Laird Hamilton: Reinventing Surfing | E167

24:43Randall Kaplan:you know, but that one day, what, what did, what did he do where he did something in the morning? he did something at night the way he ran a marathon in the morning and then he and then he fought a world uh like a muay thai world championship and knocked the guy out he actually asked the guys hey can i run a marathon before the fight like the the union or the the fight group and they're like well we don't have any rules against it you know we don't have any rules against you running a marathon but we don't recommend running a marathon before you you know fight muay thai but But yeah, Tom is a, you know, he's a special man.

25:17Randall Kaplan:I hope you're enjoying this video so far. But before we jump back in, I want to know if you've ever thought about what you need to do to reach another level of success in your life. Over the last 25 years, I've been an advisor to more than 50 companies. I've invested nearly 100, including Google Lift and Seagate. And I also co-founded a company that today is worth more than$15 billion. I've been incredibly blessed in my journey. And at this stage of my life, I want to give back. I want to share the lessons I've learned so you can reach incredible success way faster than I did. In my own journey, I've learned that having the right mentor is a massive advantage to achieving our goals.

25:49Randall Kaplan:I'm hugely passionate about mentoring others. I'm looking for a few hungry entrepreneurs who are excited to take action on their journey to incredible future success. So if that's you, I've got an opportunity. In the description of this video, there's a link where you can apply to work with me. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions. And if you're a good fit, my team will reach out so we can build a game plan together. All right, now let's get back to the video foil industry yeah allowed you again people hated it right it's not surfing they criticize you you know back to back to like what let's define what surfing is you know you go to Makaha so there's a beautiful beach on on the north shore I mean on the west side of Oahu called Makaha it's and it's where all these great Hawaiians live and they surf at a at this wave and uh and you go there and there's a there's a great man named buffalo keelana who has rusty and brian and a bunch of beautiful sons and these are hawaiians like these are hawaiians and they do every discipline and they have this thing called the buffalo event where you go there and they have canoe surfing tandem surfing they have bully boarding they have guys like division they They have divisions with guys over 350 pounds, like that's over 350 pound division.

27:03They have, so, and they ride every board, every single thing. So when people start defining what surfing is, you go to Makaha. And like, if I go to Makaha with a foil board, they'll be like, what even is that? That thing's awesome. If you go there with a standup paddle, they're like, you know, their openness to, I mean, these are just tools. Like Brian Kelana has a great saying, don't define me by my equipment. Right? Like this is just a tool. I mean, when we were kids, we would get those McDonald's lunch trays. Yeah. And we would ride them on the ways with our hands. We would go get those plastic trays and use our hands and ride.

27:38I mean, we use anything. Like you use a piece of plywood. You use whatever's available. And that's how I grew up. So my mind was always open to, hey, not this, this one. Once, you know, like we ride this board and this is the board we use and, you know, that whole thing. So our openness to being able to ride different things is. So whenever I ran into resistance about people making judgments about stuff, I just laugh. I'd be like, whatever. Like I, again, back to how I grew up, I wasn't discouraged. You know, they have a great saying that they asked this woman entrepreneur who was really successful, you know, what, what she, what you do when you have a really good idea.

28:18And she said, just don't tell anybody for a year because they'll just discourage you. And so, which is true. So, and people can be easily deterred. I think it has to do with the fact that people aren't always going after their own ideas. You know, they have an idea, but they don't follow through. They don't pursue it, right? They don't pursue their own ideas. And so that in return, when they see someone with an idea, they're going to discourage them because indirectly they're maybe wishing that they went after theirs or they're mad that they didn't go after. So, you know, it's like almost like a reminder to them, like, Hey, why didn't you pursue yours?

