Speaker 1: Route Force. If he doesn't work, you're just not using enough.
Speaker 1: You're listening to sulf Rep special ups, news and information
Speaker 1: straight from the experts. And now here are your hosts.
Speaker 1: Brandon Webb, Jack Morphon, I'm the rest of the Boys,
Speaker 1: Soccer dot Com, on Time, on Target. I am in Scato,
Speaker 1: Nick hay Hill, the director of media here Hurricane Groups
Speaker 1: and basically all of the men behind the Big Mountain
Speaker 1: Heroes documentary or here in studio, first of which is
Speaker 1: Leo Jenkins, are range, dramatic and everybody a lot of
Speaker 1: the audience million fuel already. What's going on? Man? The
Speaker 1: antics um not much popped in for Mexico this morning.
Speaker 1: I got in at five o'clock and I'm excited to
Speaker 1: hang out with the crew again. You know, the the
Speaker 1: reunion tour right now in New York City via Shamani.
Speaker 1: Last time we all hung out. You came in from Mexico.
Speaker 1: I had a little stop off in Phoenix. I had
Speaker 1: a signed some books and uh, yeah, it's been like
Speaker 1: a pop off. It's been quick. So what exactly are
Speaker 1: you doing right now? Because I know that you put
Speaker 1: out a new book. This is is this your third
Speaker 1: book or your second. Um, I went back and I
Speaker 1: rewrote my first one. God, um so I've done three
Speaker 1: so far. I've just finished up number four, the rough
Speaker 1: draft anyway that's coming out. It's a really cool story. Um.
Speaker 1: Ghost is my first book I've I've done as a
Speaker 1: ghostwriter of writing somebody else's story and um, so that's
Speaker 1: kind of the project. But more than anything I've I'm
Speaker 1: a new dad, so that's been my my first job, right,
Speaker 1: like learning how to change diapers and all that calamity
Speaker 1: that goes with that. It's been awesome. So well, it's
Speaker 1: cool having Nick in here because usually I'm the one
Speaker 1: interacting with everybody, and I like that you have your
Speaker 1: your iMac was it. I'm still bad with computers, man,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say laptop. But yeah, so that you could
Speaker 1: interact with people watching and everything. Um, but to get
Speaker 1: everybody up to speed, big Mountain Heroes with a documentary
Speaker 1: that both of you guys were there for, um about skiing,
Speaker 1: about snowboarding and using extreme sports as almost a therapy
Speaker 1: for guys who have been in combat like yourself, and
Speaker 1: do you want to get into you know, just the
Speaker 1: inspiration behind the film because you you got to shoot
Speaker 1: a lot of it. I know that, um Ben, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm actually who wasn't Matt shot most of the film,
Speaker 1: but you were behind a lot of the photography of
Speaker 1: the film, and you know you did a lot of it.
Speaker 1: So the idea was prescribing thrills, not pills, right, So, Um,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to even go as far as saying
Speaker 1: using only extreme sports, because it's just it could be
Speaker 1: as small as like going outside or or I'm sure
Speaker 1: in your case, surfing a wave. It doesn't need to
Speaker 1: be a head high way of just anything just going outside.
Speaker 1: Like Isaiah, there's a couple of lines in it where
Speaker 1: he says, like every time I go outside, I stitch
Speaker 1: up the wound. And it's like such a powerful line
Speaker 1: that I feel, and that he says, I may never
Speaker 1: stitch the whole wound up, but every time I got outside,
Speaker 1: I put more stitching it. And so just going outside
Speaker 1: in general, and that's kind of what it's about. And
Speaker 1: we just happen to go on a ski trip in Shamany, France,
Speaker 1: and as a combat veteran yourself, I mean, what do
Speaker 1: you get out of this that that is able to
Speaker 1: relieve some of that stress that you've experienced one. I've
Speaker 1: said this for a long time that the most valuable
Speaker 1: thing that any veteran has coming out of the military
Speaker 1: is their rolodex. It's the people who they know that
Speaker 1: they can they can rely on, that they can lean on.
Speaker 1: Um and uh for me first and foremost, and like
Speaker 1: like you said, N, I love being outdoors. I think
Speaker 1: it's very cathartic for myself. Whether it's surfing, climbing, um,
Speaker 1: mountain biking, snowboarding. I'm not great at any of those things,
Speaker 1: but they're all exceptionally cathartic. But beyond that, for me,
Speaker 1: the opportunity to be around a group of like minded
Speaker 1: individuals who have experienced a similar who have similar experiences, right. UM,
Speaker 1: that in itself, you know, getting we hit this house together,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody for these eight days, and the memories
Speaker 1: that were made in the you know, at the house
Speaker 1: for me was just as powerful as some of the
Speaker 1: stuff we did on the mountain. You Know, you get
Speaker 1: out in nature and you feel um, you know, you
Speaker 1: feel alive, and you feel empowered and you feel small
Speaker 1: um at all the same time. But you do that
Speaker 1: in an environment where you're with people who you know,
Speaker 1: you can you can absolutely rely on that, you can
Speaker 1: trust you of commonality with um. You know, Isaiah was
Speaker 1: really cool that he was there. We were on our
Speaker 1: last deploytment. I rapped together. I was as medick, he
Speaker 1: was my sniper. And to be around those guys at
Speaker 1: any point is very It's it's good for the soul
Speaker 1: for uh, you know. But then beyond that, to be
Speaker 1: in an adventure like that simultaneously in nature and and
Speaker 1: utilizing that form of Catharsis simultaneously, it was. It was
Speaker 1: a double shot and it was great, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: it was phenomenal for that regard. And again, it's kind
Speaker 1: of too pronged for me to be able to kind
Speaker 1: of hang out with those guys again for that short
Speaker 1: period of time, but then also utilize something that you know,
Speaker 1: I try to utilize on a on a regular basis,
Speaker 1: which is nature is medicine rather than some kind of
Speaker 1: a synthetic alternative. It's longer lasting and the side effects
Speaker 1: aren't quite as bad. Yeah, just about all the guys
Speaker 1: from the film are are here right now, and they're
Speaker 1: out in the lobby, and we're gonna grab each guy
Speaker 1: for a few minutes at a time. Leo Jenkins is
Speaker 1: with us right now. Isaiah Burkhard is outside, Nick Bette's,
Speaker 1: Matt Hardy, Ben Whitney, who did UM some of the well.
Speaker 1: Ben is that it's funny I don't know all these guys,
Speaker 1: so I'm getting mixed up. Ben is a skier and
Speaker 1: personal friend of Brandon and UM and Matt is who
Speaker 1: did the cinematography. So yeah, We're looking forward to having
Speaker 1: each of these guys. And I was actually wonder, man,
Speaker 1: are you still doing CrossFit and all that? Because early
Speaker 1: on and I met you, you were coaching cross fit.
Speaker 1: You had your gym that you uh, did you own
Speaker 1: or I own? I've owned. I voted four different CrossFit
Speaker 1: gym's um I sold them there. I'm completely departed from them.
Speaker 1: My last time in any CrossFit competition was the regionals,
Speaker 1: the Latin American Regionals. Are won the open and then
Speaker 1: went down to Santiago and competed there, and that was
Speaker 1: kind of it for me. I did regionals three years
Speaker 1: in a row. Before that, I competed in trathlon professionally,
Speaker 1: and it was it was kind of like my time,
Speaker 1: you know, okay, and I just wanted to travel the world.
Speaker 1: I wanted to see some things I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: to some people, and UM, so I would say that
Speaker 1: I use elements of CrossFit on daily basis. My amazing
Speaker 1: wife Lauren again, we had our we had our first
Speaker 1: kid just under three months ago, so we're working out together.
Speaker 1: I'm utilizing that skill set as a coach to you know,
Speaker 1: get her back and and get her ready. I think
Speaker 1: she's gonna be ready to surf about the time I
Speaker 1: get back from here. So in about forty eight hours
Speaker 1: we're gonna go paddle out together for the first time
Speaker 1: in a long time. Um. But that I think is
Speaker 1: what CrossFit really is kind of about, is like creating
Speaker 1: a foundation of fitness to that you can then take
Speaker 1: it um and at any point like okay, we're gonna
Speaker 1: we're in a helicopter now into the Swiss Alps, and
Speaker 1: you better have the quads to be able to hold
Speaker 1: a line in some of these spots. And that's where
Speaker 1: it's helped me out. It's it's it's been um kind
Speaker 1: of a foundation or base level of fitness for everything
Speaker 1: else that I really enjoyed doing, surfing and climbing, mountain biking, snowboarding,
Speaker 1: all the thing. Again, things I'm not terribly great at
Speaker 1: but to maintain that that base level of fitness. For
Speaker 1: were you able to keep up with these guys, Nick,
Speaker 1: because much like myself, you're a civilian. You know, Nick,
Speaker 1: Nick is a stud. This dude had a bigger bag
Speaker 1: on than any of us, and he was I think
Speaker 1: Matt had the biggest bag. He Matt had a huge
Speaker 1: yea that you know, the guys who were carrying all
Speaker 1: the video equipment, they were definitely I think there. I
Speaker 1: know I was impressed. I can't speak for everyone else,
Speaker 1: but it's like, I don't know, but I think beyond anything.
Speaker 1: You know, you have the bag, you had, the smile
Speaker 1: you had in your face. And this is the commonality
Speaker 1: aspect of it, Like about Ben give friends at Brandon
Speaker 1: and it became good friends. I think of everyone in
Speaker 1: the group, Um, we found commonality. You know's there's there
Speaker 1: can be this dividing line, the veteran and and civilian
Speaker 1: kind of divide, and and you know what we had
Speaker 1: was this group of people and this trip was kind
Speaker 1: of about like UM veterans dealing with their assimilation issues
Speaker 1: and utilizing this uh, this avenue, this more healthy avenue,
Speaker 1: this this outdoor avenue, and it could have become you know, um,
Speaker 1: you know that that there was potential for like a
Speaker 1: creation of a division between you know, a civilian and
Speaker 1: but really it was just we were all stoked to
Speaker 1: be in that environment and were like there was so
Speaker 1: much mutual respect. Like this guy shreds you know, like
Speaker 1: and and you know, we we've seen kind of this
Speaker 1: little we see divide. Um, we've seen a little bit
Speaker 1: here in the last sixteen seventeen years guys coming at
Speaker 1: you like veterans are gonna stand over here and we're
Speaker 1: gonna kind of, um push apart. But one of the
Speaker 1: things that I found in this this whole social experiment
Speaker 1: that we did in Shamany was um, like, there's there's
Speaker 1: so much more commonality. Um, but between you know, combat
Speaker 1: veterans and our civilian counterparts, then there is difference. You know,
Speaker 1: we have that one difference. And I'm like, okay, this
Speaker 1: I went to Warren, I did that, um, and I've
Speaker 1: got I've got those issues, but are you know where
Speaker 1: my civilian counterpartner might not have. But we've got a
Speaker 1: lot more things in common than we have different. That
Speaker 1: was one of the biggest takeaways that I had from
Speaker 1: that was, Um, you know, you get together with guys
Speaker 1: and do those kind of things. It doesn't matter really
Speaker 1: if you were a uniform or not. Um, let's let's
Speaker 1: get together and do the things that make us really
Speaker 1: stoked right now. Absolutely. Um, So I should let you
Speaker 1: guys watching know that the reason everybody is in town
Speaker 1: and we're talking big Mountain heroes is that the premiere
Speaker 1: is in New York City tonight. Um. As many of
Speaker 1: you may have seen, we did a Kickstarter. I think
Speaker 1: there's a couple walky fans who get to go to
Speaker 1: this premiere, right who contributed on Kickstarter? There are some fans. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so if you contributed, you'll be getting all the material
Speaker 1: that you put in for soon. Really looking forward to
Speaker 1: sending out all the stuff. The Prince are actually behind there,
Speaker 1: which I got a sneak preview of. I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to seeing all that stuff. Um. Yeah, are you excited
Speaker 1: for the premier tonight? I mean, have you seen the
Speaker 1: final cut? I've got mixed feelings. I haven't. I've seen
Speaker 1: the first minute, um, and the first minute looks absolutely phenomenal. Um,
Speaker 1: but uh, I think for every moment of triumph that
Speaker 1: I had, I also fell an equal number of times.
Speaker 1: So I know that there's always in any ski snowboard movie,
Speaker 1: there's definitely uh some of that involved. I'm curious to
Speaker 1: see where I'm at. I'm stoked to see it. I
Speaker 1: know it's gonna be good. I know, um, and I'm
Speaker 1: no Nick for a few years, and I've never seen
Speaker 1: anything that he's ever put out that I wasn't incredibly
Speaker 1: impressed with. Um, you're just kissing his ask, No, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I generally mean that, I'm I'm like, we're building a
Speaker 1: house in Mexico. I've already told him. I was like,
Speaker 1: I want one of your prints on my wall. The
Speaker 1: guys that he's talented is can be uh. So I
Speaker 1: know it's gonna be good. I'm excited for it. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm curious to see how many times in the edits
Speaker 1: that uh I take a spill. I know that happened
Speaker 1: probably at least ten times more in real life than
Speaker 1: what he put into the film. So you actually there's
Speaker 1: a line in the film where you talk about you're
Speaker 1: one of your best spills that I included. It's like
Speaker 1: it's like so perfect when you're like, man, I don't
Speaker 1: even care how many times I go down, It's just
Speaker 1: so fun. It was just so authentic and so genuine,
Speaker 1: like the way it came out, and I think that
Speaker 1: was that was a part of it, was this, this
Speaker 1: was this is not a film that's about like who's
Speaker 1: the best skier and snowboard It's about get out there
Speaker 1: and do it. You know, I'm not the best surfer,
Speaker 1: but man, if I don't feel better when I'm out there,
Speaker 1: if I don't feel more complete, and to be out
Speaker 1: in that environment with people who you have commonality with
Speaker 1: that you care about, it just amplifies it all. And again,
Speaker 1: I don't you know this this film the bits that
Speaker 1: I've seen that it's there's some there's some really really
Speaker 1: cool skiing and snowboard in it. For sure, I witnessed
Speaker 1: that firsthand. But it's not really what it's about. It's
Speaker 1: about getting out there and doing it. And if you've
Speaker 1: never you've never done these things. If you're somebody out there,
Speaker 1: you know that, you know you just got back from
Speaker 1: Afghanistan and you know, link up with your buddies, go
Speaker 1: out and be in nature, and it doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: you do. Guys, go get go, get a mountain bike.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be you know, on X games
Speaker 1: to go charge it or anything. Just go out and
Speaker 1: be in nature, go snowboard and link up with your friends. Hey,
Speaker 1: let's all meet up at the mountain and go do it.
