguy who caught the notion that you'll find me.
54:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Ask AI, don't know.
54:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Fantastic.
54:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Cyril, so much for your time today.
54:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I've thoroughly enjoyed hearing about your adventures, but more than that, the inspiration that you bring, you're lighting the fire for people.
54:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And I believe in it, it makes a huge difference in life to live it.
54:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Instead of just tolerated to actually live your life, to spend it the right way.
54:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's the inspiration that I got from you today, so thank you so much for that gift.
54:51
[SPEAKER_00]: No, thank you, because your gift is to actually take people's energy and broadcast it, so that's your passion, that's your thing.
54:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for doing this.
55:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, you are most welcome and thank you for that too.
55:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And for everyone who's out there listening to this, you heard the man get out there and have some fun.