28:57So, but yeah, don't tell anybody or just don't be discouraged. And I, and I, so I've had plenty of times to be discouraged with all these ideas. Hey, that's not surfing. Hey, that's not surfing. Hey, that's not surfing. I'm like, it feels like surfing to me. Like, I don't know what you guys are doing, but I'm riding a wave right now and this feels amazing so and uh you just go with that and then you get a couple friends to make sure that you're not completely crazy because if you're all alone you maybe you are crazy and maybe it's not as great as you think but if you have a couple people telling you tell

29:27Randall Kaplan:you this is great then uh you know they might be 1.68 billion dollars 2024 industry yeah tells you it's not crazy it's not crazy and foiling is the next that thing is really taken off everywhere so So foiling is, people don't understand it's a hydrofoil, but it's like an airplane that flies in the water and lifts you up. And there's seven or eight disciplines within that. There's kite foiling, wing foiling, electric foiling, stand-up paddle foiling, prone foiling, toe foiling. I mean, we have a bunch of disciplines within those devices, and those are allowing us to do things that we never dreamed.

30:08So we can, guys are flying, you know, Kailani, you know, and these guys are flying in our island. You know, they're riding swells all the way in between the islands faster than anybody's ever gotten across those channels. We're riding the longest waves in the world. We're riding giant waves. We're, yeah, we're, that's, yeah.

30:28Randall Kaplan:I mean, the human condition, like you said, it's people will discourage you. They're envious. They didn't think of it themselves. They're not going to do it. But tell us about the T-shirts with the paddleboarding T-shirts against you. And then tell us about the T-shirts that you wrote back. Yeah, yeah. Well, at one point, there was such a strong force against stand-up paddling. It's like a smear campaign, you know. So they had a picture of Thoreau. And then they said, blame Laird, right? They had the blame. There was like blame Laird. And so I just took that as a compliment. I'm like, okay, cool.

31:06Blame me for all that fun you're having. So I just kind of turn it on its head and end up trademarking it and making church out of it. I mean, Thoreau is beautiful because I don't know if they read Thoreau, but one of my favorite lines from Thoreau is, disobedience is the true foundation of liberty and the obedient shall be slaves. So I'm okay with the disobedience part and going against the grain. But, but yeah, again, back to my upbringing, you know, I think, um, hard to discourage, you know, Gabby talks about when I have an idea is I just bite in like a, I just, I did it. It's, it's kind of ridiculous in a way.

31:46I think it's hard. I'm glad somebody will live with me through it all, but yeah, cause I just won't let it go. I'll just, it's just back to the bone, back to the bone. It's like a dog with a bone. I just, just did not let the thing go. And it's not easy to be that way. It's just the nature of how I approach it. I'll just be, you know, I'm sleeping it, I'm living it, I'm eating it, I'm drinking, it's in me. And I've gotten better at dealing with that. I think as I've also having the family and the priority of that, it's like that's becoming a, I'm putting that kind of intensity into how important that is for me.

32:29like I just think that that's part of your you know that's part of what I'm here to do and I measure my success and my achievement like I can ride waves but if my family is just a debacle then what good am I and so so I think that that's you know I mean family and you know being a good father getting a good husband having all those things that's such an important part of what I measure how I measure success I go I mean because that's the big, I'm playing the big game. I'm playing the long game, you know? And so there's, you know, there's achievement and thing and duh, and there's this, there's a lot of, it's a long game.

33:09It's a, you know, we're in a, it's a marathon. This is not a sprint. And so for me, I'm in the long game and what, what I consider important, uh, changes, you know, and it doesn't, I don't, I don't stop having those other pieces, but, uh, but yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's a, you know I'm in for the long game I'm looking at it there's a great saying the victory through attrition I like that you know you don't have to be any good if you're the last guy standing you just win so that's the game I'm trying to play right now I'm trying to play the you know last

33:46Randall Kaplan:guy standing you know tell us about Don Wildman and the importance of mentors can we be successful without a great mentor? No. Be successful without a great mentor? Yes. I mean, I think there's, well, listen, I think there's an exception to every rule, but having a good mentor, I mean, there's a reason why we have wise men, you know, and there's a reason why we have mentors and why they're so important and why, you know, having a, you know, being a good father is important, but, you know, and that can be to other people, like being a good man. But having mentors is, mandatory. And Don Wildman's one of the greats.

34:24Don was one of my mentors that I've been blessed to have. I've had some great ones. He was one of the greatest. His actual name was Donahue Wildman. Just take that for whatever you want. Fought in Korea when he was 17, went to war, started Bally's Health Clubs, largest health club chain in the country, sold it at the peak of it. and around fitness. He was a genius marketer, incredible, uh, P you know, people person. I met him helicopter snowboarding randomly. I was invited with some other people and met him. And then when I moved to Malibu, I could suddenly move next, like down the street. So he just took me in.