Speaker 1: And if you fall down all day long, you have
Speaker 1: a beer at the end. You've got stories to tell.
Speaker 1: That's really what it's about. Um. And to me, this
Speaker 1: movie was that just on just a slightly larger scale.
Speaker 1: How did you feel before the trip, like during the trip,
Speaker 1: after the trip, like, was it a positive benefit for you,
Speaker 1: like doing something I guess getting with your brothers. I
Speaker 1: know Neil he said he hasn't hung out with a
Speaker 1: group of veterans since he left however many years ago.
Speaker 1: That was so Um, I'd like to kind of hear
Speaker 1: that from everyone. I know. When I first got out,
Speaker 1: I completely separated myself. Not intentionally, you just you've kind
Speaker 1: of had enough of the regiment of the dated a,
Speaker 1: the militant lifestyle, and a lot of guys just kind
Speaker 1: of want to they want to be themselves. And I
Speaker 1: did that initially. Then I you know, as the progression
Speaker 1: when I kind of found value in in these other
Speaker 1: people who had that common interest, and then I started traveling,
Speaker 1: and I've spent a lot of time in countries. I
Speaker 1: lived in Costa Rica for extended period of time. They
Speaker 1: don't have a military, so I really had nobody to
Speaker 1: relate with these things, and um, you kind of you
Speaker 1: just sort of forget about it and you get to
Speaker 1: that point and instantly the jokes from Isaiah and I's
Speaker 1: combat deployment in two thousand and six together, you know,
Speaker 1: over a decade later, we're picking back up on it
Speaker 1: and we're the jokes are just like rolling and you
Speaker 1: realize that that was that was a part of who
Speaker 1: I was and and it just the nostalgia is is
Speaker 1: was was phenomenal, Um, but just a I don't know,
Speaker 1: being we we kind of ended up in almost like
Speaker 1: a dorm status with these other guys that you felt like,
Speaker 1: that's that's where I come from, and that's what I'm
Speaker 1: able to can tribute and I it was for me,
Speaker 1: it was just the being around the guys was the
Speaker 1: biggest thing. You know. It was really really cool to
Speaker 1: be able to go up and and take a helicopter,
Speaker 1: to be able to to ride the Swiss Alps, and
Speaker 1: we did. We did the Italian, Swiss and French alpse.
Speaker 1: We did three countries three consecutive days, and it's just
Speaker 1: like as an adventurer, as somebody who considers themself a traveler,
Speaker 1: that's just you know, it's tough to beat that in
Speaker 1: any way, shape or form. Um. You know, that was
Speaker 1: huge and that will always stay with me. But any
Speaker 1: opportunity I have to hang with these guys who I know,
Speaker 1: this is the first time I'd ever I'd ever put
Speaker 1: a had an air bag on UM, I had climbing
Speaker 1: hardest song in case I fell into a crevasse, into
Speaker 1: a cave and somebody's gotta pull me out. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of these things, and not once was I ever
Speaker 1: worried about it, because I've got a handful of guys
Speaker 1: here who I know will give their last breath for me,
Speaker 1: and that's something that doesn't happen a lot. You know,
Speaker 1: we get out and we we go into our civilian jobs,
Speaker 1: and um to to be kind of pulled back into
Speaker 1: an environment where, yes, it is life threatening situations. Potentially
Speaker 1: there's things that we could get hurt, we can get
Speaker 1: killed doing this, but you're around a group of people
Speaker 1: who you absolutely don't have to worry about anything. They're
Speaker 1: going to take care of you and just to be
Speaker 1: reminded of that to that level of brotherhood is you
Speaker 1: know it was. It was a great reminder for me,
Speaker 1: as I'm sure it was for Kneel and a couple
Speaker 1: of the other guys. And um, you know the takeaway,
Speaker 1: I think I'm I'm on the on the shallowest level.
Speaker 1: I think I'm a slightly better snowboarder for it, uh
Speaker 1: the absolute minimum. But you know, um, we we we
Speaker 1: reconfirm bonds that we've had for a very long time
Speaker 1: and re established new ones that I think we're gonna
Speaker 1: last a lifetime. And then that's that, to me, is
Speaker 1: the that's the meat and potatoes of this whole thing.
Speaker 1: I have to point out it and realize the irony
Speaker 1: of you drinking a beer called Voodoo Rangers. That one,
Speaker 1: fortuitously enough that was handed to me. He's kind of
Speaker 1: got my style to this guy was because like I think,
Speaker 1: like they're they're like snowboard goggles and like, uh endorsing
Speaker 1: this beer per se, But I'll drink six or seven
Speaker 1: more of these. That's an enjoysement before you probably take
Speaker 1: some free ones if they so chose to send you
Speaker 1: a box. Just send me a case. I wouldn't hesitate
Speaker 1: to sending le Jenkins before we at Mexico dot com
Speaker 1: that's where I'm at, or uh somewhere, just sending to
Speaker 1: Mexico before we bring in another guy. I feel like
Speaker 1: I at least have to mention a bond that you
Speaker 1: too share is I don't know many guys who lived
Speaker 1: in a van or lived in a bus for as
Speaker 1: long as you have, and both of you with your
Speaker 1: girlfriends or for you your your wife now and right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know why she hadn't you didn't leave me
Speaker 1: through that process. Yeah, there's I mean, you really get
Speaker 1: to know somebody when you've you're you know, your facilities
Speaker 1: are a plastic Walmart bag. You get to get to
Speaker 1: the meat and potatoes again of someone's soul in that
Speaker 1: In that regard, it's uh um yeah. There there's a
Speaker 1: lot of adventure to be had when you're you're sharing
Speaker 1: domicile thirty square feet with another human being. This, this
Speaker 1: studio is literally twice as big as Yeah that's where
Speaker 1: I live, and probably four times as big as where
Speaker 1: you once lived. Yea, it was, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: love the van where I'm looking forward to rekindling that.
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking about the bus concept. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pick your brand before you before this day's over. But
Speaker 1: we've got one other human being with us now. Um,
Speaker 1: I've got a little gram little Kazaiah um, so I
Speaker 1: gotta start building something out so once we get back
Speaker 1: on the road, it facilitates three human lives instead of
Speaker 1: just a two. And yeah, but that's I mean, the
Speaker 1: eventure doesn't start when the trip does. The adventure starts
Speaker 1: when things start to go wrong. And you can guarantee,
Speaker 1: like when you're key in shamany night one he's so
Speaker 1: strong he bent the key. He shows up. There's pretty
Speaker 1: good instructions, I thought, and then he's like messaging us like,
Speaker 1: well I can't get in all this stuff, but they
Speaker 1: like jammed and bent the key. And first of all,
Speaker 1: as a French key, why don't you tell the whole story?
Speaker 1: So it was probably a little weaker than, uh than
Speaker 1: I'm used to. Um, we showed up a little bit later.
Speaker 1: You guys were already in a restaurant. Uh. And and
Speaker 1: by the way, he showed up to this restaurant first
Speaker 1: night snowing like eight inches of snow in flip flops.
Speaker 1: I got flip flops his only pair of shoes. I think,
Speaker 1: I don't know own shoes. This isn't this isn't like
Speaker 1: a joke. I legitimately I don't own shoes. Um. I
Speaker 1: had a pair of snowboard boots and the flips flip
Speaker 1: flops with me, and uh we walked Neil and I
Speaker 1: walked I think it was about two kilometers restaurant in
Speaker 1: the snow to meet you guys. Walked back and we
Speaker 1: just we tried and tried and tried to get into
Speaker 1: the room. Um. I kind of was like, well, I
Speaker 1: mean we could I have somebody could scale the drain
Speaker 1: pipe and which we're on like the fourth the fourth floor,
Speaker 1: and uh so I climbed up the drain pipe, fat
Speaker 1: in the snow and snow freezing, and broke the broke
Speaker 1: the door up there, got in, got you know, gonna
Speaker 1: make it happen. Quite the thing that didn't make it
Speaker 1: into the film. We really would definitely wish we had
Speaker 1: had the cameras rolling at that time, but they're up
Speaker 1: to airs because we're like, all right, we're meeting everyone
Speaker 1: at night. We were in the hallway for a solid
Speaker 1: two hours but I'm glad we got a story because
Speaker 1: I really wanted I want each person to tell like
Speaker 1: a story, because not all the stories could make it
Speaker 1: into the film. Obviously in this one, dimn this was
Speaker 1: a pretty iconic one. I think it was. It was
Speaker 1: good for me showing up. I felt like I was
Speaker 1: going to be the weak link on the slopes, so
Speaker 1: to speak. So the fact that my climate ability was
Speaker 1: able to let into the team like, hey, I got
Speaker 1: a skill set there. It's an important thing is that
Speaker 1: every team, you know, there's even if you feel like
Speaker 1: you're the weak link in one regard, you're you've got
Speaker 1: us as strong suit in another. And I was able
Speaker 1: to utilize that to get up the drain pipe and
Speaker 1: get us into the room. Allegedly I caused the problem
Speaker 1: to begin with. That's neither here nor there, but you
Speaker 1: fixed it the night I got us in there. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it was. It was a good way to
Speaker 1: start off the trip. It was lighthearted. We definitely exceeded
Speaker 1: the capacity of the elevator more than once, and nobody died.
Speaker 1: It was it was. It was a win all around,
Speaker 1: right on man, Well, you could follow Leo on instag
Speaker 1: ram at Leo underscore Jenkins, you always have a lot
Speaker 1: of great adventures going on. Anything else you're promoting before
Speaker 1: we bring on, I think Isaiah next. Um, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Just live, man, You just get out there and and
Speaker 1: uh and hug your neighbor and talk to them and um,
Speaker 1: understand that if we do get one run at this
Speaker 1: life to make it a beautiful one. And let's drop
Speaker 1: the victoriol. I think that's the only thing that I
Speaker 1: could possibly promote that's worth anything. Right now, I'm with you, man,
Speaker 1: all right. Well, with that said, let's grab if you
Speaker 1: if you could grab Isaiah, I'll grab Isaiah and we'll
Speaker 1: bring it in here. Yeah. And again he's a good
Speaker 1: looking man. Well he no longer has the handlebar mustache.
Speaker 1: That's all right. Yeah, it's all right. He's got he's
Speaker 1: got to still grab wor beautiful golden locks. He's grab worthy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we switched haircuts. Appreciate it, man, I like I like that.
Speaker 1: You're staying here with me for the full however long
Speaker 1: we go, because it's cool to have someone else reading
Speaker 1: the comments. Um, let's have all right. Well, yeah you're
Speaker 1: here now, it's all good. Thank you, Thank you. Leo
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Um, if your head, John, You're good. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it's funny. I've seen Nick stuff like on Instagram
Speaker 1: for ages. We had you on the podcast for like
Speaker 1: a really quick second ones, but the first time I've
Speaker 1: actually met you. So yeah, it's been uh, it's been
Speaker 1: quite the adventure getting here and it's absolutely awesome. So
Speaker 1: I should give Nick's background, former sniper, owner of Crypto
Speaker 1: am I saying it right, strategic, Yeah, and which is
Speaker 1: your clothing brand? It is um And what's the website again,
Speaker 1: thought crypto Strategic dot com. That's right. Okay, do you
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit more about your background
Speaker 1: since a lot of this audience, uh, you know, might
Speaker 1: not know you yet. They've seen you on Software TV though. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've done quite a few episodes of training so with uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a great group of guys. And Drew Wallace,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of heads that up and and me
Speaker 1: and Drew kind of have this weird history. Um, his
Speaker 1: brother was my lieutenant when I was in Afghanistan my
Speaker 1: last two work And by the way, which branch were
Speaker 1: you in? I was in the army Okay, got um, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I was in Afghanistan and Jamie was my lieutenant.
Speaker 1: And I was at shot show the following year and
Speaker 1: Jamie sends me a texting. He's like, hey, my brother
Speaker 1: works for Oakley. He's over there at the booth. You
Speaker 1: should go stop by and see him. And I was like, okay.
Speaker 1: So I went and I'm like, who am I looking for?
Speaker 1: But they look absolutely identical, and so I spotted Drew
Speaker 1: and I kind of introduced myself, and that kind of uh,
Speaker 1: you know, has expanded in this long last year relationship
Speaker 1: of of bromance and shooting pigs at the helicopters and
Speaker 1: going to Utah and working with Buck Doyle out there
Speaker 1: and doing on some of that course. And so it's
Speaker 1: it's been awesome. That's so cool man. So, as I said,
Speaker 1: everybody is in town for the premier of Big Mountain Heroes. Um.
Speaker 1: The first thing I'm wondering, it's like, what do you
Speaker 1: want people to get out of this film? And what
Speaker 1: did you get out of the whole experience? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not entirely sure what to expect. Um. I don't
Speaker 1: even particularly know what what I want to get out
Speaker 1: of it. Um, I'm I don't want to set any
Speaker 1: expectations or any levels, um and and just kind of
Speaker 1: let it happen. I was with Nick recently at a
Speaker 1: festival in the middle of the desert called Burning Man,
Speaker 1: and adamantly, you know, I was asking him like, all right,
Speaker 1: where's a big mountain heros, let me see it? And
Speaker 1: I had the file because I had my whole house,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, and no, no, I can't pull it up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so my wife was like, no, you don't want
Speaker 1: to see it. Now, you want to see it there,
Speaker 1: And now I was absolutely right. But I want people
Speaker 1: to take the message out of it. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is truly thrills before pills, and you know, bringing awareness
Speaker 1: to veteran suicide, bringing awareness too recently transition veterans that
Speaker 1: are kind of maybe hard up on their luck um
Speaker 1: and are trying to get back into society and in
Speaker 1: the proper form and doing that isn't following what the
Speaker 1: VA is telling you to do, because we all know
Speaker 1: the VA is just disgusting for lack of a better term, um.