35:07Um, he did the Ironman 10 times and, you know, and did a bunch of crazy stuff. Him and I did helicopter snowboard, you know, snowboarded all over the world. Don was the kind of guy that no matter what you're doing, like you go, hey, you know, I was thinking about diving with sharks next week. I'm in. Let's go. Like, hey, I think I'm going to go skydive. Oh, yeah, I'm in. Let's go. Like he would, no matter what, he would just, he would go. He was always so appreciated. He'd come over to the house for dinner and be like, oh, this is the best I've ever had. And then the next week he'd come over to the house.

35:42This is the best. You know, it's like his enthusiasm for life, you know, it was contagious and beyond generous, crazy generous. And a bare knuckle fighter, too, just, you know, didn't tolerate stupidity. But again, as an inspiration, as a mentor, really a special guy. Him and I had a very unique relationship, and I'm so thankful that I had that opportunity. I've had some other great ones, you know, some other great men in my life. But those, you know, those men are so important as a reference to give you, you know, because you can take what you like and leave out what you don't or, you know, you just and you can become your unique self is pieces of all these other things that create your uniqueness, right?

36:39You take a little bit from there. I like that. Oh, I don't like that. I like this. And then you put it all together. And then you can take the things that you admire and throw the things out that you don't and try to be your own man.

36:52Randall Kaplan:Speaking of generosity, your daughter's friend with my son, Charlie, on his 20th birthday, you took him foiling. He was so pumped. He doesn't want me to share the story, but I'm going to share the story. I'm going to share part of the story that you don't know. and you were out there he was struggling the sucking wind a little bit and then when it was time to come in the stones on the on the sand were so painful that he was just suffering so badly he said man I I need to be a man Laird's so tough so tough so tough and he was struggling and so he said that you just came and you got him just picked up that foil like it was a two-pound weight and just put it in the back of the truck.

37:39Randall Kaplan:But it was so generous of you and really made a huge impact on his life. Well, for me, I feel like that's an opportunity. You know, I have a, I look at that as a responsibility and myself personally, I take it as a responsibility that I can, if I can mentor, I've been so mentored in my life. If I can mentor, like that's, I go, that's my, that's my shot. And so I have all daughters. So whenever I get young men around and I can, you know I can boost them a little bit or or you know be be the dawn for them in a way um because I like I said I had so many beautiful men that I've aspired and looked up to and so you know try I try to be the the thing that you uh you know that you respect I think being a hero is also important not many people have the chance to be a hero tell us about your naked swim and how you saved your good friend's life.

38:36Naked swim. Yeah. That was always that one. Sometimes they blend together, all those things, but we were, you know, we wrote it. There was the surf was giant as big as we've ever, as big as we've ever surfed. And, uh, he put me, he towed me onto wave and then I was unable to descend. And then I had to like dive into the face of the wave. And when I came up, he was there to get me, but behind him was like a just a big dark you know creature looked like a creature uh and so i got on the ski with him and we tried to run away and when we ran away when we were running away from the next wave we went into where the wave that i was on broke and the water was aerated and so we got run over by that next wave and and uh we probably got blown a couple football fields underwater in and when i came up he was floating face down uh and I swam over to him and he was still conscious uh but there was there was like red you know the whole water was red around him and he had split the back of his leg uh from right about his knee a little bit above his knee all the way down to the heel and uh and so I had I needed a tourniquet and I didn't really have any rope on me and so I just had a flotation device and he had one on that's why he was floating I gave him another one so he could kind of float higher.

40:00And then I took my wetsuit off and tied his leg with my wetsuit to tourniquet his leg. And then I had to swim to the jet ski that had gotten washed in. And I don't know how far it was, but it was far enough. I had to swim into it, get it, kind of jury rig it. It lost the lanyard, so I wasn't able to start. I had to get some little piece of wire started, go back to him. He was still conscious, got him on the ski, and then crash-landed on the beach. I had a radio. I ended up calling the Coast Guard, and then indirectly I got them to meet us at the beach. And then I crash-landed on the beach naked in front of a bunch of people in a parking lot because you come in with the jet ski going full speed and you can slide up the sand.