Speaker 1: And so getting out there and seeing nature, going skydiving,
Speaker 1: and I truly feel like every single one of us
Speaker 1: really exudes and lives this. Uh, you know, Leo is
Speaker 1: doing amazing things in Mexico. He's surfing all the time,
Speaker 1: Nick's skydiving all the time. I'm doing whatever the hell
Speaker 1: I can try to do at any point in time,
Speaker 1: spear fishing a lot um, you know, trying to get
Speaker 1: my surfing game back. And snow is just now starting
Speaker 1: to fall up in the mountains in California. So snowboarding
Speaker 1: is gonna be gonna be uh coming coming up here soon. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to seeing it myself. Man. I mean
Speaker 1: I've seen some of the footage that Nick has shot before.
Speaker 1: I saw a quick thirty second trailer that that Nick
Speaker 1: sent me of just like our names and kind of
Speaker 1: like the credits like rolling into it, and it was
Speaker 1: just Matt did an amazing job with the footage, and it's,
Speaker 1: you know, all these drone aerial stuff and it's us
Speaker 1: just trying to climb up this this massive ridgeline after
Speaker 1: we dropped out of the helicopter. Um. So it's it's
Speaker 1: gonna be exciting. So what was your previous experience with
Speaker 1: the guys in the film, Like, who did you know?
Speaker 1: Who was your first time meeting? Um? Me and Leo
Speaker 1: were acquaintances, would see each other and you know, and
Speaker 1: say hello, whether it Bisha show or if we'd run
Speaker 1: into each other at any point in time. Um, I
Speaker 1: invited Leo to come stay at my place whenever he was,
Speaker 1: you know, living the whole van life, and it was
Speaker 1: up in Alaska and come down south headed into crazy,
Speaker 1: right dude, I I truly he is. He's such an inspiration.
Speaker 1: I read his last book, Last Train out of Denver,
Speaker 1: and it was I kind of equated to like the
Speaker 1: modern day Robinson Crusoe, a lot of adventure. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, I couldn't. I could associate with it
Speaker 1: just because you know, me and Lou have similar backgrounds
Speaker 1: just being military. Um. And so it was it was awesome.
Speaker 1: So were you? Are you a skier, snowboarder, snowboarder? Okay,
Speaker 1: so you snowboard is snowboarding for you? You You know, are
Speaker 1: remedied to cope with stres you know, post post combat
Speaker 1: related stress or any of that stuff for you? Or
Speaker 1: you know, because I know that that's that's the theme
Speaker 1: of the film. Is it just something that you enjoy
Speaker 1: doing or do you connect it to Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: absolutely something that that I love doing. I've done it
Speaker 1: for quite a while when I was stationed out in Europe, UM,
Speaker 1: I was snowboarding in Austria and Germany quite a bit.
Speaker 1: Um So, originally when Brandon hit me up to ask
Speaker 1: me about this trip, I didn't think I thought that
Speaker 1: I was insanely prepared. I'm like, oh, I've written Europe,
Speaker 1: you know. I I know these these types of mountains, um,
Speaker 1: but those are all groomed runs. And so I was
Speaker 1: very out of my element when you're talking four or
Speaker 1: five seven ft of powder and it was all backcountry stuff.
Speaker 1: And so that was really kind of something that um
Speaker 1: it handed me my ass. For lack of a better term,
Speaker 1: I was I was in over my head. Cahill was
Speaker 1: helping me out, just kind of learning how to ride
Speaker 1: powder that deep before, and so him and Leo both
Speaker 1: which was like, act like it's a wave, act like
Speaker 1: it's water. And once I kind of picked up that principle,
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, now I can kind of get it.
Speaker 1: So it's not cutting the hard edges, it's just going
Speaker 1: with the flowing and just leaning into the turns. And
Speaker 1: once I picked that up, and and I was done
Speaker 1: eating shipped for a little while, I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: this is fun and that was good, but it was
Speaker 1: truly testing and it it was a remedy. It absolutely was.
Speaker 1: So with you back in here, Nick, I have to
Speaker 1: ask about burning me and stories from you guys because
Speaker 1: I've never been there. It looks like it was an
Speaker 1: awesome experience. We both have done it several times. This
Speaker 1: is my first time. Yeah, this is k Hill's. Uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know many at the time, fifth, fourth time,
Speaker 1: So let's get into it. I want to hear how
Speaker 1: that went down. It's hot. My hydroflask explode in the
Speaker 1: bus because the bus was a hunt of spaghetti one day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was rough. Did you smell it? No, no, you
Speaker 1: guys have cleaned it up by by then. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember I showed up at at Nick's camp and
Speaker 1: I rude my bicycle over and he had spaghetti that
Speaker 1: was in one of the hydro flask and it blew
Speaker 1: up and uh. They were just appalled at at the
Speaker 1: at the smell. Um. So, I mean, what would you
Speaker 1: what would you say to someone thinking of going for
Speaker 1: the first time. It's um an experience for everyone. I
Speaker 1: mean some of the best experiences I've had have been
Speaker 1: like talking to like a nine year old kid. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what do you like about this place? And he's like,
Speaker 1: I get to drive. Should a nine year old kid
Speaker 1: really be a burning Man? Yeah? And I've seen younger
Speaker 1: and it's weird because people's perception of what it is
Speaker 1: versus the reality of what it is is drastically different.
Speaker 1: I mean, sure there's you know, bad things there, but
Speaker 1: there's so many good things there. I mean, you walk
Speaker 1: down the street right outside, I'm sure you can see
Speaker 1: equally amount of bad and good things right so, um,
Speaker 1: you know you can find whatever you're looking for or
Speaker 1: find anything. But yeah, I mean I think it's definitely
Speaker 1: for children, and I think it's definitely for adults to Um,
Speaker 1: you had a nine year old kid, you bring him
Speaker 1: to Burning Man? Um, I think there'd be probably more
Speaker 1: problems from nine years ago, like like that, shouldn't have
Speaker 1: a nine year old kid, but but um, yeah I
Speaker 1: probably would. And I've been trying to get my parents
Speaker 1: come with me, and um, maybe they will this year.
Speaker 1: It's the biggest thing is if like you're not having
Speaker 1: on or if it's too brutal or whatever, you can
Speaker 1: drive away and leave and you can you can be
Speaker 1: like test civilization in like a half hour. Yeah, people
Speaker 1: have this this misconceived perception of of burning Man that
Speaker 1: it's you know, some hippie bullshit stuff and everyone's just
Speaker 1: doing a bunch of drugs and people are naked, and
Speaker 1: it is that if that's what you wanted to be.
Speaker 1: But it's also they're having ted talks and they're doing
Speaker 1: yoga and they have you know, meditation seminars and and
Speaker 1: if it's not that, then I mean people are working
Speaker 1: out or uh you know, they're beating it out of
Speaker 1: each other with like pupil sticks and like boxing gloves
Speaker 1: and at the thunder Dome and and it's truly whatever
Speaker 1: you wanted to be. Um. But I absolutely think that
Speaker 1: it's life changing. I think that everybody needs to go
Speaker 1: at least once. You don't need to go for the
Speaker 1: full week, you don't need to do whatever. Um. But
Speaker 1: just the art, the visuals, everything's it's amazing. It's life changing.
Speaker 1: And my wife and I'll be going back every year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm you guys are convincing me to do it. It's
Speaker 1: something point um before we move on, you know the
Speaker 1: other guys. We've got so many guys here, is there
Speaker 1: one story that stands out in particular from the whole
Speaker 1: Big Mountain Heroes trip and just a story you don't
Speaker 1: need to tell that Leo did his climbing at the
Speaker 1: balcony door breaking one. He said it, so, I mean
Speaker 1: you can, you can say it again if you'd like.
Speaker 1: But I think maybe we should go with a different
Speaker 1: one for the audience. Let me try to think of
Speaker 1: a story I think, or how about this. How did
Speaker 1: it feel flying in a helicopter without a gun? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I remember when we were coming in and after we
Speaker 1: had taken off in the helicopters and we're in Switzerland,
Speaker 1: me and Leo look at each other and we're just like,
Speaker 1: it's kind of weird, like not having to worry about
Speaker 1: getting shot at and you know, actually like enjoy the
Speaker 1: ride or even be able to see everything because you know,
Speaker 1: I reckon Afghaniser would always fly at night. Um, and
Speaker 1: just like taking in those visuals and it was kind
Speaker 1: of like this it was already the movie in my head,
Speaker 1: like it was already edited, and I could just like
Speaker 1: as we're coming up, we're flying around the mountain just
Speaker 1: trying to find like the perfect spot to drop off at.
Speaker 1: I just I couldn't believe where I was, and I
Speaker 1: was like, is this fucking real? Like I, it's so amazing,
Speaker 1: And um, can you describe like how far away from
Speaker 1: humans we were? Yeah, it was probably a good fifteen
Speaker 1: minute helicopter ride, which would probably equate too if we
Speaker 1: were to walk out. And how long would it take
Speaker 1: us days? I think it would probably take us days
Speaker 1: to get there. And once we dropped out of that helicopter,
Speaker 1: you quickly realized like, there there's no one around, there's
Speaker 1: no snowmobiles, there's no lifts, there's no lodges, there's there's
Speaker 1: none of that stuff. Um, this is all on you.
Speaker 1: And uh, it's slightly overwhelming. But being with such a
Speaker 1: good group of guys that are not only a little
Speaker 1: more qualified than I am, um, but just motivational. And
Speaker 1: I remember getting to that point and actually here here
Speaker 1: is good. So I remember getting this point. We had
Speaker 1: rode down the glacier quite a bit, Me and Leore
Speaker 1: on snowboards, Cahals on snowboard, but he has uh the
Speaker 1: board the split boards where you can kind of turn
Speaker 1: into skis. And so we got to a point where
Speaker 1: we had to traverse up over this ridge line in
Speaker 1: order to actually get back down in the valley into civilization,
Speaker 1: and I'm coming from sea level. We're probably at this
Speaker 1: point in time at like eleven thousand feet ten thousand
Speaker 1: feet UM, and it just snowed the night before, so
Speaker 1: we're looking at him deep at least at at least
Speaker 1: and at times it was even worse than that. And
Speaker 1: I was just absolutely sucking and I unbuckled. UM. I
Speaker 1: was hungover or at elevation, and me and Leo are
Speaker 1: just traversing out this ridge line and kind of digging
Speaker 1: our snowboards into there. And I literally had to act
Speaker 1: like I had to create a snowshoe out of my
Speaker 1: entire body, because any time I tried to step, I
Speaker 1: would just come up to my waist and I wasn't
Speaker 1: I wasn't going anywhere, and I was just I was
Speaker 1: getting frustrated and I was I was worked over. Um.
Speaker 1: And I looked back at Leo. I'm like, how you
Speaker 1: doing and and he's like killing it, dude, and he's
Speaker 1: like this is awesome. And his motivation motivated me, and
Speaker 1: it kind of pulled me onto this like negative spot
Speaker 1: in my that I was in. And Uh, I asked myself, like,
Speaker 1: why why are you upset? Right now, Like, why are
Speaker 1: you dude? You just jumped out of a helicopter in
Speaker 1: fucking Switzerland and you're snowboarding with you know this group.
Speaker 1: We like, what what's there to be upset about? And
Speaker 1: so Leo kind of pulled me out of that, you know,
Speaker 1: negative mindset that I was at, and I just remember
Speaker 1: thinking like, I don't know, like I was inspired by
Speaker 1: you know, his motivation by and and it helped, you know,
Speaker 1: bring shed a light on on this adventure that we're on.
Speaker 1: So it was good. Yeah, it's cool when you're inspired
Speaker 1: by your colleagues that you're doing something, you know, such
Speaker 1: a big wife experience with. Yeah, and it's nice. Now right,
Speaker 1: I've I've I got out of the military, and I
Speaker 1: have yet to be inspired by anybody that have met
Speaker 1: since I've been out, with the exception of Leo, and
Speaker 1: it's like few other people. But it's just you know,
Speaker 1: when you're in, you're inspired by guys that sacrifice themselves.
Speaker 1: You're inspired by you know, metal lawn recipients, um, And
Speaker 1: once you get out, I just I'm really not inspired
Speaker 1: by people. You know, they kind of have ship stories
Speaker 1: are cool. You went to college and so it's a
Speaker 1: top to relate to civilians. It is, um, I've I
Speaker 1: feel like I've I've transferred well into uh the realm
Speaker 1: of you know, the civilian sector and work. And now
Speaker 1: I mean I'll work at a in an office, at
Speaker 1: a desk for a company that manufacturers three D printers,
Speaker 1: and so I've truly transitioned. Do you hate it though? No,
Speaker 1: I don't, um, not at all. Actually, I'm excited now
Speaker 1: that I finally have a resume that's marketable. Whereas before
Speaker 1: it's like, oh cool, you're a sniper. I just think
Speaker 1: to go for free tours, you have to go from
Speaker 1: being a sniper being in war zones to being behind
Speaker 1: the desk. It's gotta be like where's you know, you
Speaker 1: have to find that rush, I assume, which is why
Speaker 1: you take up skiing or snowboard. Yeah. And that's why
Speaker 1: this trip was you know, so awesome. That's why the
Speaker 1: spear fishing and all the traveling that that I've been doing,
Speaker 1: you know, burning Man and and just you know traveling
Speaker 1: the world. Uh. You know, it's fortunate last years in
Speaker 1: seven different countries within forty five days. Um. And as
Speaker 1: soon as I got back from Big Mountain Heroes in France.