40:54And the surf was really giant, so the whole park was washed out, and so the cars were way in the back, and the people were probably just watching the way the lifeguard stand, I think, was either knocked over or kind of tipped over. But I flew up and landed naked, and somebody ran out and threw me some shorts, and I put the shorts on and then got my friend into the ambulance, my friend Brett Lickle, and got him in the ambulance. And then we went back out again. That was the day that changed my life, actually, one of them. That changed my life. That day is when I stopped tow surfing. I put away my boards after that because I realized that they weren't going to work if it really got giant.

41:44And that's when I completely focused on foiling and had been focused on foiling since that day because I realized that we wouldn't be able to ride the biggest waves that could come on a conventional surfboard. And so that was a big, that kind of changed everything. I ended up moving off of Maui and kind of just everything after that was like a monumental day.

42:07Randall Kaplan:Yeah, you've been known to be a controversial guy. How important is not giving a shit what other people think to our success? I think it's mandatory. I think you can't care what people think except for the people that you respect and that you love. You need to care about that. But as far as everybody else, because people don't care about you like you think they do. Let's talk about work-life balance. Yep. And I want to talk about, first, I want to talk about your marriage. Yep. You're high profile. Gabby is high profile. You've spoken publicly that you had marital troubles many years ago. Yep.

42:42Randall Kaplan:How difficult is it being in the public eye where everyone's watching you, what you're doing? Is it embarrassing when everybody knows that you're having trouble? I'm not embarrassed by it. Again, it's back to that same thing I use everywhere else, which is I don't really care. My big thing is how it is between us. I mean, I think being in a relationship is work. It's called a ship, and you're sailing it, and so it takes effort, and everybody's got to participate. So I don't think being in the public eye made our relationship any harder or made it any easier. I just think it was just one of the factors.

43:17But yeah, we're, I mean, Gabby and I have a, you know, we've put a lot of time and effort into our love. And we are being rewarded for that because we're not, we weren't quick to just give it up, which is pretty common. And we could have easily, we could have easily just been, ah, this is too hard. I'm good. And so that seems to be very popular in this day and age. just it's too much for me I don't want to deal this and so you know we had that for a moment and then we realized maybe not maybe maybe this is not this maybe this is much more precious than than uh than we realize and so we need to and you know and make it and make it work and but you both

44:06Randall Kaplan:have to want to do that before I married my wife Madison is the most incredible special person in world. I was single for seven and a half years. And the last girl I dated before I met Madison said she was posing for Playboy. And I said, if you do that, we can't date anymore. Just didn't go with my image. It wasn't good on the west side of LA. I mean, I'd taken her to Four Seasons of Mountain Way Shore, G-string bikini. I'm getting calls from people in LA weren't even there. Oh my gosh, the wives all hated me. Gabby and I talked about this on the show as well. And as a husband, were you supportive of your wife posing naked where men would look at her body?

44:46Randall Kaplan:I think that's something that a lot of men, including me, would never want. Yeah, I mean, I think that that's, again,

44:59you know, it's, I think, I don't know, it's, I think it's a personal, you're of course your ego your ego doesn't want that but if you're if you're I mean in Gabby's layout it's done tastefully I know the photographer and by the way if she wants to do it am I going to stop her probably not so and if I am at the end is that going to work out so I think for me I feel like you know these are choices there's certain choices that people are going to make and you're going to be in a relationship with them. And if you think that you're going to control that, then you're going to end up, you're going to pay somewhere later.

45:39And I don't want to be in that kind of relationship too. I want her to have the freedom to do and be who she is and who she wants. And if I have a problem with that, then I won't be with her. And if I can handle it, and it's not easy, I think, for any man to be with a strong woman that has their opinion and their desires. And, you know, again, don't, you know, don't love it. Like, don't, of course you don't love that. Like, oh, you know, but, and I'm not like off where people go, oh yeah, it's like, you know, having maybe men like their wives, that their wives are desirable. I don't have any of that stuff on either side, but yeah, I think it's, it's her choice.