Speaker 1: My wife and I went straight to Mexico City and
Speaker 1: we were there for a week and unfortunately, I mean
Speaker 1: the city almost doesn't exist, which is, you know, truly unfortunate,
Speaker 1: but it's nice. It's nice finally having a marketable resume
Speaker 1: because before there was a real rough patch there where
Speaker 1: I couldn't find work. Um, nobody wanted to hire me,
Speaker 1: and I went contracting, you know, I was working overseas
Speaker 1: and and doing diplomatic security and kind of the former
Speaker 1: Blackwater um and got out of that and thankfully somebody
Speaker 1: kind of handed me a bone, and so yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: I do marketing social media management for a few companies,
Speaker 1: and and I couldn't be more excited. Way way off
Speaker 1: topic of the film itself, but I'm wondering, now, working
Speaker 1: in the three D printing industry, do you have a
Speaker 1: different perspective of the whole You know, after Vegas they're
Speaker 1: talking about the whole gun control issue and everything, and
Speaker 1: I think what always comes to my mind. I don't
Speaker 1: know as much about it as someone like you, but
Speaker 1: with three D printers, it's gonna be a whole different
Speaker 1: game of what you can buy and what you'll be
Speaker 1: able to just print yourself when it's readily available to everyone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think in the context of firearms that we're still
Speaker 1: a long ways off, so that shouldn't be of anybody's concern. However,
Speaker 1: it's drastically um advancing prototype and technologies and design and development,
Speaker 1: and it's really helping people become entrepreneurs without having to
Speaker 1: sacrifice all the money that goes into R and d UM.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's it's way off topic, but it's absolutely
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's here, yeah, and it's going to
Speaker 1: revolutionize and change things. Topic. I got a question, Well,
Speaker 1: I got a question for them. I'd like to hear, like,
Speaker 1: were you kind of relating to the film and going
Speaker 1: outside and just the whole idea that, um, I know
Speaker 1: you stand behind in that time when you were struggling
Speaker 1: to find work, Um, were you going outside, Like what
Speaker 1: kind of can you kind of describe like maybe the
Speaker 1: things you were doing or things maybe you wish you
Speaker 1: did that maybe you do now that maybe could help
Speaker 1: someone something like that. Yeah. So, I mean I literally
Speaker 1: I sold every gun, every knife, every watch, anything of
Speaker 1: value that I owned in order to pay the bills.
Speaker 1: I was truly, you know, sacrificing the tay. I wasn't
Speaker 1: creating something go fund me because I'm looking too lazy
Speaker 1: to sell you know, whatever I have of value. Um.
Speaker 1: And it got to a point there where we were
Speaker 1: literally days away from almost unfortunately Mom, Dad, you know
Speaker 1: we're moving east. Um. And my only solace and and
Speaker 1: you know, my wife and I went through struggles just
Speaker 1: because of money and money bring struggles. But my solace
Speaker 1: there was literally it was exercise and it was surfing.
Speaker 1: I would go on eight nine ten mile runs and
Speaker 1: I'd be gone for hours. Um. And that now is
Speaker 1: my event. That was how I got rid of, you know,
Speaker 1: all the stress. Um. That was my my very brief
Speaker 1: kind of time where my mind is clear. UM. And
Speaker 1: surfing as well. And I was really like when I
Speaker 1: tried to pick it up, and I was out at
Speaker 1: the beach every day and I was just trying to
Speaker 1: catch any wave and even when there were no waves,
Speaker 1: I would just paddle out regardless. Um. How did that
Speaker 1: make you feel when you were able to do those things?
Speaker 1: And in those hard times it was medicine, it really was.
Speaker 1: It was without that if I lived and you know,
Speaker 1: maybe some ship hole where I wasn't able to kind
Speaker 1: of get out and experience that it would have been
Speaker 1: to my detriment and it probably wouldn't have been healthy
Speaker 1: at all. And even at that point in time it
Speaker 1: wasn't healthy. I was drinking quite a bit, um and
Speaker 1: I was just trying to do anything to get by,
Speaker 1: and I had some easily job as a bartender for
Speaker 1: a while that wasn't really doing anything. But as anybody
Speaker 1: knows that's been in the bartending in the restaurant industry,
Speaker 1: it's pretty savage. Um. You know, drugs are pretty rampant.
Speaker 1: You know, you're drinking on the job. You're working until
Speaker 1: you know two am, but then you go out and
Speaker 1: have a nightcap with all the other bartenders, and it's
Speaker 1: just it's not conducive to like a healthy life. Um So,
Speaker 1: when I finally threw that in and pulled the trigger
Speaker 1: and went contracting, um and it finally afforded me that
Speaker 1: that opportunity to kind of get out of that rut.
Speaker 1: It was a bad rut. You know, I was getting fat,
Speaker 1: which is it's weird, right, And I was getting fat,
Speaker 1: but I still run in ten miles, but it's just
Speaker 1: because I was drinking as much as I was running.
Speaker 1: Um So, it's it's it's disgusting, and it wasn't it
Speaker 1: wasn't health. So I can be more happy to be
Speaker 1: where I'm at now, to be in a stable career,
Speaker 1: to be home for good. Um. I've seen my wife
Speaker 1: now more in this last year than I did in
Speaker 1: the past six years of our marriage. Wo. Um. And
Speaker 1: so it's it's exciting. That's awesome, man. I'm looking at
Speaker 1: the comments that people are staying on Facebook. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: for example, Jeff on here, I've been on hunting and
Speaker 1: fishing trips that are donated by guys. It's awesome and
Speaker 1: meeting other cool vets. Um. So a lot of people
Speaker 1: could could relate to this type of thing and they
Speaker 1: like hearing about the transition stories from all you guys. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if there's anything you see, Nick that that pops up
Speaker 1: that you want to, uh, let people know if we
Speaker 1: have any questions, but keep checking out, um you know
Speaker 1: what we have here and liking it on YouTube, sharing
Speaker 1: it on Facebook, etcetera. Um. You could find Nick on
Speaker 1: Instagram at end underscore bets, which you always have like
Speaker 1: a lot of adventurous stuff going on. You did burning Man,
Speaker 1: you got matching taco tattoos with your wife, right, that's
Speaker 1: pretty cool. We did a good friend of mine. He's
Speaker 1: a he's a good chef in San Diego and he's
Speaker 1: also a tattoo artist on the side. Uh is it Nick? Well, Nick,
Speaker 1: it's always work done by him, but it's Miggs And
Speaker 1: uh so, Miggs did matching taco tattoos for for my
Speaker 1: wife and I on our risk, just because I mean
Speaker 1: in San Diego, every Tuesday is a national holiday for
Speaker 1: Taco Tuesday. So yeah, what's the place to go for
Speaker 1: tacos in San Diego? Oh? On record, I would probably
Speaker 1: say Oscars, Oscars Oscars Tacos. There's one in Hillcrest, there's
Speaker 1: one in Pacific Beach, and they had the best fish
Speaker 1: tacos hands down. Um And then if you're not in
Speaker 1: the fish taco game, I'd probably go to Mike's Taco
Speaker 1: Club in Nocean Beach, which is where I live. Um so,
Speaker 1: I I damn. They're probably pays right, just with girl
Speaker 1: all the times that I go there every week. So
Speaker 1: now that you're in New York, I'm sure you got in.
Speaker 1: Told you in the New York Pizza Yeah, we've been.
Speaker 1: We've been tearing up the pizza, the pasta scene. We
Speaker 1: went to Mamofuku last night for Rom and Wife and
Speaker 1: I are a big Roman fans. Um. Yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: I I was telling miss you today that I think
Speaker 1: this might be the only other city outside of San
Speaker 1: Diego that I could live. Um, but maybe only temporarily.
Speaker 1: I can see how it can get overwhelming. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: every now and then I'm gonna need a surf session,
Speaker 1: you know, some beach and sun. And I'm sure as
Speaker 1: Helen getting that here. Yeah, some surfing here isn't there,
Speaker 1: That's what Leo was saying. So I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I want to come in and get a surf sessh.
Speaker 1: And I was like, we're in the fucking Hudson. Well,
Speaker 1: I think probably in Long Island definitely. You know we
Speaker 1: have beaches because that's the cool thing. I commute every
Speaker 1: day from Long Island, so I still get to be
Speaker 1: by the water. I mean I'm right by the water
Speaker 1: where I live in Port Washington. So yeah, you'd still
Speaker 1: be able to do some of that. Yeah sounds good.
Speaker 1: I mean Brandon's on his seaplane right now and that's
Speaker 1: in New York, so yeah, maybe he can just tow
Speaker 1: us behind him. On like a wake or surfboard and
Speaker 1: you're onto something. Yeah, I think something's up there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can join you on that one.
Speaker 1: I'll give it a shot, but probably worse off than
Speaker 1: it was on on this one. So who's the next
Speaker 1: guy we should grab in here? We're actually going longer
Speaker 1: than expected. But I mean, these stories are funny. Two
Speaker 1: minutes right from yeah, just about, so I'll go, I'll
Speaker 1: go grab somebody. But I guess I'll sign off with
Speaker 1: the one last piece of advisory, whether it's transitioning veterans
Speaker 1: and things of that nature. Uh. And this is going
Speaker 1: to be very unadulted and unfiltered. Um. No one gives
Speaker 1: a ship whether you did three years in the military,
Speaker 1: and no one gives a ship whether you did fifteen
Speaker 1: years in the military. And they don't care whether you're
Speaker 1: turning wrenches on the truck or whether you're special operations.
Speaker 1: When you get out, if you're trying to get into
Speaker 1: corporate America, people don't care. Um, sure you have it
Speaker 1: there as you know, a service and and a filler
Speaker 1: on your resume. Um. And it's gonna be tough, and
Speaker 1: get out with the plan and get out with money.
Speaker 1: And the best thing that I've done so far is network, network, network, network,
Speaker 1: Talk to people, go to shot, be friendly, um, and
Speaker 1: don't have this this mentality of oh, screw civilians and
Speaker 1: you know I'm a veteran and and buy into this
Speaker 1: whole Uh, you know, whiskey and guns and and you know,
Speaker 1: tobacco and all the lake. It's just it's a toxic,
Speaker 1: toxic environment. Um. Just now work, talk to people, be
Speaker 1: friendly and offer up whatever you can offer, and it
Speaker 1: will come back to tenfold. And and that is probably
Speaker 1: the best way to succeed what you get out well,
Speaker 1: said man. And I hear it from so many guys
Speaker 1: who come in, you know, whether it's like Jason Delgado
Speaker 1: after he left being marine Scott Sniper, became a barber
Speaker 1: and then got into being a tattoo artist, and a
Speaker 1: lot of these guys want to get away from that
Speaker 1: wife for a while. And it's important to to have
Speaker 1: guys in your community that you could talk to. And
Speaker 1: you know, because as you're saying, it's your experiences, I
Speaker 1: can't really relate to them. But you could talk to
Speaker 1: someone like Leo and these other guys that were on
Speaker 1: the trip and they've they've lived similar stories, so I
Speaker 1: think that's an important thing. Yeah, the industry doesn't necessarily hold, um,
Speaker 1: you know, all the answers for us. There there's other
Speaker 1: things out there. And I'm friends and some working in
Speaker 1: three D printing and in media and stuff like that. Now, um,
Speaker 1: it doesn't all have to be about guns and camouflage
Speaker 1: and so just expanding horizons and realize that you're meant
Speaker 1: for a lot more than just pulling a trigger. Well
Speaker 1: said man, Well, great to finally meet you. Definitely. Um. Looking,
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to the premiere tonight, as I know
Speaker 1: all of us that are absolutely and looking forward to premiere,
Speaker 1: looking forward to uh seeing how long Leo can last,
Speaker 1: um and still be you know, present. So I think
Speaker 1: I'm gonna want to sell some of that suntory that
Speaker 1: over here. Go for it, go for it, and then
Speaker 1: I'm going to grab the very non mustachioed Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Isaiah Burkhart, that's right. I liked hearing your burning main stories.
Speaker 1: I like doing this with you. By the way, this
Speaker 1: is this is different, man, It's fun. Um. I think
Speaker 1: we need to kind of keep it on topic with
Speaker 1: the big mountain heroes, just for the sake of what
Speaker 1: people want to hear. Yes, and also time. We can
Speaker 1: definitely talk about it though at the premiere tonight or
Speaker 1: for the rest of the week over here. Yeah. So, um,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a lot of different people in the
Speaker 1: building for the premiere. I know that Brandon invited, um,
Speaker 1: a lot of media outlets that aren't even necessarily veteran
Speaker 1: media outlets that are going to be I can you
Speaker 1: stat for the first time? And I'm looking forward to
Speaker 1: come on in st Okay. So we got to two
Speaker 1: guys for grabbing. It's gonna be hard to get here,
Speaker 1: so uh yeah, like the furthest out should be there.
Speaker 1: So we'll go to Isaiah and then and then you
Speaker 1: guys are gonna share and trying to lean in and
Speaker 1: get closer to the mic so people can hear. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So for those lessen things, well, we have like a
Speaker 1: rough plan that we're going with, but we figured it
Speaker 1: all right. We'll get two different guys in here, so
Speaker 1: if you both want to introduce yourselves and uh and
Speaker 1: your military background, but make sure you're both you know,
Speaker 1: get on mike when when you speak, So whichever you
Speaker 1: want to want to talk, get kind of close though yeah. Yeah, anyway, So, UM,
Speaker 1: my name is Isaiah Burkhardt. I currently live in Bend, Oregon,
Speaker 1: UH and I'm a firefighter paramedic out there, and I
Speaker 1: was in third Range of Italian back in I guess.
Speaker 1: I was in the military from two thousand two to
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight active and then I did some
Speaker 1: National Guards stuff. I was going to school but untill
Speaker 1: and now. So there's a there's a pretty good line
Speaker 1: in the in the film you and from hunting people
Speaker 1: to saving people like that resonated with me a lot.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about that, um, because I think
Speaker 1: you were kind of sure maybe you were hunting people,
Speaker 1: but you were you were ultimately saving people at that time.
Speaker 1: So I think really what happened is you were saving
Speaker 1: people and you're just kidding inno sense. Yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: if you look at it like that, because like we're
Speaker 1: working together and it's like every time I mean, you
Speaker 1: look at snipers are valuable. Um. And that was what
Speaker 1: I did for most of the time when I was
Speaker 1: in Ranger Battalion, UM. And then actually when I got
Speaker 1: out in doing the Guards stuff when I was going
Speaker 1: to school, just basically helped pay for college as of
Speaker 1: my education, and yeah, it was one of those things
Speaker 1: where um learning learning about you know, just the value
Speaker 1: of having a sniper in um that that ground force
Speaker 1: multiplier thing is what kind of what guys say, is
Speaker 1: like having one guy being able to kind of overlook
Speaker 1: and overlook an entire area, which is really valuable. So yeah,
Speaker 1: well I had, you know, quite a few opportunities to
Speaker 1: you know, to take action into certain parts, to do
Speaker 1: things that potentially we're um you know, I could prevent
Speaker 1: um our guys getting hurt or injured or anything like that,
Speaker 1: or you know, prevent engage the enemy before they were
Speaker 1: able to engage our guys on the ground. So that
Speaker 1: was great. And uh and I guess in the similarity
Speaker 1: in my job now having um, you know, since we've
Speaker 1: done since we've done the film Big Mountain Heroes, We've
Speaker 1: had some pretty um, some pretty gnarly calls that I've
Speaker 1: been on and UM, you know, really hard, really hard
Speaker 1: emotionally to deal with, but at the same time, UM,
Speaker 1: quite satisfying some of them, maybe like bad turning bad
Speaker 1: situations and to do the best they can be. And
Speaker 1: I think that's um a lot of like you learned
Speaker 1: that a lot of a lot about that in the
Speaker 1: military and or just my experience the past of like
Speaker 1: how do you take a bad situation and try to
Speaker 1: make it the best that possibly can be, because I mean,
Speaker 1: sometimes you just that's what you got. Since we have
Speaker 1: two guys in here for those listening on the podcast,
Speaker 1: which is you know, primarily most if you want to
Speaker 1: get into your background, sure, yeah, Ben Whitney, I don't
Speaker 1: have any military background at all, And I guess my
Speaker 1: the sum total of my sorry experience in the military
Speaker 1: is hanging out with these guys for a week and
Speaker 1: presently just here to support these guys and coming out
Speaker 1: of Tahoe So and this guy knows that to shred
Speaker 1: some are and we're here. We're here to shred some
Speaker 1: pal shreading. Yeah, Isaiah spelled shred wrong earlier on the
Speaker 1: wall on the UH magnet wol magnet. But I don't
Speaker 1: know as well. Friends. Yeah, So, what's what's one of
Speaker 1: the stories that you have from from the filming? We haven't. Well,
Speaker 1: you have an interesting perspective, right, you're civilian. You're there
Speaker 1: like you and I and Matt who was the other filmer,
Speaker 1: we all don't come from the military background. But I
Speaker 1: think all three of us can agree that we were
Speaker 1: totally accepted and like immediate best friends with everyone involved. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: I think I would like to kind of hear something
Speaker 1: that's in in that direction. Sure, Yeah, I think that
Speaker 1: the camaraderie, no matter whether it's just amongst civilians or
Speaker 1: amongst veterans are acting military folks, it's it's something I
Speaker 1: think that naturally most people really need. And it feels
Speaker 1: good to have companionship and to be going out on
Speaker 1: a trip with a bunch of guys who you're you
Speaker 1: meet somebody like Isaiah and it's he and I hit
Speaker 1: it off right away. And the the same thing with Leo.
Speaker 1: I mean the first night Lee when I stayed until
Speaker 1: five thirty in the morning just talking. We're just shooting
Speaker 1: the ship on the couch, you know, we were, we'd
Speaker 1: claimed the couch for ourselves and we just sat up
Speaker 1: all night talking. And so I can appreciate that. You know,
Speaker 1: just why why is this so funny to you? I
Speaker 1: gotta get you on my this is confused with just
Speaker 1: make sure the guys we can put on. Put these
Speaker 1: guys on Ben's that way you can hear how low
Speaker 1: it is and help us. Oh no, I was just
Speaker 1: like laughing at them sharing the couch. That was all.
Speaker 1: It was, like they were cute. It was really cute
Speaker 1: to walk in there. I'd like wake up and Leo
Speaker 1: and Ben would be like, well, Ben generally in the morning,
Speaker 1: like would be just like gung hold, like, dude, let's go,
Speaker 1: let's go. We're ready to go. We're ready to go.
Speaker 1: His boots were warm every day. Yeah, like this dude
Speaker 1: has like the nicest warmest ski boots ever, because like
Speaker 1: he would run the heaters in his ski boots for
Speaker 1: like hours every day after we get back and then
Speaker 1: in the morning you get up early, like run the heaters,
Speaker 1: just put his feet in these nice soft ski boots
Speaker 1: like mine smelled like really bad and they were all wet.
Speaker 1: A few people on the Kickstarters names are in the credit,
Speaker 1: specifically Red. I'm gonna call you out because I see
Speaker 1: Red You're in it. You're in the in the credits
Speaker 1: there for that donation you made. I put it in there.
Speaker 1: Absolutely great guys. So you know, you being the guy
Speaker 1: with the military background and as we said before, former
Speaker 1: Army Rangers sniper now a firefighter paramedic. What does thrills
Speaker 1: before pills? Mean to you in particular. So probably like
Speaker 1: the biggest thing with thrills before pills is uh, you
Speaker 1: know we're looking at I mean, initially, I went to
Speaker 1: the v A when I first got out of active,
Speaker 1: and my whole plan was like, Okay, I want to
Speaker 1: be able to incase something happens, like my hearing goes
Speaker 1: out or like my you know, my back is bad
Speaker 1: or my knees bad, and you know it's like kind
Speaker 1: of got some shot up body parts. Okay, I'll go
Speaker 1: and man, it was crazy. I go in there and
Speaker 1: I'm just like, yeah, you know, this kind of bothers me.
Speaker 1: Every once in a while, the kind of bothers me.
Speaker 1: And then they just like here, take this, take this.
Speaker 1: That just starts prescribing all this stuff. And I'm like
Speaker 1: looking at some of these drugs and they're like drugs
Speaker 1: that they're back from that they were It's like they
Speaker 1: had leftover stock from guys like from Vietnam. I mean,
Speaker 1: some of these drugs are like it's stuff that hospitals
Speaker 1: across America would never prescribe, but the v A is
Speaker 1: still prescribing these things, and it's it's totally ridiculous. And
Speaker 1: you talk to guys who are you know, have back pain,
Speaker 1: and then you got guys that like have sleep problems,
Speaker 1: and you have guys that have other issues or PTSD
Speaker 1: stuff and depression and all these things, and they're prescribing
Speaker 1: the same exact thing for everybody. And it's like this
Speaker 1: blanket shotgun method and it's just total bowl man. I
Speaker 1: mean it you can grow by the way. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's it's it's it's total bullshit, right, And
Speaker 1: so they it's not it was something for this for
Speaker 1: this trip. The value of it is I I gained
Speaker 1: life from being outside a game, life from um, you know,
Speaker 1: being with my family, but specifically like being outside it
Speaker 1: and enjoying the outdoors and enjoying like nature's beauty, getting
Speaker 1: to experience new places like that is where I get life.
Speaker 1: And I think that that I feel refreshed and renewed
Speaker 1: every time I go outside, every time I do those things,
Speaker 1: and it enables me to like to try to like
Speaker 1: and I'm not bagging on antidepressants or or things. There's
Speaker 1: certain drugs that are very beneficial for people. What what
Speaker 1: we're trying, what I think we're trying to push is
Speaker 1: how about you try using the outdoors as a therapeutic
Speaker 1: way of healing yourself and in combination maybe with with
Speaker 1: some of those if you need them, or if that
Speaker 1: works without having to take you know, you know, just
Speaker 1: a bunch of random pills that like I don't even know,
Speaker 1: like you know, it's like as a paramedic, I've learned
Speaker 1: a lot about different prescription drugs, so maybe for me
Speaker 1: it's a little easier to understand, like the chemical reactions
Speaker 1: and the biological idea that I have an a biology
Speaker 1: degree as well, like knowing what happens in my body,
Speaker 1: the chemical like the bio chemical pathways, what happens with
Speaker 1: these drugs, and then they're not I don't even know
Speaker 1: if they're cross checking, Like I mean, Brandon's even talked
Speaker 1: about it before. It's like I don't even know if
Speaker 1: they're cross checking, like the side effects between. And that's
Speaker 1: a scary. The really scary part about all that stuff
Speaker 1: is because you get the more drugs you get on,
Speaker 1: you'll never get off of them. You know, once you're
Speaker 1: on them, it's very, very difficult to get off of
Speaker 1: them without having some sort of crash. Right, So, because
Speaker 1: your body becomes dependent on these things and they say
Speaker 1: some of the drugs, it's like within forty eight hours
Speaker 1: you develop dependency, and the prescription is for two weeks,
Speaker 1: so they're basically guaranteeing that everyone who starts that drug
Speaker 1: regiment is going to be addicted to it, right, And
Speaker 1: so just not to interrupt, Oh no, it's I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's true, and it's uh. I think
Speaker 1: that having the ability to go outside, and I know
Speaker 1: obviously not everybody, but I think the biggest thing is
Speaker 1: is like microadventures is like a big thing. There's a
Speaker 1: guy Outstare Humphreys. He wrote a whole book about micro adventures,
Speaker 1: really great storylines and stuff, and just talking about getting
Speaker 1: outside and whether it's like meeting up with some friends
Speaker 1: the night before work, even like climbing up to the
Speaker 1: top of a peak, camping at the you know, like
Speaker 1: maybe even the top of the hill outside of your city,
Speaker 1: Like we're you know, doing something kind of crazy camping
Speaker 1: out and then waking up early and still going to
Speaker 1: work the next morning. Like having little micro adventures where
Speaker 1: you can get these experiences. And like the big thing
Speaker 1: about this trip was you know, this whole Thrills before
Speaker 1: Pills thing is just we you know, we were super
Speaker 1: fortunate to be able to do this all of us.
Speaker 1: I feel I feel like really blessed to be able
Speaker 1: to go to France. I never thought I'd go to
Speaker 1: Showy and go skiing, you know, go to Cormier go skiing,
Speaker 1: go to Switzerland and go skiing. And you know it's
Speaker 1: like in three days. Yeah, Like the first three days
Speaker 1: hit three countries, skied some amazing pow like, had a
Speaker 1: great time, great crew, everybody was The positive attitude was
Speaker 1: unreal and uh, you know, like the last thing on
Speaker 1: my mind was like being sad about like my own life.
Speaker 1: It was so easy to be jazz because I had
Speaker 1: this shared experience with these guys and I don't know,
Speaker 1: you just you instantly build a relationship. I feel like
Speaker 1: when you're outside, there's a way because when you're when
Speaker 1: you get outside, you just have to like you have
Speaker 1: to depend on each other. Yeah, I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know if there's a better way to put it. Outside
Speaker 1: of this trip, I mean, you've totally dedicated your life
Speaker 1: to being outside. I think I think most of the
Speaker 1: people in the film haven't done it in their own
Speaker 1: way of shape or form um. And Ben that's hit
Speaker 1: Ben talking about I mean, Ben's a killer mountain biker too,
Speaker 1: and just how going outside is such a beneficial thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was going to say that. It's interesting how the
Speaker 1: sport that you're going to do, instead of taking those
Speaker 1: pills as your therapy, that becomes your addiction. And so
Speaker 1: I'll find myself a good point. I can ride my
Speaker 1: twenty days in a row, and then on the twenty
Speaker 1: one day, if I have some errands to do and
Speaker 1: I don't get to ride, I almost feel guilty about it,
Speaker 1: you know. And it's like during during a big storm,
Speaker 1: maybe you're getting this huge storm cycle comes through during
Speaker 1: the winter and you've got like fresh pal every single day,
Speaker 1: and on the tenth day in a row, you're just
Speaker 1: blown out. You're exhausted, you're tired, you may be slept
Speaker 1: kind of late, and then you don't get out there
Speaker 1: and you feel so guilty. Right, even though you know
Speaker 1: it's healthy to take a little bit of time off,
Speaker 1: sometimes it just blows me away. I'm like, wow, I'm
Speaker 1: actually addicted. You know. It's like, and I miss that
Speaker 1: feeling that you get, you know, that that sort of
Speaker 1: rush everything, even if it's simple. Sometimes you just go
Speaker 1: out in the afternoon you've been super busy, you go
Speaker 1: out and smash like an hour bike ride real quick,
Speaker 1: do you like ten or fifteen miles? Or you go
Speaker 1: ski for not everyone can ride ten or fifteen miles
Speaker 1: that quickly, but well, okay, like you know, you go
Speaker 1: up to the resort and you just hit an hour
Speaker 1: of groomers. You just go and make some turns, your
Speaker 1: skis are on your word and that feels so good, right,
Speaker 1: And it's just like every time that you do that.
Speaker 1: I mean, and I know that we've talked about this before,
Speaker 1: but living in the place like band or like Tahoe
Speaker 1: where we live, well, for the most part um, you
Speaker 1: can do something every single day of the year. There
Speaker 1: are places where it's probably not a good idea too,
Speaker 1: because it's like there's some days that are hundred fifteen
Speaker 1: degrees if you live in the desert somewhere that it's
Speaker 1: like you gotta if you're gonna go outside, you need
Speaker 1: to go at six thirty in the morning. Right. But
Speaker 1: literally every single day of the year, we're either riding
Speaker 1: or bikes, or we're going skiing, or we're hitting the beach,
Speaker 1: or we're playing frisbee or whatever. So I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's a it's pretty, it's it's addictive, for sure, and
Speaker 1: I hope that's an appropriate usage of the word. I
Speaker 1: see people commenting on the Facebook Live about the opioid
Speaker 1: epidemic and with veterans, which you were just talking about, Isaiah.
Speaker 1: Uh So, I'm wondering, did you when you said that
Speaker 1: you went to the v A and you saw all
Speaker 1: this stuff and that you have a background in this,
Speaker 1: did you ever end up taking anything prior to to
Speaker 1: you know, self medicating is as you'd put it, with
Speaker 1: athletics and etcetera. No, I never got prescribed opioids, but
Speaker 1: they had, like they were trying to prescribe a bunch
Speaker 1: of other like sulfa drugs and just a bunch of
Speaker 1: old stuff that just had some gnarly side effects with
Speaker 1: some people that you know, maybe you might not have
Speaker 1: those side effects. And um, you know, I tried taking
Speaker 1: a couple of them here and there, and I just
Speaker 1: didn't really notice the difference. I figured it was better
Speaker 1: for me to I mean, I feel more joy in
Speaker 1: life when I like even just go for like a
Speaker 1: you know, half hour hike just around town, go for
Speaker 1: a walk, you know, get outside, you know, breathe some
Speaker 1: clean air, get out, you know, let your mind kind
Speaker 1: of escape, because I think what happens we get we
Speaker 1: stick ourselves and you know, indoors. And some people like
Speaker 1: the indoors, and that's cool. I mean for me though,
Speaker 1: it's like if I sit inside all day, I might
Speaker 1: be working on a project or maybe I'm writing or
Speaker 1: doing something, but it's like the next thing, I know,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I gotta do I'm leaving my mind,
Speaker 1: you know, I gotta get outside. And and um, I
Speaker 1: think with with with the opioid academic, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's the worst. It's the worst epidemic drug epidemic that
Speaker 1: the United States has ever seen. I mean it's it's
Speaker 1: passing like you know the eighties crack epidemic that that happened.