46:22I mean, this is, this is, she's, she's a woman. And if that's what you decide, decided to do or wants to do. Okay. hey, I mean, I could put my, you know, I mean, she's gotten me to paddle with no clothes on in a thing. So I, you know, I don't know. I don't even know how that happened. I'm like, is this for real right now? Like I'm in the middle of the thing and I'm like, I'm like, am I actually doing this? So, you know, uh, you know, I guess it's, what are you going to do? I mean, at the end of the day, I mean, the funny thing is when you're in it, you think it means everything. And then when you look back, you're just like, oh yeah, like whatever.

46:56Like, So it's just sometimes I think in the moment we just make things so important, but in the big picture of life, if you look back, you're like, okay, well, that was a moment for a thing. And it's like those are, you know, it's one image on a billion images. It just doesn't, it's like I'm all clear.

47:19Randall Kaplan:We're at the end of our show, and I always conclude the end of the show with a game I call fill in the blank to excellence. Are you ready to play? or not. The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is be patient. My number one professional goal is keep going. My number one personal goal is love. The one thing everybody should say to themselves before they go to sleep is tomorrow's a new day. The one thing everyone should say to themselves when they wake up in the morning is today's a new day. My biggest regret is I don't have any. My biggest fear is I don't have any. The things that keep me up the most at night are that there's not enough waves.

48:06Randall Kaplan:The most prideful moment of my career is thinking you're any good. The craziest thing that's happened in my career is met Gabby on an interview. The funniest thing that ever happened in my career is? I found myself paddling naked. The worst advice I've ever received is? Just say no. The best advice I've ever received is? Say yes. If you could pick one trait that would lead to somebody's success, it would be? Perseverance. The most important quality in being a successful entrepreneur is? Perseverance. The single most important quality that will lead most likely to failure is? Weakness. 10 years from now I'm going to be?

48:53Randall Kaplan:Having a lot of fun. 20 years from now I'm going to be? Still having a lot of fun. The biggest problem in the United States today is? People are having fun. People aren't having fun. The biggest problem in the world today is? Greed. The one thing I've dreamed about doing for a long time but haven't is? Ride the Arctic, the Roaring Forties, which is down in the miserable place. Is it going to happen? Well, we're going in that direction. I think it's going to happen, actually. I don't know what state I'm going to be in, but it's going to happen. If you could go back and give your 21-year-old self one piece of advice, it would be?

49:40Randall Kaplan:Try to break less parts. If you could meet one person in the world, who would it be? There's not too many people alive I want to meet. In fact, none really, but I'd go Jesus dead. I'd tell you, let me meet that guy. And as far as alive, I don't, there's none I really, I mean, if I don't know him already, I'm not interested.

50:03Randall Kaplan:If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, who would it be? I'm going to, it's going to happen. Whoever it is, it just happens. It's like when it seems like it just happens when you really, if you really want to meet or you really want to have dinner with them, who would it be? I think there's just too many choices.

50:25Randall Kaplan:On this day as we sit here today, if you were President Trump right now, the first thing you would do is?

50:36I mean, the first thing I would do that can be done or that he's trying to do that's not going to happen, And I just try to stop all the wars. I just stop killing people. First, let's just, very first thing, let's just stop killing people. Too many people are dying in the world. Even if it's not, has nothing to do with us. Just too many people are dying.

50:58Randall Kaplan:If you're on your deathbed and you're surrounded by Gabby and your family, what's the last thing you would say to them? I'll be waiting for you. The one question that you wish I had asked you but didn't is? How much do I weigh?

51:18Randall Kaplan:I'm going to guess, by the way. I'm going to guess 176.

51:28Randall Kaplan:215. 215? Yeah. All muscle mass. Thick cranium. Larry, this has been incredible. I've been on my show for a long time. Thank you, Randall. Inspiration of so many people. Thank you, Randall. Appreciate you. Thank you. Thanks for being good to my son. Always. I'll do it again. Got to have you guys over to the house, play some pickle. Oh, yeah. You, Gabby, bring your kids. I'll bring Itai and Viola. They're wicked. Awesome. They've got some high-level pickleballers. Love it. Thanks again. Thank you. Appreciate you. Aloha. Aloha. Thank you.

52:13agua