Speaker 1: So it's a it's super super sad. Um. I've seen
Speaker 1: a lot of my friends, uh you know that I've
Speaker 1: known from the service get addicted opioids. People not from
Speaker 1: the service get addicted opioids. You see housewives elderly I
Speaker 1: mean I go on lots and lots of calls with
Speaker 1: with elderly people that are addicted to opioids. That are
Speaker 1: addicted to pain killers that are eighty years old, you know,
Speaker 1: and you and if you asked them about drug use,
Speaker 1: they'd be like, oh, it's bad, they're bad. Drugs are
Speaker 1: bad all this stuff. But you know, you know, you
Speaker 1: want to be like, hey, you realize you're you know,
Speaker 1: you're a viking and addict or an oxycon addict or
Speaker 1: whatever that that they've prescribed you. And um, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's terrible, man, and it's it wrecks your body.
Speaker 1: It uh, it wrecks your mind, It takes away creative thought. Um,
Speaker 1: it puts you in a dumb stupor um. And I
Speaker 1: have taken I mean, I've taken opioids before from like
Speaker 1: postcar accident I got into for some pain. It was
Speaker 1: like pretty much all it did was make me sleep
Speaker 1: and constipated, and it was terrible. And I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: that's not what I want to feel like. I want
Speaker 1: to be able to be free and get out and
Speaker 1: enjoy like life and enjoy of you know, the excitement
Speaker 1: that we have out there. So I'm seeing some great
Speaker 1: comments on Facebook, one of which here, Goldie Baker. Do
Speaker 1: any of you guys have pets or therapy dogs Walking
Speaker 1: the dog can provide a reason to get outside and
Speaker 1: experienced nature plus picking up dog crap. I suppose. Um,
Speaker 1: so I did have a dog. Actually I had a
Speaker 1: dog until recently, and I had kind of a catastrophic
Speaker 1: took my dog for a run. Um, my dog enop
Speaker 1: actually jumping into a canal that went underground and end
Speaker 1: up drowned, drowning over the summer. So I had she
Speaker 1: was about five days before she was about to turn one.
Speaker 1: So it's just a puppy and uh, anyway, so that
Speaker 1: was pretty life crushing. How did you deal with that?
Speaker 1: I mean, given I went like full uh full idiot
Speaker 1: and maybe right when it happened and basically went out
Speaker 1: searching for her because this this tunnel that goes underneath
Speaker 1: basically this big mountain that's outside of ben It's at
Speaker 1: Smith Rock and there's a canal that goes basically a
Speaker 1: mile straight but there's a gap, an air gap in there,
Speaker 1: so you can survive it. Like people have swam through
Speaker 1: it and I'm like, that's water. Scares me too much
Speaker 1: to do that. Um, But so I found out that
Speaker 1: it's survivable. There have been dogs that it survived. Um,
Speaker 1: but it's pitch black in there, and I think she
Speaker 1: just swam against the current too long and eventually drowned.
Speaker 1: They found her body like almost thirty miles away in
Speaker 1: the canal. And for me dealing with that, I mean,
Speaker 1: I was wrecked, man. And I actually, like for a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks afterwards, didn't want to do anything. I
Speaker 1: just kind of sat around in my own sorrow. And
Speaker 1: my wife even was like, dude, you gotta go out
Speaker 1: and do something. You gotta get outside. You Like you're
Speaker 1: driving me crazy sticking around here, first of all, and
Speaker 1: the second of all, like you you're you're being unhealthy,
Speaker 1: you know, like you're staying up late, you're not sleeping right,
Speaker 1: You're you know, you need to go out. You need
Speaker 1: to go for a run, you need to go for
Speaker 1: a mountain bike. You need to go do something, go
Speaker 1: for a hike, to get out and like let your body,
Speaker 1: you know, get your mind off of that, or even
Speaker 1: if you're gonna go think about it, at least do
Speaker 1: something healthy for yourself while you're doing it. And that
Speaker 1: was a huge thing. And I think having that support,
Speaker 1: having I have a really great wife who supports me.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've been married for thirteen years, and she
Speaker 1: was around for five of my deployments overseas, so she's
Speaker 1: really experienced, um, what it was like to be like
Speaker 1: a wife and in the army with guys gone all
Speaker 1: the time, and then also after the fact, all the
Speaker 1: struggles that you know, things I've struggled with and had
Speaker 1: a really hard time when I first got out and
Speaker 1: you know, got involved, Like I had some pretty bad
Speaker 1: drug use when I first got out of the military.
Speaker 1: And uh, I mean to me that this thrills on
Speaker 1: pillsting is a really big deal for that because because
Speaker 1: it was like I was, I was self medicating when
Speaker 1: I first got out. I was doing active stuff. I
Speaker 1: was like running marathons and I was like having a
Speaker 1: drug problem at the same time. And then I was like,
Speaker 1: I gotta cut that out, which I bet it is
Speaker 1: in it as uncommon as people might think. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I mean like, I mean there's been some pretty famous
Speaker 1: marathons in the past. Actually we've gotten like addicted to
Speaker 1: drugs and things like that, and um, after they've gotten
Speaker 1: injured things like that, and it always happens a lot
Speaker 1: of times after people have some sort of injury. Um,
Speaker 1: for me, it was just like you know, an emotional
Speaker 1: injury of like thinking about stuff that had happened, replaying
Speaker 1: certain things that I wish I could have done differently,
Speaker 1: and blaming myself for them potentially, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: realizing after a while, like that's not my fault. Actually
Speaker 1: finding and seeking help from you know, going to counseling
Speaker 1: and things like that, and find like I don't need
Speaker 1: to take you know, prescription drugs to do this. I
Speaker 1: need to talk to people. I need to share my problems.
Speaker 1: And I think like this up was a huge thing
Speaker 1: because we got together and we had to share stories,
Speaker 1: like collective group. And it's really hard sometimes when you're
Speaker 1: a military dude and you spread out across you know,
Speaker 1: like you get out of the military and you boom,
Speaker 1: you spread out all over the country and maybe where
Speaker 1: you're at you don't know anybody. You might not you
Speaker 1: might have buddies, but there are hours away, and it's
Speaker 1: like in in like I when I got out in
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, out of active it was still
Speaker 1: very taboo to like tell people you had a problem,
Speaker 1: or admit that you had PTSD, or admit that you
Speaker 1: maybe you know, I have a hard time here there
Speaker 1: with certain things, and uh, you know, it's like if
Speaker 1: you would have said that initially and range of battalion
Speaker 1: at the time when I was in, it was like
Speaker 1: guys wouldn't trust you anymore. They would like because oh,
Speaker 1: this guy's got a problem, you know. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I think everybody I've gotten now it's like realized, you know,
Speaker 1: there's you know, everybody's got issues. We're not. Nobody's perfect.
Speaker 1: Nobody's like a god among men or anything. Nobody is nobody.
Speaker 1: And I mean there's a lot of here or a
Speaker 1: worship and in the in the military community, and you
Speaker 1: know outside the military community, even of military guys, and
Speaker 1: it's like, I mean, yeah, it's cool, you can look
Speaker 1: up to guys and all that stuff, but you also
Speaker 1: need to realize that, like, dude, everybody has serious issues,
Speaker 1: whether you have seen them or not. And but sharing
Speaker 1: them with people, and sharing them with close individuals that
Speaker 1: you care about and people that you consider friends or family,
Speaker 1: it's like there, I don't think there's anything more valuable
Speaker 1: than that. That's the best therapy there is, is really
Speaker 1: sharing those things. And then for me, combining that with
Speaker 1: an active lifestyle where I get outside enjoy nature, because
Speaker 1: like do we have all this stuff out there? And
Speaker 1: I mean I knew people who lived in Oregon their
Speaker 1: whole life, grew up and like never been to the ocean.
Speaker 1: It's like, dude, you've lived two hours away from the
Speaker 1: ocean and you've never been there, Like like, how could
Speaker 1: you do that to yourself? How terrible are your parents
Speaker 1: that they never took you to the ocean? Like and
Speaker 1: I know economically some people grow up in different situations,
Speaker 1: but it's like take advantage of what you have, ye
Speaker 1: find everything around you. I mean, like what we're in
Speaker 1: New York City right now, But yeah, it's not that
Speaker 1: far of a drive to go up to the Adirondacks
Speaker 1: and go out and like get up into the mountains
Speaker 1: and do some stuff. I mean you can mean so
Speaker 1: the excuse of of like, oh man, I don't live
Speaker 1: where anywhere and I can do stuff like that. Like
Speaker 1: st I'm making excuses for yourself and actually find the
Speaker 1: stuff that you can do and find something that makes
Speaker 1: you happy, that brings joy to your life, brings edification
Speaker 1: to your life. Yeah, I think it's true. You know,
Speaker 1: you guys filmed this in in Italy Swiss shops as well.
Speaker 1: You were all over but going around America, there's so
Speaker 1: much beautiful stuff to see, but unfortunately, so many, so
Speaker 1: many people have their face just in their phones at
Speaker 1: all times, and they're not they're not going out and
Speaker 1: doing things and experiencing nature. So I see the same
Speaker 1: thing you do, Um, wrapping up here and onto the
Speaker 1: more positive stuff. Uh, how do you feel like that
Speaker 1: you're going to be going to this premier tonight of
Speaker 1: a film that you were a huge part of. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's very surreal. Um, it was surreal to be in
Speaker 1: fluance and and do all that, and it's even more surreal,
Speaker 1: like it's kind of everything comes full circle. It's it's
Speaker 1: pretty crazy. Like, you know, I remember working on this
Speaker 1: project with Nick years like a number of years ago.
Speaker 1: You're talking about this project and in working starting to
Speaker 1: get up the ball rolling, and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden it happened. Like I didn't think it was gonna happen,
Speaker 1: didn't happen, And uh, you know now you get to
Speaker 1: see Now I get to see the end of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the whole fruition, like the whole the whole kit and caboodle,
Speaker 1: the meat and taters as they would put it. Um,
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm really excited. I'm excited to see
Speaker 1: the film because I haven't really seen I've seen a
Speaker 1: little like clips of footage here and there, but nothing
Speaker 1: like I haven't seen the full product. I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody has except for the guys who produced it and
Speaker 1: directed it, and I'm I believe Brandon has. Yeah he has,
Speaker 1: but and everyone else though has not. I really wanted
Speaker 1: it to be like the whole thing was being group
Speaker 1: and being one and participating and doing all together. And
Speaker 1: I really wanted that first experience for everyone to happen
Speaker 1: in the same way that the whole thing did. So
Speaker 1: there's also a big difference between going to this event
Speaker 1: and seeing it on a screen than watching it on
Speaker 1: your iPhone. Yeah, I hope. I hope that there's a
Speaker 1: couple of hoots and hollers. I hope some goosebumps rise
Speaker 1: on these guys. Is uh, you know, If I can
Speaker 1: do that, like, then I've done a good job, especially
Speaker 1: the you know you guys did such a good job
Speaker 1: with filming it and seeing some of the rough stuff
Speaker 1: that we were viewing just in the evenings while we
Speaker 1: were there. I'm super pumped to see the finished product
Speaker 1: because some of those shots are going to be outrageous.
Speaker 1: It's it's pretty awesome. And the film er Matt Hardy,
Speaker 1: who would come in a little bit films Ski Films
Speaker 1: um a lot every winter for Warren Miller, so he's
Speaker 1: well rounded and that's why we brought him on. We
Speaker 1: shot it all on a red um, most of it
Speaker 1: on six K M all the interviews run four K.
Speaker 1: A lot of slow motion stuff, so it's really high
Speaker 1: quality stuff. And uh, I think you guys are going
Speaker 1: to be really pumped. I'd say Nick Kho right here
Speaker 1: and Matt Hardy for two guys like that are amazing
Speaker 1: at their craft when it comes to like you know,
Speaker 1: just seeing the right aspect of how to take a
Speaker 1: shot or photo or you know, we want to do this,
Speaker 1: want to do this, just making things look the best
Speaker 1: they can be there. I honestly have an like been
Speaker 1: around guys that are that good at their craft and
Speaker 1: it's really inspiring and it makes you want to try
Speaker 1: harder and what you're doing, so you like don't let
Speaker 1: them down because it's like and then they're like, hey
Speaker 1: we're gonna do Yeah, You're like, hey, we're gonna do
Speaker 1: this shot here and you're like, oh god, I'm totally
Speaker 1: gonna screw this up, and like look all lame and
Speaker 1: gumby coming down the hill, and it's like these guys
Speaker 1: are like pros, and it's you know, sometimes it gets
Speaker 1: really intimidating when you're working with somebody that's so good
Speaker 1: at their craft. But it's like, I just want to
Speaker 1: give a s out after those guys, because I mean,
Speaker 1: they are it's legit beyond words. So appreciate powerful Nick
Speaker 1: and Matt for sure. I just want to say one
Speaker 1: of the things if I couldn't I said, you might
Speaker 1: speak a little more about this. But I think one
Speaker 1: of the things that people forget about spending time outside,
Speaker 1: especially with even just one friend, one other person, maybe
Speaker 1: if you're going for a bike ride and you kind
Speaker 1: of chat on the climb up, or you're going for
Speaker 1: a tour for a couple of hours and you get
Speaker 1: to talk, is that it gives you the opportunity or
Speaker 1: a run, even it was a great time to do
Speaker 1: it, it it gives you the opportunity to just sort it
Speaker 1: out in your head. You can just you think of
Speaker 1: everything and you you you know, when you have a
Speaker 1: conversation with someone, it doesn't go well, you spend the
Speaker 1: next twenty four hours replaying it in your head over
Speaker 1: and over, like I should have said this, I should
Speaker 1: have said that, or I wish I had done something differently.
Speaker 1: You do that ad nauseum right when you're out there,
Speaker 1: and you think about it all the time, and it's
Speaker 1: a great opportunity to just sort it out in your
Speaker 1: own brain. You kind of I think of it as
Speaker 1: like resolving the issue, whatever it is, and then you
Speaker 1: sleep it off and the next day you feel really
Speaker 1: good and not only are you getting the positive physical
Speaker 1: benefit of being outside, but you get that really really
Speaker 1: crucial I think mental and for some people's spiritual aspect
Speaker 1: as well. So I don't know, I say, if you
Speaker 1: wanted to mention anything in that regard, but I thought
Speaker 1: it's a good point to make that it's it's helpful
Speaker 1: in just about every possible way. Yeah, and I completely agree.
Speaker 1: I think that's um. I mean, I run a lot,
Speaker 1: so it's for me that that's a big aspect of
Speaker 1: like my training and stuff. And then you know, I
Speaker 1: kind of have seasonal training things like I run in
Speaker 1: Mountainike during the summer, and then my big focus for
Speaker 1: my you know, outdoor activities as skiing during the winter
Speaker 1: so and ski touring specifically, or ski mountaineering. So like
Speaker 1: I'm skinning up, climbing up stuff, I get a lot
Speaker 1: of time to think about it. At the same time,
Speaker 1: like going for a run, there are these activities that
Speaker 1: kind of take longer. Um, you know, it's a little
Speaker 1: different than maybe if you're at the gym, like lifting
Speaker 1: or something like that, you might not be as much
Speaker 1: in your head. You're more thinking about like the next exercise,
Speaker 1: how much time you've been resting and stuff, where if
Speaker 1: you're just going to like on a run where you're
Speaker 1: maybe you're not so focused on like, oh, what's my
Speaker 1: heart rate right now? Sometimes is like good to like
Speaker 1: take the watch off, take the Harry monitor off, take
Speaker 1: any of that stuff off, and just go out and
Speaker 1: like get a little bit of a body high from
Speaker 1: those endorphins and let your clear mind and let you
Speaker 1: just mind wander into And that's how a lot of
Speaker 1: guys come up with amazing business ideas, great creations Like
Speaker 1: that's I mean a lot of guys they do their
Speaker 1: best creative work when they're physically working out. So and
Speaker 1: I mean I think it's it's amazing, and so it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: if you haven't tried that before, maybe you could. And
Speaker 1: if we can influence with this film, if we can
Speaker 1: influence like even one to a handful of people to
Speaker 1: like get outside maybe one more time a week or
Speaker 1: something like that, worth it because if we can change
Speaker 1: one life, Like I know, this trip has helped me
Speaker 1: and it's motivated me more to get outside even more
Speaker 1: because it's like I don't want to hang back. So anyway,
Speaker 1: I know you we probably need to move on to
Speaker 1: yeh know, it's all good. But I even as someone
Speaker 1: who doesn't ski, who doesn't snowboard, is not a veteran,
Speaker 1: I'm relating to exactly what you're saying. I mean, Nick
Speaker 1: knows I'm very into fitness and all that, and I
Speaker 1: do think for everybody, whether you're civilian, whether you're a veteran,
Speaker 1: it's such an important aspect of life. Um, you could
Speaker 1: follow Isaiah on Instagram at Long Approach to nowhere, do
Speaker 1: you have anything that you're promoting or we have to
Speaker 1: send bend text messages updates with what's tough. So with that,
Speaker 1: I think the whole other guy is Matt is Matt
Speaker 1: Hardy right, I believe so unless Neils arrived, but I
Speaker 1: think it's playing like just landed. So yeah, so let's
Speaker 1: grab if some if one of you guys grab Matt
Speaker 1: Hardy and uh, we'll wrap this up. But I'm I'm
Speaker 1: really enjoying how this is going. Thank you man, appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thanks then, And you know what, you're getting a really
Speaker 1: different perspective from each of these guys and what this
Speaker 1: trip meant to them. And I think that's awesome, you know,
Speaker 1: because you guys all shared this experience, but you could
Speaker 1: tell in each individual um they're just having a different
Speaker 1: experience and what and why they enjoy doing this. I
Speaker 1: think so for sure. And it was really cool having
Speaker 1: Matt Hardy there as a filmer as well as Ben
Speaker 1: because the three of us are civilians, so it really
Speaker 1: brings in a different perspective as well. Very cool. So
Speaker 1: I guess we got Nick Bett's back in here. If
Speaker 1: someone just down for you to hang around if you
Speaker 1: want it, might as well wrap this up. Enjoying the
Speaker 1: Japanese sabiki and in studio with us, is Matt Hardy
Speaker 1: just text me the all good? The cinematographer for the
Speaker 1: movie at Tahoe Matt on Instagram and Nick was telling
Speaker 1: me that about nine of the shots we see in
Speaker 1: this movie, all you Nicholls say that, but he helped.
Speaker 1: He helped a ton. You can get closer to the
Speaker 1: mike by the way, and if yeah, and if you guys,
Speaker 1: when you're talking, please pass it back and yeah, thanks.
Speaker 1: You're pretty familiar with that action hunt, Nick. Oh boy, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean shooting this was an absolute blast. Wow. When
Speaker 1: Nick reached out, um asked if I want to do this,
Speaker 1: I was really excited. It's a little bit different in
Speaker 1: terms of storyline that I usually do. I've done work
Speaker 1: for like Titon, Gravity Research, Warre Miller, a lot of
Speaker 1: ski centric pieces. And that's why Nick, I think, originally
Speaker 1: reached out to me because I had that experience. Um,
Speaker 1: but it was really cool getting this whole other side too,
Speaker 1: the industry that I hadn't seen before. And um, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was absolutely blast to meet these guys and they're
Speaker 1: super fun to hang out with and it's going to
Speaker 1: be back. And the reason I picked Matt or asked
Speaker 1: him if he could, was you have to have a
Speaker 1: lot of different skill sets right to be able to
Speaker 1: do something like this. You've got to be able to
Speaker 1: ski and or snowboard. You've got to be able to
Speaker 1: handle a camera in potentially harsh conditions. For us, that
Speaker 1: meant snowy days, deep powder helicopters, things like that, all
Speaker 1: while mitigating the risk that we're at in the mountains
Speaker 1: and in US and Ben, we've kind of crafted our
Speaker 1: lives around being in the mountains and outside. So we
Speaker 1: have skill sets um maybe that they don't have, and
Speaker 1: they have skill sets that that we don't have, the
Speaker 1: veterans and the civilians. So I specifically picked him because
Speaker 1: he can do all these different skill sets. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I also know he can save my life and they
Speaker 1: know that he can save his life all at the
Speaker 1: same time, you know. So it's like a very very
Speaker 1: small type of people who can who can ski well
Speaker 1: in these conditions, operate camera in his conditions as well
Speaker 1: as you know, they know not to ski here or there,
Speaker 1: uh for avalanche risk and things like that. So I,
Speaker 1: as someone who's worked on on a lot of these
Speaker 1: types of films, what separates this for you? You know,
Speaker 1: the veteran experience, what what in particular makes this different? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think it's definitely the veteran experience and
Speaker 1: also getting um people that aren't necessarily accustomed with this environment. Um.
Speaker 1: These guys have been in some crazy environments in a
Speaker 1: different part of the world. UM. And they're not by
Speaker 1: no means professional skiers or snowboarders, but they still have
Speaker 1: the good attitudes to take it in, take it like
Speaker 1: into the back country and just give it their all
Speaker 1: in the camaraderie. UM, that's what made it different for
Speaker 1: me because usually when we go out, it's with these
Speaker 1: professional athletes that they're living there, that's what they do, UM,
Speaker 1: and it's more of kind of get it done. We
Speaker 1: still have fun. But this to me had a little
Speaker 1: bit deeper meaning throughout the whole trip. Um. It wasn't
Speaker 1: just like a job, which made it special for me,
Speaker 1: and uh really made it different from the other stuff
Speaker 1: that I shoot, was there something cool about seeing the
Speaker 1: veteran interaction and these guys use this to get away
Speaker 1: from you know, Isaiah was talking about the whole Thrills
Speaker 1: before Pills theme and and using this as an alternative
Speaker 1: to what the VA is doing right now. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I think it's it's exciting, and I think the
Speaker 1: message is strong and that's why it's so meaningful. UM.
Speaker 1: I hope that when people watch it, they can see
Speaker 1: that that's an avenue that holds a lot of merit.
Speaker 1: Um and I did not serve. I don't have that experience,
Speaker 1: but I know what storytelling can do, and it's authentic.
Speaker 1: It's not like a sponsored ads. This is like real
Speaker 1: this is real life. And I think the message behind
Speaker 1: the whole film is is great. So I hope people
Speaker 1: take away the better meeting for it, and I think
Speaker 1: it it definitely has a lot of potential in terms
Speaker 1: of the like meshing action sports no matter what it is,
Speaker 1: if it's skiing or surfing or anything like that, showing
Speaker 1: that there is this outlet that is different from what's
Speaker 1: kind of commonly prescribed with these guys for healing their wounds.
Speaker 1: For both of you guys, IM wondering what was your
Speaker 1: favorite location you shoot, because there was what three locations? Uh,
Speaker 1: we were kind of all over the place. UM. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think we can probably all agree that the helicopter
Speaker 1: was awesome. UM. I think the experience that Matt and
Speaker 1: I have in helicopters is drastically different than than what
Speaker 1: Nick and the other guys have um, you know, helicopters
Speaker 1: to them probably have meant something so different than like
Speaker 1: for us. I mean, for me, a helicopter is just fun.
Speaker 1: There's nothing really scary about it, except for the first
Speaker 1: time I jumped out of it. But uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean so I think that that was probably my
Speaker 1: most fun part. But from I think, just like the
Speaker 1: whole project in general. I mean, to see some of
Speaker 1: these guys like Nick Nick for example, he said he
Speaker 1: had never snowboarded powder that deep like ever before, and
Speaker 1: then at the end of the trip he's slang powder.
Speaker 1: So like to see the progression from from beginning to
Speaker 1: end with everyone. It wasn't just Nick. Um Isaiah broke
Speaker 1: his ski and had to hop on a new set
Speaker 1: of skis in the middle of the film and learn
Speaker 1: how to ride new skis and like seeing people overcome things.
Speaker 1: Brandon funked up field before the film even began. He did, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he went there. We had a Yeah, we had a
Speaker 1: series of events that were kind of leading up into
Speaker 1: this and and I guess it just speaks volumes on
Speaker 1: the crew of of how we adapted to everything and
Speaker 1: and how Yeah, I mean, a shattered ski like literally
Speaker 1: the thing was just flopping on the back and what
Speaker 1: and okay, so um a part in the film. I
Speaker 1: want you guys pay attention to you see if you
Speaker 1: guys can't even see you might be able to see it.
Speaker 1: Mac um um Isaiah airs. It's at corema air um.
Speaker 1: It's after you guys did the hike up section and
Speaker 1: he doesn't air in the film. And slow motion and
Speaker 1: you can see the tail go. It's like like really
Speaker 1: really slow, like you can see it broken flapping. But
Speaker 1: I don't know if anyone will will ever. I think
Speaker 1: that will probably be able to pick it out. But
Speaker 1: I challenge you to try and see it and show
Speaker 1: me where I'm excited and I'm gonna well know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. It was three countries total though, right uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, I mean you don't really know exactly
Speaker 1: which country you're in some of the time. Certain certain
Speaker 1: ski resorts are in different countries. Because that's what I meant.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, was there a favorite country for
Speaker 1: you guys, But I guess it all kind of metched together.
Speaker 1: It sounds like the Helly Scheme was in Switzitzerland. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I mean I think that's probably that day was
Speaker 1: special and like Nick said, I was just hearing like
Speaker 1: I think it was Neil talking about being a helicopter
Speaker 1: like times or more in that and but most of
Speaker 1: it's at night with the guns, you know, and it's
Speaker 1: just for me also being a knick shoes like not
Speaker 1: not ever having that experience. And only thing of it
Speaker 1: in a different way is it was really cool. Look
Speaker 1: see these guys have fun in the helicopter and not
Speaker 1: and I think that helps heal some some things they
Speaker 1: have going on. So absolutely, Matt Hardy and studio with us.
Speaker 1: Nick Betts also in studio with us. Matt is the
Speaker 1: cinematographer one of the cinematogers behind Big Mountain Heroes at
Speaker 1: Taho Matt on Instagram. Nick Bett's former sniper, former Army
Speaker 1: sniper and owner of Crypto Strategic at and Underscore Bets
Speaker 1: on Instagram. Um So, one thing I'm wondering is as
Speaker 1: the civilian that was there and you also being the civilian.
Speaker 1: Um soft Rep has this intersection. I think of veterans
Speaker 1: who read the site, even current active duty guys who
Speaker 1: read the site, and civilians like us who want to
Speaker 1: learn more about the military community get their stories up front.
Speaker 1: Un filtered by the media and all that. Um, what
Speaker 1: do you think civilians can do better to connect with veterans.
Speaker 1: I mean you just need to listen. I think it
Speaker 1: comes down to just listening and being open. Um. But
Speaker 1: they're just the same. We're no different. Um. The experiences
Speaker 1: we've had definitely can be are different. Um, But we're
Speaker 1: all humans. We all get along great. Like being hanging
Speaker 1: out with them in our what the Airbnb the whole week,
Speaker 1: it literally felt like I've known them before. UM. And
Speaker 1: I think if you're watching this as a civilian or
Speaker 1: a veteran, it's really no different in terms of what
Speaker 1: you're seeing, like it could be. I mean, it's all
Speaker 1: the same experience. UM. And I don't know. It was
Speaker 1: really special for me to be able to like get
Speaker 1: these authentic stories, not through the media and not through
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. I hope people know that when
Speaker 1: they watch this, it's not there's nothing fabricated about it.
Speaker 1: It's all real. Um. And I think the theory or
Speaker 1: what to take outside of even what the movie is
Speaker 1: supposed to be about, right throws before pills. I think
Speaker 1: something that really stood out to me the most about
Speaker 1: this trip was that we did have three guys that
Speaker 1: had never served you know, Matt, Nick and Ben, and
Speaker 1: just showing that that camaraderie and how seamless it was
Speaker 1: and how much we enjoyed each other's company. Like I
Speaker 1: truly felt like I was with a bunch of brothers
Speaker 1: and there's never any of this um, you know, big
Speaker 1: dig chest dumping. You know, oh you didn't do this
Speaker 1: that I did that. That that was non existing um.
Speaker 1: And actually even more so, I respected Matt the most
Speaker 1: because the student was lugging around like sixty pounds worth
Speaker 1: the camera equipment in six and a half, you know,
Speaker 1: if you'd a powder. I'm over here just trying not
Speaker 1: to fucking die and he's over here just shredding it.
Speaker 1: I was like, back, can do it, I can do it.
Speaker 1: But that's actually not true, because MA can do what
Speaker 1: more I can, and I can on the board. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's been doing this for years and clearly I'm sure
Speaker 1: the movie can tell from the very few snippets that
Speaker 1: I've seen, Um, you know, his skill set, it's come
Speaker 1: through in waves and and you know, next with the
Speaker 1: editing and hopefully they try to make us look as
Speaker 1: good as we possibly could. But I was always um
Speaker 1: impressed with with MAT's ability to ride around with the
Speaker 1: ruck stack on skis at that kind of altitude and
Speaker 1: that kind of train And I was like, you're You're
Speaker 1: cooler than I am. Dude, that's good for you. And
Speaker 1: I look at them and I'm jealous because they don't
Speaker 1: have packs on, right, but I get mine time to ski. Um,
Speaker 1: So it's it's just fun to be able to share
Speaker 1: that experience with people who don't get to do it
Speaker 1: all the time and beyond camera, like being on camera
Speaker 1: is not something you gotta do every day, and UM,
Speaker 1: it's special to just share that moment and try to
Speaker 1: capture on film. Very cool something we have the brotherhood
Speaker 1: that I'd like to touch on with civilians and the veterans,
Speaker 1: UM that I was kind of hoping it had come up,
Speaker 1: but since it hasn't, I'll bring it up. We were
Speaker 1: one of the day as towards the end where the
Speaker 1: tour and UM, I can't remember if it was you
Speaker 1: or Ben and someone on skis and there the um
Speaker 1: the only two civilians on skis helped a veteran snowboarder
Speaker 1: and I think it was either Leo or you. Okay,
Speaker 1: and so and we had to traverse this thing like
Speaker 1: and it is like so stormy out, it's freezing, it's windy,
Speaker 1: it's like ice in your eyes. You can't see anything.
Speaker 1: And they Ben just was like here, buddy, like get
Speaker 1: up on my skis and like let me help you.
Speaker 1: Because it's waist deep and the skis with more surface
Speaker 1: there you don't sink as much, so like hop up
Speaker 1: on here and like we'll just ski together over this
Speaker 1: like section that's super rough. And I think that speaks
Speaker 1: like volumes right there. That's just how like immediately friends,
Speaker 1: like is that in the film? That part is not
Speaker 1: in the It was so there's I mean, there's just
Speaker 1: so much stuff that you we can't get in the film.
Speaker 1: Everything that happened was authentic, like I said, and we
Speaker 1: captured what we could um. But his camera also broke
Speaker 1: that day. It's just kind of I've never seen Matt
Speaker 1: so shitty for such like a chipper and like humble
Speaker 1: and and you know, always like outgoing. Like the day
Speaker 1: that the camera broke down, he was like it didn't break,
Speaker 1: It just took a little nap. It was a little
Speaker 1: little soggy we've been it was just dumping snow and
Speaker 1: so it seems like the ship just hit the fan
Speaker 1: quite a few times during this trip, but it still
Speaker 1: worked out. I mean, it always does work out. You
Speaker 1: just keep going back and hitting it. But it's all
Speaker 1: part of the experience. Yeah, I mean it made the
Speaker 1: trip getting back up when you're down like Brandon in
Speaker 1: his shoulder, like it's just like amazing, Like I've never
Speaker 1: seen anyone even think about going helly skiing two days
Speaker 1: after in a sling with a dissovated shoulder, and it
Speaker 1: got I don't know if you guys talked about the
Speaker 1: end of that day, but it was warm, like really
Speaker 1: warm down lower. The guy was really worried about the
Speaker 1: safety and it was a pretty rough conditions um down
Speaker 1: at the bottom and seeing Brandon go through it like
Speaker 1: it was gnarly, like by any means, whether you're professional
Speaker 1: or not. Um and seeing him go down that in
Speaker 1: a ing and I was just praying, like, don't fall
Speaker 1: on that sholder. Yeah, I know. His whole attitude was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not gonna go all the way to
Speaker 1: Europe and not do this. Um, I think we've covered everything. Man,
Speaker 1: I don't know when everybody else is gonna get to
Speaker 1: see Big Mountain Heroes. But at some point it will
Speaker 1: be on soft Rep TV. At some point it will
Speaker 1: if you contribute to the Kickstarter, you'll be getting it
Speaker 1: on DVD right or blue right? What are we So
Speaker 1: we're still trying to solve that problem a little bit,
Speaker 1: but you'll be for sure be able to stream it
Speaker 1: on the web pretty soon. For those Kickstarter backers, they'll
Speaker 1: get like their own private unique code. Um and and
Speaker 1: then yeah, we'll we'll we'll get it up there for
Speaker 1: everyone to watch as soon as we can. Um. We
Speaker 1: didn't really hear a story from Nick though about his
Speaker 1: favorite and uh, I kind of wouldn't mind hearing that,
Speaker 1: go for it favorite story from the trip or place
Speaker 1: or we answered. We both answered helicopter, but I wasn't
Speaker 1: sure if that was the same for you the favorite
Speaker 1: location of so i've it's it's it's a toss up, right.
Speaker 1: So the first day I remember thinking specifically we were
Speaker 1: writing in Italy and we're doing some back country stuff
Speaker 1: and that was the first day that I've done back
Speaker 1: country and literally just on the other side of the mountain. Uh.
Speaker 1: Four skiers died that day because of an avalanche, and
Speaker 1: that was kind of like I awakened into me and I
Speaker 1: I like, who, Like, this isn't just this isn't Breckinridge,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like ship's real out here. Um.
Speaker 1: And so I remember specifically thinking about that. Now it's
Speaker 1: kind of the transition from this is business like, you know,
Speaker 1: let's get out this country that seriously. Um. So that
Speaker 1: one stood out obviously. The helicopter. I mean that that winds,
Speaker 1: you know, the the entire trip, um, it was, it was,
Speaker 1: it was beautiful, It was a great write in. It
Speaker 1: was great conditions to to come down. And that was
Speaker 1: the first time I finally you know, picked up writing
Speaker 1: powder and have done anything like that. Um. And then
Speaker 1: I also just have to give a plug to the
Speaker 1: very last day where it was terrible conditions. We weren't
Speaker 1: even sure if the mountain is going to open. We
Speaker 1: were kind of just waiting around to see if, you know,
Speaker 1: what was gonna happen. You know, I was already kind
Speaker 1: of broken and you know, super sore and tired. I
Speaker 1: was eating I think six hundred milligrams vyprof and like
Speaker 1: every morning I would wake up. But that was that
Speaker 1: was actually the day where the conditions kind of turned
Speaker 1: around and the powder is super fun and and the
Speaker 1: mountain that we were on was awesome. And I got
Speaker 1: the meeting Anthony Bourdaine and air prepair, so I I
Speaker 1: could not have been more pumped. I stocked him like
Speaker 1: a like a schoolgirl. And I've done a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, personal security for celebrities, uh in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: and San Diego, and none of them, you know, it's
Speaker 1: just it's another person to me. But Anthony holds a
Speaker 1: little special place in my heart. I'm a little gay
Speaker 1: for him. Didn't you go to one of his I
Speaker 1: think I saw something on your Instagram that you went
Speaker 1: to one of his restaurants or something here. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: So it was weird. The wife and I last night
Speaker 1: we were walking just honestly, I have no idea where
Speaker 1: we were smashed UM and I look over and I
Speaker 1: see Less Hailes And it was Bourdain's last restaurant that
Speaker 1: he worked at UM and he was working there when
Speaker 1: he wrote his first book, and that's kind of what
Speaker 1: set him off on on the stardom. And I saw
Speaker 1: it and I was like what, And you know, reading
Speaker 1: his book, I'm actually reading for the third time. All
Speaker 1: the stories kind of resolve or revolve around that restaurant,
Speaker 1: and so I had to take a picture. That's cool
Speaker 1: man like a nerd. So wrapping things up as a
Speaker 1: reminder to all of you who are listening and watching this,
Speaker 1: for a limited time you can receive a fifty percent
Speaker 1: off membership soft Rep TV, our channel that offers the
Speaker 1: most exclusive shows, documentaries and interviews covering the most exciting
Speaker 1: military content today soft Rep TVs premier show Training Cell,
Speaker 1: which we could see you on pretty often. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: you did, you said the hunting from the helicopter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did the hog hunting in Texas with Last Shadows
Speaker 1: on t X. And then I did the Bucked Oil
Speaker 1: episode and Drew os me and he didn't take me
Speaker 1: in Hawaii, so I'm super upset about that. And then yeah,
Speaker 1: then Cahill is on the Actually, probably the best the
Speaker 1: visuals episode was the dirt biking one, the one that
Speaker 1: just came out. Um. I could not speak more highly
Speaker 1: a train and sell. I think it's absolutely everything that
Speaker 1: that everybody wants it to be. Um, So if you don't,
Speaker 1: if you're not subscribed, please do because it's it's worth
Speaker 1: every penning. I think, Oh yeah, so that's better than
Speaker 1: the rest of what I was gonna read here, but
Speaker 1: just to wrap things up in formers episode and follows
Speaker 1: other former Special Offs guys um but also and the
Speaker 1: most advanced training in the country, everything from shooting school's
Speaker 1: defensive driving, jungle and winter warfare, climbing and much more. Again,
Speaker 1: you can watch this content by subscribing the soft Rep
Speaker 1: TV and that's that soft Rep TV dot us, and
Speaker 1: you can take advantage of a limited time offer of
Speaker 1: fifty percent off your membership that's only four ninety nine
Speaker 1: a month. And then last I got to mention that
Speaker 1: if you haven't gotten a chance to check out the
Speaker 1: soft Rep Crate Club, you're definitely gonna want to do
Speaker 1: that asap. Sscription to get a box of badass tactical
Speaker 1: and survival gear delivered to your door every month. Here's
Speaker 1: the kicker, all the gears and picked and tested by
Speaker 1: former Special Ops guys, so you know you're getting quality
Speaker 1: year that's gonna work when you needed to, and my
Speaker 1: products will be in there nice. The latest Premium Crate
Speaker 1: is awesome. I don't know if you've seen it. The
Speaker 1: survival belt that Drew Dwier picked out, I mean, the
Speaker 1: cool thing about that have you seen that by any chance.
Speaker 1: I I've seen pictures of it, but I haven't seen
Speaker 1: like the the use or that I'm not wearing it
Speaker 1: at the moment because I don't have a belt on
Speaker 1: these I don't have a belt on these shorts. But
Speaker 1: like you could pretty much walk in anywhere, They're probably
Speaker 1: not gonna notice that you have it on. I mean,
Speaker 1: it just looks like a regular belt, regular belt, and
Speaker 1: in there you have a bottle opener, you have a knife,
Speaker 1: you have an led white and a fire starter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's all just like really concealed it. This doesn't
Speaker 1: look like a weird belt. It looks like a regular
Speaker 1: actually fashionable belt. And uh yeah, it's a great product
Speaker 1: like that. The binoculars um stuff in the pastes include
Speaker 1: included custom knives, Multi Littles, fire starters, a d C
Speaker 1: med kits, and other kick ass stuff. You don't just
Speaker 1: get great year with your subscription, you're also supporting a
Speaker 1: veteran owned and we're on company. Plus our Greate Club.
Speaker 1: Subscribers are invited to our annual club party. Um we
Speaker 1: did that early this year in Vegas, will be back
Speaker 1: next year of course. To subscribe and start getting your
Speaker 1: gear visit create club dot us. We also have gift
Speaker 1: options available. That's create club dot us. UM. You could
Speaker 1: follow Nick on Instagram. At Nicholas k Hill Kale Films
Speaker 1: dot com. You can order your prints or the bus. Yeah,
Speaker 1: check out what's the bus again Blue Bus Adventure at
Speaker 1: Blue Bus Adventure. Cool and uh and yeah, for the
Speaker 1: first time, your girlfriend is here, which is pretty cool
Speaker 1: because I've known you at this point for I've done
Speaker 1: you for what like three or four years at this point,
Speaker 1: and U I'm in thirteen. I think we twelve or
Speaker 1: thirteen whenever you started. I mean, oh, oh, you're saying
Speaker 1: we've known each other. Yeah, and I've you have to
Speaker 1: meet her and you've been with her the whole time,
Speaker 1: which is pretty cool. It's been a pretty long relationship. So, um, Nick,
Speaker 1: you want to grab that print up there, maybe give
Speaker 1: a little sneak peek. Yeah, go for it. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what That's what the kickstarter backers, some of them are
Speaker 1: gonna get a little metal metal print there. If you
Speaker 1: get actually where Nick is, I think would be probably
Speaker 1: a better Um. Right, the sun always gets in the way,
Speaker 1: but more high quality than we could. Really it really is.
Speaker 1: I mean the resolutions spot on there and there's no
Speaker 1: pixelation or anything like that inntin so it looks amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so if you backed the kickstarter you're getting some awestome
Speaker 1: rewards with that, um which will be coming pretty soon.
Speaker 1: We're wrapping up all the orders and everything and we'll
Speaker 1: have everything out to everybody awesome, And of course follow
Speaker 1: us on Instagram at soft Rep Radio, um, you know,
Speaker 1: and on Twitter at soft Rep Radio. I'll get a
Speaker 1: video of these guys up before they get out of here.
Speaker 1: And I'm looking forward to the premiere tonight. I think
Speaker 1: that's really it. Excited boys are back in town. You
Speaker 1: guys get an awesome job so for of what I've seen,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking forward to seeing the full the full film.
Speaker 1: It's entirety fantastic cool. Thanks guys, thanks for coming in
Speaker 1: and doing and thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Ma'm cheers. Ye are you've been listening to soft Work
Speaker 1: Radio a part of Hurricane Work, The Difficult, Demon Immediately,
Speaker 1: the Impossible by Appointment in Me. Shows are recorded at
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